Have you taken your blogging evaluation test yet?

I’ve been a little sick during the last few days and didn’t get around to writing anything.  I usually browse around the blogs I follow on Monday or Tuesday when I kind of plan what/when to post on my blogs.

A couple of weeks back I came across a really nice blog full of useful information – and – blame it on the number of autumns I’ve enjoyed – I was quite thrilled to see it was the work of a 17 year old school guy. Well, as you know, my 13-year old is also quite an avid blogger – and it amazed me to see what a wonderful job he has done.  Hmm.

Evaluation, obviously, is key to any improvement – and you might really enjoy taking the following test:

Blog Self-Evaluation Checklist (courtesy Blog Marketing Academy)
•
Homepage cleanliness.
No full posts on homepage (excerpt instead)
No repeating social media buttons
Headlines stand out, noticeably larger than
excerpt text. Preferable H1,H2 tags.
No negative social proof.
•
Logo
Is there a real logo which is graphical and
stands out?
•
Byline which clearly states what the blog is
about.
No cheeky bylines, or vague bylines. There needs to be ZERO doubt what the blog is about to a new arrival, within seconds.
•
Email list opt-in box.
Is there a bribe?
Above the fold?
•
Excess garbage in the sidebar.
No monthly archive links, huge blogrolls, huge tagclouds. Just because there’s a widget for it doesn’t mean it is a good idea.
No excess banner ads, affiliate offers.
No lame award graphics.
Need: Opt-in, relevant ads, links to categories/guides.
•
Posts
Post is written to be scannable. Short paragraphs, bulleted lists (where appropriate), subheadlines.
Meaningful image (s) in post, with ALT tags.
Opt-in or other call to action below the post?
•
Navigation
Menu is simple, not overloaded with options.
No dropdown sub-menus.
No Dead-end links to “coming soon” pages.
•
About Page.
Starts with what’s in it for the new reader. Clearly states the benefit of the
blog to the reader.
Bullet point benefits.
Opt-in box.
Bio is relevant, doesn’t read like a boring resume. Bio should be relevant
to the reader, because they don’t really care about YOU

Cheers!

Vidya