Shea Bath Blog: Kudos & Feedback

Thursday night's Group Coaching was fantastic. Attendance was double what it was last week. My presentation covered blogging basics, based on my 3 years of blogging experience and what I have learned from my blog mentors. (If you did not attend, you can enjoy some great blogging tips here.)

Afterward, we enjoyed such a lively Q&A session that, even after an hour, it was hard to drag ourselves away.

          

One of the attendees was Diana Cyrill of Shea Bath in Georgia. Diana launched Shea Bath Blog on December 7, 2007, after being inspired by Indie Beauty Network member Anne-Marie Faiola's blog. She has made a total of 10 posts, 3 of them within the last week. (Keep it up, Diana!)

Diana asked me if I would visit her blog and provide some feedback. She graciously allowed me to share my comments with you.

First, Kudos!

Congratulations for taking on blogging. It is daunting when you have so many other things going on as a business owner, not to mention managing a home, a husband and children as well. You deserve extra kudos too for allowing me to comment on your blog in public, without reviewing my comments first. Bravo Diana!

Every time you post, you will be increasingly empowered to improve your blog by putting your unique and individual stamp on it. You are off to a great start. I especially commend you for sharing Link Love. It demonstrates that you are well connected and confident that links away from your blog will not diminish its appeal.

Now, let's get busy with a few things you can implement today to improve your blog. I am intentionally commenting on things you can do quickly and easily. Slow and steady wins the race.

1. Template Look. Blogger is free and easy, but you can still do a few things to make your blog stand out from other Blogger blogs. The circle wallpaper found on a alot of Blogger blogs, can be changed to a solid color to differentiate your blog a bit.

2. Who Are You? Put a picture of you under "About Me" so I can come into your world. Reveal yourself to me and I am more likely to leave a comment, tell others about you and return tomorrow to see what else you are up to. The photo does not have to be fancy or professional, but it should be well lit so we don't have to strain to clearly see your beautiful, smiling face.

3. Pictures. Include a colorful graphic to make the point of each post. For example, in yesterday's entry (thanks for including me!), you could have included a screen shot of my blog home page (like I did with yours for this post), or asked someone in your home to take a picture of you on the conference, and added it.

4. Shorter Paragraphs. You can make reading on a computer screen easier for your readers by breaking up paragraphs and adding paragraph headers between some (not all) paragraphs to introduce an upcoming thought. You might also consider making the text slightly larger.

5. Uniformity. Check the spacing between paragraphs, and lines of text and pictures. Make it uniform for a clean, professional, organized look.

6. Invite Comments. Be more proactive about inviting comments.

7. Remove Extraneous Text. Remove things like "Hello All," "I haven't blogged in a while," and "Until next time," and your name. Get right to the point of your post and don't waste space. Don't remind us that you haven't blogged in a while. We know that by looking at the dates.

What Do You Think, Indies?!

OK, guys, let's give our brave Diana some feedback. What do you think about her blog? Give her some love, and make a suggestion or two.

Comments

[Diana Cyrill]

Thank you for the 'constructive' criticism. What have I gotten myself into???? Just kidding. :)

A number of the suggestions you gave I was looking to implement this week. For instance, I was growing weary of the present template. I am looking into what else Blogger has to offer.

As far as the uniformity and shorter paragraphs are concerned, I tend to ramble and not have anything written down. I guess it would work to my advantage to get my thoughts on paper first then edit, then blog.

I know now that unnecessary text like 'until next time' is not inviting others to want to come back or it lets them now that I don't blog that often. I need to be consistent when blogging and get to the point.

The only comment I will wrestle with is adding the picture of myself to the blog. But I have seen other bloggers like yourself and Anna Marie add self pictures on the blog so, I guess it would not hurt.

All in all your comments were extremely helpful. I thank you again for not keeping this information to yourself and sharing it with others who need it.

www.myspace.com/bbsoaps

[Arwen Taylor]

Great feedback Donna. The only additional advice I would give would be for you, Diana, to get your own domain name and web hosting. If you are unfamiliar with the mechanics of managing your own website there will be a bit of a learning curve. However, the benefit is that your business will look more professional and you will be able to do a lot more.

I, too, struggle with the picture of me issue. I've put on a lot of weight over the years and I'm really just too embarrassed to have one so I've decided to forgo for the moment.

Good luck with your business! I'm sure you will be successful with it. And thank you Donna for having such a wonderful blog. I've learned so much since becoming a regular reader.

[dM]

Glad you enjoy the blog, and what a great reminder, Arwen! Making your own space really your own is so important as you point out. And if launching a blog on her own branded domain is too overwhelming for Diana right now since she's on that"learning curve," she can at least reserve her own branded domain so that when she's ready, she has what is needed to migrate the blog content from the free platform to her own domain.

[Diana]

In response to the domain name, I have already purchased the domain name through GoDaddy. The learning curve for me is in fact the webpage and maintaining the page.

So, half the battle is won. :)

[Sarah]

I would suggest that you let people who don't have a Google account leave comments at your blog. I visited your blog, but I couldn't leave a comment if I wanted to without a google account. It does take a little more time to moderate comments when you let other people leave comments. but I think that it's worth it to grow your community.

[dM]

Diana, ... and you're doing great!

[Diana]

@ Sarah,

Thank you for pointing that out to me regarding the comments. I was not even aware of that. I changed it tonight. See you learn something new everyday.

Carry on :)