I see Murray Newlands at different London blogging events. Murray and I have taken a bit of a different approach in content strategy and buzz building strategy so I wanted to do a review of his blog and do a blog critique on things I like and things I would change. Murray blogs at http://www.murraynewlands.com/.
- Good choice of theme. He is using Thesis theme. You know how much I like Thesis theme because of the look it gives any blog and because of the customization opportunities. This is definitely a good step for Murray.
- No header image. The first thing I notice is that there is no header image. The title of the blog and the tagline is merely placed on a dark background. Your blog header image is the most prominent graphic on your blog and you really need some unique and catchy image there.
- More personality needed. As it is a personal blog with the full name as the domain name, I feel there is a lot more personality needed. A bit lower on the sidebar there is the “About Murray” part, but that needs to be made much more visible higher up above the fold. A picture in the header image would also work.
- Great “About” section. There is a great “About” section with lots of press clips, blog mentions, personal pictures etc. Stuff like this really helps building the authority and social proof of the blogger.
- Why should I sign-up for the newsletter? There is Aweber newsletter signup in top of the sidebar plus a pop-up window as well when you first enter the page. But there is no information on why I should subscribe. Make this more attractive to look at, but also include some incentive to sign-up.
- The blog looks too plain. Looking at the latest posts, it is just too plain for my eyes to catch anything interesting. Blog visitors mostly scan the content and it only takes them a few secs to decide whether to click or not. Including great, eye-catching pictures in every post helps visitors make the decision. I would recommend including a picture in each post.
- Sidebars and footer too cluttered. There are too many banner ads, tags, categories, archives, recent posts and more. I prefer to keep it simple and focus on important things in the sidebar. For example most popular posts or best posts that can help you retain that first visitor and make him a regular reader.
- Clean-up the comments section. Comments of each post include the Chat Catcher plugin which takes all Twitter mentions and puts them as comments. If you have a nice viral post, this plugin will really clutter your comments and your reader will not be able to see the real comments in there from all the Twitter mentions.
- Great “Fan club” idea. Murray has created a great “blog fan club” where he gets people to put Murray’s pics and links back to Murray on their site. It seems to be working great as even John Chow is in there.
- Great way to build links. Murray networks very well with other bloggers and he gives a lot of attention to other people by interviewing and profiling them. This is a great strategy for getting links and tweets back from the guys you interview and taking their brand and using it to attract visitors to yourself and thereby improving your search engine rankings.
So all in all, the blog needs some better branding with header image and pictures in posts, and less cluttered sidebars and footer. But Murray does several great things including great networking and a great way of getting inbound links.
Both Murray and I will be at the London Blog Club meetup on February 2nd so if you are in London do stop by for a lot of good discussions on all things blogging.
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{ 19 comments }
I like some of your thoughts on Murray’s blog and I agree with many of them, especially the header. Although I don’t have an image header per se, but my articles are my header.
I definitely need to take the build links advice. This is my weakest point.
I know you said his sidebar was a bit cluttered, but I’m sure that some of those 125 by 125 are advertisements, which is part of his blog support system. I also realize you have a very uncluttered sidebar. Where would you put advertising on your own blog? Or I could be totally off the mark here and you won’t be doing any advertising. Thoughts?
Thanks Lisa. At the moment there are no ad spaces available on my blog. I may do it in the future though, it is a nice passive income to have. I would probably widen the sidebar and include set of banners side by side to minimize the clutter and space used.
Personal blogs are so rad. I agree with everything I read here.
True, Can tell it’s thesis right away. For some reason the basic, vanilla Thesis look gains respect from other bloggers. Atleast that is a feeling I get these days and that’s only my opinion. The big benefit to Thesis is that it really is customizable and you can add needed personality.
Personality is branding. Blog visitors become blog readers, and blog readers become your customers. Customers demand a personality these days. I demand it from places I go.
Remember though, that personality and branding that happens on your blog will need to be extended into everything you do. A lot happens offsite. Remember everything Marko mentioned and apply it to the Fan Club, Newsletter, Personal E-mails, and Social Media accounts.
I especially agree with the newsletter signup. People won’t sign up unless they know this blog very well, and understand the quality they’ll receive from a newsletter.
And what’s up with the pop-up? If you’re going to use a pop-up, it should be very professional. Not the standard (old) aweber, with nothing unique about it.
I also, like you, miss the personal touch, something about the author above the fold.
I really like the look and feel of this blog, as it’s easy to read and easy to navigation. Great review.
Thanks Jens, appreciate it!
I think the newsletter section needs a remarkable header, instead of newsletter signup, he could say “free blog updates” or something similar, at least folks will know what they’re getting.
A bonus item is a smart strategy too, just make sure it’s tailored to your niche audience major fears/problems/wants
I think asking for the e-mail only will increase your sign-up rate by 5%. It was tested personally by myself.
Somewhere I heard that the green color has positive impact on the human psyche and that is usually associated with something good.
Also the use of images and videos would be a good idea which can increases the exclusivity of blog.
I agree I agree with you that giving a lot of attention to other people by interviewing and profiling them is a great strategy and maybe the most important one.
Marko
Thank you very much for you review. I will have to get working on improving my blog. Thank you for the comments above I will start to implement your suggestion too.
Murray
Murray,
I can see very little change on your site. Seriously you should take care of your site. You know much better about the importance of a blog… all the best.
-Hasan
Thank you for this post. It was quite helpful.
To Branko:
yes, green is a cool color, particularly for financial niches, as it’s often associated with money
Wish the Thesis theme was offered for hosted wordpress blogs
Hi Marko,
Great advice and excellent critique. Some of the changes you have suggested are actually very relevant to me and now I know why I am having a high bounce rate.
I am off to make some blog changes, thank you!
Kind Regards
Jacinta
(An Aussie mum trying to create a business online while my 2 year old sleeps!)
Good stuff Jacinta, just go for it!
I wouldn’t use header image if I was trying to go for header text for SEO purposes. In Murray’s case, he wasn’t doing it for SEO though.
-Kai
You made some great points. I especially agree with the header image comment. A header image would definitely make the entire design more interesting
Yes I do feel that blogger like Murray should invest more time to his blog to make it as a symbol of his own blog.
No one will expect such kind of simple design from blogger like Murray.
Some very interesting points. I think the site looks pretty good so far but some things stick out to me as looking a bit off. The main thing being the sidebar. It feels out of alignment with the many different ad boxes, sign up to newsletter, etc.
I also agree that Murray should also try and brand the blog more however it is forever a battle between content and layout.
Murray’s blog is an average blog and i find it ridiculous that he interviews random people everywhere. But yea he gets more traffic than me and he’s a nice guy.
Hence Im a fan.