Hi there,

i started a blog a while back and get a reasonable amout of traffic but
little feedback... id appreciate some of you having a quick look to to
give me feedback on what im writing about, my writing style andanything
else you can think of - tho not design, im trying to get the writing
bit of it cock on before doing anything with the (very) basic template

thanks

www.markrushworth.com

mark r wrote:
Well, it looks like you've only really been going gung-ho with regular
posts since about June. It generally takes a while to develop a
following/community unless you really have a hot-topic blog or really
aggressively market it.

I don't see that you have a "blog roll" of links to other blogs. Find
other related blogs willing to link to you and that you're willing to
link to. It will help you gain awareness by being listed on other
popular blogs. Also, the owners of those blogs will be more likely to
read your stuff and reference it when you post something interesting.

Your posts have quite a few spelling and grammatical errors. It may
seem like a minor thing, but it can really turn off readers --
particularly when you are trying to be an expert in a subject. Typos
sneak their way in to every writer's work, but there seem to be a lot
of errors that could easily be solved by a quick paste into Word.

I know that you said to focus on the writing, but some elements of the
design may have something to do with it. For instance, people tend to
respond better to blogs that are not just text. For example, when you
post a CSS tip (such as the centering an unordered list), you might
want to consider showing a screen shot of what it looks like, or
linking to sample page showing the tip in action. Many people
appreciate that sort of thing moreso than just having the code.

Finally, sometimes what really helps to "set off" a blog is when you
can manage to touch on a hot issue right at the beginning, while the
buzz is strong. For instance, my blog's popularity really takes a
boost every time LogoWorks does something questionable and I post about
it.

-- Robert
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.freshlysqueezeddesign.com/pulp

\\ mark r :

"cock on" !?! very northern!

I can see where your going with it - kind of technical, friendly and
professional and covers a wide range of web development issues. Which
is great, because it reflects what you're doing (why no link to your
business site?), it's also bad because it covers such a wide gamut of
quite general interests - I think people are more likey to subscribe to
things that answer very specific interests ie. a dedicated css-tips
blog, a dedicated SEO blog.

Personally the 'what do you think?' closing statements grate on me a
little.

Lastly - who is the target audience? It seems like other web-developers
and designers (potential employees?) - why not your potential customers?
And with that final remark I subscribed, and nicked a bit of your
javascript...


--

Davémon
http://www.nightsoil.co.uk/

Davémon wrote:
Robert: thanks for that, yes i really need to check my spelling and i
agree some graphics would be nice, at the mement theres a problem with
the script provider (some bug in the imaging system that lets hackers
take over your site) ... tho i guess im just lazy cuz i could ftp etc
and yes examples would be a good idea, ill move on that.

Davemon: Northern, you know it! you got it in the first statement, im
trying to be a social observer as well as imparting technical know how
to the masses, i want to keep it personal. and no link to the
newmediadesigns site because i want mark rushworth.com to evolve into a
consultancy service (did one earlier in the year and loved it!)... its
in the plan...

thanks again guys

mark