Think Better Feel Better
Full Review by phio_chan
Scoring:
First Impressions & Appearance – (8 out of 20)
Let’s start this full review by talking about first impression and general appearance/design of the blog. First time upon clicking the link and arriving on the blog, I saw a bright blue-white theme. I remember you used to use a dark red theme before changing to this one, correct? My eyes are slightly more adjusted towards darker themes, but this blue-white combination is not too blinding to make me uncomfortable. So in a sense, it’s at the proper amount of contrast and brightness. Texts stand out, they appear clearly, and easy to read.
Unfortunately I have to say that the impression above only lasts for one second and few bits more, because the next thing I feel is disappointment because I think the theme is way too bland and plain for a blog title as grand as “think better, feel better”. While I’m not feeling any worse, I don’t particularly feel motivated or inspired either. I shall break down this opinion per points of the blog design elements.
The very first outstanding part to look at is the header. Blog title, check. Blog motto/tagline, check. In fact I love them both, they are great combination. However this is not supported with stronger design elements, thus making the meaning dies down a little bit. Your current header is a combination of text and background texture. I would like to suggest improving on it, by adding images to support the idea of the blog. My imagination brings me a vision of a simplistic header; you can still keep the text of the blog title and tagline, but you can make changes to the texture by adding a somehow transparent image of lightbulb or a heart, for example. You can also modify the text a bit by using different font style which you can find by browsing some websites online through Google, or change its color if you want (but make sure the color matches the background color). Basically, anything that you feel can give the impression and encourage people to “Think better, feel better!” is what you need to find. That’s what the header lacks as a gate to introduce what your blog wants to talk about. It doesn’t always have to be anything spectacular, though.
What makes me wonder next is one empty line before the body/after the header/banner, which is usually the place to put navigation links/menu. For blogs, it usually contains popular categories or further division of the content. I wonder why you didn’t put anything there; perhaps because you feel there is no need to separate the content and add anything there? Perhaps you expect visitors to go straight to the posts rather than getting distracted with the menu/links? In general I agree, it’s possible, because you also add links to your categories on the side bar. In that case it’s better to remove that empty line then, as it looks strange standing alone there.
For the body of the blog, size wise I feel like it’s doing great; the content/text part has a proper portion compared to the side bar. The usage of dashes to separates them also looks pretty. Too bad the dashes only completely frame the side bar; for the content/text part it’s only used as separators from the side bar. If both can be designed in the same way, I think it will look prettier, but that’s minor. Here is rough sketch of what I mean:
Using some kind of button for ‘read more’ link is quite an interesting idea, not sure if I’ve seen that somewhere before. The author icon and post time look fine. Usually there is a quick link to comments as well, strange to see them not there, but not too important. The way it is now it encourages visitors to click on the article to read it fully.
There is nothing much to say about the footer. Very simple and clean, I have no problem with it. Same goes with the background. I see there is a soft texture going there, not distracting but it’s visible there.
To sum this part up, there are parts I like about the theme and some others I’m not very impressed with. I feel that you want to give the feeling of simplicity, which I get, but at the same time it also feels plain and not too inviting.
Site Layout – (12 out of 20)
Layout. A term to reflect how easy it is to browse around a page to find content you're looking for, how organized a page is, how organized the content is. And so we come to the questions. Do I find it easy to browse around the blog? Very much. You only have two pages containing your 26 articles anyway, it can't be easier than this. The articles are lined up so tidy and in place very easy to reach and notice. Do I find the page and content organized? Not too much. Let's take a deeper look on this.
I'll first touch the organization of the page. Related to one of the points I mentioned in previous section, the blog doesn't seem to have navigation menu/links. I do know you have a list of categories on your side bar, but it's slightly on the bottom. I need to scroll to be able to see it. Now, if I were a new visitor I might still want to browse around and check what variety you had to offer. But if I were a returning visitor and wanted to find posts to a specific topic, that will take slightly longer. Search box is to help with specific keyword(s), not too handy for such case. Next is the side bar. When I first notice the side bar, I was surprised at the size of the advertisement box. Looks like it's as big as your category box. It is not disturbing, no, but it feels strange to me that you give such a huge space for advertisement and you put it at the top, compared to other widgets. I imagine you would prefer to put at least 'Recent Posts' or 'Categories' at the top, given how you don't have navigation menu and it helps to take visitors' eye to check more content. Perhaps it's a requirement from the advertisements; if that is the case then there is nothing more I can say. Next is the mistake of two 'Recent Posts' widgets; simply needs to remove one of them.
Moving on to the layout of the posts. I will emphasize on usage of categories and tags on this part. On a quick glance upon your categories and tags, they don't seem to be much different. Overlapping, if I may say. I can understand if their usage may be confusing, and that's something that can be improved over time as you learn and find out more. I think the tags are okay as it is, but the categories are rather confusing. You have 'comfort zone', 'excuses', but you also have 'video' category. Those don't go together. Categories help visitors to see how you break down your content and what you want to offer in general; honestly speaking, I'm confused looking at your categories. I will probably understand it better if you categorize your posts as 'Tips' for how-to articles, 'Sharing' or 'Life Story' for your experiences that you want to let visitors know, or 'Editorial' where you review or explain a specific topic (like your 'Forgiveness' and 'Value of Consistency' posts). Those are just example, I don't say you have to follow those but I hope my message reach you. To say it in a short way, your categories are supposed to show what your blog wants to offer, and I don't feel that yet so far.
Statistics and Activity – (5 out of 20)
Now we move on to statistics and activity. Here we talk about numbers and rates. They are important numbers and rates and must be improved on, yes, but I will first say not to be too stressed over it. It goes with time and in relation to other points; it's a comprehensive point of view.
I count a total of 26 articles you made since September 16th up to December 2nd. That means 11 weeks (77 days) for 26 articles. Roughly it means around 3 days per 1 article. Sounds nice. But looking at your blog actually, you made quite many of posts during September, but then seemed to lose the hype in October and November. The key is to make activity as regularly as possible. I personally prefer a website with one article per day for months rather than five articles in a day only to go silent for a week. By concentrating on one thing at a time, it gives you more chance to explore the content of the articles, which will bring more impact to your visitors than short but many articles. Especially if you are the sole author of the blog.
I count a total of 26 comments made since the very first post until the latest. (Interesting game of number here, you see?!) That's including author's comments too. It doesn't sound too bad, no. But what worries me is the quality. I only see more elaborated comments from one name; the other comments tend to be only "Awesome!", "Thanks, it helps!", or "Yeah, I agree!" without further explanation of why he/she agreed, what he/she could suggest for the author and for fellow readers too. It lacks discussion, it lacks connection between the posts and the comments. The author, on another hand, didn't seem to be too interested in engaging in discussions too. I rarely see replies from the author to those elaborated comments; I only see "Thank you!" comments, no further addition. I feel that you could have tried to ask more questions to encourage discussion, to make more interaction, not just a simple thank-you-and-you're-welcome area.
One point related to activity is also the content, in my opinion. Let's get ready for the next section then.
Content – (4 out of 20)
Unfortunately I cannot give high score on this section. It is probably one section I am mostly disappointed in when I visit your blog. Let's take a look at why I feel so.
I have talked about the quantity of the content at previous section. While the numbers seem satisfying, I am concerned with the content of the blog posts, to be honest. "Think Better Feel Better". The name of the blog gives a very strong impression for me, even before I actually visit the site. It leaves an idea that you want to offer some ways to make my day better, even in the slightest way. I imagine I will be able to read your point of view of lives and how to get through it in a more positive way. Sounds serious, I may sound exaggerating, but that's really what I feel from the blog title. So when I come to your blog and check the posts, I'm surprised at (1) the short posts compared to what I imagined and (2) the lack of motivational thoughts or sharing on how someone should/can think better and feel better.
I'll take an example of "
10 Great Tips On How You Can Feel Happier". I clicked with excitement, and I was greeted with a quick list of 10 points which can make me happier. No explanation at all. Okay, I noticed you mentioned that you found an article about that somewhere else and linked us to it. So I clicked that link and found what I needed on the next link. What good did it do to you? Nothing, because you only referred someone to another place. You could have made the post more interesting by adding your experience which may help encourage visitors to actually do those 10 tips. Take for example the first one, about exercise. I don't exercise; in a way I hate doing too many physical activities. Maybe by reading that one blog post I'm still not convinced to do it. But perhaps you have a life experience related to this you can share to inspire me, or know a friend who does that and shows improvement, or add more proofs as to how exercise can make me happier.
Other examples are your articles about
hype or
emotional 'bullcrap'. You are talking about what hype is and how it is actually a short-term situation. You are talking about why whining is not a good thing to do. Alright, I get the idea. But how is it supposed to make me think better and feel better? What kind of situation brought you to make such post? Do you have something happened in life which made you ponder that far, which can happen to me too, and your post is actually some kind of 'warning' for me? Am I not allowed to whine at all, or is there any exception? In these articles, what's missing is the correlation with the situation. In other words, it's missing context.
One minor thing I want to address is also the 'decoration' of the posts. Some of your posts have style, as in you made some of the lines bold. That's a style. It shows that there are parts you want to emphasize more inside the posts. But that doesn't apply to all posts. You can design the post to be attractive using bold/italic/underline marks, or different colors, or size, or even pictures, or videos, or quotes. Anything to make the post looks dynamic but still easy to follow and understand.
As a conclusion of this part, I'm mostly disappointed in how you lack examples, sharing, and elaboration. I believe to make someone think better and feel better you don't only need theoretically written articles and guidelines, but also real life experiences. Simply because theories are never always exactly the same with situations in real life. How do you get through that and can say you're happy now? That's what I want to know, more than just a list on how to do what without explanation.
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism – (12 out of 20)
We are here at the last section of the full review, which is about professionalism of the website. I am pretty sure there is no problem in this part. You have a decent English; I don't have a problem following and reading your sentences. It's easy and clear to understand. I also don't notice very serious grammatical mistakes or punctuation errors. I will say that probably '"Now What?" Problem' is more appropriate with a question mark there, or that I think particles like 'on', 'off', 'can', 'to', and 'and' should all start with small letters instead of capital letters, but then again those are rather relative.
Certainly you have made a nice job on this part, and hopefully by improving the other aspects mentioned above it will improve your blog's professionalism with you as the author.
Total Score - (41 out of 100)
Final Remarks:
"Think Better Feel Better", as I probably have touched a bit above, is actually a blog with interesting basic idea. The author also seem to be able to find fun and controversial topics to be discussed on the posts. What it needs is more analysis and more stories to support or go against that specific topic to be able to give more impact to the visitors/readers. I'm aware that it is not easy to come up with such kind of article. The standard may be too high, but it's set as a high standard to motivate us to keep on doing better. It shouldn't be rushed; you can take your time researching more points to support your articles, gradually adding content and context until one day you can write an interesting article and reasonable length, as shown by one article you linked in your post. Good luck!
Strengths:
- - Interesting basic idea/theme of the blog
- Quite regular activity from the author
Weaknesses:
- - Lack of content elaboration and length
- A rather plain blog design
- Confusing layout and content organization
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