10 things: Focus Organic

Entrecard is working well for me, it appears. This is my second review request from a fellow “Entrecarder” and there are more in queue. This review is on the blog Focus Organic. As the name implies, this blog covers organic and eco-friendly topics. I have to start by saying that I LOVE the design of this blog. The graphics are great and tie in with the theme, the icons and web elements aren’t distracting, and the page loads quickly. (I’m also a big fan of ladybugs.)

Focus Organic

10 7 things I hate about your site:

1. Are you blogging for the environment, or are you blogging for the ad revenue?
2. Are you blogging for you, or are you blogging for your advertisers?
3. What’s with the itty, bitty text size?
4. Love the Eco-Friendly Friday graphic. Hate that it’s larger than the posts.
5. Link confusion—why do I keep getting Sept. 19th’s post when I click on the Eco-Friendly Friday graphic?
6. Series confusion—where are the rest of the Eco-Friendly Friday posts?
7. Why the green “F”?

Details

10 7 things I hate about your site:

1. Are you blogging for the environment, or are you blogging for the ad revenue? I think this is going to be a recurring element in my blog reviews since most bloggers are now in it for the money. This is ok, I suppose, as long as the content of your site is more than just advertisements for products and/or other sites. Unfortunately, your site appears to be more of an ad portal than a blog about organic and environmental issues. Let’s break your home page down:
   • there are five 128 x 128 ads
   • there is a “Sponsors” section which is nothing more than Google and other ads
   • there is a list of four more Google ad links embedded in the Sept. 26 post
   • and there are two more Google ads after your “Contribute” information

   That’s a whole lot of advertising, and honestly, not a whole lot of content. I don’t know about other readers, but this really turns me off a site. Not only will I probably not come back, but I make it a point NOT to click on these links. (I also hate the fact that when I go to an individual post, I’m greeted with more ads before the post even starts.)

   What does this mean? Maybe there are people clicking on these links like crazy and you are making loads of money. If that’s your goal with this site and it’s working, you can tell me to shut the hell up. If, however, the goal of your blog is to actually provide organic and environmental information, you need to re-think the amount of ads you have, and you need to re-evaluate their placement.

2. Are you blogging for you, or are you blogging for your advertisers? This ties in directly with #1. As discussed, you have a lot of ads on your blog. You’ve made your advertisers more important than your content by placing them first in your sidebar, placing them first in your posts, and including even more of them at the end of your posts. Even if I wasn’t turned off by all of this advertising and wanted to see more of the content, I have to scroll down to find your search box, your list of recent posts, and your categories.

   What does this mean? Take back your blog!!! Move your search, your recent posts, and your categories to the TOP of the sidebar where they belong. Then, get rid of those Google ads in your posts. If you must have them, at least get rid of the ones the appear before your content (I don’t know why you would encourage someone to click away from your site before they’ve even finished a post).

3. What’s with the itty, bitty text size? Informing readers of a multiple series is an excellent blogging tool. It lets you link to older posts, keeps people on your blog longer, and can stir up interest. I also think that your decision to use special formatting to call attention to this is a good one. Your choice of text size, however, is a bad decision. Simply stated, it’s way too small. Even with my contacts and my x-ray vision I have trouble reading this text.

   What does this mean? The use of the blue background is enough of a difference to note the series. Leave the text size alone (your body font is pretty small—I would not go smaller than this for any element).

4. Love the Eco-Friendly Friday graphic. Hate that it’s larger than the posts. Generally speaking, if a graphic is 3 times larger than the body copy, the body copy must not be that important. Your lead-in image for Eco-Friendly Friday is not in proportion with the text it represents (at least from parts 15 and 16 of the series that i viewed). I kept looking for the “read more” link—there just had to be more. But there wasn’t.

   What does this mean? I’m not saying that your post is not important, I’m saying that the post is just not long enough to warrant this huge banner. Either resize this lead-in image to be proportionate with the amount of text, or make the posts for this series longer.

5. Link confusion—why do I keep getting Sept. 19th’s post when I click on the Eco-Friendly Friday graphic for Sept 26? Why does this link to the “full” post in the first place? Since this was a series, I expected this banner to list all of the posts in the series.

   What does this mean? Make this link behave in the expected manner by having it link to a list of the posts for this series. (You don’t need to make it a link to the rest of the post since these are only a few sentences anyway, and your post title would act in this function.)

6. Series confusion—where are the rest of the Eco-Friendly Friday posts? Oh wait, there they are. The link is in the itty, bitty text above the great, big banner. It took me some time to actually find the link to this series, which is a problem.

   What does this mean? As mentioned in #5, link the banner to this list of posts.

7. Why the green “F”? The only item on my list regarding the blog’s design is the logo for Focus Organic. I love it, but I wonder with the “F” in Focus is green? I know it flows with the vine, but I think it actually detracts.

   What does this mean? I recommend changing the color of the “F” to match the rest of the word. Of all the things on my list, however, this is the most trivial detail.

As I mentioned in my introduction, this is a very nicely designed and great looking blog. Most of the content is well thought out and informative. My biggest complaint is with the amount of, and the placement of, the ads.