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UPDATE: It's been almost a month since I posted this thread, and since then I made many changes to the site layout and to the design. I also added ads and a new logo. Please tell me what you think about my website now, and if you saw this thread when I first posted it, how does it compare to before? I am running a website http://www.realsciencescoop.com/ I have a few questions:
Disclaimer: This is a parody Science news site, similar to the onion. Don't Respond telling me the news isn't true. |
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I agree with what FlavioGomes said about the layout. It just doesn't seem to fit as well as it perhaps could. You could change up the column design a bit so it looks slightly more like a news site, add some color somewhere so the majority of what's seen isn't just one color, and maybe put at least a thumbnail logo in the header. Those are merely suggestions, do with them as you will. I think I may replace the theme all together, I am open to any suggestions. You might take a look at "Organic Themes". They have some themes that might fit a little better. Do they have free themes? I'd prefer not to buy one. Not sure. I've only skimmed the site a few times. I just checked, it seems like all their themes are paid. I found this website, http://topwpthemes.com/best-free-themes/ do you like any of these? Changed the theme, what do you think?
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About the theme, it definitely needs some color. The current theme isn't really bad but when I first loaded the site, it almost looked like it wasn't fully done loading (I felt like I was waiting for a different color to fill in the navigation bar for a second until I realized it was just the design of the theme). |
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As long as a layout allows for easy access the content then it is fine. For a site to be successful in the field of news, it needs to have a focus. News sites like CNN and others, can report on a wide range because they perform primary research on much of the content, but as a blog, you will generally end up reporting on content that was reported on by another company, so it is not a primary source. Also because the site does not have a singular focus, iit will not attract people looking for news to pick your site over something like google news, or CNN. For example www.consumerist.com focuses on consumer related issues and stories and while much of their content are reports on other reports, due to their focus, they act as an aggregator for consumer related news. Your blog seems more along the lines of you news that you personally find interested regardless of topic so it will only really attract regular visitors of close friends who share similar interest. Furthermore, you don't link back to source articles so a user hearing about something on your site for the first time will not believe it as it is not a primary source and there is no link to the actual source. That practice also causes the site to fall in search engine rank as some people may look for summaries of long articles and the way search engines fine summaries is by looking the secondary sites that link to a primary article. While this is easier said than done. You need a specific focus on the site, eg if you like apple related news, then only report on that (bad idea for a site since there are many sites with massive communities dedicated to apple news). And for anything in which you are not the primary source, then always include a link at the bottom of the blog post about said news. Copyright generally requires it and search engines require it. WOW. I have the feeling you didn't really read the website at all, just the title. However, I thought that the topic was clearly defined as science and technology. While I understand there are many different Sciences, I think this is specific enough. Also, did you read the disclaimer in my question? did not look at it too closely, mainly the titles and topics and they seemed to cover astronomy, corporate news, politics, (while an accepted exception) activism. as a parody site, this shifts the overall topic from science, to parody which puts you in direct competition with the onion, in which case, then there isn't much you can do other than offering all that the onion offers and more, but with fewer ads which will have a net result of better customer service. anyway, the layout as of now works fine. Only issue is you are trying to get into the field of comedy and that is one of the most difficult fields to get into (there are fewer successful comedians than there are successful NFL players) anyway, content attracts users to a site and when a new site is created, everyone does not just hear a voice that tells them the URL for the new site that was just created. Users end up finding the various sites through search engines for the most part. Ant the only way to rank high in a search engine is to either have unique content (in a overall sense and not a wording sense as for example almost everything on this site is unique because almost none of the sentences typed on this site have ever been typed in the exact same way before). The other way is to compete with a similar style of content and rank up through user clicks on the search engine (that process required a large userbase and that begins to happen when users search for parody news and skip past the onion and the other sites like it and specifically look for your site (which they will not find unless you identify it as such) The final way is to just pay for some ads on a search engine (though it may not be very successful as ads by default have a bad reputation, as banner ads are ubiquitous with things like the "YOU ARE THE 298723123978 VISITOR AND HAVE WON A FREE IPAD" and thus are not very trustworthy. Corporate News? I considered that a tech news, though I see the confusion, if you read the article it was all about the tech that was going to be formed. I still feel like you don't understand that it is a parody Science/tech news site. Which I think is still a science topic. Thank you, for letting me know what you think of the layout. Lastly! You didn't seem to answer any of my questions, you seem to have just started a rant. While I cant say it is a site that I would personally like, it seems to appeal more to a younger cowd (eg those around the middleschool age)overall it is difficult to give a short answer while trying to remain somewhat objective if you are able to find your nitche with the site, then you can get a small community of regular viewers if you are able to provide regular content updates 9either daily, or bydaily, or weekly (might need to have additional writers on the site to maintain that level of output long term) Thanks, we decided that we need to have atleast 3 posts per week. I do have one other writer working on this with me. It's funny that you think it is for middle schoolers, since it was made by middle schoolers (and one highschooler) is there anyway I can appeal to a larger audience? Do you think college students would have an interest in this site? |
I updated the layout of the site, I also had someone make me a new logo, which I think looks better. Please, look again and tell me what you think.