Balkhis Reader Love – Angadsodhi is getting reviewed
Angadsodhi is a regular reader on this blog, and I have been checking out his blog lately so therefore I have decided to review his blog because of the reader love on Balkhis.
Angad’s blog is a personal blog which is crowded with advertisement. I like the way he shares his information. Alot of the articles there are interesting because they are from various different sources. But there are several tips that I will be giving in this post to Angad.
Before I start with that, I want to say that the content on this site is very interesting. Posts on this blog are also being displayed in an orderly fashion. The design of the site is decent for a personal blog. You should get a better banner on the header for the empty ad spot. A banner that is eye catching.
Few things that I noticed that needs to be fixed urgently are: the over advertisement. You have too many ads in the sidebar. I scroll down the sidebar and I see ads and content. Sidebar ads are more prominent than the sidebar content.
As you see I have commented on your blog multiple times. You have comment relish installed, but for some reason it is not working correctly. I got the thank you email after every single comment. After 3 I stopped because I didn’t want to get any more emails.
Work on the footer. On pages like this it comes all the way to the top in IE 7.0. Only browser I checked in. Make the footer below the sidebar, so it looks like a footer.
Pagination needs to be somewhere better. I just don’t like the style. Even if you leave the pagination the way it is, take care of the problem on this page. Because pagination box is blank.
I like the idea of your Best Posts. I liked the comic one as well.
I understand that you want to make money off your personal blog, but keep the advertisement to a limit.
I am not doing reviews in great details so these are the quick things I noticed on your blog Angad.
Guys visit his blog, it is cool and he is a fellow reader here at Balkhis.
Hey, I am Syed Balkhi, The guy who is behind Balkhis Inc. I entered the industry back in 2002 not knowing a single thing. I barely spoke English at that time. In the past six years, my language barrier has been eliminated. Aside from English, now I also speak html, and php. Along with the languages I have also managed to master a few arts. Art of web-designing started when I first entered. Messing around with photoshop, I learned how to create my first web design. Now I founded a web designing firm Uzzz Productions. After running numerous amount of websites in various niche, I have mastered the art of web-development. Now I am compiling a resource of what I already know, and what I am learning on this blog. This resource is to help me if I ever need a guide to look back to, and it is help my fellow webmasters.
I might suggest that he get rid of the blinking ‘Contact me now.’ in the top ad. it is VERY distracting/…
thanks for the suggestion Siyab
good suggestions
I agree with that
I enjoyed the site and I found it to contain all sorts of interesting things. I have to agree with you about the amount of ads though. More is not always better.
I do not see that many more ads than your blog… ???
Also, why do you NOT use the TARGET=”_blank” (or other such approach) to open links in a new window?
Otherwise, I find your blog (and tweets) of value. Thanks for sharing…
-ski
Actually I use _blank for links within my post (most of the times) because I don’t want people to leave the content they are reading. In all other places I don’t use it.
Yes I have cut down on a few ads. Glad you find my posts of value
Angad has a really nice site with lots of great content. The flashing Contact Me now as mentioned by Muhammad is something Angad should replace. Like you said the sidebar of ads needs to be replaced or moved and maybe some of the ads should go but other than that I think hes doing a good job. Keep it up!
Just got back from colg. Thank you Syed for taking up my blog.
Thank You everyone for your suggestions.
@Siyab: You are right. The blinking text is actually distracting. I’ll replace it with something subtle.
I’ll take off some of the non-performing ads right away.
Glad to know many people have liked my content.
I never tested the new design on IE. How wrong was I! I’ll look into it.
I’ve taken note of all your suggestions Syed and I’ll work on them shortly. Thanks again.
That web site has good content and that’s what really matters. However, all the ads on the page might scare away new readers.
It’s a nice blog with good content. But I am getting an error on the following page.
http://www.angadsodhi.com/wordpress/supersundayvideo-week-10-learn-to-solve-a-rubiks-cube/
Unterminated string content error in IE 7. The error is not major as the page does display normally.
Thanks for bringing it to my notice. Damn IE doesn’t maintain standards!!
I think the error doesn’t show up in IE8
Btw I don’t have a clue how to get rid of it for IE7
Trying out several things to see if they work.
Glad everyone likes the content!
I agree the ads bar does look bad. It used to look good when I had designed it. Over a period of time, it has started to look horrible!
What if I fuse both sidebars and have ad blocks on top (like what Enkay has on his blog). What say people?
interesting site – good job with the writing on the posts I read through. I would have to agree with most of your poinst Syed.
Ah..so that’s why I couldn’t see those ads that you guys are talking about
Another thing I’d like to say is that Angad could use some if/else logic on the homepage sidebar. you see, the homepage far right sidebar shows recent posts, whereas one can view them in the main content area anyways, on the homepage. Angad could use that space in the sidebar to show something different
I would turn that fixed background into a scrolling one. The fixed he uses makes ads and videos “shake” up and down when you scroll the page. And the pattern it uses almost gets you blind after a couple of minutes
.
i think Angad have made the necessary changes and now its much better then before …
Congrats for the review on Balkhis Angad
I liked the blog. It did have some advertisements but I didn’t feel that it was too crowded. I think the design is unique and looked good, IMO.
Thank you Syed for the review. Keeping your suggestions in mind, I have made major changes to the sidebar. Tell me if you like it now. The pagination on the ‘best posts’ is empty because it does not exceed the first page. As more posts come by, it will flow onto the second page.
My blog has evolved due to your tips over the past few months. As you can see the design is highly influenced by your prev posts. Thanks again.
much much better Angad
[...] I was reviewed by Syed Balkhi of balkhis.com over at his site. Read the full review here. Keeping all the suggestions I received there in mind, I’ve redone the sidebar. Tell me if [...]