Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello SUN community,

My site/blog is http://www.decisionmakingtips.com

I have a fair amount of web design experience and used a modified wordpress theme, and created the site myself.

The goal/strategy of the blog is to get lots of traffic and subscribers, like any blog, but so far I have seen a jump in the traffic as we launched and a steady decline since that time.

I am looking for a general critque, but more specifically anyone with ideas on how to get more SEO juice, or good directories to submit the blog to (besides technorati), or ideas on how to optimize the content to make it more accessible to search engines.

Thanks in advance for your most valuable asset, time.

-Ferol



-------------------------

Happy Human Foods
Simple. Healthy. Delicious.

PS- also interested in anyone with browser/compatibility issues. I am using a Mac with firefox and it looks fine, but PC folks let me know if you have issues.


-------------------------

Happy Human Foods
Simple. Healthy. Delicious.

I actually liked the site ... it was a pleasant surprise.

Your feed links are too far down the page though.

The writing style is lively ... I like it.

You could use some more font hierarchy, like bolding the main point in a list. Make it more scanable.



-------------------------

Did it yourself but something on your website still isn`t working the way you wanted? Have no fear - That PHP Girl is here!

Look ma, I`ve gone green!!

I checked it on my computer first (Mac/Firefox) but then walked over to the PC for you too. You have a gap problem in your design on the right side in IE ... typical box model hack issue. Here`s a screenshot.


-------------------------

Did it yourself but something on your website still isn`t working the way you wanted? Have no fear - That PHP Girl is here!

Look ma, I`ve gone green!!

thanks, this is great feedback!!

Now I know i have to start testing IE, yuck.

Do you know which version you were using? I`m assuming 5.5 or 6.

-Ferol



-------------------------

Happy Human Foods
Simple. Healthy. Delicious.

It`s IE 6. 7 should be OK for the most part if you can do 6 and Firefox.


-------------------------

Did it yourself but something on your website still isn`t working the way you wanted? Have no fear - That PHP Girl is here!

Look ma, I`ve gone green!!

PC with IE 7 seems to display OK.

-------------------------

M Hall
MichianaWebline
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons
A new project in need of volunteers

Most of the main places to submit blogs to are already part of the default install of wordpress so you won`t have to worry about that.  It`s all automatic.

however, there are some that you can submit them to.  Here`s a list to get ya started.  Some of the links may not work (around 5 or so).

http://www.blog-connection.com/submit-blogs.htm


-------------------------

Aaron Wood
CEO
San Diego Dream Weavers
http://www.sddreamweavers.com
awood@sddreamweavers.com

New and improved! Now with blogging goodness!
http://www.sddreamweavers.com/san-diego-seo-marketing-blog/

I had no problems on a PC with Firefox 1.x.

My problem is that as I perused the blog, it didn`t make a whole lot of sense to me, in terms of your initial post question. I see the word "decision" all over the place, but the articles didn`t seem to relate all that well to decision-making. That`s okay, I figured maybe in the "read more" section there might be something.

But aside from that, there doesn`t seem to be much of a reference to a site in the articles, or even a main theme or place to go. It looks like just....a blog.

What exactly are you trying to accomplish here? Is it to just build subscribers to the blog? If so, then I think the "theme" of the blog needs better focus. If I understand it, you intend to give me tips for solving relationship problems. Okay, where are the tips?

What if you were to use your current headlines---they`re interesting---but then have a "pull-quote" as the lead-in to your articles. Each lead would be the tip you`re going to then write about. You could likely then have a standing page where you list each tip, with a link to the blog entry. As such, you`d gradually build up an indexed "compendium" of tips for relationship success.

I`m just not sure how decision-making bears on unsuccessful relationships? I was just reading about a guy who took so long to make decisions, he was asked twice if he`d like to get married, and both times, the woman eventually married someone else. It was two years before he came to a decision that yes, he`d like to get married.

Are those the types of tips you`re thinking of? Remember, you`re going to get readers who either are currently in an unsuccessful relationship, or they`re just curious as to how to make an existing relationship more....decisive?...or they don`t have a relationship because they can`t decide....something. What?


-------------------------

Craig Landes
---
Defining the undefinable. "There are 10 kinds of people in the world---those who understand binary numbers and those who don`t." - Unknown

International Society of Curmudgeons

Thanks for the advice, Craig.  We have been struggling with focus since launch, and I like some of your suggestions (especially pull-quotes).

Very interested in more about the content, does anyone else have trouble understanding the content, or feel it is unfocused?

Again, SUN community, thanks in advance for your time.

-Ferol



-------------------------

Happy Human Foods
Simple. Healthy. Delicious.