With friends like this, you don’t need enemies
That’s what one of my offline friends said when I showed her an email I’d printed out from an online friend.
The email I showed her was from a friend in an email group I belong to, “Ideas by Post”. I plan to tell you more about “Ideas by Post” in a separate post.
Anyway, I’d asked my buddy group to do the same thing I’d just asked her to do, review this blog. I read somewhere that a blogging beginner should do that :)
When I showed my local gal pal my blog, I think I impressed her. Even so, she had a couple of good ideas. She said I should add my picture and make the type bigger. The sweetheart even said wished she had a computer so she could read it regularly. She really is a great friend.
My IBP buddy, on the other hand, was maybe even a bit brutal* in his page long criticism of my site. Among the things he told me were “it’s not a blog . . . it’s a diary” and “you need to concentrate some time on learning to write headlines”. He advised me to “restructure it for a shorter more concise presentation” and “find a direction”.
My friend from the IBP group is a professional writer and a creative force behind the Freelance Writing Organization – International. He’s also remodeling an old house, btdt. He’s a busy, busy man.
Just the fact he gave me his input should tell you how good a friend of mine he’s become on our little email group.
So, neither of my friends are my enemies but they don’t see the same picture of my web blog that I do either. I see a blog that’s about becoming a web designer, step by tiny step with lots of adventures and meanderings along the way. They see what probably is really here.
You can read all of the professional blogging advice I got (and my reply “In Self Defense”) by joining the Ideas by Post bunch at Yahoo Groups. Then, you can ask our many experts just about anything you need to know and get a straight answer.
*“. . . do you mean to regale us with stories of what it is like to be you on the net?” (O.K. I thought that was kinda mean but, yep, I do.)
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That brings back memories! I’ve done the same thing with my relatively new blog on Blogspot. I didn’t know what a mess I was getting into by picking a standard template and other bloggers were ‘kind’ enough to point out my mistakes. But I ended up taking it in stride since I wanted to do a ‘live blog makeover’ and give my readers some template tutorial along the way. Well even I got impatient and did a fast forward! You need to follow your own vision and give it time.