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Criticize My Blog

by selfmadetycoon
17 replies
Hey Fellow Warriors,

I wanted to welcome any criticism, judgement, or any negative thoughts people had.

My blog is muscleinthemaking.com

I would love to get some feedback from you guys so I can use it for constructive use. Anything you see that needs to be improved, please let me know.

Thank you guys in advance.
#blog #criticize
  • Profile picture of the author Indecision
    Your site looks like a basic blog and non of the headings stand out at all. Compare what you have to the likes of simplyshredded or bb.com and compare the kind of competition you are facing.
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    • Profile picture of the author selfmadetycoon
      Originally Posted by Indecision View Post

      Your site looks like a basic blog and non of the headings stand out at all. Compare what you have to the likes of simplyshredded or bb.com and compare the kind of competition you are facing.
      Hey Indecision,

      Thank you for your feedback. When you say heading, do you mean to shrink the page title and tagline and put in bold letters a headline that targets my niche?
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  • Profile picture of the author happyday
    Your blend of colours is less than average at best and use a header large enough to catch visitor's attention on getting to the page and introduce them to your most interesting posts first off. Add a couple of images along side down the blog.
    You made it look like a free blog, even some are b***tter.
    Just my 2 cents.
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  • Profile picture of the author icemonkey9
    Hi Selfmadetycoon -

    Yeah first and foremost you cannot run with the default Wordpress theme. You need to find some sort of theme that offers a little bit more than the bare minimum. I like minimalist themes certainly, but nobody should use the default. Check out one of the many amazing wordpress blogs offered in the WSO area or just go to one of the main sites to get amazing WP themes.

    I think the subject matter is a popular niche and that you have some decent seed content here. The blog entries I clicked into looked like recent content although I did spot some weird formatting errors.

    Also you need a privacy policy page up asap.
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  • Profile picture of the author dave147
    Good info and your optin box is in the right place. You could mask the clickbank products using a subdomain like vince.muscleinthemaking.com or muscles.muscleinthemaking.com
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  • Profile picture of the author TravisO
    The text format looks bad. Try to justify it. I think it has no alignment. In order for it to look good, format your text better.
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  • Profile picture of the author JayZeey
    Hi there,

    I took a look, and have suggestions for you - trying not to repeat what the other awesome warriors have stated:

    1. Make yourself a favicon. A favicon really makes a site look like someone cared and put time into it.

    2. A logo is a must. Go over to Fiverr and get one. There's loads of great providers there for this sort of thing.

    3. Drop the scare quotes around your tag line. It impacts your titles and makes the whole thing look spammy (plus, I'm no SEO expert, but I think quotes in your title is not so great).

    4. Give me something to believe in ABOVE the fold. A before and after type of post, that you stick to the top of your posts on your home page would help me want to dig deeper and explore the rest of your content. But if there's nothing but some picture of a milk jug, I'm not going to get hooked.


    Hope this helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author seobro
    Hi Selfmadetycoon:

    Please include a list of prices. What are you selling me any way?

    Is it an e-book on how to bulk up. Well, I did see a lot of photos of skinny guys.

    Not sure what product you are trying to move.
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    http://www.seobro.com
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeeshan
    good site, but I think you should concern more about theme.
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  • Profile picture of the author Eric R
    What is your objective with putting up the blog? Giving information, getting affiliate commissions, or is it just a passion of yours? Unfortunately you are unlikely to succeed with any of them.
    First of all you need to look around for a better wp theme. Get XH header which is a free and paid for header creator which will help the first impressions of your site or Banner maker - create web banners including Facebook banners and profile banners in seconds
    When you have settled on a wp theme adjust the width and organise your banners, images etc down the sides. Also give people a good reason to sign up for your newsletter, offer them a free e-book or something to encourage them, also go to eBook Cover Creator | Free Online eCover Design and get a picture of the e-book you are giving away.
    On your opt in box in the header, give them a reason to subscribe, tell them what they are going to get.
    Also get some video content on there, go over to youtube and get a some popular videos that fit your site, after all you want your visitors to stay on as long as you can.
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  • Profile picture of the author merezza
    If you're really thinking that this is going to be the site you turn into a huge moneymaking success, spend some money getting it reasonably customized. While you don't need to drop 10k on an insanely custom responsive theme, you can go far with some basic customization (think adjusting your CSS, etc) and a professionally made logo off of Fiverr or something.
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  • Profile picture of the author eugenedm
    Something is not sitting right on the site....I think something is missing... The theme/colors are not comforting....I'll say, spy on BIG guys. Go to The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss or similar sites and look for yourself... Take good points and implement them.
    Good luck!
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      First off, congrats on picking a specific niche "muscle building for skinny guys" instead of just another bodybuilder blog.

      Next, from a usability standpoint, tweak the text color from that gray to pure black. It will make the blog easier to read.

      Art is dead on with his comments on your opt-in box. Related to that, you call it a 'newsletter' but your About page calls you an 'online magazine' - be consistent.

      If you want to be an online magazine, go to the WP site and look for magazine themes. You'll find several. Whatever you do, you need to add some visual interest in that all-important first screen. Right now, all you see is a tiny banner in the header and the green opt-in header.

      It might just be a browser issue, but the subscribe button I get reads "Gaining Muscle Starts H", cutting off the last word. I looked using IE9/Win7.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rewbert
    Banned
    First, as some people have mentioned you might want to work some on your design. It's not ugly but it's not eye-catching either.

    As for one of the articles, you've included a picture of chris evans, the actor who played captain america. You use this picture to promote your article, which is about transforming yourself from being skinny to being bulky. You should add next to the picture that the actor in that movie never actually was skinny. He was made to look skinny using CGI, Computer generated image.
    http://puu.sh/2Hpbe.jpg Misleading.

    Also, try to not use terms such as ''sup dudes''. Some of your readers might be female, and it makes your blog look casual. Like you're not putting effort into it but simply treat it as a hobby.

    http://puu.sh/2Hpbt.png
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  • Profile picture of the author Stuart Walker
    It's so basic it looks unfinished to me. Get a new theme. Remove the banner ad from the headline bar and get a logo made. Give people more of an incentive to subscribe to your newsletter, you're not giving them any reason to or telling them what the benefits will be.
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    • Profile picture of the author selfmadetycoon
      Wow, thank you guys so much for your feedback. Looks like I have some serious work to do.

      All of your feedback's seems dead on and it looks like I'm going to be busy for a few months implementing and refining these ideas.

      You guys are truly a mastermind group. Thank you all again for your contribution.
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