May 23rd, 2007
Welcome To Egonitron
Today is an epic day for Jane May Blogs! Well, kind of…It’s the first Review My Site I am hosting on my personal blog. I have gotten a lot of personal requests to provide feedback on people’s new blogs and web sites, but nothing compares to getting a review on this blog.
Today, I welcome Egonitron as my public review. You are probably asking what is Egonitron - I know I did. Well, the URL stems from the owner’s name, Egon. Egon is an everyday blogger who writes about the things he likes including computers, cars, technology, music, money, movies, tv, blogging, and other generally cool stuff. He needs some help narrowing a niche, and we can help him with that. But let me tell you more about his site first.
Egon uses a TechnoBlue Wordpress layout. I like this layout because it has a 3 column field. Let me show you what I mean:
I like this theme because it is very easy to navigate and read. The 3 columns provide room to write the main post, have a sidebar with the usual sidebar trinkets (feedburner subscription, latest posts and comments, categories, etc.), and lastly an advertising column. I like the third column a lot because you can not only include an adsense block, but you can have direct advertising on your blog using 125×125 images…similar to a banner, but a lot smaller. Egon is using this space wisely. I like the RSS subscription icon too!
I do want to make a few recommendations:
- Include a “friends” or “blogroll” category on the sidebar so that you have a few links to helpful sites for your readers. This will not only be a resource, but can help with having other bloggers link back to you and help with your rankings. Just make sure they are sites that are relevant to your topic (Google really likes this).
- Narrow down the list of categories. A long list like the one currently posted can be intimidating for a visitor. If you only have one post in a category that can also be a part of another category, combine the two and get rid of one of them.
- Since you have the feedburner button and people can add it to their individual browser, I would take out the “Add this feed” icon below the RSS. It just makes it confusing for the newbies out there.
One of the first things I noticed on this site is the gap in time between each post. For any blog to be successful, it MUST have consistent content written. If you know you can’t do it daily, then do it 3 times a week on the same days each week. If you can’t do it 3 times a week, do it once a week. Keep in mind, the less frequently you post, the better quality your posts should be to capture an audience. If you post everyday, you can get away with less quality content, but the majority should be quality.
When navigating through Egons site, I came across his archives. As you can tell from the archives, he has some interesting posts, 26 total to be exact, in a wide range of areas. Some of the articles that stand out are:
Tech News
Google renames Froogle to boring Google Product Search
Netvibes Upgrading for Universe
Google Adding Doubleclick Text, Changing AdSense?
Blogging Tips
Get Rid of Your Wordpress Blog’s Meta Links
Top 5 Must-Have Blog Monitoring Tools
Alexa and the Search Status Plugin
Ramblings
Check out my kick-ass new shoes
As you can see, there are many topics here. When identifying the specific niche for your blog you want to reflect on what you value and what interests you. For example, if your interests are what’s new and exciting in the world of technology, then focus on that since you’ll be happy writing about it. If you want to help others succeed online, then write more about the blogging world and opportunities for online success. You can do both, but the wider net you cast, the less focus you will have.
If Egon can keep up his consistency and narrow his focus, I think we may have a successful blog on our hands. Pay him a visit to see what you think. If you disagree with the recommendations I’ve given him then tell him; or if you agree, let him know also 
If you would like your web site or blog reviewed on this site by me, then contact me here.
If you liked this post, be a nice person and buy Jane a beer.
Very Cool Review…especially since it’s your first for this blog…made my go check out Egon’s site !!
Good review, Jane
I’ll wait a bit to build up the content, then I’ll give it a chance
hmm… egonitron vs. samanathon
could make for a great sci-fi movie
LOL!
nice review Jane…made me go check his site !
Nice work. I like your reviews.
NIce first review…
Thanks for the review and recommendations, Jane! I can’t believe the blogroll completely slipped my mind, haha. I’m going to start narrowing down the categories, that’s a really good point; too many can be overwhelming. Good luck with the rest of your reviews.
Glad it worked out Egon! I’ll be keeping up with your site
A good review, and some of the recomendations you make can be applied to my site.
Noted !!!
Hopefully my reviews will add tid bits that other people can take and apply to their own sites.
Have you tried payperpost direct Jane, it may be more suitable for your blog then reviewme.
Dylan
Dylan, in my experience, ReviewMe pays much more per post than PayPerPost, but PPP has more opportunities. If I had to choose only one, I would keep ReviewMe.
I have CareerRamblings.com signed up for PPP and I have not yet taken advantage of it. The reason I have CR registered and not JaneMayBlogs is because the higher PR CR has provides the best opportunities (i.e. $100-$300 opportunities). Since JMB is relatively new, the opportunities on PPP arn’t as great.
I don’t really like this template, the 2 right columns attract the eyes way to much, resulting in the visitor losing focus on the main content..
The whole design is is a bit too loaded by useless stuff for my taste..
Here is a tip for the guy that runs the blog.
Remove the adsense skyscraper from the rightmost column (your CTR will be very low at this location), and put the mybloglog / blogcatalog widget in its place.
Install the adsense deluxe plugins, and start sticking 250X250 ad blocks on the top right section of his best performing post.
Voilà
But your blog Jane looks simply fantastic
Thanks for the feedback Kiltak, I tend to agree it’s cluttered on the side. I was thinking about a new theme completely, but I really like the 3-column K2 features. I’ll implement your suggestions too, see how that goes.
Another thing that bothers me is the lack of distiction between items and posts. there isn’t really a border around anything, which makes it looks llike it runs together. That’s enough to want to change themes, too.
My thoughts exactly
There are loads of free wordpress themes to choose form, I’m sure you won’t have any troubles finding another one.
Performancing.com has a couple of 3 columns themes that look very “clean”
http://themes.performancing.com/
Dude I’ve spend days looking at themes and can’t find one that I really like. I went with this one for the SEO benefits and functionality but now that I have it there is too much bothering me about it. I’m going to keep looking around. Have any more suggestions for good free or cheap SEO-friendly themes?