Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

I am still unclear what your blog is about. I know you have told the forum in your last post what it is about and its purpose -- but right away a visitor should know where they arrived. If you site is about making beaded jewelry then the site should speak about beaded jewelry.

It appears that a lot of your articles jump around to other areas and fields. When you buy a magazine on hot rods - you expect to read about hot rods not bicycles not cooking not anything that detracts from what the reader expects. The same goes for a blog. The content and messages should stay in scope with the topic of the blog.

My key question about the blog is:

What's the goal of the blog? For author PR? To sell something? To build traffic/authority status?

If it's not about the author, then remove the author's name from the banner.

If it's to sell something, make the featured books more prominent (and make the books have links into the Amazon associates program).

If it's to build traffic, write less and ask questions of the readership more.

If it's to build authority, state opinions, quote other authorities, and react to their opinions.

Well its common sense really -- if she can't grasp the process of writing on the subject matter outlined in her own blog - then she has no business running a blog. I would suggest if she wants to write about other things then to start a separate blog or create a blog that deals with her eclectic tastes.

I actually don't have as much trouble with the content not being spot on task. I think the supporting structure including the tagline and other elements in the blog make it clear that this is a blog for Baby Boomer women who want to get the most out of their golden years.

And the name, Vaboomer -- Excellent name!!! Va-va-vooom!!

Couple of structural issues that are a bit off the path from your question: I would like to see the great header colors incorporated into the design elements more, like you could use the purple in the recent viewer box -- with the purple and the blue of the heading. Also, the graphic at the top looks like it was "optimized" a bit much, the quality is poor. Also, consider making the V of the "Vaboomer" graphic as your favicon instead of the ... whatever it is, it looks like a lilly pad?

I am also curious as to how you answer those questions posed by Jay. Additionally, is this blog part of a larger marketing effort?

Hope this helps,

Jennifer P.
XPRT Creative