Review request; will reciprocate if needed

[ScienceOfFiction]

Hello, I have a new blog I put up last night. I did the header art in GIMP editor using a stock photo on Corbin Stock Photos. The rest is a template provided by WP.

I'd like to know if there's anything missing, or anything that should not be there. I'd like to know what you think, as well as what an editor, agent etc might think. I created it solely for marketing my work and developing readers and relationships with writers. Thank you in advance, I'll respond to any critique in kind if you would like. Don't be afraid to hurt my feelings, I need the truth--but politeness would be appreciated.

The blog address is in my signature.

[Anjasa]

The first thing I noticed was that you have three columns, but the middle column is almost unused and simply has a repeat of the recent posts, and then a contact page linked. Would probably be best to just have the two columns, at least until you can fill out the third.

[Turndog-Millionaire]

a man with style ( i too use The Morning After Theme)

I'd say add more widgets such as Follow Blog, calendar etc (just to fill the second column if anything else. which you can't get rid of without the CSS upgrade and some knowledge in CSS. i know, i already tried ha)

Also link to other social media, assuming you're on twitter or facebook etc

I'd also say add some menu's for sub categories. Not sure what you are using your blog for, but assuming you will talk about a few different things this could come in handy further down the road

Layout is nice though and it looks professional. Just need to fill in the details abit now. Like i say i use The Morning After too, so take a look to see what it could look like witha few more widgets etc

Cheers

Matt (Turndog Millionaire)

[veinglory]

It looks good and has pretty much everything that it should. My only suggestions would be to come up with a snappier tag line, and if you have anything published or finished or even in progress, start a 'book' or 'works' page.

[ScienceOfFiction]

Excellent, thank you folks. I tried to get rid of that pesky center column, but I don't think I can without paying for the full WP account thingy. I think I can put some useful stuff there for the time being, I'll try a few things and come back and ask critters what they think.

Slumdog, I didn't read this til after I critted your blog, looks like we're both on the same page! ;)

I'm definitely gearing up my social networking platforms, and just need, as you said, to get more content going.

Also, I can try to distill the tagline down to something a little snappier, I want to convey the message I was going for, but I will try to do it in a more succinct way. Thanks for pointing that out.

A question: is it lesser professional to post work as I go? And would it mean giving up first digital rights, since it's on WP? Perhaps I can put stuff on Smashwords and hotlink to it to prevent this?

[ScienceOfFiction]

Okay, so after a bunch of horribly stressful crap because of WP's limited functions and even worse limited control over design when using unpaid themes (I know, I need to just shell out the cash, it's worth it), I've come to the conclusion that the design will be severely limited til I buy. But, working with what I have, I've made what I feel are some improvements. I made the middle column worthwhile to some extent, since I'm not allowed to delete it. I've changed my tagline to something shorter and catchier (correct me if I'm wrong on that last part, what do you think of the tagline?) I can't show more than one post at a time on the homepage, so I've made a sticky featured post to placehold until I can do that. I'm really surprised by these limitations, since my last three blogs were also free and did not severely limit functionability. But, I love the theme I have, and think that it's a great starting point.

If I could, I'd bust it down to two columns. Does anyone want to have a look and let me know what can be done better, given my limited options? Is the arrangement of widgets in need of changing? What could I add, what could I subtract?

I should have been writing two hours ago, but I'm getting sucked dry by this thing. I think I'll have a cig and just do some work on the book. Thanks for listening to me whine. Love ya.

[Turndog-Millionaire]

I think it looks a lot better, and i know what you mean, without the CSS knowledge and upgrade it's limited. But i love the theme, i think it looks very very nice :)

It will look so much better the more you post and i'd say in a week or so it will be continue to improve. I keep making little changes and i've become more happy with it as a result. Tinker away my friend :)

Matt (Turndog Millionaire)

[Anjasa]

I've been setting up my wordpress too and I spent about an hour trying to find out why my blog posts weren't showing under 'blog'. Apparently I had set up a theme with a bunch of pages that weren't set up properly or there wasn't proper instructions, because I eventually reinstalled and found out the problem AFTER I tried to set up a static front page on my own.

So yea, I feel your WP set up pain!

It's looking nice, though. You can search 2-column themes (http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/tag-filter/) specifically as well.

[ScienceOfFiction]

Thanks Matt and Anjasa. I wish you both luck in your blogging and writing endeavors! Lemme know if you ever need some critting or anything else.