Let me review your blog!

Jon

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Hi Jon

Thank you for the in-depth review

I have just turned off the slide-in completely. I am not a fan of them and bought into the hype of "you are giving your reader something they want". I would rather offer a better reader experience and not put people off.

I am planning on making the front page static over the next few weeks. Now I am starting to get posts written for each section I am hoping this will look better. I shall overhaul the "about" section at the same time.

I am yet to touch advertising or affiliate links. I am not sure anyone would want to work with me at the moment, so my focus is building content and hopefully increasing traffic.

Whilst it would be great to make some money, I cringe at the sites that rave about and link to a certain electricity supplier one month then a matter of weeks later rave about another. Hopefully in time I will find a small number of affiliates that are the right fit for me and the site. (Maybe that's newbie ideology?!)

I will certainly look at adding some more images to my existing posts and continue moving forward.

I have jumped straight over to whynopadlock - thank you I had never heard of it......but the results all came back fine (see below) so I am a little unsure why I am losing the padlock? I will manually check each page/post and see if I can work out where my links are insecure.

I shall take a look at the comments plugin you recommend.

Thanks again, it's really useful to get the feedback and understand the areas I need to prioritise working on.

View attachment 537

Ah, that's great news about the padlock! Must have been a glitch at my end, I apologise!

Don't worry about buying into the 'hype'. It's easily done and the reason people selling blogger courses go after a certain demographic (ie, hello I want to make a new blog type people) as they are very easy to get 'on board' and before you know it you've spent £50 on a e-course and make your website look the exact same as everyone elses!

In terms of affiliate marketing. It's not really to do with companies wanting to work with you as such as it's more making the most out of the opportunities that your existing content already provides.

I would recommend signing up to Awin and applying for a few of the programs. You then just drop the links into your existing content and that's it!

 
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Helen Jayne

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Ah, that's great news about the padlock! Must have been a glitch at my end, I apologise!

Don't worry about buying into the 'hype'. It's easily done and the reason people selling blogger courses go after a certain demographic (ie, hello I want to make a new blog type people) as they are very easy to get 'on board' and before you know it you've spent £50 on a e-course and make your website look the exact same as everyone elses!

In terms of affiliate marketing. It's not really to do with companies wanting to work with you as such as it's more making the most out of the opportunities that your existing content already provides.

I would recommend signing up to Awin and applying for a few of the programs. You then just drop the links into your existing content and that's it!



Don't apologise, it's a useful tool to to be aware of :)

I will take a look at Awin.

Thanks for directing me towards Host Presto, I have sent them an email for a quote to do the transfer set up for me. (I don't have cPanel access through GoDaddy as it's a Managed WordPress package.) Even so, it looks like I could save over £400 per year!
 

Jon

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Don't apologise, it's a useful tool to to be aware of :)

I will take a look at Awin.

Thanks for directing me towards Host Presto, I have sent them an email for a quote to do the transfer set up for me. (I don't have cPanel access through GoDaddy as it's a Managed WordPress package.) Even so, it looks like I could save over £400 per year!
AH yeah the “no cPanel on godaddy” issue. Such a clever way to lock people in as the majority of people just think it’s too much faff to move.

What unearth are you paying them anyway if you can make a saving of £400?
 

Jon

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This........:oops: Everything but support is for the year. I am REALLY hoping Host Presto can help.

View attachment 538
What the what???

You don’t need to pay for an ssl, they are free via letsencrypt

What unearth is premium WP support?

Website security deluxe??!?


Were you told to buy all this stuff when you were looking to buy some web hosting and a domain?
 
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Helen Jayne

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What the what???

You don’t need to pay for an ssl, they are free via letsencrypt

What unearth is premium WP support?

Website security deluxe??!?


Were you told to buy all this stuff when you were looking to buy some web hosting and a domain?

Painful right?

I queried the price of SSL especially as it's a deluxe security package but with no cPanel they said the only option was to use the SSL they provide.

Website security deluxe it basically a firewall and if your site is hacked they will restore it. The security deluxe package does not include SSL.

I need the premium support but can't afford the annual cost. I have Yeost SEO which is pretty standard. The updates cause a 500 error, I raise a ticket and they fix within 72 hours. I have reduced my plugins to the minimum (6 in total) but I don't want to lose this one and updates are regular. They have to do something to the hosting backend that I cannot access. I try and limit this cost to every few months but it's still pants.

I am hoping that Hey Presto can help.
 

Jon

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Painful right?

I queried the price of SSL especially as it's a deluxe security package but with no cPanel they said the only option was to use the SSL they provide.

Website security deluxe it basically a firewall and if your site is hacked they will restore it. The security deluxe package does not include SSL.

I need the premium support but can't afford the annual cost. I have Yeost SEO which is pretty standard. The updates cause a 500 error, I raise a ticket and they fix within 72 hours. I have reduced my plugins to the minimum (6 in total) but I don't want to lose this one and updates are regular. They have to do something to the hosting backend that I cannot access. I try and limit this cost to every few months but it's still pants.

I am hoping that Hey Presto can help.

You don't need to pay for a firewall. Just use WordFence which is FREE and a wordpress plugin and will stop all hacking attempts.

72hrs is pretty slow to be fair. Regular run of the mill support would be enough for you I would say.
 

Jon

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In terms of getting a quote from Hostpresto all you want to do is move the domain and the content over

Forget the SSL as you can set that up for free.
Forget the Firewall as you can use Wordfence
Forget the super duper support as normal support is good enough.

I've restored my sites more times than I can count via hostpresto and it's literally a 2 click job done via cpanel
 
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Helen Jayne

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In terms of getting a quote from Hostpresto all you want to do is move the domain and the content over

Forget the SSL as you can set that up for free.
Forget the Firewall as you can use Wordfence
Forget the super duper support as normal support is good enough.

I've restored my sites more times than I can count via hostpresto and it's literally a 2 click job done via cpanel

They call it Premium Support but it's the lowest price option.
I have downloaded and activated Wordfence and also Updraft as backups were included in my existing Security Package. They both have good reviews and seem simple enough.

But check this out!

539
£12 to move my site and all the other stuff is included :eek::D:D
So that's a no brainer!!

Thank you so much. I cannot believe I am saving a whopping £634 next month.
 
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Jon

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I'd LOVE a review of my blog!! www.savingsbs.com

Design

That Newsletter popup needs to go. It looks bad on Desktop and even worse on Mobile as is a huge off-putter. The fact that if you ignore it and then come back to the page and it's now become a sidebar slider is enough to put me off using the site if I was a reader.

K4vcxUk.png


b0g0PhU.png


Also, the Title of your homepage appears to be Hiya... - SavingsVS

Blue and white is a nice colour scheme but you need to come up with a logo that isn't just text. I would also say you should move the blog to be your homepage instead of it being a thing you access from the Menu.

Not all your blog posts have featured images which is why when I click on 'Blog' at the top I get a mishmash of post snippets some with pics and some without. Consistency is key when it comes to blogging, in all forms!


Content

You have affiliate links on your site but no mention that they exist anywhere on your pages. You need to remedy that.

The financial reports are interesting but I don't get the 'WHY' in them being there. You clearly want to make money from the blog which is why you are already using affiliate links but I don't get how the income reports compliment that unless you are just using them as content filler.

Your writing style of fluid which is a positive thing you just need to decide which direction you are going in as at the moment it just seems like every other personal finance blog when it starts out. What are you going to provide that is unique and will bring people to your site that they can't get elsewhere?


Thoughts for the Future

Like I said, move the blog to the home page, put featured images on all your posts and make a decision on what sort of direction you want to take the site. But more important that all of that is removing that newsletter popup as it's just going to damage your bounce rate no end!
 
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BenSherreard

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Design

That Newsletter popup needs to go. It looks bad on Desktop and even worse on Mobile as is a huge off-putter. The fact that if you ignore it and then come back to the page and it's now become a sidebar slider is enough to put me off using the site if I was a reader.

K4vcxUk.png


b0g0PhU.png


Also, the Title of your homepage appears to be Hiya... - SavingsVS

Blue and white is a nice colour scheme but you need to come up with a logo that isn't just text. I would also say you should move the blog to be your homepage instead of it being a thing you access from the Menu.

Not all your blog posts have featured images which is why when I click on 'Blog' at the top I get a mishmash of post snippets some with pics and some without. Consistency is key when it comes to blogging, in all forms!


Content

You have affiliate links on your site but no mention that they exist anywhere on your pages. You need to remedy that.

The financial reports are interesting but I don't get the 'WHY' in them being there. You clearly want to make money from the blog which is why you are already using affiliate links but I don't get how the income reports compliment that unless you are just using them as content filler.

Your writing style of fluid which is a positive thing you just need to decide which direction you are going in as at the moment it just seems like every other personal finance blog when it starts out. What are you going to provide that is unique and will bring people to your site that they can't get elsewhere?


Thoughts for the Future

Like I said, move the blog to the home page, put featured images on all your posts and make a decision on what sort of direction you want to take the site. But more important that all of that is removing that newsletter popup as it's just going to damage your bounce rate no end!

Wow! Thanks so much. This is exactly what I need. I'm brand new to this so appreciate the guidance!
 
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BenSherreard

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Hi Jon,

I am going through the blog and working on the suggestions you made.

Can I clarify... you said:

Content

You have affiliate links on your site but no mention that they exist anywhere on your pages. You need to remedy that.


Do you mean that I should include a disclaimer on the pages from a transparency point of view? Or explain on the pages that the links exist as a signpost to drive people to them?

Thanks very much. Really grateful for your support.

Ben
 

Jon

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Hi Jon,

I am going through the blog and working on the suggestions you made.

Can I clarify... you said:

Content

You have affiliate links on your site but no mention that they exist anywhere on your pages. You need to remedy that.


Do you mean that I should include a disclaimer on the pages from a transparency point of view? Or explain on the pages that the links exist as a signpost to drive people to them?

Thanks very much. Really grateful for your support.

Ben
You need a disclaimer that you are getting paid every time someone uses one of your affiliate links
 

AngelaMCGF

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Is there a list on Money Shed somewhere with all the Blogs people have?
 

Jon

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Charityshophopping

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giphy.gif

Sometimes when you start a blog it can be good to have a bit of feedback.

I feel I've been in the 'blog game' for long enough and would love to get the chance to help others out by giving them a bit of feedback about the site and the content on it.

So if you'd like to offer up your blog for review then drop the URL below and I'll do one for you!
(I have the YOAST SEO plug in and have done their course too)
 

Jon

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(I have the YOAST SEO plug in and have done their course too)

Design
I found the layout for your blog to be SPOT ON. It's clear, easy to navigate through and you use good fonts throughout. You make great use of the widgets in your sidebar as well giving people yet more options to view and interact with your content. The only thing I would maybe consider would be moving your menu at the very top of the header below your logo as it sort of appears quite separated.

Content
In terms of the blog posts. The content is very good but I would work on your layout a bit. layout carries a big weight with Google so I would look at using 'Paragraph' for your main text and using Headers (H1,H2 etc) wherever you can for new sections.

Something isn't right with this blog post either as when you go to it in either Safari or Chrome it seems to provide a sort of 'mobile' view with everything squashed into the middle https://charityshophoppingandotherthings.co.uk/focus-on-crisis

This one as well

There may be other posts which are acting in a similar way.

Thoughts for the future
I would think about creating a Logo in Canva or something. Also your slogan either needs to be broken up or reworded as 'Who doesn't love a bargain? What you can get if you look hard enough" doesn't make grammatical sense unless I'm going crazy.

You have lots of external links on your blog posts but very few if any Internal ones. Again Google places a HUGE weight on those so you need them throughout your content so people don't just turn up, read the one blog post they found and vanish!
 

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