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Review - Thou Shall Blog
< Review - Caledonian Comment | Site Reviews |
With the tagline "Blogging tips for beginners", Thou Shall Blog doesn't sound particularly unique. But the design is so striking, it's hard not to stop and have a look around.
The owner of this site did not request a review. I actually had some free time to go and check out a few sites who had dropped a card on my site through Entrecard. The moment I saw the site, I knew it wasn't your average site. So I decided to review it.
Here's what the owner, Yan Susanto, has to say about his site:
Blogging is all about sharing and learning. This blog serves as a personal journal documenting my journey into blogosphere to discover the unknown and sharing what I learn along the way in the hope that somehow someone will benefit from it.
If you aren’t in the know, thoushallblog.com is not a blog that teaches you how to make money online. This is a blog you could refer to if you are new to blogging concept.
So how does it measure up?
Content
Generally speaking the content is very solid and highly useful. There are loads of genuinely useful tips for readers to digest.
However, some of the tips seem rather out of place. I'll get onto this more when I look at the site focus, but one of the problems is summarised well in 15 SEO Tips for Beginners. A true beginner won't have a clue what most of the tips are all about, and several of them are worded in a far more technical way than they should be. For instance, why refer to <h1> when "Heading 1" would be much clearer? Especially as most blogging systems refer to headings in this way. My beginner's guide to search engine optimisation (SEO) contains fewer tips, but I've made a point to bring the most valuable ones (in my view) to the top.
Finally, while I appreciate that English may not be the author's first language, and the posts are generally well-written, there is a feeling of awkardness in the way that some posts are worded.
That said, I'm very picky and I do believe this site has a lot of extremely valuable content.
Community
At the time of writing, the site boasts 170 subscribers - and the posts get a high volume of comments. Take a look at this as an example.
57 comments - pretty good! I'm lucky to get 10 comments on most of my posts, although I've got myself to blame for that, due to lacking inspiration for quite some time now.
The lifesigns are definitely there at Thou Shall Blog. But I can't help wondering why there's a strange balance between subscribers and comments. Maybe I'm just used to not getting loads of comments, and it's quite possible that this blogger does a lot of networking and commenting on other sites.
The blogger does reply to comments, which is good to see, but he's certainly not talking to himself. How does he get so many comments? Why aren't more people subscribing? Thoughts welcome!
Focus
I am sure some of the posts are useful to beginners, but as I browse the site, I find myself asking "is this really for beginners?" The SEO tips post I mentioned above is not completely newbie-friendly, for instance.
Another example is this WordPress plugin post. It sounds like a really handy plugin... but the instructions leave a lot to be desired. Instead of "download, unzip, upload and activate" - where's a link to a comprehensive plugin installation guide with screenshots? Isn't that what beginners need? The author says the installation guide for the plugin could be better - so why not do a proper guide for your readers?
As for the "here's what you could possibly do..." that just mentions function calls with some PHP code - if I was a beginner, I'm sorry, but you would have lost me there.
I do think the author is very generous for offering a free WordPress installation service, but that doesn't mean that readers should rely on him to explain his posts in the comments. Furthermore, a real beginner's blog should accept the fact that WordPress just wasn't designed for newbies. I know, I know, lots of people use WordPress and get on with it just fine - but I've seen far too many blogs that just assume everyone already uses WordPress and get along with it just fine. This is exactly what a beginner's blog should not do.
Basically, I don't think the blog is true to its focus. It either needs to start catering for beginners or change its tagline to match the content the author publishes. Being a blog about blogging tips, WordPress or otherwise, really isn't a bad tagline to have - and if it didn't mention beginners, this blog would definitely be one that I'd recommend.
Design
The site is one of the best looking blogs I've ever seen. It's fantastic! The layout is great, it's easy to navigate, the design is very consistently applied throughout the site, and it's refreshingly uncluttered.
I don't need to say anything else about the design. I have no criticisms whatsoever.
Summary
Thou Shall Blog has a lot going for it. Great content and an absolutely outstanding design. However, it isn't always true to its focus. My suggestion is to decide whether to be a blog for beginners and do it properly, with blow-by-blow tutorials and plenty of screenshots - or just become a blogging tips site. Either would be fine.
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Comments on Review - Thou Shall Blog
Hey Ben
Thanks for a great review and honest criticisms. I'll take note of your input and I'll make an effort to be better and more focus in the future.
Yan
Looks like a very useful and informative blog.
There's one suggestion I'd like to make. For some reason, the blog title rankles with me. I think "Thou Shall Blog" doesn't sound so good (or as "biblical" or authoratitive, if that's the intention) as "Thou Shalt Blog".
Minor point but first impressions are important ?
UBE - as it's not related to the review, I will reply to your comment in another post... :)
Yan - thanks for taking the criticism well, I hope it helps you.
Jim - agreed, good point! I hope Yan takes this comment on board too.
Well, we can only grow through honest criticisms than fake praises..
Oh ya, thou shalt blog is too biblical in my opinion but thanks for the suggestion.
Yan
There's always a fine line between writing for beginners and writing over their heads. You have to really know your audience and their experience and knowledge base is. Tough stuff!
I applaud Yan's efforts. Very well done. And you're right about his design, Ben. It's very cool! The photo is a little confusing - makes me think the blogger is a girl. (?)
I'd either go for Thou Shalt Blog or, if you're going to dump the King James sounding lingo, You Shall Blog
came across this site recently, and am only now beginning to visit it regularly. what i like about it is that i do get a sense of community when i go through the comments. the author responds to posted comments rather quickly, and he seems to have a pretty friendly demeanor. so it actually pays to visit a post more than once, because the comments end up more like running conversations, which is something i appreciate. :)
Carol - I agree - either go for Thou Shalt Blog, or You Shall Blog. The combination of the two doesn't really work. Then again, I wouldn't particularly want to change my domain name after establishing it at the old URL, so maybe it's not such a good idea to change anything... :)
Good balanced review, Ben. I agree about the title being Biblical, but at least it stands out, and I haven't forgotten the name of the blog. There are some good reads there, though mainly more suited to people with some experience of WP already.
Thanks, Sharon. :) Glad to see you are enjoying the blog, and that you Plurked it - a little more exposure for a good site is a fine thing!
No inspiration?
1. Comment on blogs
2. Comment on forums
3. Write atleast 1 post a day
4. Use lists in your posts
5. Guest post once a week
Do those and get subscribers plus INSPIRATION!