10 things: Let’s All Go to the Movies!!!!
04. Mar, 2009 
27 Comments
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.
The next blog up for review is, ironically enough, a review site. That, however, is where the similarity ends–they review movies, I review web sites and blogs. They are friendly and inviting with their reviews,1 I am snarky, and sometimes even harsh. So, let’s jump right in. Let’s All Go to the Movies!!!!, here are 10 things I hate about your site:
- Who are you? What qualifies you to be a movie reviewer? Why should I listen to what you have to say?
- The red title is eye-grabbing–but the red info below it is overkill.
- Scrolling. Scrolling. Scrolling.
- Plot content versus review content.
- Categories. Wait, there aren’t any.
- Tags.
- Categories and tags.
- The high contrast can be hard on the eyes.
- Are you reviewing these movies to read your own words?
- Okay, I don’t hate it, but I don’t get it. Why “musicalmystery” when this is a movie blog?
Details
- Who are you? What qualifies you to be a movie reviewer? Why should I listen to what you have to say? This is one of my biggest pet peeves. Maybe there is a reason you want to be anonymous. Perhaps you are wanted in 12 states, or your mom’s going to be pissed that you are watching all of these movies, or you owe Blockbuster a gazillion dollars. Whichever it is, it’s still annoying when a blog doesn’t have an about page. Even if you make most of it up!
An About page should provide context and necessary facts, but should also give the reader compelling reasons to do what you want them to do.
-A List ApartWhat does this mean? Provide your readers with some kind of “About” page. We want to know who you are. We want know why we should care about what you think. Maybe we want to contact you. Right now I don’t know who you are, I don’t care what you think, and I can’t contact you.
- The red title is eye-grabbing–but the red info below it is overkill. It’s also difficult to read, with the funky spacing.
What does this mean? Keep the red title, but change the color of the text below it. The orange you use for your links might be a good choice. And while you’re at it, get rid of the letter spacing. Again, it works for the title, but not for the smaller text.
- Scrolling. Scrolling. Scrolling. Tease me, please. Maybe I don’t want to read your review on “Men in Black II” or “The Meaning of Life” but I might be interested in “Hot Fuzz”. The problem is, I can’t see that you’ve reviewed “Hot Fuzz” unless I scroll through your reviews of two movies I could care less about. Relying solely on your sidebar to display the most recent posts is not the best method. Most readers will scroll your main page to see what articles you’ve written and won’t necessarily refer to the sidebar.2
What does this mean? I’m going to quote myself here, from my review of Willem’s Internet Blog:
Since you are using WordPress, make use of the awesome
<!--more--> tagtag. This tag allows you to show a post excerpt on the front page, and the entire post content on the permalink page. This helps readers scroll through your blog faster, finding more posts that interest them, and it keeps your text-heavy content from looking so overwhelming. There are also some SEO benefits in using the ‘more’ tag.I am not an SEO expert. You can read about these benefits at Post Excerpts and the More Tag in WordPress.
- Plot content versus review content. It appears that you are pulling your plot content from Wikipedia. No problem there. The problem lies with the fact that the plots are much longer than your reviews. First, if I haven’t seen the movie, maybe I don’t want to know the entire plot. Second, according to your info, this is a blog about reviewing movies. I would expect your reviews to be the bulk of the content, not the movie plots.
What does this mean? Consider shortening the movie plots. I think that IMDB does a good job of showing a simple 1-2 sentence plot. That may be too short for your taste, but it might be a good place to start and build from.
- Categories. Wait, there aren’t any. A movie review blog totally lends itself to the use of categories, yet you don’t show any. Categories are like your filing system. You “file” posts away into the appropriate category to be linked together. Chances are, if someone is reading a review on a comedy, they will be interested in more of your comedy reviews. Right now, they have to search, and scroll, and scroll, and hope they can find another comedy review.
What does this mean? In its simplest form, you could use categories to group movie genres together. Then I could go to “Horror” and see all the horror movies you have reviewed. Or romantic comedies. Or musical mysteries. You get the point. Categories provide another means of navigating your blog. The more navigation choices you provide your reader, the more they will navigate.
- Tags. I love tags. Unfortunately, they are seldom used correctly. 3 Tags are another way to help group your posts into logical sections, helping readers to navigate your blog and find posts that interest them. While they serve the same purpose, tags are not categories. Think of tags like a list of references for similar content. For example, at 10 things, I tag posts mainly based on blog/site elements–tags like navigation, sidebar, validation, etc. This way, if a reader is interested in what I have to say regarding navigation, they can click on the word in the tag cloud and see all of my posts tagged with “navigation”.
What does this mean? Your tags don’t provide a good reference system. You’ve tagged posts with actor names, character names, and random words from the movies (which make no sense out of context). A good tagging system, while larger than the number of categories, is not too big. It will include relevant and intuitive tags, and will follow a system.
Tags are reused over and over, just like categories. If you use categories to file your reviews based on movie genres, you could use tags to list the actors in the movie. So if I like Tom Hanks, I can see all of your reviews of Tom Hanks’ movies by clicking on his name in your tags. You could also use tags to indicate the number of stars you have given a movie.
- Categories and tags. Okay, this is probably completely out of your control since you are on Wordpress.com, however, since I hate it, it’s on the list. While I’ve discussed categories and tags in #’s 5 and 6, you do have something that resembles actual categories and tags. Except when I click on them I’m taken from your blog to a list of blogs with that particular category or tag on Wordpress.com. I find this really annoying. When I check out a category or tag, I want to see what else YOU have written.
What does this mean? Probably nothing, as I’m guessing since your blog is on Wordpress.com this is something you are not able to change. You can, however, follow my advice in #’s 5 and 6 and include your own categories and tags for YOUR blog in the sidebar.
- The high contrast can be hard on the eyes. Especially with so much content.
What does this mean? This is a toughie, since your theme is a dark one and overall, I like it. I just find it hard to read your large chunks of content with the white-on-black text. Maybe paring back the plots (should you take my advice) will help.
- Are you reviewing these movies to read your own words? I’m guessing not. I’m guessing you want people to read your reviews. Usually, bloggers want these readers to comment, also. Unfortunately, I don’t see many comments on your posts. You are writing some good content, however, you aren’t following some important guidelines for getting comments.
What does this mean? You need to engage your readers. A few simple changes to your posts will encourage people to comment on what you have written. Here are three tips for encouraging comments.
First, invite people to leave comments. While this may sound strange since we assume everyone knows they can leave a comment, people like to be “talked to” and invited to take action.
Second, ask a question at the end of your review. It could be as simple as “Do you agree that XYZ is the best movie ever? Comment below and tell me why or why not.“
Third, allow your reviews to be more open-ended. If you are definitive in everything you say, there is nothing left for your readers to contribute.
- Okay, I don’t hate it, but I don’t get it. Why “musicalmystery” when this is a movie blog? We all have an online persona. I’m just confused as to why “musicalmystery” is writing a movie review blog, and not a music review blog.
What does this mean? Refer back to #1. An “About” page might clear this up for me.
The Good
I don’t always hate everything. 
In fact, there are quite a few things I like about “Let’s All Go to the Movies!!!!”
- As previously mentioned, I find your reviews to be articulate and enjoyable. While I have seen a typo here and there, they are too few to point out.
- Using the movie poster as a visual aid is a nice touch.
- I love that you are ad free.
- I also love that you don’t have a gazillion widgets and crap in your sidebar.4
There you have it. My review of Let’s All Go to the Movies!!!!. What about you, dear readers? Anything you would add? Anything you disagree with?
This is a test image:
teddy bear
- At least the reviews I have read so far have been friendly. [↩]
- I do like listing recent posts in the sidebar–I just don’t recommend that as the sole means of showing what you’ve written recently. [↩]
- Tags are even misused at 10 things sometimes. [↩]
- I’m not saying all widgets and sidebar items are crap. I’m saying it’s refreshing to see a minimal sidebar. [↩]
Excellent review. Every website should have an About page – it’s absolutely essential. Another gripe I have is white text on a black background. Suck it up and opt for readability over style! Also, I would add that if you want to be taken seriously, get off a free hosted site and get your own fully hosted domain.
Melissa Donovans last blog post..Website Copywriting Special: Order Three, Get One Free
I agree, in part, with your stand on a fully hosted domain. I think there are exceptions, however. Personal blogs for people who really know nothing about development and coding but want to share things with the world, blogs like “Let’s All Go to the Movies”, etc.
Since Mystery Man isn’t really selling anything, I can understand not wanting to dish out cash for a domain name and hosting.
Thanks for the review. I’ll take these into consideration. AS a matter of fact, a couple of your suggestons I had been thinking of doing already. Check back after awhile when I’ve made the changes!
oh…FYI…since you posted this review, traffic to my site has more than doubled! Thanks for that, too
Mystery Mans last blog post..Crying over #2
You certainly are a man of mystery, hee hee.
I’m glad you’ve been thinking about some changes yourself. I look forward to seeing what you do.
And I’m thrilled to hear you’ve increased your traffic a bit. Of course, a link back or mention, while not a requirement (yet), is always appreciated.
Blog gives an impression of typical – start with free account and make posts.
It is perfectly fine if that is what author wants, but as always in such cases there are tons of things (index organizatin, navigation, readability, etc, etc) that need improving to raise it out of generic “free wordpress/blogger” crowd.
Rarsts last blog post..5 tools to test site load speed
I definitely agree Rarst. Being a free WP/Blogger user doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take steps to separate yourself from the crowd.
i’ve got a non-review post coming soon. i’ll be sure to give you some linky love
It’s the least I could do 
Look for it late Sunday night.
Mystery Mans last blog post..Crying over #2
Thanks Mystery Man! (who is that masked man, anyway?
)
An increase in traffic because of your review. Words like that are a definite compliment for you and your reviewing skills.
I agree with your findings on this one. Nice blog but a tad too dark and maybe the red bits can make place for some other color. Definitely a lot of potential here though.
Lyndis last blog post..Rotating Graphics with PHP
I also really like the reviews. They are definitely thought out and provide an opinion without being over the top.
as promised i mentioned you in a post. not just any post…#300! You should feel special. lol
Mystery Mans last blog post..Time for a Change
I just saw that. I’m honored! Wow, 300 posts. That’s pretty impressive! I look forward to seeing where you go with the blog.
Oh THANK YOU for your comment about white on black being hard to read. Why oh why are there SO many templates and blogs out there like this? If you’re like me and spend a lot of time staring at a computer screen, white on black is totally a killer on the eyes. My eyes, anyway. I think the red on black is just as bad.
It’s a nice blog design though, I just find the text colors hard for me personally to read.
Caroles last blog post..Geocaching By the Hudson River
Reverse themes (white on black, or light on dark) are popular because they provide something different. There are circumstances where this is a great color scheme to use–mainly instances where the blog/site is graphic heavy with little text.
Blogs/sites that are text heavy really should resist reverse color schemes, as you’ve mentioned, they are more difficult to read.
keep watching and you’ll be sure to see.
Mystery Mans last blog post..Shameless plug
Will do!
hi, nice blog
Your Blog is More interesting.great work.:)
moreover, …if possible at ur free time visit mine..and give ur suggestion ..
Hi MyJoyz,
I can add you to the queue.
changes made. still working/debating on a layout change since i don’t know if i can change the font color of the main text, but it’s a start, right?
Mystery Mans last blog post..Remembering the good old days
I checked in for a quick visit and didn’t see any changes. I must be missing something. What have you been working on?
some things went back to before. i had changed the layout, but it didn’t work wit hthe posters, so i’m looking for one that will work with tham and that i like. in the meantime, i have added a drop down catergory menu and am still working on making it an overall better experience.
Mystery Mans last blog post..Traffic woes
Hi, Melissa! Can I be added to the queue again? Thanks!
abelle | Only in Silences last blog post..My ‘must have’ list for 2009 (update1)
Hi Abelle,
You certainly can, and are.
I’ve read a few of your reviews and would to put my own blog on the chopping block. You put a lot into your review and have good suggestions for improvement. I have room for improvement so it should be a good thing. Right?
Lauras last blog post..Evangelist Marketing: Using the Buzz!
Where have you been, haven’t seen anything from you in a while?
Dragon Blogger´s last blog ..IIS7 HTTP Status Codes
Hey Justin! I’ve been around. Things have been too busy to keep up here, and I was debating whether or not to continue with 10 things.
Never fear, however. There is a new post forthcoming.