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March 19th, 2007

What’s Wrong With My Blog: An Honest Self-Assessment of TechTraction.com

The other day I came across an interesting post at The Instigator which made an excellent case for “why” good design matters. Then, this morning, I read a related post from John Chow’s guess blogger Mitchell Harper from HarpzOn.com offering a few tips for improving your site’s first impression. After reading both articles I was inspired to focus a critical eye on this blog, TechTraction.com, and ask myself three simple questions about my site’s overall design and first impression:

  1. Does this site’s design make a good first impression?
  2. Does this site make the “right” first impression?
  3. What is the purpose of this site?

Okay, I have to be completely honest on the first question. This site’s design makes a “fair” first impression. I don’t have nonsense all over the place, the basic navigation is straight forward, and the color scheme isn’t fantastic but it’s not terribly offensive either. On the other hand, the sidebar contains some useless information such as the Meta section, and the sidebar overall layout has lots of room to improve.

Great, my first question spawned my first “redesign” action item: trim and rearrange the sidebar. But what about the second question? Is the site making the “right” first impression? Unfortunately, I have to answer, no. Techtraction.com is failing to make the “right” first impression for two simple reasons: I’m not clear about the purpose of this site, and the banner graphic implies that this blog focuses on computer “hardware” (note the circuit board and chips), which is NOT what I blog about.

My to-do list is starting to grow: trim and rearrange the sidebar, new banner graphic, define the site’s purpose. The last item on my to-do list ties right into the answer to the third and final question: What is the purpose of this site?

Read my About page and you’ll see my original intent for Techtraction.com was somewhat scattered. I think I fell into this trap because I just wanted to start blogging and didn’t spend a tremendous amount of time thinking about what I wanted to blog about. So, I decided to just throw the site out there and list everything I thought I wanted to blog on my About page. If I want a clear purpose for this site, I need to reexamine what I first said this site was about.

First, I wanted to publish some exclusive “how-to” articles. Not a bad idea but the purpose begs the question, “How-to what?” Clearly I need to clarify my intent. Second, I wanted to blog about upcoming articles in other publications. Makes sense but unless those other articles are available via the web for free, there’s no point to talk about them. Subscribers to those publications will obviously see the article when they get the issue. Anyone else, however, won’t have free access to the article so why mention it? Next, I wanted to post information about upcoming computer classes I teach via local Community Education programs. Those classes are very location specific and the Community Education program already reaches out to the residents in the area via a quarterly mailer so why would I try to reach out further than that through this blog? Bad idea. Finally, I planned to use TechTraction.com as an outlet for my personal rants and ramblings about technology. Not a bad idea but those posts are probably better suited for a blog that’s not specific other than being an outlet for rants and rambles. All that being said, how do I plan to re-focus TechTraction.com?

I’ve decided to redirect my ranting and rambling posts to a new blog I’m starting with my brother: brothersinblog.com (target launch 4/2/07). So I can scratch that item from my About page. Next, I’m also going to trash the announcements about upcoming computer classes. The classes are too localized to warrant a post on a wider reaching blog — another bullet point gone. As for the announcements about articles in other publications, I’ll only write a short post about such an article if it’s freely accessible to everyone with a simple link otherwise I won’t say anything — one more bullet point gone. Finally, that leaves one item on my About page bullet list: exclusive how-to articles. Okay, I’ll say it if no one else will: that’s just plain stupid — another bullet bites the dust.

With nothing left on the About page bullet list (figuratively speaking), I’m stuck on my third question: What is the purpose of TechTraction.com. What will readers find when they get here and why will they return? Fortunately, I have a plan but still need to work out the kinks so I’m not going to say much at the moment. My next post later in the week, however, will redefine the purpose of this site. Therefore, “site redefinition” has become action item number one on my to-do list. As for the other items on the list, they’re still there but obviously taking a back seat at the moment.

Please be patient and don’t give up on TechTraction.com just yet.

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40 Responses to “What’s Wrong With My Blog: An Honest Self-Assessment of TechTraction.com”

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