10 Things: The Queen Speaks

My very first impression of The Queen Speaks was “Wow! Nice Blogger template!“. I’m always a little concerned when I see “blogspot” in a blog’s URL that I’ve been asked to review. Not because Blogger is bad,¹ but because unless you are willing to take the extra time to tweak the available themes or go out and find a custom theme, I end up repeating myself.

I was pleasantly surprised to see this great theme. Of course, that’s not to say there aren’t things I hate.

So, The Queen Speaks, here are 10 things I hate about your site:

1. Holy blog description, Batman!
2. Read more—I get the point.
3. I don’t know what “Daily Mugshot” is, but it’s a good thing I’m not epileptic.
4. We have another victim of Fonticitis.²
5. I’m in sidebar hell.
6. Speaking of the sidebar, if having so much stuff is a compulsion, make sure it fits.
7. Help! I’m trapped! Oh, wait, there’s the door.
8. I’ve found some other content, but I have no idea what it’s supposed to be.
9. Does anyone actually use the “voting” at the bottom of your posts? (And shouldn’t this actually be at the end of the post?)
10. It annoys me that I have to use only “premade” profile options when leaving a comment.

Details

1. Holy blog description, Batman! A blog description is a great thing. It’s always nice to know what I’m getting into. Your description, however, is a combination of the blog description and profile information. The problem with this is that its too long for this location and is too difficult to read with the background.

   
   What does this mean? Separate your actual blog description from the profile content. Keep the very first sentence “Ramblings – sometimes semi-coherent but always royal – of a single mom.” right where it is. Move the rest of the text to the profile section. Check out The Saab Blaag for an example of the difference between the blog description and profile information.³

2. Read more—I get the point. Having two “Read more…” links is very redundant. I’m sure it’s a plugin causing this. Either that or you think your readers need to be asked twice.

   
   What does this mean? Paging captain obvious! Remove one of the links.

3. I don’t know what “Daily Mugshot” is, but it’s a good thing I’m not epileptic. Not only is the term “Daily Mugshot” scary, so is its widget or whatever the hell it is. It flashes back and forth so fast that if I were prone to seizures this review would not be done for quite some time as I’d be in the hospital.

   
   What does this mean? My recommendation is to remove the thing, stat! Of course, every blogger has their own sidebar items and has chosen them for some reason. Perhaps this one is near and dear to your heart. I honestly was so put off by the crazy flashing thing that I had no desire to click and see what it actually was.

4. We have another victim of Fonticitis.⁴ This is a common blogger disease, and can be very difficult to get rid of. On the main page alone I see four different font colors and three different font sizes. NOTE: I am not including headers nor theme options such as meta info. This is post text only. There is also a severe font change when going to the “Who is the Queen” page.

   
   What does this mean? The cure for Fonticitis is simple. Stop using so many colors and sizes. It’s not only disconcerting to have a variety of font changes, it really detracts from a good blog template.

5. I’m in sidebar hell. As I mentioned above, bloggers have their own reasons for choosing the sidebar items and widgets that grace their pages. Anyone who has read 10 Things regularly knows I’m not a fan of a gazillion ads, widgets, games, polls, social networks, etc., etc., etc., on the sidebar. Your sidebars are so packed with this stuff the content is suffocating.

   
   What does this mean? Personally, I think you should take inventory of your sidebar content and weed through it, keeping only the really good stuff. I also think the sidebars would benefit from some actual Queen links (see #7).

6. Speaking of the sidebar, if having so much stuff is a compulsion, make sure it fits. Sometimes the widget compulsion is just too strong to be denied. When that’s the case, it is important to at least have all of the stuff look good. There is a lot of different sidebar formatting and widgets that are getting cut off:
   

   The Queen Speaks sidebar issues

   
   What does this mean? Probably the easiest thing to do would be to adjust the width of the sidebars to let wider widgets fit. Aside from that, there’s not much else to do since all of these widgets and stuff have their own formatting and you probably can’t change the colors, fonts and such.

7. Help! I’m trapped! Oh, wait, there’s the door. Bloggers blog to have their stuff read.⁵ I’m assuming this is the case with the you as well; however I can’t be 100% positive as it’s difficult for me to find any other content than what’s on your homepage. After several minutes of searching I did finally come across the Previous Posts dropdown, but that’s it.

   
   What does this mean? You need to give your readers more access to the rest of your content. If what is on the main page isn’t exactly what they are looking for, they have no way of finding what it is they are looking for. You take the time to categorize your posts—put these categories to good use. Include them in the sidebar so readers can browse topics in the categories that interest them. I’m also a fan of listing popular posts and comments.

8. I’ve found some other content, but I have no idea what it’s supposed to be. You do have your Previous Posts listed as a dropdown in the sidebar, for all the good it is doing. Listing your previous posts in this format is not helpful. How am I supposed to know if anything you wrote between 10/25 and 11/01 is of interest to me? (I’m also not a huge fan of the month and number of posts that is so popular, but I think it’s a better choice than what you are displaying.)

   
   What does this mean? Give your readers more options to find more of your content, and choose a different method to list your archives. Ken Armstrong Writing Stuff is a good example. His sidebar includes a list of recent posts, a list of popular posts, and his blog archive.

9. Does anyone actually use the “voting” at the bottom of your posts? (And shouldn’t this actually be at the end of the post?) While visiting your blog I think I saw one vote somewhere. I’m of the opinion that if a plugin or widget isn’t getting any much use, maybe it’s time to let it go since widgets and plugins can impact load time.⁶ The other thing that bugs me about this poll is its location. If you’re going to ask me to vote on your post, don’t ask me to do so until I’ve actually read the whole thing.

   
   What does this mean? Like widgets on a sidebar, these types of plugins and add-ons are personal choices and you obviously added them for a reason. If no one is using this plugin you might want to consider removing it.

10. It annoys me that I have to use only “premade” profile options when leaving a comment. This is one of my pet peeves with Blogger blogs that chose this method of commenting over the option of letting me enter my own name, email address, and URL. For those of us using self hosted Wordpress and commenting on your blog, we have no way of leaving a comment without choosing one of the existing profile options. This can result in fewer comments if the readers doesn’t have any of these profiles set up.

    
    What does this mean? Change your comment options to allow anyone to leave a comment. Not just readers who belong to certain groups.

In Conclusion

I enjoyed reading posts at The Queen Speaks. Her posts are funny and well written. I especially enjoyed The White Flag of Surrender (Made of Underwear). I just wish the sidebars didn’t detract so much from the content.

1. Blogger is a great tool for the blogger who’s not a control freak. [↩]
2. Fonticitis: the use of too many different font formats (bold, colors, italics, size, font faces, etc. [↩]
3. This is my shameless Saab Blaag plug (lol) [↩]
4. Fonticitis: the use of too many different font formats (bold, colors, italics, size, font faces, etc. [↩]
5. At least most bloggers blog for this reason. [↩]
6. I did not, however, notice much of a load time problem with The Queen Speaks. [↩]