Drive-By-Shooting Sunday: Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’?
“James, you have got to be shittin’ me.”
“Hold still. Your tie is crooked.” James yanked – hard.
Harry tried to get him to stop futzing with the damned thing, but he knew it was no use. “You know how much I hate dressing up.” Especially in a tux. Sure, it was a wedding and all, but still…
“There.” James gave Harry’s shoulders a final brush and stepped back. He checked himself in the reflection of the limo’s dark windows. The blonde hair was slightly rumpled but presentable in a rakish sort of way, and it lent a down-home edge to the overall Bond look both boys had going on.
Beneath the exterior of the expensive tux jackets, it was quite another story. Weapons complete with silencers were tucked away in shoulder holsters.
“Nothing like crashing a wedding, eh?” James turned and started walking towards the reception, and Harry followed beside him. “I wonder if it’s an open bar.”
Today’s drive-by is for Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’?, the blog of Trish Browning, a photography enthusiast and brand-new blushing bride (Congratulations!).
Here’s what the site looked like when we passed by:
The first thing I notice about this site is the crispness. You can’t beat a Sadish theme for nice, clean lines and an uncluttered appearance. The white-on-white color theme is very pleasing to the eye and doesn’t detract focus from the content.
When looking at the banner, I’m immediately reminded of quirkiness. I love the vintage image and the girl in the contact block at the top of the right-hand column.
The banner image also goes well with the blog’s title. It reminds me of the old pulp fiction covers or even a Vargas Girl caught in a moment of reading something she shouldn’t be.
The high contrast between dark and light and the blurry watercolor edges of the image make me think there’s something deeper going on despite the teasing surprise on the woman’s face.
It does make me wonder if that effect was by accident, though, since a closer look at the image reveals that it’s slightly pixilated, as if the image had been enlarged beyond its resolution boundaries.
The page could use a paragraph of explanation or introduction for newcomers. It’s tough to know what the site is about when you land on it, and that’s important to keep people reading.
As it stands, I’m not sure why I’m here, whether this is a personal blog or whether I would be interested in this site. What’s in it for me? What’s the purpose of the site? The tag line “Welcome to my nightmares…” fits the mood of the image, but it doesn’t help your site without the extra information.
Alternatively, rewrite your tagline of the banner to be clearer and tell people what the site is about.
The RSS subscriptions options for feed and email are right at the top and easy to spot, but the icons are a little small for my tastes. Even though the theme isn’t cluttered, small buttons tend to be easy to overlook.
I would suggest taking the subscription buttons out of the top portion of the blog, making them larger and giving them a place in the side bar right below or above the Email Me block.
The tabs at the top of the site make for easy navigation, however I would like to know what 2008 Challenges means. What will I get when I click? Are they personal challenges to read certain books? Or are they a challenge to Trish’s readers? Being clear is important. You could rename them “My 2008 Challenges” or “Your 2008 Challenges” to help clarify the title.
Also, the About page should be reordered to be last in the navigation.
The About page is standard and it does offer a means of contact, but I would suggest adding a page for contact as well. I don’t think you can add a contact form plugin to a WordPress.com site, but some form of Contact page would be best instead of writing out your email. People love contact forms.
The “Books Finished” page pretty much speaks for itself. No problems there.
The contact information in the sidebar doesn’t look appealing with the email written like that (but we understand why you did that). The NaComLeaveMo ad should be at the bottom, though, as your other sidebar widgets are more interesting and help keep readers on your site.
Here’s how we’d organize your sidebar. Your Recent Posts should be at the top, followed by your Challenge, your Book Rating System, Currently Reading, Categories and Archives, Upcoming Books, Recent Comments, your Ads and Other Challenges, and your Blogroll last.
The Pages widget is a redundant. It’s not needed, since the pages are so clearly labeled at the top of the page.
I would also find a different way to display the recent comments as opposed to using Gravatars. We’re not big on cartoons, and the avatars bring down the quirky yet professional feel of the two main images at the top of the page.
Overall, a good site. We don’t have much to pick on beside the organization of the sidebar. The content looks nice, it’s high up, the comment feature is where it should be, and everything fits well together.
“That wasn’t so bad.” Harry climbed into the limo, leaving the chaos of the wedding behind. James settled into the plush leather seat, closed his eyes and sighed, grateful the day was over.
The hit had gone off well, despite being a little tricky with the crowd at the reception, but no innocent bystanders had been caught in the crossfire. Just a single shot each and the job was done.
A loud pop broke the silence and something hard bounced off the divider behind the driver’s head.
“Sorry.” Harry grinned and reached for a couple of glasses, offering one to James. “Champagne?”
Want more? You got it. Check out the lineup of upcoming hit jobs:
June 29 – g33kart
July 6 – Geek’s Dream Girl
July 13 – Spiritual Tramp
July 20 – From the Living Room
July 27 – McAWilliams Photoblog
August 3 – Prin’s Links
Want your blog shot down? Sign up in the comment section for your free drive-by, and we’ll schedule you in. Or hit us up for a private drive-by via our contact form for only $30.
Come on. You know you wanna.
27 Responses to “Drive-By-Shooting Sunday: Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’?”
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Happy birthday James!
*balloons, gifts, and a parade march into MwP*
Ahem. Carry on.
Allison’s last blog post..Pepper Tuna Roll
Good to have these back.. Sunday mornings aren’t the same without reading a good driveby.
@ Anthony – Silly boy… They were never gone. Even when we were gone, they magically appeared
@ Allison – Thank you!!
For a moment there, I thought I had been imagining that the Drive-By-Sundays were here over your break. Good to know I’m not losing my mind yet…
Allison’s last blog post..Pepper Tuna Roll
Aaargrh.. I never though to look!
Now I have to go back and find them..
Anthony Lawrence’s last blog post..Hypermiling by Anthony Lawrence
Happy birthday, James! (& how did Allison know that?) Have a lovely day. Hope you are feeling better.
Harry,
“The RSS subscriptions options for feed and email are right at the top and easy to spot”
I looked and looked, but I don’t see the email sub. (Am I just missing everything today?)
If there isn’t one, there should be. Some are stubborn, some are old-fashioned, and some have funny reasons for liking email subs better (like me).
Also, I enjoyed the banner, but glossed right over everything above it. That’s where icky ads usually are placed. For me unless they’re a lot more prominent the RSS buttons are going to be lost there (the nav, too, though once I saw it, I do like the look).
Another clean, easy-to-look-at site only needing tweaking to rev it up. Lovely Sunday job, Harry.
Regards,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..Tip of the Week: 20 Touches to Yes
I love the Sadish templates. They really are simple and clean. But I’m not a big fan of the white on white. I feel like it’s a bit bland. Having color on the sides help the content “pop” for me . . . but that’s just me.
I also found the email address spelled out in the way it is too confusing.
I understand and get it, but there are a lot of people that won’t. I know a lot of people who would probably try typing that whole thing in as the email address. One option is to type it all out and then use a capture a picture software program to take a snap shot of that entire box.
Then, insert the image with the correct text. The search engine spider won’t be able to read your email address off the image but everyone else can read it just fine.
John Hoff – eVentureBiz’s last blog post..What You Should Know Before Collecting Information From Children
The whole idea of obfuscating emails might be pointless now (though I still use a graphic myself).
Nowadays, scanning for web emails is far less productive than planting viri that harvest entire address books. It’s that old “every time a bell rings..” : every time I see a bunch of “returned” emails that I didn’t send, I know that some fool with my email in their address book has been hacked..
Why scan for one address when you can pick up hundreds or thousands with a virus?
The fact is that most people are very lazy and sloppy about security. I constantly see naked Windows boxes hooked up directly to the internet – no router, no firewall, no a/v software and of course being run by an idiot who never saw a link he didn’t want to click on..
Anthony Lawrence’s last blog post..Hypermiling by Anthony Lawrence
Good review, I always learn something new when I visit this site.
Nathalie Lussier’s last blog post..Anne Cox Chambers
Honestly, while you do hit upon things occasionally that make sense, I can’t see why anyone would listen to you when it comes to blog layouts. For instance, even though your RSS subscription button is large and at the top of your blog, the area around it is so cluttered with images I almost didn’t see it. Everywhere on your page is image after image, with the content squished into little columns and nearly indistinguishable from your lists of comments and commenters and whatever else you’ve got listed. It’s as if you’re trying to be a newspaper, but forgot that tiny newspaper columns make use of much larger titles to separate their content. I shouldn’t have to scroll halfway down the page and slog my way through a bunch of generic stock images to find the recent posts list, either. For that matter, what’s with the stock images? These pictures don’t enhance anything you’re written; they’re more reminiscent of images on cheap office motivational posters.
You have such a lovely system for displaying categories and pages on your site, right there at the top and easy to navigate. Why, then, are your categories listed *again* immediately below them? With those ridiculous images that do nothing but take up space, too. If you really want to display the titles of your recent posts in those categories, how about moving some of those ads? Or recommended resources. Or whatever they are. Are they ads, or part of your site? If they’re honestly resources, how about you make a separate page for them? If they’re ads, then they’re far too obtrusive. Advertisements should not take up a full third of the screen real estate when someone first looks at your site.
I found this blog looking for LARP writing theory, and for some reason stuck around to read some of the articles at this and your Capturing Fantasy blog. I can’t say they were very interesting, or presented any information that hasn’t been written over and over again elsewhere. It’s all pretty generic. On second thought, those images suit your blog just fine.
Woot! Thanks for the flaming molotov cocktail there, Cassie! I always did want a bonfire for my birthday. Damned near got fireworks with your hand grenade!
I like the way you didn’t leave a link to your own site either… Probably better that way. I tend to like an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and I doubt your site is the peachy keenest out there. Could be wrong though. Don’t particularly care.
Cheers!
Pardon me while I get the turn out gear and sound the five alarm bell.
Where’s Brett? He should be here to enjoy the bonfire too.
Tell him to bring the liquor.
Oooh! Oooh! Cassie! Do me next! Come visit me! You’re fun.
Happy birthday, James. How old are you this year? 26 again?
Bob Younce at the Writing Journey’s last blog post..The Hard Truths of the Writing Life
Yes! Exactly. With a red cape, a plastic lunch box and romanticizing years ago…
Ooh a bonfire? I’ll bring the marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers!
Kelly – I’m just that awesome. Either that, or James told us about it over here, and I thought the party should encompass the entire internet, not just ER.
Allison’s last blog post..Pepper Tuna Roll
Allison,
I’m out of the loop—Too many places to stalk, too little interest in stalking. *sigh*
Harry,
I think Brett’s having a family weekend bonfire right now.
James,
Look on the bright side. You can light all 37 candles with that bonfire.
Later,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..Tip of the Week: 20 Touches to Yes
I can’t thank you enough for your shoot up! I have also read through the comments and will be implenting most, if not all, of the suggestions. Though it may take me a day or two, since my new husband has a tendancy to commandeer my computer.
Kelly,
Thanks! I’ll be implementing that as well.
I don’t know why I don’t have an email sub. I’m not against it, and while I try to think of everything, that seemed to slip my mind.
trish’s last blog post..Review – The Good Guy by Dean Koontz
Trish,
Glad to help. Funny, in a drive-by if Harry didn’t accidentally say it was there I probably wouldn’t have noticed it wasn’t. It’s a lovely site, good luck with the tweaks!
Regards,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..Tip of the Week: 20 Touches to Yes
@Trish: You’re very welcome, it was a pleasure to do
@Kelly: What’d I do? Oh, the email thingy…yeah, I notice stuff like that. That’s ok, James does the same thing to me. Like this morning with a banner I was working on:
James: “Hey, why does this part of the image look like that?”
Me: “Shit. You had to go and point that out, didn’t you? Now that’s all I see…”
May I order one free drive-by for my site please? http://www.yourwritingcure.com
Stephen Palmer’s last blog post..Why Start A Blog?
@ Stephen – Would you like fries with that?
August 10 would be your date. Sound okay?
Holy snikies! That was a crazy lady up there.
First, how could anyone almost miss your RSS button – it’s like half my screen.
Second, the horizontal menu is great, yes, but showcasing a recent posts on the side allows readers to “see” titles of a few posts. Your content is not squished and as a matter of fact, you’re not suppose to have text run the entire length of a web page, only up to about half or so.
The ads are pretty much common place on blogs, so unless that chick hasn’t seen many blogs on the Internet, then maybe I could see her point, but no.
Anyway, I think your design is great and I know you wanted to fire back but did a good job playing it off. However, I just had to say something cuz she was so wrong.
John Hoff – eVentureBiz’s last blog post..Google’s ReadAir Allows You To Read Your RSS Feeds Like Emails
*cheers for John* Hey, you could be the king of the bonfire just for that comment!
Nice!
John Hoff – eVentureBiz’s last blog post..Google’s ReadAir Allows You To Read Your RSS Feeds Like Emails
Cool! My drive-by is the day before my birthday. Couldn’t ask for a better present.
Scott’s last blog post..Archangel Episode 9
Wordpress has a GREAT contact us form – Contact Form 7. It is super easy to use (once you know the trick to making the email send you the results)! It integrates easily in the plugins and you can add it to any post or page.
(tara daintily steps down off of her Contact Form 7 soapbox and resumes her normal life!)