3 Things I Could do to Improve my Site
Posted on March 29th, 2008. 28 Comments so far. You next?
Being critical of yourself is nearly impossible, because you will always have a different perception of your own work than others will. Though I have spent a lot of time on this theme, there are always tons of things you can do to improve.
Cliché? Yep. However, will I do these things? Eventually, yes, I hope to implement all these ideas.
1. Improve Comments
This is a multifaceted feature of every blog that always has a ton of room for improvement. First, here’s what I’m already doing:
- Separate trackbacks and comments. I show comments first, then the form to reply, and if there are any trackbacks, they are shown below.
- Gravatars. Every comment has the respective avatar showing, if they’ve signed up for Gravatar.
- Highlight author comments and alternate colours. This is so my comments stand out and there’s an aesthetic order with the alternating colours.
- AJAX editing. I just added this today. Try it out and tell me how it goes, because I can’t test it as a regular user (or at least I’m too lazy).
I’ve spent quite a bit of time tweaking my CSS and comment.php file, but especially in this part of any site there is a vast space to improve reader experience and encourage mroe comments. Here are some things I’d like to implement:
- Threaded comments. By default, these are ugly. But if I could fully integrate them into my own stylings, then I’d love to have two levels of comments. Any more gets a little out of hand, especially at the width I have for content.
- Add more incentive. There are many plugins that allow to show the latest headline for their blog, add their link to your sidebar, etc… But I’m tired of adding plugins by now. I’d want to write something my self to cut down on my already heavy server load.
- Change styling. I like the structure I have my comments in right now, but I’m always thinking it would look much better with a few major tweaks. I could even inject some colour to get rid of the grey.
There are always more things you can do to improve this area, but I’ve found you are more successful when taking a few things at once.
2. Display More Information
The DOMtab JavaScript is nice, but it can be a pain to setup while maintaining a certain structure, like that of my sidebar. I found a jQuery plugin equivilent that offers more flexibility and options (plus it’s on jQuery, so that’s even more possibilties). It also allows for multiple instances on once page with ease.
I just think that there are some things in my sidebar that don’t need to be displayed at all times. Here’s a rough draft on what could go in (bolded would be default shown if tabbed):
- About text. Sort of necessary at the top.
- Sponsors/Search/Stats. Two things that need to be near the top but don’t get a lot of love. Combine them! Plus that neat little stats plugin at the bottom right now.
- Top Commentators/Categories/Blogroll. This way the commenters get their links front and center as usual. The tabs might even draw more users th their sites.
- Twitter/Flickr/Other Stuff lik that. Twitter is updated the most, and I could grab another feed, like Digg or something if I thought it would work well.
- Recent posts/Popular posts. Something I really need but am lacking.
One problem here is that there would be all those tabs, which may annoy some people. I think it would be a great opportunity for me to get more useful things into my sidebar without making it run longer than all my posts.
3. Write More
When I’m busy I tend to put certain things ahead of others. This site is something that can always fall to the bottom because it’s just me. I’ve always got client’s sites that need designing and coding, and even other writing ventures.
Considerring I don’t make a single cent from this site, posting a couple times a week is pretty good in my books. Once summer comes around I’ll probably be back to once a day, maybe more. The summer schedule allows for a lot more time for me to write, which explain the awesome quantity of posts from last summer.
This is the instant way to improve your site when all else seems to be going nowhere.
I wonder what would be a better usage of time then: numbers 1 and 2, or 3?
28 comments
March 29th, 2008 at 9:30 PM
I’m going with number three for a better usage of time. I struggle with writing more for my own blog. I have a Google Notebook widget set up on my iGoogle homepage where I jot down article ideas and I’ve got quite a few ready to be written, but not time. My numbers and RSS subscribers keep going up so if I could write more, I would definitely have a more successful blog.
March 30th, 2008 at 12:12 PM
I think arguably #3 will win almost every time. I just installed that Notebook widget on my iGoogle homepage (not my homepage, but I use it) and I’m going to try and write down some ideas every night before I got to sleep. Up until now all it gave me was the latest NFL news from ESPN and the weather
I’m going to try and get all them done simultaneously, but I’ll have to plan how these new things will look. I’ve never actually planned a real design for this site. Usually I just edit the files live :\
March 30th, 2008 at 2:27 PM
Nice post. I was just thinking recently about how there seems to be an infinite number of things that can be improved upon on any blog. I think the key is to just fit in as much as possible without making it seem cluttered or ugly. Coding yourself instead of plugins is also a good idea.
March 30th, 2008 at 3:10 PM
#3 in my opinion is the most critical and the hardest part about operating a site. Thinking of articles that interesting and cannot be already found on other sites is a pain in the neck.
Btw just testing the ajax comments. Its a very nice addition. Just wondering, what plugin/script are you using for the ajax effect?
March 30th, 2008 at 8:27 PM
It’s the WP Ajax Edit Comments plugin. I never realized how extensive the thing is. It’s letting edit comments pretty much everywhere (in admin) and I can edit every comments here on the fly.
Don’t know why it took me so long to instal this!
March 31st, 2008 at 10:47 AM
This is a great post, and wonderful inspiration for all of us blog owners. Editing comments is a great featured that I stumbled upon a while back. But I still haven’t implemented threaded comments. I definitely plan to soon!
March 31st, 2008 at 6:45 PM
I’m wondering if I’ll be able to fully customize the threaded comments. It’s something I’ll have to tinker with a little, much like my new sidebar. Maybe I’ll add the similar fade in/out effects
April 1st, 2008 at 10:31 AM
Gravatars are great! Shame i can’t remember what mine is all about and i can’t be bothered going there to change it
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:37 AM
I also agree with the gravatars. I think those are a huge help. Another thing that I think is important yet not many people talk about it font. I think that sites with an elegant simple font makes their blog stand out a lot more.
April 5th, 2008 at 8:25 PM
Keep it up man:) Good luck to you!
April 14th, 2008 at 12:02 AM
I’m definitely voting for #3. I’ll always come back to the blog with good content, regardless of minor usability issues or lack of features.
May 8th, 2008 at 3:03 AM
Sorry…
May 8th, 2008 at 10:01 AM
lol it seems like that dude is sorry on 1000s of blogs. Why so apologetic?
May 18th, 2008 at 5:11 PM
Its always great when blogs look different. There are so many blogs and yet they all look the same. You have pointed out some valid points above.
There is one thing that you have done which I think that all blogs MUST do and that is to have the categories (tags) of types of information that can be found on the blog on the right of the blog.
I dont have my own blog, so there might be another reason..
There is one thing that should be displayed on the right of every blog and that is the categories.
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:51 AM
Just trying the edit funtion.
This is working perfectly.
May 26th, 2008 at 8:58 AM
Hey SEO. He’s not sorry. He’s just a very unimaginative spammer. I think you’ve got it going there though, using seo as your post name you will soon be number one!
May 26th, 2008 at 9:02 AM
Hey connor,
noticed you put the gravatars on.. I also saw this on joost’s blog.
Looks much cooler than just standard text for the comments.
Keep up the posting !
May 29th, 2008 at 12:09 PM
Well, I am with you on this and I am always thinking of ways to improve my blog and website. Blogs are easier cuz there are so many widgets. Just installed a mortgage calculator this morning on my blog. I would like to find a way to get my real estate listings on my blog so still looking for that. What do you think about the commentluv and keywordluv? I love the edit feature. Its a great thing to have, will go get it.
May 31st, 2008 at 12:11 PM
I will aslo agree with #3. Although, improving comments is very important as well. It is so hard to moderate them properly. The gravatars are a great addition. The blog as a whole is very clean and crisp. Very easy on the eyes. Nice Job!
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:53 PM
I think the writing part is the toughest part for us professionalweb designers. I work a full time wwb gig 9-5, after that when i get home or on the weekend i have been having trouble looking at a computer screen let alone typing away at my blog
June 4th, 2008 at 3:28 PM
Levon
Yea, and you gonna be first for Levon. Who cares man.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:38 PM
I love these tips you give us! these are nice little tidbits for those of us who are not experts , and are trying to get the site up.
June 6th, 2008 at 4:18 PM
You definitely need to write more!
June 7th, 2008 at 4:55 PM
yes I agree Adam, he has alot of great posts on this website, and we need more content to read
June 12th, 2008 at 5:10 AM
I think he needs to write more to, maybe something about how to design using CSS and organise your site so that Search Engine Optimisation is also easier…any useful tidbits would be good in this area!
June 17th, 2008 at 12:06 PM
Honestly, the more you write … the more your traffic will grow. In the last few years Ive discovered that content rules. Concentrate on it, and the traffic will naturally follow.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:26 PM
Thank you for commenting on what you are doing to improve reader experience. Several good ideas there that i’m going to implement on my own blogs.
June 26th, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Oh, it’s gotta be number 3. Your site looks lovely, but it’s the content that has had me browsing here for the last fifteen minutes or so.
Leave a Reply