Before I begin my review let me highlight a point made on the blog’s about me page.  Blogriffic.com is written by Salwa and Salwa is a woman so if you decide to contact her don’t star off “Dear Sir”.   I will break the review down in to several categories: Appearance/Design, Navigation, Content, Ideas For Improvement.

Appearance/Design

The first impression of the site, which all new visitors will look at before starting to browse around, isn’t bad.  The site is very clean, there aren’t an over abundance of ads, and navigation is clear cut.  The color scheme works nicely with the blue, grey, black, and red on a white background.  Two points worth looking at to change would be the default header with plain text and the two blank Advertise Here boxes on the right.  Use that space for two ads of your choosing and create an advertising page where you explain your rates, site information, traffic details, etc..  Seeing empty ad space can actually turn potential advertisers off.  The header wouldn’t be a big deal, but the site actually offers free Wordpress themes and the author states she is into art and design.  I would like to see something a bit more appealing on top of the page.

Navigation

This is a strong part of the site. The header links give you the most important pages of the site.  You can easily find out how to contact the site owner, subscribe to the RSS feed, learn about the author, see a sitemap, and download free themes (worth a look).  The sidebars look solid and are except for one thing which I will discuss in a moment.  The 6 ad blocks are fine, but could be reduced to 4 until more advertisers come on board.  The tabbed block is a nice feature and allows you to have a nice amount of content that is easy to find without sacrificing a lot of premium site real estate.  The issue with it is the Profile tab is still in a default state.  I know it doesn’t seem major, but sometimes that little detail can look unprofessional.  Aside form that the navigation works very nice.

Content

We now come to serious stuff on the site. The content is very strong.  Nicely written articles, relevant topics that are nicely laid out, and custom themes give visitors an incentive for coming back.  The about me page describes the blog as follows:

BlogRiffic.Com founded on 13 June 2008 by me. BR is all about search engine optimization, art, design, Wordpress, and blogging in general. Also even though I will be talking about random topic and tips on how to make money online please note that this is not one of the many making money blogs out there!

The content meets what her statement says the blog is.  It is not a high level resource to get detailed configuration settings, serious money making tips, tricks to get around the system, or ways to generate a huge money making site, but it does provide a nice place for new and novice bloggers to gain the information needed to get to the next level.  There are a lot of high level sites out there that tend to talk over people starting out and Blogriffic fills a nice niche in the blog information market.

Improvement Ideas

At the point with the blog only being a couple of months old you have to be careful not to change to quickly, but a couple of little things would be nice to see.  An original header that shows off your artistic and design skills would be a nice way to market your themes a bit more. Getting your themes on other blogs is a nice easy way to drive traffic back to your sites.  Cross link with your posts in order to increase readability and page views.  You have posts that are based on similar topics and certain posts can  benefit from linking to another complimentary post within your site.

For a young site you are off to a good start and have the potential to grow and develop into a very nice site.  You have to stick with it as traffic will develop over time and that is when you will see the rewards for your hard work.

Good Luck!

When starting a new blog the question will eventually arise as to when is the proper time to shell out some money and invest in a custom theme.  No a custom theme is an investment and it can be critical in taking your site from a hobby to something more serious.  The most important thing to do is to study your site, find it’s strengths and weaknesses, look at other site for inspiration, and find a solid designer.

1. Study your site

This may seem simple since, after all, it is your site.  The easiest way to do some in depth research is using Google Analytics.  Take a look at the site overlay to see where people are clicking or is you want to get a bit more serious there are some excellent heat map applications that will use a visual map to shot hot spots on your site.  Investigate bounce rate – how fast are people leaving your site – on specific pages.  Does your site lack the ability to draw and keep reader exploring?  When looking at a theme make sure it has good flow and easy navigation.

2. Research other sites

This can be tricky because you never want to come off as copying another site.  However, looking at sites that are successful can give you ideas as to how to incorporate certain features into your theme.  Don’t limit yourself to sites in your niche since blog themes are usually universal they can all provide solid sources of inspiration.

3. Research your designer

The most critical piece of getting a theme done is finding the right person.  You can find people to do a theme for as little as $100 and up to thousands of dollars.  You have to decide which price range is best for you.  When I was researching a redesign for my celebrity site I went to popular blogs and contacted their designers, I posted on message boards, and I ran a contest.  My entire redesign cost me under $600.  It broke down pretty much like this:

Theme Coding/Design $500
Header Image – $25
Custom Video/Image Page $60

4. What to expect from a custom theme

The question you should all want the answer to before you start dropping your cash.  If you had a clean theme with strong navigation you will notice some nice improvements.  Most people, when hitting a new theme, will explore around a bit more which will give you a nice page view increase.  A new theme should also create a better user experience which in turn will have the potential of generating more user interaction in he form of comments.  My theme created specific prime ad locations which enabled me to double earning in the first month and easily pay for the theme.

Hopefully, these few little points will get you started in the right direction when trying to move on to a new unique theme.  If you would like my designers contact please use the contact page to drop me a line and I will be happy to help you out.