Kristi Hines said
8 months, 2 weeks ago: Thanks @sharijstauch for submitting your blog http://writerswin.com/blog/ for review on SME. I hope you find my various notes helpful!
Design Notes
Love the design – very clean, easy to find out what I want to know about your blog quickly! Easy to read text and post excerpts. I especially love the consistent branding you have between your blog, Twitter, Facebook, and other profiles.
Probably the only thing I notice here is that your posts all say they are by ADMIN. You can go into your WordPress profile and add your name so that it always either shows your name or Where Writers Win if you are using one account for multiple authors.
Social Notes
Not sure if Shareaholic allows you to edit your Twitter button, but right now when someone tweets a post from the official tweet button, it says via @Shareaholic – if possible, you’ll want to find the setting to make it show from your Twitter handle instead.
SEO Notes
If you have a SEO plugin such as All in One SEO or Platinum SEO, be sure to use it to add a title tag and meta description for your main blog page. Currently it just says Blog and the has a lot of keywords. Definitely take advantage of it by going with a title like “Where Writers Win Blog: Marketing for Writers” or similar with a great description so it can show up in search results. Currently it appears like this in Google.
Content Notes
It looks like you update your blog with new content often which is great! If you’re looking for more topic ideas, here’s what I would suggest as starting points.
1. Subscribe to other blogs that are similar to yours. I find that just reading headlines can sometimes be inspiring – not to copy obviously, but you might see a trend in people talking about a particular topic. You could then write about a similar topic but with your own unique viewpoints.
2. Try a little keyword research using Google AdWords Keyword Tool (http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal). Enter a few phrases and then look at the suggested results. Sometimes seeing related keyword phrases can spark an idea. I’ve even found full blog posts titles on some phrases because people will search things like “___ Guide” or “How to ____.”
3. See what people are asking about in your niche. Quora, a popular Q&A network, has sections on Authors (http://www.quora.com/Authors), Writing (http://www.quora.com/Writing), Ebook Publishing (http://www.quora.com/eBook-Publishing), and similar topics that match the categories on your blog.
Notes from the Audience
Now I invite everyone here on the SME forums to add your suggestions (or feel free to agree / disagree with mine). Please add constructive feedback and suggestions. This series is to help people improve their blogs, not to have their blogs roasted Comedy Central style.
