the next contestant in the blogging game is a volunteer from twitter, @thehouseofheart. crystal runs a sweet vintage shop on etsy and blogs about her life, shares her boyfriend’s art (fabulous!), and brings her creative inspiration to the web.

i like

i like – nay, i love! – the way the branding is carried through from the logo to the smallest detail. kudos! these bold, simple details make her site pop in a very professional way. recognizable branding is a sure way for people to feel more comfortable purchasing from you online. if your blog & shop & email newsletter are disjointed, people get nervous. or, at least, i do. +30 points!

i also really like how the sidebar is organized: search bar at the top, then calendar to search posts by date, then a super categories list, and, finally, the archives (which in my opinion should always be last). +10 points!

oh, and pictures of cute kitties… +10 points!

in addition to the excellent branding through the blog, i should add that there is nothing taking away from that clear visual message either. you may have a great logo or great details – but if there is other distracting visual information, you’re sunk. you’ve just diluted your brand. but crystal has taken her stark logo and carried the white, black, and red throughout the site as the main colors. the only variation is a soft tan for the body of the blog – quite unusual! – and it works well since it softens the harder palette. +10points!

things to improve

if you know me or you’ve been reading along, you might know what’s first on my list here. about page! oh crystal, i had to go to your etsy shop & then to your profile page to even find out that that was your name. i would copy & paste crystal’s etsy profile and just expand on the philosophy of shopping vintage that she hints at there. luckily, crystal uses wordpress and adding a page is just as easy as adding a post! once she’s done that, my suggestion would be to add a small about “widget” to her sidebar that just explain her brand or herself in 1-2 sentences and then invites reads to click through to the about page for more information. -30 points…

next, on to link opportunities. in this post on a coming shop update, crystal missed a few great opportunities for link building! she writes about “her man” and “the shop” – these are both places that are worth links. for a new reader like me, i could have found the information i need more quickly if those little spots were links.

anytime you can link within your blog (from post to post, from post to page…) you should. linking within your website or blog improves your search engine optimization and search authority. of course, it just makes you site easier to use, too!

on the flip side, any time you can link to a related website outside of your blog, you should. that creates a network of websites trading SEO value. and, again, makes your site more useful for readers new & old alike! -15 points…

crystal, thanks so much for volunteering your blog for the blogging game!

what do you think? do you have other suggestions for the house of hearts? maybe somethings you really like about the blog that i should have pointed out? share them in the comments!

i was thrilled and a bit daunted to receive an email from katherine jalaty, the blogger behind making chicken salad, asking to be considered for a blog critique. i found katherine initially from a beautiful mess, where i found her finger knitting tutorial. so, katherine’s going to start with a whopping 30 points for a great linkage!

like it

the first thing i like about katherine’s blog, unusual on a blogspot blog, is her navigation menu located just below her header image. this clearly lays out important pages and guides her readers to special content like tutorials. great content will get new readers to stay for a bit – but without clear navigation you’re apt to see readers click away quickly instead of looking deeper for more information. like where to buy your stuff! +10 points.

here’s a simple tutorial i found to help you add a horizontal nav menu to your blogger blog.

next, katherine has ventured into the world of info products. what’s an info product? it may be an ebook, a craft pattern, a tutorial, an e-course… anything you can dream up to package a piece of information you have and spread it to the masses. sometimes they’re free – sometimes you pay for them. either way, info products are a great source of traffic for your blog because they solve people’s problems. score. +20 points

finally, katherine has a great mission & focus for making chicken salad: “Make the most of what you have (something out of nothing, if you will) by appreciating the people and things in your life, as opposed to what you feel you do not have. This can be manifested differently for each person. I choose to focus my efforts toward family and creative endeavors.” +10 points

things to improve

so, that lovely mission that i mentioned? i can’t find it! it might be there – it is awfully late as i’m writing this – but it’s not popping out. where would i like to see it? probably just under the snazzy picture of katherine on the left sidebar. yes, it will move her product button down a bit… but it might actually help sell the product by letting readers know right away what she’s all about. -15 points

katherine mentioned to me that she really struggles with blogger’s block. she’s working through 52 Weeks of Blogging Your Passion which has plenty of tips & ideas to help with that but what other tips are there for this common dilemma? katherine let me know she’s planning to develop at least 2 weekly features. yes. definitely. do it yesterday! that would be my number one suggestion. in fact, katherine, i would challenge you to do a tutorial every week. even if you find a tutorial elsewhere and document how you created the project, your readers will totally dig it!

another suggestion for beating blogger’s block is to not be afraid of the picture post. don’t know what to write? don’t write anything. share a picture you took last week, last year, or last decade.

and here’s a post on problogger about using mind mapping to generate post ideas.

finally, i see an unfortunate SEO omission. it looks like katherine doesn’t title her posts. i’m sure she does this for aesthetic purposes – and i get that. and you might use clever or sarcastic titles. but when you don’t properly name your posts, you are missing out on the number one keyword area in your post. do yourself a favor, get more traffic – title your posts and include a keyword or two. here’s some help from my friend crissy on how to find keywords for your business. -10 points

thanks so much, katherine, for volunteering for the blogging game! i hope you find these comments useful.

to volunteer your blog, just drop me a line with one or two questions you have about blog design or writing!