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12:11 pm
July 14, 2011
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Freddie @ Invest With Passion
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| Member | posts 204 | 
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Like many of you, my website is in a constant state of improvement. Always looking to tweak something in an effort to take it to the next level.
I'm hoping you would take a few moments on my site and tell me what is wrong with it, what is missing, and what I can do to improve the look and feel of the site. Think you could spare a few moments to rip my site?
Visit me here: http://www.InvestWithPassion.com
Here are a few things I am thinking about:
- Adding a relevant, professional background in the grey space surrounding the blog
- Adding a 300x250 ad in the side bar above the 6, 125x125 ads.
- Moving 125x125 ads down below the Popular, lastest post tab
- Better organize my categories in the main nav bar
- Link all tabs in the "Looking for something specific" section of side bar
- Adding a footer (Has 4 widgets down there, but I don't know what I should add)
- Improve Advertising Page
- Re-position social buttons on post pages
That is all I have. Let me have it…..and thank you!
Thank you!
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1:10 pm
July 14, 2011
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JT_McGee
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| Member | posts 723 |
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Post edited 1:10 pm – July 14, 2011 by JT_McGee
Immediate thoughts: "Whoa, what do you want me to focus on?"
I would consider:
1) finding a new location for the cluster of social media buttons
2) moving up the newest post/sidebar thing
3) removing that top adsense leaderboard
There just isn't enough whitespace. While the three adsense ads (the bar, leaderboard, and big box) may generate a substantial amount of money, you're probably missing out on a lot of SE traffic due to the number of advertisements above the fold. Panda is supposedly placing a lot of emphasis on ads above the fold.
Also, keep in mind that more ads doesn't always mean more money. If you have one adsense box, you show the three best paying links for that particular visitor. If you have 3 blocks, you might have the 9 best links for that particular visitor. Sometimes it's better to show fewer because you might get less clicks but better earnings per click.
At the core, you've got a great design. It's just that it seems the design is hidden by all the going-ons of the site.
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1:32 pm
July 14, 2011
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Freddie @ Invest With Passion
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| Member | posts 204 |
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1} Yes, the social media buttons are really bothering me. I would like for the to lay down once next to another between the content and the title, but I can't get that to work with these Woo Hooks they are using now. Will look into that.
2) I went ahead and moved the recent/latest post tabs up above those 125x125 ads. Thanks for that. I was on the fence about doing it and decided to make the plunge.
3) I have heard about Panda, but haven't ready anything specific on it. Could you give me a source I might be able to reference about Panda and these new updates.
Didn't know anything about the number of ads above the fold. Will definitely consider removing that top nav ad. It is not a great earner, but does make some cash. I would trade it for traffic any day.
Which add are you saying to remove? The Adlinks at the very top or the 728x90 leaderboard, graphic ad?
Thank you for your feedback!
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3:02 pm
July 14, 2011
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Peerform-Blog
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| Member | posts 68 |
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Post edited 3:03 pm – July 14, 2011 by P2PNoob
Hey! I'll try my best to help. I'm a fan of minimalist designs, so my opinion will be biased that way.
Your website looks a bit cramped. Try
1. Get your blog text centered. without a sidebar squishing it in one way. Can you get the sidebar wayyy off to the side? Also, I prefer it when the sidebar is at the bottom of the screen, kind of like when you finish watching a youtube video.
2. The colors of your banner clash a bit because there are too many. Try to keep it simple. If you read it from left to right, you can almost think there are two banners. pick a good color scheme (i.e. warm colors or cool colors)
3. There are a lot of adsense ads! It's a bit visually distracting. read http://www.google.com/adsense/…..swer=17957
4. When you blog, try not to have the title in the text body. You see how your most recent posts have the title wrapping around the image? Have the Heading in a separate text box.
Your posts look like:
[img] POST TITLE
here is my personal
finance blog post…
This looks a bit better:
THIS IS THE POST TITLE
..[img] here is my personal
..finance blog post. etc…
Hope this helps!
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Blogwriters and Marketing Team for Peerform's Blog
Topics include:Personal Finance, Debt, Debt Management, Peer to peer lending
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3:45 pm
July 14, 2011
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JT_McGee
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| Member | posts 723 |
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Wow, already I like it a lot more without all those buttons. Maybe consider using the "Sharebar" plugin to get them all on the homepage.
Here's a blog post direct from Google about Panda. It mentions distracting ads, among other things:
http://googlewebmastercentral……ality.html
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4:42 pm
July 14, 2011
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Freddie @ Invest With Passion
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| Member | posts 204 |
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P2P,
Thanks for the ideas. I would like to blend the side bar and the content a bit more. Not sure if I will shrink it, but it should get me to thinking out side of my box a little bit. Maybe instead of a 300px side bar, maybe I will go to 250.
Good point with the banner to the right of the logo. There is just too much going on there. I def need a better graphic. Ultimately, I want to blend in the background with the header making it larger and more predominant. I guess it will some what create the effect you were talking about not showing the sidebar above the fold.
Thanks for the info on the google article. Will check that one out for sure.
Thanks for spotting that on the home page. I never even noticed it before, but you are right. That will make it look much better. Will seek out that code in a bit.
JT,
Those share buttons was ruining it big time. Thanks for the tip. That was huge and makes this worth it already. Will check out Share plugin.
Thanks for the article post. That was very informative. I needed that.
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7:02 am
July 15, 2011
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Jackie
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| Member | posts 664 |
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The orange roof on the house in your header makes it hard to figure out what to focus on in that section. Maybe mute that color to match the windows. I would make the header a tiny bit taller too. The ads right below the header are very distracting. Right now they're acting more like a header than anything else. I'm not a fan of the grey font on dark blue in the sidebar tabs. Too low contrast for readability there. I would probably make the outline around the sidebar thinner.
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9:02 am
July 15, 2011
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The Single Saver
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| Member | posts 689 |
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I like minimalist, but it is not always easy to achieve with a blog. With that in mind, I find your header a little distracting. I would like to see it without the green (credit cards?). I think that might clean things up a little. I'm also not a big fan of the google ads at the very top of the page (but if they bring in good money then they serve a purpose). I have seen you evolve your site from all these comments in the last week and I like the changes you have made!
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11:13 am
July 15, 2011
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NoDebtMBA
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| Member | posts 130 |
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Agree with others that the orange roof is distracting. At first glance I missed the title of your blog.. whoops.
On my screen there's still a big area of white space below the banner and above your first post which is a little awkward.
The layout doesn't stretch to fill the screen when you pull it wider, if it did it might help alleviate the sense of the blog being cluttered.
I might increase the padding between the posts and the side bar
Overall, not bad! Mostly just nit picking here :)
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8:22 pm
July 16, 2011
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mbhunter
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| Member | posts 198 |
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Your "Subscribe to IWP" graphic at the top right is a tad too small, and the text is hard to read.
In your 125x125 ad (the IWP ad) I'd slow down the flashing text in the center orange bar just a hair, and make the contrast a little greater so that the topics can be read more easily as they go by.
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11:10 am
July 17, 2011
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Freddie @ Invest With Passion
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| Member | posts 204 |
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All of you are right about the header. I have been wanting to do something different with that. I think I am going to center the logo and create some sort of background to blend in on the site. Just need to set aside some design time.
Jackie, thanks for pointing out the grey in the tabs on the sidebar. I just missed that. That should be white.
The google ads are not the best, but they are earning ok right now and I want to see that grow. Just need to blend them a little bit better. That will come with a bit more tweaking, but I like the location right now. It will be better when I get the header changes in there to make things less distracting.
Increasing the post padding sounds like it could be a good idea. Might even experiment with the size of the font. Think I will be working on this header first, but we will see.
The "Subscribe to IWP" needs to be changed as well. It use to be in the sidebar, so it was much larger. I just stuck it there to see if I liked the location. Now I need to make a graphic specifically for that space. Thanks for noticing. Will be sure to create that one.
The 125x125 would use some tweaking. Thanks for noticing the speed. That was my first attempt at creating a rotation graphic with c5, photoshop. Didn't come out too bad. To be honest, that is just a space holder for now. I am aiming to fill those with advertising. Just need to grow the blog a bit more now.
Overall, the comments and suggestions have been very helpful. Let me take a run at a few of these and what it looks like. So, please give me a bit, check back and let me know what you think of the improvements.
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6:50 pm
July 17, 2011
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Freddie @ Invest With Passion
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| Member | posts 204 |
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Ok, I trashed that image to the right of my logo, removed the white background and centered the logo. Really liking this a lot. Not sure what to put in the background to give it some life, but I think it is getting much better.
What do you guys and gals think?
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6:20 am
July 18, 2011
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The Single Saver
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| Member | posts 689 |
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Freddie @ Invest With Passion said:
Ok, I trashed that image to the right of my logo, removed the white background and centered the logo. Really liking this a lot. Not sure what to put in the background to give it some life, but I think it is getting much better.
What do you guys and gals think?
Love it! I actually think you could enlarge the logo a little and leave it as it is with no background. It looks very professional!
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7:55 am
July 18, 2011
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Peerform-Blog
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| Member | posts 68 |
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The Single Saver said:
Freddie @ Invest With Passion said:
Ok, I trashed that image to the right of my logo, removed the white background and centered the logo. Really liking this a lot. Not sure what to put in the background to give it some life, but I think it is getting much better.
What do you guys and gals think?
Love it! I actually think you could enlarge the logo a little and leave it as it is with no background. It looks very professional!
Major Improvement!
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Blogwriters and Marketing Team for Peerform's Blog
Topics include:Personal Finance, Debt, Debt Management, Peer to peer lending
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2:04 pm
July 18, 2011
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Freddie @ Invest With Passion
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| Member | posts 204 |
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Thank you! I am loving it a lot more with that header change. I won't try to jazz it up too much. I like the clean look. Just a few adjustments to be made to the actual logo…spacing is off a bit.
This has been a great project thanks to all the help of the yakezie folks! Thank you so much!
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