Femmedia - Feminism, games & media blog

[Anjasa]

Hey all,

I think I'm ready for a review. I've had my blog live for a few weeks now and while I get a fair number of hits, I'm still not getting the type of traffic and comments that I'm looking for.

I'm wondering if my writing is too dry, or if the layout is too unengaged or basically if there's anything that you think I could fix to increase the number of interactive readers on my blog.

I tend to focus on all forms of media, looking at it from a sociological and/or feminist point of view, so I'd be particularly interested to hear from you if you follow other blogs like sociological images or feministe or xojane.

I'd also be interested to know if there's any widgets or plugins that are really useful that I don't seem to have on the site.

Link! (http://www.jmkeep.com/blog)

[Ginosion]

I've actually been following your blog for a little over a week now so I've had time to stew over it. I have to say It's actually one of my favorites. The articles are unique and highly interesting. Your strong ability to analyze video games validates them as an art and not just a form of mindless entertainment. Which I highly appreciate. Your main subject may be unfocused, but your point of view is bold and always consistent. Which makes for a great and entertaining read. Your articles are strong and I don't think there is anything majorly wrong with them.

I do have problems with the template though. It's a little boring. There's nothing really wrong with it, nothing oh-god-no bad. It's just basic. I think there's much room for improvement. With how strong your articles are, your layout and template needs to be equally as strong to better represent your blog's content.

I think there's a little too much grey. Maybe a different background image would help a lot. The top images are nice, but I would remove them and the title and replace them with a fancy banner.

With the length of each article, I think ten articles per page is a little much. My finger is cramping up from scrolling so much. There's an unspoken ratio when it comes to article length and the articles per page. Short articles = many per page. Long articles = fewer per page. With that said, you need to add a way for viewers to find your articles other then tags. I would recommend adding an archive or a list the features your most viewed articles. There doesn't need to be a complete face-lift. Just a lot of tweaking.


Overall, I think Femmedia has the capability to be a great blog. Just keep at it, and I'm sure you'll find a fanbase.

[veinglory]

It is off to a good start but to cover a broader terrain I think you need a top banner that isn't 2/3 drow.

[Anjasa]

Thank you both for your input. I changed the posts to 5 per page, so hopefully that will be a bit easier on your poor scrolling finger!

I'm looking at getting more commissioned artwork of a wider variety of my characters, and I will probably try to tweak the theme along with it to make it pop a bit more. I do admit I tend towards fairly bland looking themes (I love brown and tans and greys, for some reason), but I understand that my reader's preferences are far more important :)

Seriously, thank you both so much, I really appreciate it!

[Pyekett]

Okay, bookmarked.

I liked the grey. It's an excellent contrast to the subject matter. If you are going to be talking about sex frankly, the edge of calm grey keeps the focus on the content.

You have something to say, and it's worth reading. I want to see what you do with it.

[Ralph Pines]

I like the blog, a lot since it rolls several of my favorite subjects into one: gaming, RPG, fantasy, sex, and social consciousness.

A deadly combination.

[harbourcitystory]

I really like the color scheme. Fits very well. Love the subject too! Great work!

[Anjasa]

Thank you so much to everyone who has given their input so far! I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying blogging, and I'm so pleased that people seem to be responding well to it.

[MonkeyQueen]

Okay, bookmarked.

I liked the grey. It's an excellent contrast to the subject matter. If you are going to be talking about sex frankly, the edge of calm grey keeps the focus on the content.

You have something to say, and it's worth reading. I want to see what you do with it.

I agree. Bright colors would distract from the subject. White would be the only other option, IMO. I honestly like the style of your blog because it fits quite nicely with what you are trying to convey. For your own benefit, though, you could make sure there are multiple ways for people to follow you (a FB page, blog follow, and I see there is RSS feed already.) You want them to keep coming back and they need to be reminded!

I turned to review your blog first for two reasons - the title/subject caught my attention. It's a different discussion than the usual blog I come across. And my husband and 3 boys are all gamers...I myself am not, but I need help giving them a new point of view about the gaming world and women!

I stuck around because I like your writing style. Well thought out and fun to read. I caution, though, writing a lot of long posts might turn some readers off. If you can say what you need to say without spelling out every detail but still make a strong arguement with LESS words...you'll have better luck getting people to find time to read the whole thing! I usually shoot for 500-600 and rarely go over because I know I usually don't read a blog longer than that!

Good luck and keep writing these great posts...the audience will come!

[Anjasa]

Unfortunately my Facebook page got locked and the only way to unlock it is to have a mobile number and, well, I don't have a cell phone. There is an email subscribe button, but I worry that it's a bit hard to see. I've been trying to make subscribing a bit easier and/or more prominent so people can see it, but I haven't been able to figure it out yet.

Thanks for the tips! I do tend to be a bit wordy and make my point in several different ways just in case - I hate to be misunderstood! - but you're definitely right.

Thanks so much for reviewing!