Pimp My Blog Week 9: Digitalphocus.com

[Everton Blair]

Up for a Pimping this week we have Digitalphocus form Brendan who has been a regular reader of Connected Internet for quite a while.



 Brendan has asked for help with:

    * Increasing traffic
    * Ad Placement
    * Other goals: Blog layout & overall design

Since submitting his site I can see that Brendan has made a recent update to his site which has given it a much fresher look, but I can definitely see a few things we could try tweaking.

We now have over 90 members of the forum so I’m hoping that more people will get involved in the pimp fest.

Remember that the idea behind Pimp My Blog is that all readers help the chosen weekly blog, rather than just the usual suspects. Between us we can make a noticeable difference within a week to Brendan's site.

Ok, let’s get pimping!

If you would like your site to be included in a future Pimp My Blog then please submit your blog here. Don’t forget that the forum contains many other tools & tips that can be utilised whilst you are waiting.

[Enblogopedia]

Hello,
Well very interesting blog...hmmmm
First of all, how could you put more than 3 ad units in one page?!
There`re 1 in the top, 1 in the sidebar and 2 between posts.
And the Ad units between posts are different and without "Ads by Google"?!
I see that the one in the sidebar is rounded by another ad service -adify- so that you`re not loading the Adsense unit directly, and if this is the case, I don't know if this is legal!!

Main Column:
-The two Leaderboard-correction- between posts are too wide and overflowing your sidebar, replace them with a banner ad unit.

-Consider using the "More" Tag which will cut the long posts and reduce the length of your front page, also when embedding videos from youtube, use the "More" Tag so they load/appear only in the single post page.

Sidebar:
-Remove MBL widget it slow ur page.

-Your "Feeds & Reads" list is too long, I suggest you to make a new page with the same name and drop all these links in it!

-No need for the technorati widget, especially the search bar since you already have one in the header!

-remove the "Copyrights" box -image-. You can add the Copyrights text(only) to the footer.

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To me, the snap plugin is too annoying, and worthless!
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I see that your blog with PR4 and not expecting more than that, releasing themes, plugins, tools....whatever to the public for free, will get you some backlinks, which will improve your PR.

I can't talk about the color scheme, cuz i`m suffering with my old monitor these days :s

Good luck.

[AndyBeard]

Use UTW for links to your own tag space rather than technorati
Add nofollow to the bookmarking buttons created with Sociable

I have written in the past about how a blogroll can kill your pagerank, this is a prime example, especially for a site that has so few incoming links. The blogroll is currently site wide, even on pages that are duplicate content - it is suicidal

Here is an example post
http://www.digitalphocus.com/2007/03/04/ipo-chatter-a-tad-excessive/

Pete Cashmore has a post about Bebo... why didn't you link to the post itself? Trackbacks bring in traffic, and encourage others to link to you...

Links - so few links even in Yahoo which shows nofollow links

Where are the page views coming from? The Alexa rating is so low compared to the page views, it doesn't seem genuine. Sitemeter reveals all - how can something have 859 views when you have only had 100 visitors since it was written?

The alternate ads you are serving when no Google Adsense are available overlap the right hand margin.

This might be slightly underhand, but write a post about different type of metrics, such as Alexa, and Compete - link through to the Search Status plugin for Firefox as well.
You might think Alexa is unimportant, but it is often used as part of monetization calculations.

You need to widen your sources - you have only have links from 23 blogs in the last 6 months - also comment on blogs that have top 10 commenters or dofollow, and remember to ping technorati when visiting occasionally

Think logically - would you put someone elses widget feed on your blog? No? If you are not someone like Techcrunch, no one is going to do it

MBL - I would keep it for social proof and actually use the service to go looking for other blogs in your niche, join the blogs of your members and interact with them.

[bpmonagh]

Thanks so much for the feedback already guys.  Really appreciate it.  I'll respond to each post with my questions

First Blogopedia.

Can you clarify a few things for me?

1) You say I have 2 ads between posts?  Currently, I'm not seeing any ads between posts on my main page so I'm not sure what you mean.

2) You mentioned that the skyscraper is overflowing?  What browser are you using?  I recently added those ad units and thought they were centered in the sidebar widget.

Thanks for the feedback!

[bpmonagh]

Now for Andy.

1) What is UTW?

2) What do you mean by no follow to sociable bookmarking button?

3) Links - not clear on the issue with Yahoo here

4) Adify ads overlapping the right hand margin?  Seems that blogopedia had the same issue...not sure what the problem is here.

[Doshy]

There seems to be something wrong with the Digital Phocus Sponsors Area.




Perhaps you could also remove the blue border around the Adsense Square beneath each post so it might blend better. I think you shouldn't have too many borders around your ads. It makes them look cheap and bulky.

A link unit could be inserted where your AdVolcano ad is located.

I suggest removing Advolcano and all other sponsorship material until your site has a higher level of traffic, readership and link popularity because you'll have a better chance of selling ads then.

Maybe a Top Commenters plugin could help instill some interactivity and encourage repeat visitors. An RSS feed count chicklet could also be displayed if you have a moderate amount of feed readers.

I like the RSS Feed placement though. Good location!

[bpmonagh]

I had added the TLA code to the bottom of my page but after getting no interest and seeing the layout of Connected Internet, John Chow and some others I decided to move the <php....> code in a sidebar widget.  You can see it in the "Sponsors" widget that doesn't have anything in it.

Not sure if that will help getting TLA ads on the site but would certainly like to include them...any insight you can provide here would be of help.