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[Marius Lombaard Company: Amway Contribution Level: 3]

Hi forum,

I've been taking my blogging a lot more seriously since last month. I'm still doing everything myself at this stage. It's still a work in progress, and I'd love to make improvements wherever needed.

Would the community members be so kind to have a look and give feedback on it?

It's at www.MariusLombaard.Net

Thanks

Marius

[Roger Aburto Company: Talk Fusion Global Contribution Level: 4]

Marius.Hi!

Man OOHH Man! You have chosen a very hard bone to chew.

Well, I guess by the time Am writing this you must be sleeping...you live where the wind turns back.Pretoria.

Even though what I am going to say will not be very pleasant for you...please hate me just a bit. O.K?

Beside I do not like the graphics...and do not like the fonts used...neither the color and nor the layout...and the info provided lacks professionalism...I must add:

1)People will not know what the R in your sales page means...I assume means Rublos the Russian currency.You charge R209 for the whole year...I made a conversion and is about $8.00...maybe is wrong.

2)I do not know if you know that the Real Estate investments in USA are very low right now...you must clarify that especially when you offer the e-book...something like this "learn how to invest in properties even in this crisis" or something like that...I am pretty sure you can come up with something more vibrant as a call of action.

3) Here is where the things get ugly...Why people can trust you as an authority in such delicate and complicated field as an Investor.

4) If you do not have a huge list...or a big bag of Rublos to invest to make yourself known...you have only one option...and is patiently keep writing great quality and huge quantity of blog post...until you brand yourself as an authority in the investment arena.

I wish you the best and keep fighting...and never ever quit.

Be well,

Roger Aburto

[Jim Ticehurst Contribution Level: 4]

Marius I am probably the least qualified person on here to critque a website promoting currency transactions, however on an everyday sort of a note I should like to share this thought with you:
Quite possibly the bulk of people that might be interested in these type of transactions are elderly (a bit like me) and the font is quite small (I struggled with it a bit)....maybe you could move it up a couple of notches? just a thought, other than that well done and good luck with the site, regards Jim T.

[Marius Lombaard Company: Amway Contribution Level: 3]

actually the site is targeting South Africans exclusively and its just a property investment group with some great benefits to help fast track retirement with real estate.

currency transactions? R209 is currently about $30 USD to give you an idea, and it's for a fixed 24-month term. after that its month to month, but like I said its an SA product only so don't worry about currency conversions.

i know the graphics are probably not great, but like i said: i'm doing it all myself. I'll have to consider a different theme maybe, and i can always improve the looks.

I'll do something about the font size, I didn't realize its too small. what resolution is your monitor set at? i'm running at 1600x900. I guess that could be part of the problem - lower resolutions will generally make the fonts appear bigger.

What resolution do you think most people are using? If I knew that, then I could also optimize the looks for the correct resolution.

thanks for the feedback so far.

[Tom Fuszard Company: Global Resorts Network Contribution Level: 2]

Marius,

Allow me to come to your defense/defence a bit.

Overall I like the design. It's clean and very legible. The color scheme helps keep your site very pleasing to the eye. I use the Titan theme, and am not totally "sold" on it. Plus, the font size is small (possibly smaller than the font you're using). Use caution when trying to change the font size, as you may upset the entire template.

A few things jumped out at me.

1. "Huge Numbers Can Be Intimidating" is really long. This goes back to the age-old question: Do you break a column, or not? I choose to, so only the first two or three paragraphs are shown on the home page. Visitors click on a link to continue. Time was the "experts" claimed that you shouldn't make people scroll a long way. Due to the length of that column, there will be a lot of scrolling either way.

The other half of the argument says that visitors will read reams of copy of it's good. Your subject matter is beyond me, but it is presented well. You write well - good grammar, no mistakes - and break up the copy with white space. The text is easy on the eyes.

I happen to like an occasional graph. Yours add value to the columns and break up the copy further. Continue to incorporate them as long as they augment your text.

2. The headlines are outside the copy boxes. I gather that's the format for the theme, but it literally separates one from the other. Can you bring the headlines inside?

3. You could work a little more on SEO, especially in the headlines. "I'm sorry to disappoint you" attracts the eye, but does nothing for the search engines. Before I write a column, I dig up a number of good keywords, and have them within view as I write. I try to incorporate one in the headline, then sprinkle others throughout the column.

You're off to a good start. Keep it up.

[Sonny Lanorias Company: MyLeadSystemPRO Contribution Level: 4]

Your social media icons must be visible, you should show on your sidebar your categories, archives, recent comments and some social proof on your site. Also put a way to reward your blog readers at your comments section, install DIGGDIGG. So far nice lay out and good start since your site is PR1. Keep improving and you'll get there.

`Sonny

[Matt Stefanik Company: Neucopia, Inc. Contribution Level: 2]

Another thing you should consider, Marius, is only showing a summary of each post on your front page. You have unique URL's for each post, but there's no reason to click on your title to get there if the entire post can be read on your front page.

The option to comment is on the post page, not the home page, which is another good reason to direct your traffic there. I know users could click on the number in ( ) at the bottom of each post, but it doesn't exactly encourage comments. Check your Google analytics now and again after your make this change, if you decide to. I'm willing to bet the majority of your traffic is to your home page and not to your individual article URL's, which is where you want your traffic going.

[Barry Husband Company: Infinity Downline Contribution Level: 1]

Overall I think you're doing a good job. You may want to consider adding some additional social network buttons to give people more options for sharing. I recommend the Digg Digg plugin for this.

I agree with a couple of the other commenters that said you should just put a summary of your post on the main page to force people to click to read the rest of it. One reason for this was mentioned, comments can only be left on the article page. If you don't give people a reason to click to the article page they will never leave a comment. Another reason would be to show people the range of content available on your site. Maybe they don't want to read the first couple of posts. If you make them scroll too far they will just click away. Let them see several posts all on one page and maybe something will catch their eye and they can click through to read it.

On the individual articles page a really useful plugin is Link Within. It shows related posts at the bottom of the current article that may interest your readers.

Also, if you want a very customizable free theme check out Flexibility 3. Although, there's really nothing wrong with the theme you are using.

I have a blog that has more suggestions a free video tutorials. Message me and I can send you the link.