New blog ... advice on content and template?

**ForrestCroce** · 08-22-2007, 04:56 PM

This is a "new" blog, even if it's been up for a month. People worked pretty hard to convince me to start a blog. But one of the problems with my main site is it tries to be everything to everyone, and losses focus because of it. So I'm moving a lot of the tips to a less formal platform, and using it for announcements.

The template comes from wordpress's site; I like the feather, which has been part of the Photoshop logo for the past few versions now.

I haven't shot anything worth posting lately. I'm planning on more "hey look at this new photo" posts, but until I have something worth showing off, I'm writing what I know ... and trying to be a useful resource.

But I haven't run a blog before this one, so if anyone has any advice on the format, the direction this one is going, or anything else, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!

http://blog.forrestcroce.com/

**Chronicle** · 08-22-2007, 05:24 PM

You've got some really nice photos...The background doesn't go well with the header and the blog though...

**iMountain.com** · 08-22-2007, 06:45 PM

I don't know what else to say, great work.

I like the full width blog format. Many sites use wider sidebars to make up for the lack of content.

**ForrestCroce** · 08-23-2007, 06:43 PM

Do you think it would be a good idea overall to "trim" back on the blog, and only publish the first little bit on the home page with "read more" links to the whole article? Those generally annoy me, but the posts I've been making are pretty long, so the home page is taking longer and longer to load. On the other hand, I don't think any of my photos would show up on the main page to lure people in. I can change how I write in the future, but ... there are good reasons to go in either direction. Any advice on which one I should take?

**vangogh** · 08-23-2007, 11:27 PM

Forrest I'm not crazy about the background behind the header either, but otherwise it looks good.

I think you've seen how I have my blog's home page. I leave the most recent post in full and then have the more link on the rest. I think having all full posts makes for one page that's way too long. I won't scroll down 10 full posts.

There's another reason to limit to partial posts on the home page which is duplicate content. If you publish the full post then you have a lot of duplication between the home page and the individual posts and what ultimately ends up on category pages and archives. etc.

As far as the content what you have seems pretty good to me. Just keep working on improving everything. Improve the writing and the post ideas and the way you present each post. Not that you're doing anything wrong, but you always want to keep improving.

One thing that helps me is looking at other blogs on the same topic and really studying them to see what works well and what doesn't. Then start incorporating what works into yours. And of course see what they're not doing that they could be. Then you do it first.

**highanddry** · 01:03 AM

Good work. I agree with Van G. on the background color, which I feel could be a bit softer, but it certainly doesn't distract. I find that with blogs it is crucial that you appeal to as many people as you can. Having a fine art blog is fine, but you might be hard pressed to find a loyal user base. I think that if you offer fine art as well as entertainment for the "masses" that is universally appealing you might find a good userbase. Thats the route I am taking in anycase

**HighVoltage123** · 05:56 AM

great photos

I like the red-to-black gradient background

I think your blog is good

**MrCat** · 08-24-2007, 06:18 AM

Great content and pics! Do you sell these pics? Are these copyrighted pics?

**Jenni** · 08-24-2007, 07:07 AM

I really liked your blog and the pictures you placed there. But I cannot say that i really liked the background color, nevertheless I agree with highanddry that it's not distracting.
As for the content I think it's great as well!

**ForrestCroce** · 08-25-2007, 12:01 AM

First of all I want to say thanks to everyone for taking the time to look around and comment on what you like and what I can improve. I don't have enough talkupation to thank everyone in a day,

Quote:

Originally Posted by highanddry

Good work. I agree with Van G. on the background color, which I feel could be a bit softer, but it certainly doesn't distract. I find that with blogs it is crucial that you appeal to as many people as you can. Having a fine art blog is fine, but you might be hard pressed to find a loyal user base. I think that if you offer fine art as well as entertainment for the "masses" that is universally appealing you might find a good userbase. Thats the route I am taking in anycase

So when you guys say background color, you're talking about the gradient, right? I'm not really sure what general purpose entertainment photography for the masses is ... at least that I can post in here ... but I need to give this a lot of thought. It's not easy coming up with new posts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vangogh

I think you've seen how I have my blog's home page. I leave the most recent post in full and then have the more link on the rest. I think having all full posts makes for one page that's way too long. I won't scroll down 10 full posts.

There's another reason to limit to partial posts on the home page which is duplicate content. If you publish the full post then you have a lot of duplication between the home page and the individual posts and what ultimately ends up on category pages and archives. etc.

Lots of wisdom in here. I figured out how to split post summaries versus the full body, so I've managed to include a photo in the beginning of each post right before the cut off. The thing about the supplemental index is important because I'm hoping these posts today will be of lasting value ... but you're right about the front page being too long.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrCat

Great content and pics! Do you sell these pics? Are these copyrighted pics?

They're all copyrighted, and generally not for sale. Which one are you interested in? That's really not why I posted this - although I love the complements - but I could be talked out of some of them.

**vangogh** · 08-25-2007, 05:14 PM

Forrest here's a video from Michael Gray on setting up WordPress to be more search engine friendly. It's well worth watching to give you some idea of the best way to organize your content and some of the potential pitfalls of having your content accessible in so many places though WordPress.

It was the gradient, but it looks like you've taken it out now and it looks better. Some of your images break out of the content area though. I'd either use smaller images or go with a design that is wider.

One thing about design is that the whitespace is just as if not more important than the other page elements that are there. It's natural to think you need to fill up all the space, but in truth when you do everything starts to compete for attention.

With your blog the main visual elements should be your images and also the text (I assume you want people to read what you're writing).

To make your images pop you probably want to have a neutral background, which I think you have now. I might have gone with a light or dark gray, but I think what you have now works.

With the text just make sure not to have paragraphs that get too long. If they do break them into two paragraphs. Also try adding things like lists or blockquotes or something else that will add more whitespace around the text every so often. Headings can add more whitespace as well.

**ForrestCroce** · 08-25-2007, 09:36 PM

Yeah, I don't like how narrow this design is, but otherwise I really like it. I'm not sure what to do. My latest post uses smaller images ... I'm limited to 540 px wide when my main site typically shows them at 800x533 px. Verticals along with text don't look right. So I'm not sure what I'll do; it was a lot more difficult than I expected, trying to move the graphics to shrink the side bar and give more room for the content.

I'm about to watch the video. I've been giving it a lot of thought and I guess the idea isn't so much to draw people through my main site, so much as to get them familiar with my photography in some form ... like you suggested a while ago.

**goheadtry** · 08-26-2007, 12:15 AM

I like it but, I would make sure the images-fit rather than popping out the side but nice job on layout.

**Chromatic** · 08-26-2007, 03:10 AM

Fantastic photography. Nice color scheme. I like this. I do think you could do better with the logo/title, though. Also, some of your images are exploding outside of your content area. Try resizing your images before you post them so that they will fit in the content area correctly.

Other than that, nice job.

Again, beautiful imagery, lovely color scheme.

**MrCat** · 09-01-2007, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ForrestCroce

First of all I want to say thanks to everyone for taking the time to look around and comment on what you like and what I can improve. I don't have enough talkupation to thank everyone in a day,

So when you guys say background color, you're talking about the gradient, right? I'm not really sure what general purpose entertainment photography for the masses is ... at least that I can post in here ... but I need to give this a lot of thought. It's not easy coming up with new posts.

Lots of wisdom in here. I figured out how to split post summaries versus the full body, so I've managed to include a photo in the beginning of each post right before the cut off. The thing about the supplemental index is important because I'm hoping these posts today will be of lasting value ... but you're right about the front page being too long.

They're all copyrighted, and generally not for sale. Which one are you interested in? That's really not why I posted this - although I love the complements - but I could be talked out of some of them.

I really like the way the pics were taken

Very simple yet intriguing