Another Chance to Win 1,700 Visitors: Review Furniture Fashion

First up – nice looking blog, but without a BG (white BG) it looks a bit strange, kind of like the header is in no mans land…

Fixed columns on the side will make it look better too. Once the menu text (google ads) ends it looks weird without them

short SEO-advice: don’t nofollow your “Favorite Articles” but nofollow the feed-links in your navigation!

It looks like it’s broken, visual design to me looks like unfinished. Background color could make wonders..

I like the huge photos in posts, but then again that column is too wide, too much characters on one line. It could be easier to read, if it had less characters on one line.

Areas are bit unclear and the header does not work well, it looks cheap. Header area over all should be seriously improved. And for example the colors in the date thingy aren’t good together, the contrast isn’t great and for some people it is probably very hard to read.

Navigations are lost somewhere in there, one of the most important things in page. I’d take a look to those ad places too, those can be affective, but also so annoying that first time visitors never come back. It is pretty obvious that there is a need to make money, but it shouldn’t be yelled so loud to regular readers. I think there are lots to do with the layout.

As a potential international reader, the lack of serious linking and information of product prices, purchasing options annoys me. And I’d divide the information in posts somehow, short intro, facts etc.

I don’t like it at all. Lack of SEO and Design. Adsense is on wrong spot and looks horrible with blue link.

To Owners of FF:

Please consider next time professional webdesign or design that looks more towards “Furniture and Fashion” type of style.

This might hurt but it’s for your own good, you wanted feedback!

a) Put Adsense in individual archive (each post)
a1) between the title and the text (468×60)
a2) between the text and comments (325 x 250)
a3) after the comments
Remove adsense in the column
make background and border of adsense with the same colour than the background of the blog

don’t forget to put the special tag adsense in the individual archive template to orient the choice of the pub

b) adbrite
amazon (new widgets are amaz.. ing

c)
– subscribe in all dynamic rss systems , search engine
– coment on olther blogs, and forum, and sites with “furniturefashion.com as nickname (the name of your blog without www)

d) forget concept of community. this concept is has been. The community IS the web; Don’t loose time in “stuff” that have potential life of 6 months or 1 year (like secondlife, facebook, twitter) except if it”s easy to subscribe and to publish automatically your feed

e) use feedburner
put chicklet for my yahoo, google/ig, netvibes, bloglines at the top of the banner.
Propose rss by mail (possibility of feedburner) at the top of your banner
if you have more than 100 rss readers, publish your feedcount at the top of your banner
inside your feed, make a good teaser like “other news about … in “name of your site”..

f) the home page has no interest. the individual page is more interesting to catch new people from the search engines.
– put the last posts in column
– put the last comments in the column
– put categories AFTER comments in the individual templates
– put “relatited entries” after comments in the individual archives (plugin in mt or wp)

g) write with the words that SEARCH the people and not with the words you think..
use google.com/trends and search keyword tool in google adwords to understand what kind of words search the people in your business

h) understand that if you want to earn money with adsense , your content doesn’t have to be very good :-)
people is in google, searches something, finds your blog, goes to your blog.. if content is very interesting, people read but doesn’t click on adsense. if content is bad, people go back to google
To keep people in your blog, propose last posts, comments, relatives entries, etc.. AROUND your post (column, under the post)
Propose the most commented entries, the most readed entries too.

i) if you use wordpress, use the seo pack plugin . if you use MT, change the code, and put as meta description.. Then the meta description will be different for every post.
Do the publication to have ;;;.com/title-of-your-post and not ….com/2008/03/category/title of your post

l) write some content in russian and register it in yandex.ru (THE search engine in russia). Do the same in China. Do some french content too ;-))

active PING inside your feedburner account

j) do link inside your blog –> other posts, category
When you write a new post, rewrite a old post with a link to the new one

..

If you are in France (or want content in french), contact us :-))))

ps: excuse my english !!!

Honestly, my first impression of this blog was, well, for lack of a better word, boring. And that’s not good because you have an interesting focus. I mean if your site is about “interior decorating with a concentration on furniture.” Then you better be presenting yourself as a style fashion icon and your layout/graphics doesn’t do that. Get a more architectured look. Your site should represent the furniture and fashion that you want to project.

Also, think of a new navigational scheme other then the blog default “categories”. Chunk the categories under headings like “By Room” “By Piece” maybe even “By Designer”. This will allow people to navigate the site in the way they want instead of having to sift through a billion categories just steaming down the side of the page.

Ad placement and integration could be a bit better but that would come with a redesign. Right now it looks like a site where you just want me to click on an ad and go away. Your content should be the focus not the bright blue google ads streaming down the right hand side of the page.

As for building a community. Have some design challenges, or ask your readers to what they think about a piece. Invite the user to participate and contribute. It’s the only way to build a community were people will come back to not only read what you have written but also what your readers have to say as well.

Hope that helps!

-Roni

First – get focus. Decide if you are a “Catablog” (see article: How To Sell Niche Products with Your Blog ) or you are an interior design e-zine.

If you choose to go to the “Catablog” route, then find some affiliate programs that sell furniture that you love – and write great copy about each piece.

If you choose the interior design route, then write articles that give tips about choosing design elements and incorporate products into the article as examples. Go to the bookstore and pick up some Interior Design magazines (Metropolitan Home, Elle Décor, etc.). What are the types of articles they are writing? Who advertises in them? Chances are they have the same demographic you want – so that should give you a huge head start. (In content ideas – and potential advertisers and/or affiliates)

Second – No matter which route you decide to choose, you should change your theme to a “magazine” style theme. This will clean up your clutter, and put focus on the images which is what will appeal to your demographic. (To be direct – I wouldn’t let somebody with a bad haircut cut my hair – and I’m not sure I’d take design advice from someone whose site had a poor design; while I know technical design and interior design skills aren’t related – the average consumer will be put off by a less than stunning visual design.) I am not familiar with Moveable Type – but I would look for a theme like the WordPress themes by Graph Paper Press or RevolutionTheme. They are visually appealing, and easy to manage.

Third – logo, domain, tagline – for me none of these work. They don’t match which will automatically hurt (Furniture Fashion is the “logo” – but your domain is furniturestoreblog.com). The domain tells me that you are going to be selling me something – or that you blog about furniture stores. I would try something more “brand-able” rather than keyword rich; maybe iDesignBlog.com? Something with the potential for an appealing logo and brand – and absolutely the brand must match the domain. (BTW – idesignblog.com is available – I checked)

Finally, after you’ve addressed the first three points, try each of the following:
1. Submit a press release announcing your new domain and re-launch.
2. Get very active on Digg’s Arts & Culture section
3. Get very active on Stumbleupon with Stumblers interested in “Arts” and “Interior Design”

You have a great start – looks like focus and aesthetics should get you to the next level.

1. Goal
You need to clarify the goal of your blog. You say, “Our goal is to write articles… to provide information on decorating trends, products, pictures and knowledge tips”. Article writing is the means to an end, and so is the information. Isn’t the goal to somehow help your readers?

Here are a few examples. Is this furniture hard to find, so you are making it easier? Is there something important about the furniture quality that could help readers avoid costly mistakes? Are you helping them envision these pieces in their home? Are you offering expert designers’ opinions on trends? Is your blog going to make your readers more design-savvy? Make it easy for your readers to understand what they will gain by reading.

2.Tag Line
It should be a short description of what your blog is about. Is it about being “surrounded”? Most likely, it’s not. This goes back to the blog goal – when you make it clearer, the tag line will follow.

3. Look and Feel
Your photos are beautiful, but at a first glance, the blog has a feel of a furniture catalog. Is this the feel you are after? If you want to have more of a blog feel, you need to write more substantive content.

The top add is so close to the blog title, that it visually looks like continuation of your tag line. I thought the blog is about “bellacor lighting”:)

4. Content
Blog post is a story, and sometimes a picture could be a story, but it didn’t feel that way to me. There has to be more of a narrative to capture your readers’ interest. The pictures looked disproportionate to the short text part.

You will know what to write about, once the goal of your blog is clear. Look at the interior design magazines – they have articles, not just photos.

Blog post becomes a conversation when your get readers to comment. You may not want comments, but if you do, you need to have a story to go with the picture. With pictures alone, what would you expect as comments – that someone liked a furniture piece, or disliked it, or wanted to buy it?

5. Ideas for international readership
Interior design has a big cultural component, and your blog needs to speak to the cultural differences reflected in design. Again, look for foreign design magazine publications to better understand their readers’ design mind set, wants and needs.

P.S. These observations are from a reader’s, rather then a blogger’s, point of view. I hope it helps. Good Luck.

Very innovative blog. I would enjoy seeing decor ideas for offices. Business decor is a market that is often overlooked.

As far as growing blog traffic, perhaps you could feature people who used the decorating tips…before and after photo of the room.

Best of luck,
Jessica Bond
Medical Careerist

Some general design things that you may want to consider:
1) The text on your title bar seemed a little hard to read, especially the tag line. “Get surrounded” was a little small, and the brownish red on green seems to clash a little. Maybe try putting that text in a really dark green?
2) The banner ads seem a little overbearing and dwarf the content.
3) There are a lot of different strong colors on the site even outside the pictures of the furniture. The section headers and title text are reddish, the Google AdSense titles are the default blue, the hyperlinks in the posts aren’t the same shade of blue as the AdSense’s links, and the post titles are green. It almost looks like you couldn’t decide. ;) I’d look for ways to tighten the color scheme so that it works together rather than fights itself.
4) The image on your latest post (the Inge Sempe armchair) isn’t appearing on my screen. On a related topic, what about posting a slightly smaller image and then allowing readers to click for a full-size version? The images are nice but they also dominate the content. Maybe reduce the size of the images and enlarge your post text font size a little so that it calls more attention to what you write? You may get more comments that way.

As for ways to build community and make more money, it seems that your niche screams for bringing furniture designers, showroom managers, and buyers together. How about a board that allows buyers to request proposals for consignment pieces, and for furniture designers to contact them on a per-lead basis? Or let furniture designers put up a gallery of their work for a per-month charge? There may be quite a few furniture designers that work locally and who might like to try getting some extra exposure without putting up a website of their own. Then you can add value (either included in their subscription or extra) by rotating thumbs of their work right under the title bar.

(If you do something like this I’ll mention your website to a friend of mine who’s a local furniture designer. ;) )

Best wishes!

John, I can’t tell you the difference between a tag line and a finish line, but I do know strategy. And even the best “online voodoo” can only go so far with flawed strategy, so sit tight. This is gonna knock you for a loop and keep you up more than a few nights, so grab your coffee and your yellow pad, and start writing down ideas:

A & B) Diversify and make more money.

Here’s the thing. You aren’t doing enough to help people. You mentioned your mission is “to provide articles and pictures to readers to give them ideas for their own homes as well as follow design trends.” And yet… all you’re doing here for the most part, is functioning as an online catalog. See, you are making the assumption — which I believe may not be true — that your audience knows what the hell they are doing. I’d say a portion of your audience may know, but most do not.

Why not become educators? Why not put a series of products together that educates these folks about what to do, and then their natural inclination will be to buy the resources which you’re listing (which you can get an override on via a joint venture arrangement).

So for example, let’s take kitchens. You could interview two or three interior decorators whose expertise is in kitchens. Then you can make one or more DVD’s showing the application of the techniques you’ve discussed in your Audio CD’s (you’ve got enough shows on television now to use as a model). Then you add a three-ringed binder explaining the entire process of decorating a kitchen — “Kitchen Decorating Secrets That Make Your Neighbors Green With Envy” or something like that. And once it’s over you’ve got quite a nice product. One or more manuals/binders, a few Audio CD’s with transcripts, and some DVD’s. Add in some checklists and other “How To” guides or information about pop culture or celebrities that tie in, and you’ve got yourself the “Kitchen Magic” Interior Design System that you could easily get a thousand bucks for.

You can replicate this across loads of different demographics in your industry. By room, by location, by style, by economics, the list is probably endless. And this, by the way, is another thing I’d urge you to consider — narrowing down your target market. There is such a wide variety here, you’re not appealing strongly enough to any one genre of the marketplace. That’s not to say you can’t set up multiple sites like this, each one appealing to a specific sector of your marketplace, but as is, it may not be compelling enough to attract anyone in particular.

You could then have membership forums for each of these sectors, monthly guest calls, monthly offline newsletter subscriptions, audio cd interviews… you name it, it’s possible.

I could go on for hours here, but hopefully you get the gist of what I’m saying. Yes, this involves work, but reaching a 7-figure business here in a twelve to 18-month time frame, is very doable, if you do it right.

C) Traffic

Once you target your market or markets, I’d use offline mailing lists to drive them online to your site, by offering them a free report or something. “Free Report Reveals Little-Known European Design Secrets Available For Half The Price Here In America” or whatever.

Also, right now there’s no incentive to subscribe. “Daily newsletter.” What does that mean? More ads to look at every day? Maybe not, but how is anyone supposed to know?

D) Community – already mentioned in A (forums with a COMMON interest)

J) Improving

At some point, you probably want to tell your story. How did you get involved with this, or why should anyone even listen to you. Are you just passionate about furniture? Was your mother always rearranging the living room floor plan? Inquiring minds want to know. There’s not even a location here. Where are you guys, Canarsie or California? Building credibility is one of the critical ingredients of building trust — make sure you keep this in mind.

Good luck. I wish you the best and hope this has helped you out.

Craig Garber

I appreciate all the community comments. My partner and I are currently working on determining what type of site we are and what the mission will be. This will go a long way in ensuring that we present ourselves correctly to readers.

The design is a problem and that will be addressed.

The question on what we are providing readers is a great one. We should answer that in our mission and in each post. Without that perspective we are shooting in the wind.

For other bloggers considering doing a review, just do it. The comments will help your site get better and help you define a clear direction.

John

Uninspiring design. Without a focus your just another catalog site in a sea of others.

To get someone who is interested in new this style of furniture the theme of the blog needs to reflect their style.

To attract and keep readers: they want to find personal stories and pictures of furniture used in real environments. Guest blog authors and a question- and – answer section would go along way in creating interest.

I can look at a magazine at the local book store… If I saw a cover that looked similar to your site… I would have passed it up. No Bling!

Plus… the great thing about an online magazine is the interaction… which can feel personal and immediate.

You look like you are trying to compete with the big boys and it doesn’t have a hook! Like they say… don’t try to be Amazon… they have been at it too long.

Be different and edgy. The furniture you are showcasing must have an audience that wants constant information. Why should they come to you?

For instance… when I click on baby furniture… at this time the first thing I see is a picture of what appears to be a plain crib… and an ugly one at that. It takes me a few seconds to realize that the article is about organic mattresses.

Is that a message of this site? Is it focused on baby furniture and organic materials? But… when I scroll down the page I come to the greatest looking highchair I have ever seen. Now that is something visual I can sink my teeth into.

But… the article that goes with that highchair is very hard to read – format is very bad – and it’s boring.

I can see what you are trying to do… but I think you need to get out a big white board and marker and rethink the strategy of this site. Or at least… get a strategy.

Oh… and get rid of the adsense at least in the side column and the little calender icons on the posts. Class up the joint!

Interesting site. Without having read any of the other comments, here’s my take on it. I would first address some site design issues. A tagline and/or mission statement at the top would go a long way towards converting visitors into subscribers. Having that in the footer means that casual traffic is going to click on out before ever finding out what the site is there for in the first place.

The banner at the top is lovely, and ties in nicely with the footer. But they’re so far apart that they look disjointed. May I suggest uniting them with some color between? Perhaps putting that lovely pale green from the pictured sofa as a background in the sidebar?

The writing is concise, which I appreciate. However, it sounds a bit like copy from a catalog or magazine. Is this a website dedicated to selling these furniture pieces? Then keep the text as is. If it’s a blog, then having a more personal approach will help you develop a devoted following. People are attracted by good site design; they stay for compelling information and personality. I don’t learn anything about the author(s) when I read the posts. Which brings me to the about page. I learn about the site, but not the authors. Adding information about the authors would go a long way toward making the blog more personal.

I clicked randomly through some categories, and the site seems heavily biased toward modern furniture. (Apologies if I’m mistaken. I’m not tremendously knowledgeable about style). Why not capitalize on that and specialize as a niche site on modern design?

The friends blogroll is a bit confusing. Why is a divorce attorney’s site linked on the front page of a furniture site? The second link is to an artist, but I have no way of knowing that unless I take the time to click on the link. Perhaps a phrase telling what her site is and why I should go there? The gadget review name is enough to get me to click on the third link. The other blogroll didn’t even catch my attention until I went back and looked a third time. The list blends in a bit.

Having Google ads in the Finds category seems impersonal. I’m not likely to click on an ad, but I would be willing to check out a discovery that one of the blog authors made.

I would make the rss button bigger. Also, have you put any thought into what it means to be an authority site? I subscribe to sites that entertain, teach, or inform. You’re already informing, how about doing some article series that teach? That would help build your subscriber base (and email list). There are all sorts of furniture topics I would love to learn about: how to pick a quality piece, what to look for in a couch, what types of fabric wear under what circumstances, child friendly brands, and more.

I see there’s a daily newsletter. Does this mean daily post? Or an entire newsletter? The word newsletter to me means multiple articles. Honestly that overwhelms me and I’m less likely to subscribe. I’m not willing to dedicate a lot of time to a newsletter that frequent. I would be willing to read a post daily though. If it is indeed just a single post, perhaps describing the newsletter as an ‘update’ or switching to a weekly or monthly email would be helpful.

I personally would close comments on the advertise page, and add in some text describing what size ads are for sale and how much they cost. Also, a paragraph or two explaining why someone would want to advertise there is a good idea. Some details about site traffic and perhaps a list of any awards the site or its creators have won would be helpful.

Now that I’m coming to the close of this, I guess my one biggest concern is the impersonal nature of the site. Ramping up some personality would help you increase comments, readership, subscribers, and ultimately advertisers and affiliate sales.

Good luck!

Your site is great except that it needs a translator so you can get those international readers to visit and you need a few pictures of different types of furniture that you will be telling your readers about. You also need to change the header or change where it says get surrounded it should be larger and if you add two more words it would be more interesting to the readers eyes like ” get surrounded by elegance” it sounds better then just get surrounded. Your ads also need to be directed to what your site is all about. Also be sure to post and let your readers know what your site is about as well..Other then these few changes I think you have a pretty neat site. Best of luck and be sure to join communities to get the word out about your site like myblog and stumbleupon and blog catalog you can always get a few readers from those sites when you make new friends.