I…or, should I say, SportingTheSmallStuff.com…had the honor of being reviewed on #Blogchat – a weekly Sunday evening Twitter chat about blogging started by Mack Collier in 2009. Each month, several blogs are chosen from a pool of applicants to be reviewed (and sometimes lambasted) by #Blogchat participants.
To see the announcement on Mack’s blog, visit The three blogs we’ll review at #blogchat tonight are…
Pre-Review
While perusing Twitter last week, I ran into Mack’s call for blogs and I entered SportingTheSmallStuff.com, requesting suggestions on SEO and audience engagement. I have participated in #blogchat in the past and it is one of my favorite chats. It is the largest chat that I know of, having so many participants that it’s sometimes difficult to follow all of the concurrent conversations. For this reason, and due to the caliber of participants, there is never a shortage of excellent ideas and suggestions.
I was ecstatic to learn that my blog was selected as one of the three to be reviewed, but I knew that my blog could be torn apart, so I braced myself. The 20 minutes people spent reviewing my blog turned out to provide me with a wealth of invaluable information.
Review of SportingTheSmallStuff
While the full chat transcript is available here, there are particular comments and suggestions that I want to highlight. If you agree and/or disagree with any of these comments, I would love to hear from you!
Blog Post Titles and Topic Suggestions
On your titles/headlines, try pasting 1st draft into Google to see what comes up. You’ll be amazed – and improve. Keywords at beginning are stronger, but curiosity or a story lead can appeal too. Answer — WIIFM. WIIFM = What’s In It For Me. Why should I read? What’s the benefit to reader? – @pheffernanvt
When writing your blog post titles, stay clear and detailed. Think of phrases potential readers might search for on Google. – @RyanCohn
Consider creating 3-5 ‘topic buckets’ for your blog. These will help with posting as well as SEO – @MackCollier
Look at your Twitter lists and Klout topics – great crowdsourcing for your best topics – @eswayne
Think of a single person (your best friend) and write a post just for him/her – @RisonSimon
Figure out the main 2-3 topics you want to blog about and base SEO keywords/phrases around those topics – @MackCollier
Maybe set aside certain days for certain topics? “Tech Tuesday” for example? – @patricksplace @NicWirtz @MackCollier
You’re influential about Running. Try writing more about it & see how your traffic #’s change. – @RyanCohn @eswayne
Likes
Title and tagline – @patricksplace @vincerobisch
Nice use of images and thumbnails for consistency – @SbuxMel @NickWestergaard @MackCollier
Thank you for not moderating comments – @CollinKromke
Ease of finding links to subscribe and connect on Twitter and LinkedIn – @CollinKromke @LHInsights @patricksplace
Blog layout and look – @NicWirtz @PattiTWG @LHInsights @patricksplace @LovelyLu @JTDabbagian @Canada_armywife @BarryBirkett @deepexistence @maggieci @jeanalawrence
About Page – @swichi293 @azmomofmanyhats
Suggestions and Pet-Peeves
Add videos (vlog) and more pictures – @samfiorella @suzanne_doughty @NicWirtz @maggieci
“16 is the new 14” = increase font size – @jaypalter @CollinKromke @patricksplace
Don’t truncate posts and use longer excerpts on the homepage – @MackCollier and @CollinKromke
Design looks “technical” rather than sports/adventure – @MissVersatile @maldyj @ToughCookieMom @samfiorella @juliacantor @gingerconsult @RyanCohn @maggieci
Need a logo and/or text style in title – @RisonSimon @ajmanik
Remove the admin login from the footer – @RisonSimon
Blog on a schedule – @kamkansas @patricksplace
Get rid of the category/pages on the page bar. Make it static pages only. – @JTDabbagian
Unsure what the blog is about upon first glance – @vincerobisch @jeanalawrence @Canada_armywife
Link Eric’s name in the sidebar – @VirginiaSquare
Bigger title, more tags, full article views – @dashingly
All active elements could be placed under “Action” all “Adventure” elements there. Categories/sub-categories. – @NicWirtz
For more readers, try posting comments on other popular sports/adventure blogs. – @kamkansas
Remove the First Name/Last Name fields in the sidebar signup – @ajmanik
Debates
Blog on a regular basis – @deepexistence VS posting when there’s something to talk about – @JTDabbagian @vincerobisch
Colors should be more engaging – @swichi293 @deepexistence @dashingly VS Greyscale helps to focus readers – @JTDabbagian
The highlight of my evening:
Top 5 Ways to Improve My Blog
Take home message:
1) Increase font size
2) Modify the color scheme (and/or add a logo and/or image header – anyone have suggestions?)
3) Blog either more often or on a schedule (or both)
4) Give a clearer indication of what the blog is about upon first glance (re-organizing topics and categories may help with this)
5) Include more photos and videos
I am confused about the general “acceptance” of excerpts over truncated posts. At the beginning of #blogchat, I considered them to be the same, but by the end of #blogchat, I was questioning the difference. Care to weigh in on that Mack and Collin?
It appears that I have my work cut out for me! If you have your own suggestions, have at it in the Comments section below!
For more information about #Blogchat, visit What Is #blogchat?
