Your Thoughts on my 2 Latest Projects

Douglife

Douglife

DingDongDoug
Mar 14, 2011
379
5
0
US
douglife.com
Hey WF guys, hope this year is treating you well.

I've had some free time in-between clients to work on some of my own personal endeavours, and I'd like you guys to take a moment and check them out.

Currently, it's just me working on both of them. I have a friend or two that will proof-read, but everything you see is either my writing, or me pulling sources, or WP Robot.

What I'm asking is just your thoughts and tactics to help me achieve these 3 goals:

RockSwag - To Get into Google News Feeds
Body Paint - Obtain 2-3 sales per day
Both sites - I'd like to get RockSwag to the point of say HighSnobiety.com, which recently was purchased by the Complex network for a good chunk of change. Body Paint, I'd really like it to be just a seamless automated machine.

Keep in mind I am seasoned in my field, so I've done everything I need to do to prepare Rockswag for Google News feeds.

RockSwag.com
BodyPaint-Art.com

If you could, I'd also like your opinions on what they are both worth currently, and what it would take to bring them to a better price point.

Right now, I have about 15 hours work time, and 31$ invested into both of the domains and 1 month of hosting charges so far.

Adsense is reporting about 2K impressions for the 2 sites, and only about .50 a day.

I also use Linkshare.com for specialty products, Karmaloop, Shoebacca, etc because they are very relative to Rockswag's niche.

And because you took the time to give me your thoughts, if you have a site relevant to either of these two pages, I'd be happy to offer you a blog roll spot.

Thanks for your time guys. :smokin:



RIP @dotcomicon
 


@secretagentdad:

I won't lie that's a wordpress theme, but it's definitely not plug and play. I spent most of my time customizing it.

But PM me if you'd like my hourly rates.

Thanks for the compliment!

BTW: You wouldn't by chance know where I could pickup a Bullshit Detector would you? :)
 
Couple suggestions for rockswag:

Put the logo and ads above the check this out slider.

The two links at the top of the page are kinda random and don't go together, and they're pretty nondescript. Oh wait just noticed they're redundant too since they're linked in the tabs above the navigation bar.
The 'rockswag topics' wraparound blocks the first link 'tech-gadgets' in that navigation bar.

Footer is a bit scrambled, things need to line up more.

Big thing that strikes me is by the time I get to the bottom of the page I might potentially see a thumb/snippet of a story/post five times: check this out slider, featured story, thumbnail below featured story, category thumbnail, and feed box.

Hope this helps, snazzy site!
 
MSTeacher said:
Couple suggestions for rockswag:

Put the logo and ads above the check this out slider.

The two links at the top of the page are kinda random and don't go together, and they're pretty nondescript. Oh wait just noticed they're redundant too since they're linked in the tabs above the navigation bar.
The 'rockswag topics' wraparound blocks the first link 'tech-gadgets' in that navigation bar.

Footer is a bit scrambled, things need to line up more.

Big thing that strikes me is by the time I get to the bottom of the page I might potentially see a thumb/snippet of a story/post five times: check this out slider, featured story, thumbnail below featured story, category thumbnail, and feed box.

Hope this helps, snazzy site!
Click to expand...

^^^ This plus
- Make the pager (1-2-3-4) to fill the whole width. It currently fits only one column of the 3 column table.
- You could reduce the number of horizontal menus. All looks un-related and cannot connect what each one is for ..
 
To get your stuff into Google News you need to display a random 3-digit number at the end of your article URLs.
Display a three-digit number. The URL for each article must contain a unique number consisting of at least three digits. For example, we can't crawl an article with this URL: http://www.google.com/news/article23.html. We can, however, crawl an article with this URL: http://www.google.com/news/article234.html. Keep in mind that if the only number in the article consists of an isolated four-digit number that starts with 199 or 200, we won't be able to crawl it. Please note that this rule is waived with News sitemaps.
Click to expand...

Article URLs : Technical Requirements - Google News (publishers) Help

Google News (publishers) Help
 
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@RockDiesel I can't thank you enough for that info above.

Another question if you don't mind.

I did some Googling, and found Google News XML Sitemap Plugin for Wordpress.

It works well and Webmaster Tools accepts it.

I noticed in the XML file that the plugin isn't adding the 3 digit numbers to the end of a post.

Should I still do so with the Google News Sitemap? Also, is there a permalink structure I'm not aware of that will automate this for me?

Damn, 2 questions. Sorry.

BTW: +1
 
@tavin

I'm assuming you're attempting to call me out on something, but you seem to be tippy-toeing around it.

Also, it's plug and play to an extent, but as you are surely aware there is quite a bit of customization required to get it functional.

I buy my themes, and I'm fully aware of the licensing required to use them.
Douglife - ThemeForest

Next time just say "you're using someone else's theme, with a decent idea, and I'm dickhurt over it."
 
Trust me I could care less about your wordpress theme and 2k impressions over two sites

I was simply adding a link where people could get the same theme since they liked the design.

If I wanted to call you out, I would have.

If you think loading the site and adding in pictures, permalinks and logo is customization or mods then so be it.

I'm talking real mods, that people pay for. You should know all about this since you talked about your hourly rates ... what a joke.

Maybe next time you should take the defense shield down and not be so quick on the trigger.

Good luck on trying to match highsnobiety but you should have no trouble with your wizard boss mods and seo tricks
 
Maybe I wouldnt give you so much shit if it didn't say "Web Design Extraordinaire" under your name.

Get a grip.. and move out of deinaltown. You buy your themes, you're not a web design expert, clown.
 
Last edited:
Douglife said:
I noticed in the XML file that the plugin isn't adding the 3 digit numbers to the end of a post.

Should I still do so with the Google News Sitemap? Also, is there a permalink structure I'm not aware of that will automate this for me?
Click to expand...

I'd assume it's not adding 3 digit numbers to the links in your sitemap because your permalink structure doesn't have the 3 digit numbers. How do you go about adding random digits to your permalink structure? I have no clue. I've never looked into doing it. Sorry I can't help you with that.
 
bodypaintstore just looks weird. I don't like the colors at all, and I don't get why you have a huge image saying "click here to view gallery" instead of just putting a 3x3 grid of random photos there. It also looks a lot like a standard template and where the gallery link is I kept expecting to see an Adsense ad.
 
Put the logo and ads above the check this out slider. Footer is a bit scrambled, things need to line up more.
 
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