Update: At Jeff’s request here is the link to his original comment.
I know this post will make sense only to one person so I apologize ahead of time to my regular readers for excluding you from this “exchange”. The subject is silly and would have never made the front page of my blog. Nevertheless, there is one thing I would like any one to do when commenting on my blog. Please follow up if you are criticizing me.
So this entire post is dedicate to Jeff at www.jeffhendricksondesign.com. I will brake it down for you Jeff:
- Color green is my favorite color. You would have lost me as your client if I would ever asked you to design my website. Jeff, are you really willing to loose a client over a silly color?
- Yellow shirt. Hmmm I think will not even try to answer this one.
Now since I have dragged my readers into this exchange, here are few things you should consider before leaving a comment:
- If it is your first comment on a blog, avoid unkind criticisms.
- If you do criticize the author of the post make sure to follow up on the comments.
- Hoping from blog to blog and leaving arrogant comments will not help you to build up your reputation.
While some commentators along with the links to their blogs will be promoted to the front page of this blog and enjoy the “juiciness” of PR 4 for at least five or six days, chances are I will delete your comments if you came to criticize me and then chicken out and do not show up to answer to my response. Even worse, I will mark you comment as spam.
Hi Vlad,
I appologize. I didn't mean to do a drive-bye critique of your site. Especially without an explanation or hearing your side. I didn't opt into receiving emails on follow up comments because I receive enough spam a day as it is.
Thanks for emailing me about this post. I wouldn't of caught it otherwise.
I'd also like to point out that I didn't know you had a comment policy in place before I made that comment. I didn't know I was breaking rules or was held to uphold your policies before commenting.
I believe it is my right to leave comments as I see fit on any public blog or forum and it is up to the website owner to use their discretion when choosing to approve or deny such comments, opinions, etc.
You obviously had a problem with my comment and my lack of love for the color green so I did a little bit of work to further explain my view on your site's design.
Since you didn't link back to the original comment I left I am just responding to this post. So here it goes…
Green! Yes, It's one of my favorite colors too. But everything I own isn't green.
You have to look at why green is significant to your message. As a designer if blue makes more sense in the design and purveys a message clearer the design will include blue, no matter if the client's favorite color is pink. If they don't like it I explain why their choice doesn't work. If they don't understand and are stubborn enough to go with a decision that could hurt their business then I don't work with them. Simple as that.
Yellow shirts! – And even yellower ties! Yikes! This is just my personal opinion and in no way am I saying that's a bad choice of colors. Everyone has their own style. That's all fine until you mix your yellow shirt with a green nav bar and a largely white background along with a photo that is bad with a bad description.
Yes, I'm ripping on your photo and description. They are bad. Get a better photo! Have a professional shoot it or don't use one. Am I correct that english isn't your first language? Hire a copywriter to write out your about me line. Saying things like “Unfortunately I am not a “guru” and will not tell you how to get rich quickly” does not make me want to read your blog… period. Be clear on what you are offering, not what you aren't.
There are so many things wrong with your design it would take a lot longer to go through them all. Luckily you can choose to fix them and build your readership here or you can continue to drive visitors away with your poorly designed, ad-laden site.
Again, that's just my professional opinion.
I didn't want to leave you without any comparison so I spent a few minutes designing a mockup of how your site “Could” possibly look better. Again, just my opinion.
Vlad's Redesign Mock Up
Best of luck with your blog and I hope I cleared things up. Feel free to contact me.
You can reach me at: nuvrudesign{a}gmail.com
Jeff, I appreciate your comments and I will take some of them into consideration. I do however have one question for you. How is it that good designer like yourself having a blog out there since at least 2005 only has less than 10 subscribers?:
<img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/JeffHendricksonDesign?bg=0a770a&fg=ffffff&anim=0″ height=”26″ width=”88″ style=”border:0″ alt=”Jeff's Subscribers”>
I am not trying to be a smart ass. While it is true that design should be pleasing there are more elements to a blog than just looks.
I do like your “mock up” redesign of my blog. However, the theme functionality is more important to me than looks. Judging by the theme of your own blog, I would say “thanks but no” to your designer suggestions. There are many things you can improve on your blog which will also benefit your SEO/SEM efforts. But again I am not a “guru” and it applies to SEO/SEM as well.
</img>
Your response is just another reason why I am NOT a subscriber to your blog.
You are absolutely right about not being a guru.
Jeff
Hi Vlad,
I appologize. I didn’t mean to do a drive-bye critique of your site. Especially without an explanation or hearing your side. I didn’t opt into receiving emails on follow up comments because I receive enough spam a day as it is.
Thanks for emailing me about this post. I wouldn’t of caught it otherwise.
I’d also like to point out that I didn’t know you had a comment policy in place before I made that comment. I didn’t know I was breaking rules or was held to uphold your policies before commenting.
I believe it is my right to leave comments as I see fit on any public blog or forum and it is up to the website owner to use their discretion when choosing to approve or deny such comments, opinions, etc.
You obviously had a problem with my comment and my lack of love for the color green so I did a little bit of work to further explain my view on your site’s design.
Since you didn’t link back to the original comment I left I am just responding to this post. So here it goes…
Green! Yes, It’s one of my favorite colors too. But everything I own isn’t green.
You have to look at why green is significant to your message. As a designer if blue makes more sense in the design and purveys a message clearer the design will include blue, no matter if the client’s favorite color is pink. If they don’t like it I explain why their choice doesn’t work. If they don’t understand and are stubborn enough to go with a decision that could hurt their business then I don’t work with them. Simple as that.
Yellow shirts! – And even yellower ties! Yikes! This is just my personal opinion and in no way am I saying that’s a bad choice of colors. Everyone has their own style. That’s all fine until you mix your yellow shirt with a green nav bar and a largely white background along with a photo that is bad with a bad description.
Yes, I’m ripping on your photo and description. They are bad. Get a better photo! Have a professional shoot it or don’t use one. Am I correct that english isn’t your first language? Hire a copywriter to write out your about me line. Saying things like “Unfortunately I am not a “guru” and will not tell you how to get rich quickly” does not make me want to read your blog… period. Be clear on what you are offering, not what you aren’t.
There are so many things wrong with your design it would take a lot longer to go through them all. Luckily you can choose to fix them and build your readership here or you can continue to drive visitors away with your poorly designed, ad-laden site.
Again, that’s just my professional opinion.
I didn’t want to leave you without any comparison so I spent a few minutes designing a mockup of how your site “Could” possibly look better. Again, just my opinion.
Vlad’s Redesign Mock Up
Best of luck with your blog and I hope I cleared things up. Feel free to contact me.
You can reach me at: nuvrudesign{a}gmail.com
Jeff, I do hope my response was not too hard to handle. Again, had you been around longer you may have seen me differently. I think you have a wonderful talent as a designer. I hope you doing well with it.
Just suggestion for you, If you do not have enough balls to handle criticism do not criticize others. Yes, your first comment looked like a drive by criticism. Your comments show me that I do not want you to subscribe to my blog. Most of my readers know me: my likes- they do not care about green that much, my language- they are very forgiving aout my mistakes and grammar.
You should visit this link http://dontbeanidiot.org/ like your blog suggests. 🙂
My comment was only an opinion. Obviously you were offended by it. It's clear you can't handle criticism and I am sorry I left that first comment.
My purpose was not to create a war of blogs but you have turned it into just that. I do hope you change your theme soon and put as much consideration into the design as you do the functionality. That was my whole point.
Best regards,
Jeff
Jeff, I appreciate your comments and I will take some of them into consideration. I do however have one question for you. How is it that good designer like yourself having a blog out there since at least 2005 only has less than 10 subscribers?:
I am not trying to be a smart ass. While it is true that design should be pleasing there are more elements to a blog than just looks.
I do like your “mock up” redesign of my blog. However, the theme functionality is more important to me than looks. Judging by the theme of your own blog, I would say “thanks but no” to your designer suggestions. There are many things you can improve on your blog which will also benefit your SEO/SEM efforts. But again I am not a “guru” and it applies to SEO/SEM as well.
lol so now you are calling me an idiot? lol
Come on Jeff, I know you can be kind.
The only person that is benefiting from this “war” (as you call it) is you. At
least you have some “juice” flowing your way from my blog: from these comments as well as from the link in the post. I do hope you are appreciative of this discussion.
Your response is just another reason why I am NOT a subscriber to your blog.
You are absolutely right about not being a guru.
Jeff
Jeff, I do hope my response was not too hard to handle. Again, had you been around longer you may have seen me differently. I think you have a wonderful talent as a designer. I hope you doing well with it.
Just suggestion for you, If you do not have enough balls to handle criticism do not criticize others. Yes, your first comment looked like a drive by criticism. Your comments show me that I do not want you to subscribe to my blog. Most of my readers know me: my likes- they do not care about green that much, my language- they are very forgiving aout my mistakes and grammar.
You should visit this link http://dontbeanidiot.org/ like your blog suggests. 🙂
My comment was only an opinion. Obviously you were offended by it. It’s clear you can’t handle criticism and I am sorry I left that first comment.
My purpose was not to create a war of blogs but you have turned it into just that. I do hope you change your theme soon and put as much consideration into the design as you do the functionality. That was my whole point.
Best regards,
Jeff
lol so now you are calling me an idiot? lol
Come on Jeff, I know you can be kind.
The only person that is benefiting from this “war” (as you call it) is you. At
least you have some “juice” flowing your way from my blog: from these comments as well as from the link in the post. I do hope you are appreciative of this discussion.