| User | Post |
|
9:48 am
September 22, 2011
|
Suba @ Wealth Informatics
| | |
| Moderator
| posts 1876 | 
|
|
|
Hunter @financiallyc said:
Hi Suba,
I love your blog. I appreciate the depth of research, the quality of writing, and the accuracy of information. I relate to it personally too, I was an informatics major for a few years.
It might be worth testing some design ideas? My articles with above the fold graphics / photos always get more attention.
I know you publish 2-3 great articles per week. Maybe try breaking up the longer articles into a series so that you are publishing new material daily?
The only other thing I would try is narrowing the center column. I think it improves readability.
I know you won't take these ideas the wrong way. I would do anything to help, and I know everyone will have different ideas than mine. When I have opened up my site for help like this, I learned the most from the honest responses.
I think your blog rocks.
Thanks Hunter. I used to have above the fold pictures, but with that adsense ugly block (which are in the post >14 days old) it used to overlap and not very nice at all, so I stopped doing that. How do you handle it?
I def. hear about the length. That has been the consistent feedback. I will either split it or make it shorter for sure.
What do you mean by the center column? I have the content column and a sidebar. You mean make the entire area (content+sidebar) a little narrower?
|
|
|
|
|
9:50 am
September 22, 2011
|
Suba @ Wealth Informatics
| | |
| Moderator
| posts 1876 |
|
|
|
retireby40 said:
Hi Suba,
I love your site too. Your posts are always great, but they are usually pretty long right? Maybe you can write 500-700 words posts 1-2 times a week and see what happens. Also, 100 referral+direct per day isn't that bad. Perhaps your SE traffic is just so big that it overshadow those other sources?
Commenting a lot will definitely help with the referral numbers.
Thanks Joe. I will try to cut the size of the posts. From people who started around the same time as me (from whoever puts out their stats publicly at least) I seem to be on the bottom of the barrel. Hence the question. It could very well be a simple answer their blog is better than mine. I was just wondering…
|
|
|
|
|
9:52 am
September 22, 2011
|
Suba @ Wealth Informatics
| | |
| Moderator
| posts 1876 |
|
|
|
Miss T @ Prairie Eco-Thrifter said:
Suba, I too love your blog. You always pick really interesting topics to write about so for content I think you are good. Length though like others have said may be a bit long.
I also agree that you could try some different desigins a bit. I find people like the most simpilest layouts with the least clutter. Buck Inspire's is really nice.
Commenting too would help. Even just try to return the favour for the first while. For every blog that comments on your site, head over and comment on theirs. This can really help.
Thanks Miss T. Commenting and reducing the size of the posts def. is next in my list.
|
|
|
|
|
9:55 am
September 22, 2011
|
Suba @ Wealth Informatics
| | |
| Moderator
| posts 1876 |
|
|
|
OneCentAtatime said:
I was a member of problogger community for a month (i didn't renewed afterwards). There are professional blog critiques out there. After a couple of sitting, you will get a whole new perspective in to the required improvement.
From getting better looking sites to better writing and better better SEO pro can help in all the aspects.
I even came across a blogger there who changed his blog domain from 'monetization' to 'Guest posting' after discussing with the critique. (as per him the sessions costed almost $1000 in total) Now he only writes about guest posting, and became a market leader in his blog domain.
All the above suggestions are very good, but a pro is a pro after all. I am suggesting this even after knowing that my blog is no where in terms of traffic. Getting 150 visitors a day from among a few millions of internet visitors is not even a small traffic, its minuscule traffic.
I will take professional guidance at some point of time, as of now, I don't know for how long I can go on writing regularly.
I didn't think about a professionals critique. I didn't even realize they existed. Now that I think about it, I know there must be plenty of experts with the # of sites. Just didn't occur to me. I will check them out. Thanks!
|
|
|
|
|
12:28 pm
September 22, 2011
|
My Personal Finance Journey
| | |
| Member
| posts 3159 |
|
|
|
Two things people have mentioned here that I really need to work on are doing more social media and posting a weekly roundup.
However, I'm not even really sure what the best way is to "do social media."
Do you just like interact with people on Twitter, share post links, mention others, ask questions, etc? Or, is there something specific that helps?
|
|
|
|
|
2:28 pm
September 22, 2011
|
Hunter @financiallyc
| | Virginia Beach | |
| Member | posts 707 |
|
|
|
Pics – Adsense is poorly integrated on my site, so I don't have overlap issues yet. That's something a may have to think about.
Column Width – I should have said main column, where the text body is. This is just a preference of mine, and I am no expert, but I do prefer a slightly narrower page. It makes it easier for me to read quickly.
I have just had a really close look at your page width, and it seems to be the same as mine, the Wall St Journal, and CNN. So, maybe I'm being ridiculous. Maybe your font is slightly smaller?
What do you think?
|
|
|
|
|
4:45 pm
September 22, 2011
|
Miss T @ Prairie Eco-Thrifter
| | |
| Member
| posts 2213 |
|
|
|
My Personal Finance Journey said:
Two things people have mentioned here that I really need to work on are doing more social media and posting a weekly roundup.
However, I'm not even really sure what the best way is to "do social media."
Do you just like interact with people on Twitter, share post links, mention others, ask questions, etc? Or, is there something specific that helps?
Talk to Jesse. He has been hired by some to do their social media for them. He could provide some great tips.
|
|
|
|
|
4:53 pm
September 22, 2011
|
Suba @ Wealth Informatics
| | |
| Moderator
| posts 1876 |
|
|
|
Hunter @financiallyc said:
Pics – Adsense is poorly integrated on my site, so I don't have overlap issues yet. That's something a may have to think about.
Column Width – I should have said main column, where the text body is. This is just a preference of mine, and I am no expert, but I do prefer a slightly narrower page. It makes it easier for me to read quickly.
I have just had a really close look at your page width, and it seems to be the same as mine, the Wall St Journal, and CNN. So, maybe I'm being ridiculous. Maybe your font is slightly smaller?
What do you think?
I didn't try CNN but I did overlap your page with mine :), it is ~0.5 inch wider. The sidebar area is the same, but the content area is wider. I was going to come and report back but you beat me to it. I tried to figure out your font size, but it is em. From the em to px converter my font is bigger than yours(!). And bigger than most of the blogs I tried. I will have to try a different em->px converter.
Yeah that adsense block pays a few people's bills. If it affects traffic I will most certainly remove them (that is why I don't have them in the recent posts). Can you let me know if you figure out a good way? I will have to do some split testing to remove adsense from above the fold to right around the fold in the middle of the posts… May be that will work…
|
|
|
|
|
5:21 am
September 23, 2011
|
MoneyBeagle
| | |
| Member
| posts 1466 |
|
|
|
My Personal Finance Journey said:
Two things people have mentioned here that I really need to work on are doing more social media and posting a weekly roundup.
However, I'm not even really sure what the best way is to "do social media."
Do you just like interact with people on Twitter, share post links, mention others, ask questions, etc? Or, is there something specific that helps?
I seem to have built a pretty big base of Twitter followers by not really doing a whole lot. Facebook seems to be quite a bit harder to get off the ground without running some sort of contest or what not.
I know there are more opportunities but I generally try to retweet posts I find interesting or reply to something I see that interests me in a conversation. I look at it as one additional method to try to promote others (and hope that others will, in turn, promote me).
|
|
|
|
|
10:47 am
September 23, 2011
|
Khaleef @ KNS Financial
| | Fat Guy, Skinny Wallet | |
| Member
| posts 3149 |
|
|
|
I think your articles are some of the best-written, and researched around! That's how I aim to write, so I love the long, structured posts. I write posts that are over 2,000 words often, so I'm probably not the right one to ask about post length.
However, I often break loooong posts up into a small series in order to give readers a break.
Also, SPFs advice about smaller paragraphs is one that I received early on as well. Also, I try to use tons of subheadings in order to help the reader follow along (since many people will only skim an article that long).
The only other thing I can think of is what Andrea already mentioned – I don't see your site in other places around the web. Maybe you can hire a VA to handle commenting and social networks (my wife just started doing it for me).
|
|
|
|
|
12:55 pm
September 23, 2011
|
LaTisha @YoungFinances
| | |
| Admin
| posts 1715 |
|
|
|
I would say that the first thing that intimidates me are the large blocks of content. Long posts are not a problem especially when they cover a really interesting topic but I need more white space.
I've heard that 2 to 3 lines keeps attention best. It also prevents headaches from scanning the text back and forth. Because we honestly don't read words, our brain takes the first and last letters and fills in the blanks
wihch mkacs snese bcuease you are radeing tihs esilay rgiht?
|
|
|
|
|
1:04 pm
September 23, 2011
|
20s Finances
| | |
| Admin
| posts 1147 |
|
|
|
Haha. Great point LaTisha. (only the second word would be "macks" instead of "makes"?) :) Even with that, I could still understand it so I guess that further emphasizes your point.
Financial Success for Young Adults said:
I've heard that 2 to 3 lines keeps attention best. It also prevents headaches from scanning the text back and forth. Because we honestly don't read words, our brain takes the first and last letters and fills in the blanks
wihch mkacs snese bcuease you are radeing tihs esilay rgiht?
|
|
|
|
|
1:25 pm
September 23, 2011
|
Squirrelers
| | |
| Member | posts 986 |
|
|
|
Suba –
I think your posts are always good. It's clear that you spend a lot of time putting together high quality resource posts. Frankly, I don't think there are many better in the personal finance sphere. You're very consistent in doing that.
Really, I don't see anything 'wrong' with your blog. Rather, I see it as being very good and one that adds value. From here, it seems like you're succeeding with Wealth Informatics!
Would I change anything? Probably not. Well, maybe you could shorten the posts a bit. People often have a hard time reading for a long time. Look at Seth Godin's blog – it's filled with relatively short blog posts but it's immensely popular. Go under 1000 words.
Other than that, I don't want to see you burn out. Ironic, as there was a Yakezie post published on this. But, when I read the comments above, I wonder just how much time you invest in your blog every week, and how much time it takes to write each post? My hope is that you're not pushing yourself too far as is. That would be my question: how many hours per week do you spend on W.I. – including writing posts, comments, site maintenance, etc?
|
|
|
|
|
2:37 pm
September 23, 2011
|
JT_McGee
| | |
| Member | posts 723 |
|
|
|
Suba, your posts are awesome, which is why you're not getting the readership you want. People want to read quickly, and find immediate answers. Immediate answers don't exist, but people still look for them.
Having read a ton of your posts, I can totally dig long articles. I have a feeling that you'd do a lot better if you made 3-500 word posts of each 1500 word post. The depth to which you research each paragraph of content could easily become 1 smaller article (which could then be more targeted to a single topic.)
|
|
|
|
|
3:39 pm
September 23, 2011
|
LaTisha @YoungFinances
| | |
| Admin
| posts 1715 |
|
|
|
Ha! Yeah, you're right
20sfinances said:
Haha. Great point LaTisha. (only the second word would be "macks" instead of "makes"?) :) Even with that, I could still understand it so I guess that further emphasizes your point.
Financial Success for Young Adults said:
I've heard that 2 to 3 lines keeps attention best. It also prevents headaches from scanning the text back and forth. Because we honestly don't read words, our brain takes the first and last letters and fills in the blanks
wihch mkacs snese bcuease you are radeing tihs esilay rgiht?
|
|
|
|
|
8:41 pm
September 25, 2011
|
Jackie
| | |
| Member | posts 664 |
|
|
|
Post edited 8:43 pm – September 25, 2011 by Jackie
Suba @ Wealth Informatics said:
Thanks, Jackie. I don't have a lot of referrers/direct traffic. Even for the same mention (the interest.co.nz) I don't get as much as other people do, so I was curious. I am not sure what is low, I am generally comparing myself with the little-older-than-one-year sites. I have subscriber numbers in the 200s. And I get <100 visits from direct/referral source. Again, I don't know what is normal, but it is def. nothing to write about. So I have to change things and try to give the same thing in a more interesting and digestible package I guess.
I don't know what's normal, but I think what matters more is what your goal is. Do you mainly want search engine traffic (people who find your site and get the information they need because they're looking for a particular thing) or regular readers (which is likely a combination of direct referrers + people who subscribe to your site in a feed)? Or are you ok with a combination of both?
If you're wanting regular readers more than anything, I agree with breaking things up into shorter posts, because people seem to have a short attention span. I've been writing a longer article lately about once a week, and I've noticed they seem to get less interest from commenters, etc. But they are still useful and informative. If you're wanting good search engine results, I'm betting your highly focused longer articles are just the ticket. If you want a mix of both, try writing a mix of both.
But simply having a low percentage of direct referrers compared to search engine traffic doesn't necessarily mean anything bad.
Here are some recent referrer stats from a few of my sites:
Site1:
Search engines 82%
Referring sites 10.17%
Direct traffic 7.81%
Other .02%
Site2:
Search engines 59.39%
Referring sites 21.53%
Direct traffic 18.96%
Other .12%
Site3:
Search engines 28.22%
Referring sites 34.56%
Direct traffic 37.10%
Other .12%
Site 1 makes me the most money, site 2 gets the most traffic overall and has by far the most readers, and site 3 is not monetized at all. But I'm happy with all three, and they're suiting my mix of aims. (Although I hope to increase both readers and overall traffic for sites 1 & 2.)
|
|
|
|
Login
Search 
Home
Print this Topic 
Topic RSS 
