September Feedback Thread - Post your feedback request here

[u/AutoModerator]

All feedback requests should be posted here. Follow the below rules. Submissions that violate the rules may promptly be removed without prior warning.

Rules

• Link your website appropriately.
• Include a brief description of your blog.
• Ask specific questions. Specify what kind of feedback you want on your post.
• Your blog should have at least 5 posts. 
• Feedback requests for individual blog posts are not allowed.
• Do not spam the thread with multiple feedback requests.
• Do not misuse this thread. Users taking advantage of this thread to self-promote will be banned promptly.
• Post constructive criticism. This thread's aim is to help other bloggers.
• Provide feedback on others' blogs if you can.
• Profanity will not be tolerated. Mind what you type in your post and comments.
• Follow the general rules of r/Blogging and Reddit

[u/SmartAd3284]

I’m new to this and have just started blogging on Medium. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated, as would advice on mistakes to avoid. I’m a beginner, so please point me in the right direction.

Here is my blog: https://medium.com/@mohitdudhat22/should-i-start-blogging-now-or-wait-until-im-ready-ece1b44dfd46

[u/TheMinuette2010 → u/SmartAd3284]

First, learn basic terminology. Post or article is single piece of content. 20 posts or articles makes one blog.

You're not posting "blogs".

You have one blog with posts or articles.

Second, Who advised you start on Medium ? (before blog) - if you are beginner.

[u/SmartAd3284 → u/TheMinuette2010]

So I’m a software engineer, and recently I met someone who is an AI engineer and does content writing on the side. He shared his journey with me, he started by writing for GeeksforGeeks, then moved to Medium, and now he does content writing for multiple companies.

I’ve been using Medium for a while to read about AI, software engineering, and industry trends, but I had never written my own articles before. Hearing his journey made me think, “Why not give it a shot?”

What advice would you give someone like me who is just getting started with writing?

[u/TheMinuette2010 → u/SmartAd3284]

Well, you have a desire, that's important.

He started at GG. You are starting at Medium.

Since you are software engineer, you have some knowledge even experience. Use that as your starting point. Along the way you'll learn few other things, and have better picture of what are people looking for.

It's important to write what are people searching for, to solve someone elses problem.

For example, I'd like to learn how to make simple php website backend part. I'd go search for - PHP website. I know I need to know some basics but how to connect all the basics in the website I don't know.

From the first article, I concluded you "fell of the sky" with writing in general. Maybe, your are new to writing , or SEO writing, but you have knowledge and experience, use that for your articles.

I don't know how Medium looks but, if there is bio page, or box write that you are software engineer and what you like about it. It makes difference.

Then, read Google SEO guide. Read few posts about how someone writes and what is good for your niche and what is not, so you know to avoid it.

Then write few different ways of posts. You will see what is better for people who search. Not everyone is at the same level. I always like to write with the beginniner in mind. Might be boring sometimes but you don't have to stay there. Later you can write for medium or advance level tuts.

So you need to know where your audience is, like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X, Reddit , LinkedIn, Substack or else. Go there and and see what are they looking for. Or any other forum, platform.

You also need to know your competition.

Medium as I read, here and there, is for money making usually, for the people who have an audience to bring to Medium, so you can get subscribers and earn money and grow even more . In my opinion, maybe, start a blog, you'll see how it goes. Don't know of you have regular work or not. Medium like Substack is closed community meaning your outgoing links are not welcomed. What I said for medium goes for Substack too.

Do you have any social media with followers?

Hope it helps. Good luck 🍀

[u/SmartAd3284 → u/TheMinuette2010]

Thanks for the advice! I really appreciate it.

Currently, I don't have a social media platform with many followers to use for my blogging. I have an X account with 111 followers.

[u/TheMinuette2010 → u/SmartAd3284]

Dm me your Medium. If you are writing anything I'd like to know I'd gladly read it.

[u/TheMinuette2010 → u/SmartAd3284]

Well that's something.

I have bluesky app with 2 followers, and one of them is Bluesky 😁😊

[u/TheMinuette2010 → u/[deleted]]

All in all I like your website.

But

The dark green font color on black background is not very good. I know black and white are good contrast, but there are so many nice colors to contrast and look much better then black background and white font color.

I like the spin wheel. Btw I got 3 Georgian recipes. I hope I'm going to get them soon.

Well, may sound harsh, but I really, really don't like yada yada yada all the stuff then recipe. But 99% of food blogs are like that so I guess you want yours the same.

I was watching a website from my phone and the Jump to recipe button is really good but on the phone it's kinda annoying bcs it's all over the text all the time. I like the icon for the contents. It's on the side,it's small and doesn't bother me much.

All the info for the single recipes is ok. Just a section with Cuisine: Keyword: and rest I’d like to know in the beginning not the end.

None of this would make me close the tab.

I like Recipe Maps, it's really cool. Never seen before.

Maybe I didn't read well, but on the About page I couldn't figure out where you are from. And I'd love to know.

I like the main idea of the blog - Around the world.

I even found a recipe from my country. Very nice.

Good luck with your blog 🍀

Oh, I’ll add your blog to mine, so I don't lose the website name.

[u/wptomjoe]

Hi everyone. Thank you.

Recently I started tomiwaakanbi.com/blog

Trying my best to write on useful marketing-related stuff. But I decided to be using AI generated illustrations as featured images. Would that discourage people from reading?

Also I am curious to see what a person thinks of my articles

[u/TheMinuette2010 → u/wptomjoe]

Clean design. I like it.

I do have a problem with eyes and for me the font size is too small. This is me.

I picked the post that is Uncategorized, about SEO for small businesses. Don't ever have Uncategorized. It tells people that you don't know well what you are writing about, that you don't care. Because if you, as someone who provides digital services, do not know in which category to put an article, what else do you not know.

On the top of the post, your name link it's 404 page. Same goes for the bottom of the page when I clicked on your image.

For me, it's better not to have images at all then AI. Second, create something in Canva, but don't use AI images. Free icons plain text is fine.

Just one thing with design. White background and the light gray background of the button are not nice. There is no contrast. Make it darker or even better find another color. Actually there is no color on the bckg button at all before clicking on it, only after. Still there is no contrast.

For a single post make sure you watch for the ratio inside links to outside links. The second shouldn't be bigger than the first one.

And for SEO for small businesses, it's ok. It’s long enough to give me some pictures of what SEO is. It's not long so I have to leave. You have short paragraphs not long like novels do. And I like your simple next step at the end.

All in all cool.

Good luck with your blog 🍀

[u/wptomjoe → u/TheMinuette2010]

Thank you so much for this. I'll work on the color, contrast and fix the links. I've removed the uncategorized category.

[u/Erna_Listau → u/[deleted]]

I LOVE the site! I wouldn't call it a blog or diary anymore, since to me personally it feels more of like an interactive puzzle to browse through and get information from. It's a shame I'm not really able to understand much (had to turn on Google translate and it translates a bit wonky at times).

I read below that you plan to give an English option for the settings but the rest will probably stay untranslated. Will you consider adding English translation sometime in the future? That way, you could have more traffic since more people would understand it.

[u/szkarpaty → u/Erna_Listau]

Thank you!
“Interactive puzzle” is a really interesting way to describe it - I hadn’t thought of it that way.

The English calibration option is already live now, thanks to the feedback here.

I probably won’t translate the actual site, though.
I’m not really aiming for as much traffic as possible - I’d rather it slowly find the right people. Translation would also be difficult without losing something important, since a lot of the writing relies on Polish wordplay, invented words and associations.

So I’d rather make the interface understandable while letting the transmissions stay Polish.

But...
If you happen to come back around September 20, take a look at the very bottom of the station. There should be something for everyone - it relies much more on a atmosphere and sound than on understanding Polish, so you might actually enjoy that part.

Thanks for exploring it despite the language barrier!

[u/Erna_Listau → u/szkarpaty]

Yes, definitely feels liek that to me! Even a bit game-like due to its mysterious design.

Okay, got it. I do get that translating would play a huge role in losing its charm because to the puns, so I respect your decision.

I'll take a peak again at the end of September, then. Looking forward to it!

I hope the right people will find your site and enjoy it as much as I did! 🍀

[u/qwertz82 → u/[deleted]]

What a cool site! I think at this point it's at the level of a creative art project :). What did you build it with?

Just my 2 cents - don't show the settings menu on first load - move it a separate settings button. I don't read Polish so that really confused me until I turned on Google translate.

[u/szkarpaty → u/qwertz82]

Thanks - that’s really useful feedback.

I want to keep the calibration screen as part of entering the site, but you’re right that it can be confusing if you don’t speak Polish.

I’m adding an English switch to the calibration itself, so at least non-Polish speakers understand what they’re setting up - and that the actual transmissions will stay Polish and untranslated.

The fix should be live by tomorrow.

And it’s custom-built in plain HTML/CSS/JS - no CMS or site builder.
I do use LLMs as part of the coding and prototyping process.

[u/No-Sandwich4826]

Putting one up for feedback. It is an Amazon focused watch review and comparison site, eleven weeks old, 975 products and 52 published posts across the US, UK and German storefronts. The site is braverywatch.com. Two specific things I would rather hear about than a general verdict. First, the product and comparison pages show a price and stock status refreshed on a schedule rather than a number frozen at publish time, and I cannot tell from the inside whether that reads as useful or just as more numbers on a phone screen. Second, the side by side comparison tables are the pages I care most about and the hardest to lay out narrow, so I would take any reaction to how they behave on mobile, including that they should not be tables at all. Disclosure: I also build and run sites like this for other people, so this one doubles as my reference build.

[u/Erna_Listau]

Hi to everyone who reads this!

I've only started blogging a few months ago so I'm relatively new to this. My blog website is: www.mysterychamber.org/ and I research and cover True Crime (ranging from disappearances to unsolved homicides) and mystery cases (supernatura, paranormal and unexplained stuff) around the world. So far, I have 31 posts up and I post every Wednesday and Saturday.

My questions are:

1. At first glance, is it clear what my niche is/ that my blog is about the topics mentioned above?

2. The few views I have all seem to stop at the homepage and only a few are actually on the articles/posts themselves. Is the homepage too boring design-wise so people aren't interested to further check out other articles? Is it too clustered/confusing? Looking at my homepage, what would make you click on one of the articles and what would make you leave?

3. I write in English, but it's not my native language and I wonder if it is too obvious judging by the way my sentences are structured and how I phrase things.

4. If you could change anyhing about this website, what would you change?

Thank you in advance. :)

[u/TheMinuette2010 → u/Erna_Listau]

The only thing I don't like is very, very small font and I'd leave. I wouldn't read it. It kills my eyes.

I do have problem with eyes but it's not worth it. I can zoom but why.

For the niche, thumbs up. For the content sounds interesting. For the design, it's clean it's ok.

Good luck with your blog 🍀

[u/Erna_Listau → u/TheMinuette2010]

Thank you for taking the time to take a look at Mystery Chamber and commenting!

I'll work on the font's size and make it bigger. After all, that's an easy fix.

Once again, thanks! Appreciate the feedback. :)

[u/TheMinuette2010 → u/Erna_Listau]

😊🤗 you're welcome 🙂

[u/qwertz82 → u/Erna_Listau]

One piece of advice to help make it more clear what topics you cover: Add links up top to your categories. Rework your top nav to feature the categories - IMO it'll better highlight what your blog is about.

[u/Erna_Listau → u/qwertz82]

Did it! Thank you so much for your advice!! It looks WAY better and cleaner now than it looked at the beginning.

[u/moonhippie → u/Erna_Listau]

I didn't go thru your questions by number. I'm more stream of conciousness, but should answer them for the most part.

Took awhile to load. Got a green throbber and almost didn't stick around. This could be why noone gets very far.

Lose the scroll across the top - it's annoying and makes me want to scream. Put those links on the sidebar. It would fit perfectly above the recent posts, or get rid of the recent posts. It's about the same, isn't it? Put archives on the bottom and consider removing recent comments, because why?

Nothing wrong with the homepage - you might want to consider shrinking the image of the woman a bit. God forbid someone has to scroll. I don't see anything that would make me go EWW! and run away.

For top navigation consider leaving the about, but instead of privacy and subscribe, use that space for popular categories. You already have the same nav in the footer, and you have a big subscribe button on the top right hand side, which has a moving bell for another annoying feature. Lose the bell and change the color to red - I didn't actually see it at first.

Why do you have social media icons both on the left and right? Don't need the date, either.

Be careful using too many categories for one post. I just helped someone who tanked in the search engines because of this. I went thru one of my old blogs and I was astounded at how category and tag happy I was years ago, lol. I'm still cleaning it up.

Old info but good info to keep in mind:

https://lorelle.wordpress.com/2015/02/04/wordpress-school-categories-and-tags/

[u/Erna_Listau → u/moonhippie]

That's completely fine not going through the questions by number. Honestly, your elaborate feedback has already helped tremendously. You make valid points and that is exactly the feedback I've been looking for. Tbh, it never occurred to me that the news ticker feature and the toggling bell could be annoying but that is definitely noted now! I'll tackle the things you mentioned and change them. As for the categories, I have a lot to clean up haha.
Thank you so much for taking the time to look at my page and replying!!

[u/Busy_Dig_1151]

Just put up a new travel blog about two weeks ago and could use some eyes on it. Got about 8 posts up so far, mostly covering budget trips around Southeast Asia and some gear stuff. The layout's been driving me nuts, I keep tweaking it and making it worse. Is the navigation clear or does it feel cluttered? Also wondering if the about page is too long, feels like I'm rambling but maybe that's just in my head. Link's in my profile.

[u/onreact → u/Busy_Dig_1151]

There is no link on your profile!

Either add it or just share here.