Ok, I'm running a martial arts forum/blog: www.fightingisyourfriend.com
It's doing OK on alexa, and traffic.. while not what I want, is definitely heading in the right direction. it has even made enough ad revenue that it has paid for itself (and made me a whopping $6)
So overall, I'm happy with the site. But I havent been able to get any good feedback on the layout/design. So, what do you guys think? I'm sure there's room for improvement, but where is it?
The design is good. There are 2 things that i would change. The first would be to only display the 2 most recent articles on the front page. This way the site does not drag itself down the page and make it look like a splog or an rss blog. The other thing is fill in the right sidebar with some adverts of other useful widgets. Other than that the site looks good!
Nice start on your site! Here are some suggestions but just imho.
I'm not a really big fan of the black on black. From your nav bar center down I would go with a white background.
You are using your site title, which is precious SEO real estate for "fighting is your friend", I would change that to target keywords. Maybe go with "fighting techniques" or some other great keyword combo that gets searched and you think you can be competitive for.
As far as the ads, they look like an afterthought and don't match the site very well. Plus the ad formats you have choosen have low CTR. It is better to go with the large square blocks. They are the best performers, followed by the tall vertical ads. As far as how to incorporate them into your site, you might consider a different theme.
I would also consider redoing the logo, it looks a little too Barbie for a site about fighting.
Thats about all I can think of for now. I hope you take this as constructive criticism. I do think you have a nice site, these are just some of the things I would change if it was my site.
I had the same thought, I also agree with what others have said about the color, especially in the forum is tough on the eyes for any length of time.
On the upside, you have a really nice, readable style - that counts for a lot.
I see you're running a forum contest - have you advertised it on the big contest sites? Like Online-Sweepstakes? You'll get a lot of people signing up just to win, but it might be worth it to get a flurry of activity on the site.
I like that you gave some content and resources... however if I were you I would get a different theme. Delete the header, and re-ad the header graphic in your header.php file and use the alt tags with it. Maybe drop the search box and put it under your CAT's - Its cool though, Im a martial arts fan too!
this isnt a site I'm looking to sell or anything - martial arts are my passion, I'm gonna keep it so you better believe that content is a high priority for me
the current theme is going to be replaced with a custom-written one (as opposed to a hugely hugely modified one, like we have now) so hopefully that will address a lot of it.
Thanks for all the input guys, it has been a huge help!
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