10 things I hate about your site

Hey, that sounds good, doesn’t it? Let’s all go to the movies! Wait, in this economy when a movie ticket averages $9? Let’s rethink that. Maybe we should just rent one, or see what’s on cable. But first, let’s see what’s been reviewed lately by, no, not me. This is actually a different type of review.
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Holistic Serums is providing 10 things with another first. Back in August of 2008, Holistic Serums (or Holistic Healing, as it was back then) was my first review.

A half a year later (almost to the day), Holistic Serums is my first Where Are They Now? follow-up. There are two reasons for this: 1) Esther came to me and asked for a re-review after making changes a while back, and 2) this is a feature I had planned on implementing. I think it will be interesting to see what has changed, not changed, or gotten worse at some of the sites and blogs I’ve previously reviewed.

So, Holistic Serums, here are some things I hate about your site now:

1. The color scheme, still.
2. The use of too many colors, still.
3. Inconsistent links, still.
4. Inconsistent navigation, still.
5. Your look-and-feel is very dated.
6. Something is wrong with your blog when viewed in Firefox.
7. Your font is a little small.
8. What is going on with the Aromatherapy Website link?
9. Why is there a huge chuck of blank space at the top of the “Safety” page?

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I’ve mentioned before that I try to walk a fine line between being honest & helpful, and being a [insert appropriate negative term here]. I’m not one to be dainty and sweet, but I also don’t want to be too harsh. That being said, this review may come across as brutal.

First off, with apologies to InfoCreek’s free premium WordPress theme - Aspire, I will not be accepting any further review requests using this theme. As this is the third review request I’ve had using this theme, most of what I have to say has been said.¹  I would have actually denied Atul’s request, except there are quite a few more things about his blog that I hate other than just the overused theme.

So, Planet Atul, here are 10 things I hate about your blog:

1. It’s obvious by now. I have come to really hate this theme.
2. Pop-up ads.
3. Ads at the top. Ads at the bottom. Blinking ads. Annoying ads. Google ads. Ads, ads, ads, ads.
4. Show me the content.
5. Feedjit strikes again.
6. Email subscription, but no RSS link at the top of the page.
7. Page links at the top, and page links in the sidebar.
8. The sidebar calendar. No one cares on which day of the month you posted.
9. The green image border.
10. You all knew it was coming. IF YOUR BLOG WILL NOT VALIDATE, DON’T ADVERTISE IT AS XHTML VALID!

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1. Enter the term ‘aspire’ in the search function at the bottom of my sidebar to find the related posts. [↩]

I was contacted by Abelle the other day, inquiring about her position in the queue. Admittedly, she is towards the bottom, however, since her blogoversary was coming up I told her I would complete her review sooner. Today is the day, so Happy Blogoversary OiS!

I’m not sure this is the gift I would have chosen, however, it’s what was asked for. So, Only in Silence, here are 10 6 things I hate about your site.

1. Your blog theme is overused.¹
2. One word: Feedjit.
3. RSS. Where is yours hiding?
4. Load time.
5. I like symmetry. Your sidebars are lacking it.
6. Don’t advertise “Valid XHTML & CSS” if you’re not.

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1. I don’t like to duplicate content, however, this theme was used in the last review I completed–Willem’s Internet Blog. As a result, there are some repeat issues. [↩]

Since choosing Willem’s blog to “advertise” in my sidebar, I thought it was only fitting to move him up the queue. I’ve enjoyed many of his articles and was thrilled that he offered to place my ad on his blog, even though the requirement was a reciprocal link—it didn’t have to be an ad. I hope that after my review, he will keep my ad in place.

So, Willem’s Internet Blog, here are 10 things I hate about your site:

1. Flashback to the days of dail-up—your load time is ridiculous.
2. Your sidebar is out of control, hence the ridiculous load time.
3. Your blog theme is overused.
4. There’s too much information at once.
5. Your RSS appears to be broken.
6. There’s no contact page.
7. What’s with the Wikipedia obsession?
8. The green border around most of your images.
9. Your blog is not valid, in fact it’s the antithesis of valid.
10. What’s with the 2-D and ISBN barcodes?

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It’s been awhile since my last review. Thank you to everyone who has come and commented in the past month with words of encouragement. I’ve decided to keep 10 things going, and with that, commit myself to completing reviews in a more timely manner. So let’s start right off with the first review of 2009.

Beyond Left Field, here are 10 things I hate about your site:

1. While I wait for your page to load, I think I’ll go fold some laundry.
2. I might like Beyond Left Field. Oh, wait, here’s a link to somewhere else.
3. Blogroll, and a page dedicated to links. You do like links.
4. You really like your most recent posts, too.
5. Back to Where?
6. I have to register to contact you? No thanks.
7. What a validation nightmare.
8. Post-pimping—it’s rude to do before I’ve even read the entire thing.
9. What’s with the post formatting?
10. Let’s talk alignment.

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[cue the applause] …Willem’s Internet Blog! Thanks go out to both Willem and Miss Tique for wanting the last ad spot on my sidebar. While I wish I had two spots available, one for each of them, I choose Willem’s blog as its content is more fitting with the content here. I am a firm believer in content consistency.

That being said, I must say I was completely underwhelmed at the response to giving away this ad spot. I think I will need to re-evaluate 10 things during the first few months of the year. This blog takes quite a bit of time and it seems to me if I only have 3 readers (thanks, as always, Lyndi ) what’s the point?

I do know I need to keep a better blogging schedule than what I have done in the past. What else should I be doing? Your insight (all 3 of you ) is greatly appreciated!

Ever since changing 10 things’ theme, I’ve had one ad space to fill. I still consider myself a newbie blogger and am wondering what is the best way to fill this spot. I guess the obvious is to try and sell it, but I really don’t know its worth. I haven’t made any money off of 10 things yet, why should I start now?

So, that begs the question: how do I fill the gap? Giving a spot to Nice 2 All was a no-brainer, and the other two spots belong to me. I don’t have the energy to start another blog just to even out my sidebar, so I need a fourth ad.

This is where you come in. Do you want that fourth spot? Place a bid! I’m accepting comments below to fill the fourth spot. All I ask in return is a reciprocal link on your blog. Judging will be based on whether or not I like your blog, how I’m feeling that day, did I get enough coffee (you get the picture). My blog, I get to pick. The only other string attached is your actual ad. I’m picky and won’t accept any ad that doesn’t meet my visual standards.

And that’s it. Want the spot? Tell me below:

I did some queue-bumping again, as I was actually offered payment for a review. This is a first, and I’d love it if the trend continued. Want to be bumped to the top of the queue? Make me an offer!

Don’t think that just because you’re paying me, I’m going to go easy, however. My generosity only goes so far and I’m sorry to say that my first paying customer does have 10 things I hate. Enough of the preamble, let’s just jump right in. The Path to the Pegasus Letter, here are 10 things I hate about your site:

1. Your blog layout is not considerate of others.
2. Horizontal scrolling is only acceptable when it’s intentional.
3. Where does the first article start, and the sponsors end?
4. Is this just one, long, never ending post?
5. Color, color, everywhere.
6. Font consistency.
7. Where are all of the winged horse articles?
8. Why do you have two of your three pages going somewhere else?
9. This blog is a validation nightmare.
10. I want candy! Eye candy, that is.

Details

1. Your blog layout is not considerate of others. I have viewed your blog on three different computers, in six different browsers, and it’s rendered different every time. Check out the links below:
    
   • Explorer 6 (PC)
   • Firefox 2.0 (PC)
   • Chrome (PC)
   • Explorer 7 (PC)
   • Safari (Mac)
   • Firefox 3.0 (Mac)

   What does this mean? It means check your blog in more than one browser, using more than one resolution setting. Each screenshot above was taken at a high resolution (over 1024 pixels wide) and your columns still bleed into each other, or your right sidebar gets pushed to the bottom. Can you imagine the poor reader who is trying to visit your blog but they only have a 15″ monitor? Yikes! Serious updating of the the CSS is probably the only way to fix this issue.

2. Horizontal scrolling is only acceptable when it’s intentional. This ties in to the problems outlined in #1. In Firefox, the browser is displaying your columns next to each other, but this is resulting in horizontal scrolling. Even on my big-arse monitor.

   What does this mean? See #1.

3. Where does the first article start, and the sponsors end? The way you have your blog set up currently, it seems that the row of pictures at the top of the page belong to the first article. It’s only when I read the text ‘Sponsors’ do I realize these are advertisements.

   What does this mean? There needs to be some separation between your sponsor ads and the start of your article. Personally, I’d move the sponsors to a sidebar (after I fixed the layout problems). As it is right now you’re encouraging your readers to click somewhere else and they haven’t even gotten to your first article yet. At the very least you need to provide some spacing between your ads and your first post title.

4. Is this just one, long, never ending post? There are many reasons why I’m asking this question (and we’ll get to more of them below). The first reason is that there is no seperation between your posts. They literally blend from one post to another. Sure, at the end of your posts you have label tags, but this is not a good way to indicate the end of a post.

   What does this mean? There sould be some design element, even if it’s a simple horizontal rule, that separates one post from another.

5. Color, color, everywhere. You have too much color. Seriously. Let’s take a look:
   1. bold, orange, italicized text;
   2. really big, bold, orange, italizized text;
   3. bold, dark gray (body color) text;
   4. bold, green, italicized text;
   5. really big, bold, green, italized text;
   6. bold, blue, italicized text;
   7. bold, red, italicized text;

   and that’s just on the first page! (I did not include post titles or links.)

   What does this mean? Lose some of the formatting. Is it really necessary to have every other paragraph formatted a different style? What you are saying to your readers is that you don’t think they are capable of understanding what you are writing. It feels like you are holding my hand and talking to me like I’m five. Trust your readers. They’ll get it.

6. Font consistency. This goes hand-in-hand with #5. Not only do you have too many colors, you have too many font sizes, and you don’t use them consistently. (Refer to the color list above.) In addition, your post titles don’t stand out enough since you have body text that competes with them.

   What does this mean? You need to incorporate some formatting consistency. Pick a size and color for each element you feel you need to highlight. (Post titles, links, blocks of text you just have to make stand out more, etc.). Fight the urge to use more than 3-4 colors, or 3-4 font sizes.

7. Where are all of the winged horse articles? I had to rely on Entrecard and your archives to determine what your blog was about. Especially since your blog title doesn’t scream “finance and investing.” I’m guessing this happens to a lot of first-time visitors.

   What does this mean? Include an ‘About’ page, or at least some text with your disclaimer to let people know what your blog is about.

8. Why do you have two of your three pages going somewhere else? Since this is a financial blog, I’m wondering why your pages go to “blogging” blogs? Usually blog pages go to other areas of that particular blog (like an ‘About’ page). Even if these are blogs you own, their placement here is confusing.

   What does this mean? I would recommend keeping your blog’s pages within your blog. If these two links are your projects, find somewhere in your sidebar to showcase them. If they are not, add them to your blogroll, or again somewhere in your sidebar. They just don’t make sense where they are.

9. This blog is a validation nightmare. I don’t care what you use to validate this site—you are going to get back a gazillion errors. I use the HTML Validator extension for Firefox and it came up with 200 errors and 13 warnings. That’s a lot.

   

   What does this mean? That depends on if you care about validation or not. A lot of bloggers don’t. I do. (And yes, unfortunately my blog currently throws a few errors itself—67 to be exact. ) If you do care and use Firefox, check out the extension. It will provide you with a list of the errors, most of which are easy enough to fix. If you prefer to not install an extension or you are not using Firefox, check out the W3C Markup Validation Service (although they’re listing almost 400 errors for the XHTML doctype you are declaring—ouch).

   If you’re up to it, you should check your CSS too. W3C CSS Validation Service

10. I want candy! Eye candy, that is. Let’s face it. Finance is not the most enticing subject, the past six months excluded. Give your readers something to excite them. Even if your finance blog reads like Harry Potter, A long, scrolling page of text is not the best design method. Even J.K. Rowling has an illustration at the beginning of every chapter.

    What does this mean? Add some eye candy. Simple finance graphics in your posts would go a long way. A fancy dollar sign, or an image of Wall Street. Something, anything, to break up the long scrolling page of text.

The End

At the end of the day, you have good content. Unfortunately, even good content needs a good wrapper. I do like your general color scheme (except the orange). Also, you have a lot of content to read and you’ve chosen a good width for your center column and a good font size for reading. Some quick CSS fixes and some attention to your blog’s layout and you’ll be in a whole new league.

Those are my 10 things. Talk amongst yourselves…

This post is seven days past due! I’d like to send a huge thanks to Blognet Blog Awards No, I didn’t win the November Blognet award (although I did show quite well in my category), but I did win the comments drawing, which was worth $250 in cold, hard cash. (Ok, nice, warm CADs via PayPal which I’ll take all the same.) I think this is the easiest money I’ve ever won—all I had to do is what I do best, visit some blogs and give my opinion.

Why don’t you try it? Head on over to my nomination page at Blognet Blog Awards, vote for me and leave a comment. If you did this in November you’re already registered so just sign in. If this will be your first visit, you will need to register, but hey, you could win $250 for a few minutes of your time (just remember to comment after you vote).

I’d also like to send a special thanks to Wanderer Thoughts. He won $250 in October, which is how I heard about the awards. When you’re done voting for my site, take a quick minute to vote for his under Best Poetry Blog. Hey, you’re already logged in! And the more comments you leave, the more chance you have to win some cash.