The Amazing Five Minute Blog Review | Kim Landwehr – Musing and Gadgets

by Matt Cheuvront on December 22, 2009

Kim Landwehr – Musing and Gadgets  www.musingandgadgets.com/

The takeaways:

  • A little bit of design work can go a long way (less is more) - Don’t get crazy with sidebar widgets.
  • Advertising is usually a wash - especially Google Ads. If you’re not making significant money, get rid of it.
  • Create a valuable about page factoring in the “WIIFM” (What’s in it for me?) mindset. Why should readers care about you and what will they get from your blog?
  • Reply to every comment - especially early on. Make time to engage with every single person who takes the time to interact on your blog

Have a question or suggestion? Feel free to share some words in the comments below! HEAD OVER HERE for an index of all “5 Minute Blog Reviews”

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  • Good review and great suggestions Matt. I agree with almost everything you said, except the adsense thing, which could be better optimized and integrated into the blog, in order to make it more effective.

    If Kim is using Wordpress for blogging, there are some fantastic free themes out there that she should try. It would totally convert the blog into a more tidy, professional blog.

    Keep up the great work Matt.

    Happy Holidays!
  • Hi Jack - Agreed that a well placed (free) theme could go a long way for Kim. She has a lot of great content and a little cleaning up would really help out. As for Adsense, I have some mixed feelings, but unless you are getting some SIGNIFICANT traffic, I really don't see the point in doing much advertising - I think affiliate advertising is much more effective for bloggers. But then again, my experience in that arena is somewhat limited.

    Thanks for stopping by!
  • Thanks for the review, great ideas for me to work on I am glad I did it, it was not too painful (:
  • Hopefully it was helpful for you Kim - thanks for reaching out and letting me do a review of your blog. If you have any questions at all or if I can help out with anything else - feel free to send me an email.
  • Great review! Totally agree about the blue, from afar I liked it, but up close not so much. I love this video idea. I'd be willing to go under your scrutiny - as long as you're not too mean! :)
  • Haha, never mean at all Lauren - my goal is just to provide some feedback and then you, and other viewers, can take it for what it's worth. I'd be happy to swing by your place. Will shoot you a quick email and we can get the ball rolling!
  • Matt,

    A web and blog designer myself, I couldn't agree with you more on your critique. I tend to like to see some personality of the creator in their blog. Simplicity and clearness is key to a successful blog.

    I'm actually going to begin redesign of my blog in the next couple of weeks as I think it's a bit design heavy.

    Enjoyed the critique...
  • Thanks Jason - I like what you have going on your blog, but I agree - less is more in most cases. I'm a big fan of clean lines, splashes of color here and there. A design should COMPLEMENT the content, not overwhelm it. Cheers to you sir - thanks for stopping by!
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