WOW Lawl Blog Website Review
Posted by Lindsayanng on February 26th, 2009
So at first, before I even visted, i didn’t know what “WOW” was going to be about. Then I realized that it was a stupid question and World Of Warcraft is one of the most popular games out there. At least thats what my little sister tells me. Shes a big time gamer. Another hot chick geek in my family 
but thats another story.
So you have a nice theme on your site. The side by side small columns make your content look neat and organized and the look separates the advertisements from the content enough that they do not overwhelm the reader. HOWEVER, you have that ad right up top, and i think that even though that is a key place for advertising, its also a key place for your views to look. I’m not going to tell you to take that advertisement down, but I think that you should choose an IMAGE adsense ad instead of the text ones. OR you can replace it with an affiliate ad of your choice. If you want to learn more about affiliate ads, let me know. I am thinking about writing a tutorial on it since it seems to be unknown to make newbie bloggers. So if you take down that text ad and at minimum replace it with a long and narrow image ad, it will look better.
Just because they are ads does not mean that you shouldn’t trying and make them match the theme and look of your website as best as you possibly can. You may not be able to control the content using adsense, but you CAN make sure that you have the correct shape, and i think that a 234 x 60 ad or the 468 x 60 ad would be better than the small little text one.. and to me, the image ads always look better than the text ones. Thats just my opinion though. This will also close up the white space over there.
Then you have that white box with the EntreCard info in it.. Is entre card that important to you? I know its a great traffic generator, and its a great program that helps you get new viewers, but I think that you should move that card down a little on the sidebar and put something that you want ALL of your viewers to see when they visit your site. Just think about it. Not everyone who visits your blog is even going to KNOW what Entre Card is, so they are going to see it and maybe they will think its a link to a different part of your blog, or they will just think it’s some random ad. Either way, it does not enhance the reader’s experience.
I think you should put your RSS reader and your email subscribe in there. You want ALL people to subscribe right? And everyone who reads will at MINIMUM know what an email subscription is, right? If you don’t have an email subscription option, you should consider getting that option through FeedBurner.com. Lots of people still don’t know what an RSS feed is, so they wont use it, but a LOT of people know that when they subscribe to a blog using their email address, they will get email updates of your blog. By adding BOTH options, you are covering all of your bases with your readers and making it an easy, front and center option for them to use.
Also, i just found that clicking the “YouDrop I Follow” image brings me to photobucket. You should DEFINITELY just make that image an image and remove the link to photobucket. Its a simple HTML fix by removign the and then leave just the
SO if you add those things into your white box where the EC link was, and you have extra space, i would put a little “about me” link with an image that links to a page about yourself.
I also notice that you have no “PAGES” and you probably should. Pages are ways to give your readers consisten information that they do not have to search through page after page of posts to find. So if you get a lot of requests for the same information, make it into a page and get a link on the very top of your blog.. You also SHOULD have an “about me” page or an overall “about” page that tells the readers in a few paragraphs what the blog is about, why you started it, and some other fun facts. I like to have fun with my “ABOUT ME” page. You should also have a CONTACT page. People are more likely to follow a blog if they feel a connection to the writer. Its the internet age, and when you write about ANYTHING topic specific, you are competing with a million other people for the same readers. The only thing that makes you different is YOU. So you want to put YOURSELF front and center, and after the about me section is the contact. Make the contact form go to the email address you use the most so that the people who contact you dont feel left behind or forgotten about.
You should also make the HEADERS of your posts bigger. Since you have advertisements in between your post listings, the post titles do not stand out. If you make them larger, people will be able to see the different better. The color is fine, but the size can be a LOT bigger.
Then you have the BOTTOM of your blog. It almost looks like you gave up there, and thats NOT good because even though on the front page, the bottom of your blog is pretty far down, on your posts its right there with the comments. See, you have a bunch of stuff down there. A set of google ads, thottbot, recent views, some badges and text links. These are FINE to have in your footer, but you need to separate them from the content. Usually people use a completely different color background, or a table with a dark boarder. USE THIS TUTORIAL to create a single row table to put your content in.
Here is an example of what I am talking about:
And finally, YOUR HEADER IMAGE.
It could be really awesome, but it needs work. The black on black is impossible to read. The entire graphic in the center looks like it is behind a black sheet. It’s really “dim” and does not stand out. But then you have those “rivet” style round buttons on the corner that are really BRIGHT. If you can brighten the center stuff (the blog name and the graphic) then you will have a much more balanced graphic.
Overall, you chose a good theme for your blog. You need to prioritize, personalize, and then just change your image a little tiny bit.
Want to know who is offering this awesome content? Here it is! Someone who is relatively new to web design. I am new enough to still remember how absolutely frustrating it was to try and get anything done in this field, but have also been around long enough to be able to help those that are where I was a year ago.
Aside from web design, I run the office of my dad's engineering business, and do book keeping by trade.
I love my pets.. All 6 cats, 1 peg legged dogs, and 1 hedgehog. LOVE THEM!!
Oh yea, and my husband. He lets me chase my dreams and I let him do the same. We are happy people because of it. Read more from this author
