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Author Topic: How about another blog?  (Read 512 times)
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aCastleofBooks
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« on: December 09, 2007, 07:55:04 PM »

The daily blog
http://acastleofbooks.blogspot.com/

and the main website
http://acastleofbooks.com/
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Bruce Hollingdrake
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« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2007, 12:02:06 PM »


Blog looks good, one of the better Blogspot ones I've seen. Very nice that your customers can see what's just come in.
I can't see anything that I would change.

Bruce
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prying1
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« Reply #2 on: December 11, 2007, 03:23:03 AM »

Re: Your blog - Your blog is good looking and quite informative concerning the new stock etc.

I see you have the Subscribe to posts (Atom) way at the bottom. I'd bring it up a bit. Perhaps even above the hours. Subscribing is something you want people to do and they might miss it at the bottom. You could leave the existing one at the bottom...

I'd also suggest putting a paragraph space between the sections on your left column. Right now it is all bunched together and people won't sit and read it all the way through. perhaps a paragraph space and some design or punctuation key (~~~~ ----- **** !!!! ++++ etc.) and then another paragraph space. With or without a center command. Just put spaces between the different sections.

~!~!~!~!~

Something to break it up a bit so people can read the column in blocks instead of a super paragraph.

I did not see a counter to tell how many visitors you get. Hate to see you do all that work and nobody come by to visit it. Do you have a counter on your blogsite? Do you know how much traffic you are getting? I'd suggest getting Sitemeter or an equivalent if you don't have one. I did notice your poll pulls in quite a few replies. -

If you find you have no traffic you should join one or more of the blog surfing sites. I did not see any links for them so I am perhaps only assuming you do not use them. They do draw a bit of traffic and people that are interested in your blog's genre will bookmark you to visit later.

RE Website: Your website is chock full of information which is good but sorting through everything looking for the information I might want is difficult.  How long are you going to be having your Grand Opening? - Ditch that line as soon as you can. I don't know about you but one thing that bugs me is seeing a banner above a store that is getting tattered, dirty, been there for two years and says "GRAND OPENING".

The site needs some color and you have the book store name up twice right one almost above the other.

I take it the NIC banner will stay on the top and bottom no matter what you do short of moving to a new website provider. You might want to consider it if you can draw the traffic to your site without them. Once again, put in a counter to see your hits if there is not one there now. I didn't see it but know you might have one in the background. 

Space between sections is a plus.

Try putting the hours as:
   *****
9:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. Every Day -
(Some days hours are extended)
OPEN EVERY DAY EXCEPT...
SOME Thursdays & Sundays - Variable -
 
CALL FIRST if you want to make sure
we will be open on variable days and hours
   *****

Same thing can be done with the 3:1 exchange -

"3:1 Exchange" in larger letters paragraph space, and then in regular size font list Paragraphs, Manga Video Tapes, Audio Tapes etc...

Castle and Book background image interferes with phone number - Put it by itself without background image.

Looks like you are well stocked. May it all sell out and you have tosearch for more...
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Paul - prying1 -
prying1books.com
Bruce Hollingdrake
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« Reply #3 on: December 11, 2007, 03:54:17 PM »


One note about counters. I find that if you don't have much traffic and have a counter, it  may reflect poorly on the site. Some blogs are just geared towards local markets, others are trying to get a larger base. Either way a blog with great quality may have only 10 readers. Advertising that fact that readership is low may indicate to new visitors that the blog is not worth subscribing to. We just put up our Feedburner stats but I waited until it was over 100 before doing so.

If you are considering trying a 'blog surfing group' I would recommend Blog Rush (if you go that way please use this link: http://www.blogrush.com/r67769468) <-- my referral link.
Another one is My Blog Log.

Also if anyone is serious about blogging you should check out Problogger.net 

Good Luck

Bruce
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aCastleofBooks
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« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2007, 08:06:27 PM »

I did a bit of rearrangement on the blog sidebar and looked into adding blogrush. Changed my header logo on the main site (thanks for the idea) - which site I plan to eventually move to a paid server so it doesn't have those ads.
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