Tuesday, August 31, 2010

It's feedback time

On September 4th it's been one month doing the blog gig!! I'm having a blast and I find doing a blog keeps me accountable to myself regarding my hobby. What has amazed me is that my blog gets me out into cyberspace and reading about what is going on with fellow Amateur blogger's. Could you give me feedback on the structure, layout and flow of my blog? The topics thus far and how the reading of the posts have been? I am by no means going to  do this on a monthly basis. I decided to do it now as the blog is young and change is easy as habits have not been established.
Thank you very much in advance

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mike,

Keep it up, the blog is good!

What I like about blogs is you can read what others are doing and in doing so may learn something, or be encouraged to try something different. It is similar to meeting people at a club and being enthused to go further with the hobby.

You asked for specific feedback. As for the layout it is fine. Couple of very minor comments I would make and they are trivial.

1. Would drop the titles of the articles in the 'Blog archive' column. Because you are using three columns, one main and two small panels the word wrapping of the 'archives' column means there are only one or two words per line per title. Consider removing the titles and just leaving the month total number of posts.

2. Second minor comment are the small photographs. Often I do not want to have to click on the picture to see basic detail. Consider making the photographs larger.

I stress these are really minor points and of course just my opinion. It is your blog and you can do what you like.

As for blog posts. They are good and enjoyable of the right length for me. Particularly like the back deck operations, as I do that myself sometimes, and the recent RFI issue was very interesting read about and to see how you resolved it. Both my wife and myself have Apple equipment but I have not experienced any RFI issues. I may be just lucky.

Finally, would say find your own 'voice' and style, There are some great blogs out there, all with a different styles and that is what makes it enjoyable to read blogs. I can see your style coming through already so keep it up.

I know I just wrote "finally" but one more point just came to me. Most bloggers will tell you they like comments and they do not get enough. I know you have been commenting on other blogs, including mine - thank you - so keep that up too. I try and have the rule of making a comment at least once a week on someone's blog, but I know I break that. So as much as a reminder to myself as to you and others I recommend we all contribute to each others blogs with a comment or two.

73
Alan, VA3STL

VE9KK said...

Alan, Thank you very much for taking the time to give me your excellant feedback. Very good suggestions and they will for sure improve the blog. I will be working on some of the revamps this week. Again thanks for taking as much time as you did.
Cheers

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hello Mike,

i just discovered your blog and enjoy the stories a lot. I would drop the 3 column style and stay with 2. I don't know how it looks on a 24" screen, but on a 17" it's small. I miss a blog in the blogroll ;-(
I'll come back for shure and read some more.
73, Bas

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Sorry Mike, I see my blog is appearing in the blogroll now. We were thinking the same at the same moment...73, Bas

VE9KK said...

Hi Bas, thanks very much for your feedback and that is a great suggestion. I will look into a 2 row setup. Great to hear you like reading the blog. I am enjoying yours. Thanks again for your time.

John AE5X said...

Mike, you've really been going just a short time now. I recommend blogging longer and then using some type of stats app to allow you to see what's going on behind the scenes with your blog as far as readership.

I use Wordpress for formatting mine but Blogspot probably has similar admin apps available. I can tell how many hits each blog entry gets, how long it holds a reader and what city, state & country that reader is from. All good stuff for seeing what works and what doesn't.

BTW, I'm reading your XYL's photo blog as well and looking forward to her updates. I'm not a pro by any stretch but I do maintain (sort of!) a photo blog myself, now linked from my page. Not sure if it'll have much of a lifespan though - interests waxes & wanes...!

73,
John

VE9KK said...

Good afternoon John, thanks for your suggestion and the complements of my XYL's blog I will pass them along to her. At this point I am using google analytics. It does a good job of tracking, if you know of a better app do let me know.

Dick said...

Mike, I continue reading your blog and those of others. It is the content that counts for me, not design. Your's is always nice and chatty. And, the white type on black very readible.
73 de Dick N2UGB

VE9KK said...

Good hearing from you Dick and thanks for your readership.

Paul Stam PAØK said...

Hi Mike, it looks very nice. Never saw this template structure before. I always working on a nice look, template etc. But what Dick said: it's all about the content. ;-) 73 Paul

VE9KK said...

Hi Paul good to hear from you and thanks for the input.

k8gu said...

Mike, you're doing great. Keep it up. The big thing is to write about something that interests you. And I think you're doing that. I agree with the comments regarding content over form. In fact, since I read your blog via syndication, I rarely see the actual layout! So, you can do whatever you'd like with that.

VE9KK said...

Thanks for the positive remarks and I sure am having a hoot with the blogging.