Greetings.... Greetings.. Occupants of AyodeleJays Blog.

Herald... Hark! Copycraker a.k.a. This User Dey Craze has arrived at your ... emm... "Domot"

Okay, I'm just having a bit of fun.

Why? Because these reviews will get tiresome quickly if I didn't. That's why.

Plus I keep seeing sites targeting the same niches and trying to do the same things that have already been done countless times before and I have to say the same things over and over.

Trust me. If I don't find a way to have fun, I wee close shop.

And AyodeleJays, this crazy user aff tire to see himitation (you know what I'm talking about, Linda? Ikeji? You've obviously heard about her, but we'll come to that later)... but no wahala, a review thou asked for... a review thou shalt receive.

I. Thy Design and Layout.

I canst swear that I hath seen thy blog design somewhere recently... Where wast it?

Ah.. I remembereth. Dost thou and Temolad blog share the same web developer (or theme)?

But that's another story.

It's an okay design, I feel it could be more flashy and yes, a bit of that "senrenre" will do thee good here.

By senrenre I mean, background image or anything that makes your theme look like you actually designed the template (as you claimed in your footer, but we'll get to that).

But that's just my own opinion though, as always, you're free to take it with a grain of salt, if you feel I must be crazy (and you won't be wrong cos I am ).

Now, enough play. Let's get serious.

(i). Site Title

For some reason, a lot of people feel the need to put up a "Welcome to....." in front of their Site Title.

That is absolutely unnecessary.

Here's an analogy to help you understand why.

When you go to a shop for example, Shoprite, how do you know you're there? Well, for one, there's always a huge crowd of people getting in and coming out. But how you actually know is you see the shop title- "SHOPRITE" in white letters on a red background.

Websites are basically like that. Users are coming to shop for information, entertainment, news, products, etc.

Telling them Welcome to AyodeleJaysBlog doesn't really .... well.. make too much sense. Just put the Site Title as "Ayodele Jay's Blog" and they'll get it.

And in other yarns, people, let's start a mufment, the #WelcomeTomustdie mufment

So yeah, take out the Welcome to. Your site is Ayodele Jay's Blog, not Welcome to Ayodele Jay's Blog.


(ii). I hactually luf your tagline. Yes, I hactually do. It's concise, straight to the point and tells me exactly what your site is about.

I do think you need to make it more visible though, maybe change the color or the size of the font or anything. Sha make it more visible, cos right now, I had to strain a bit to see it.


(iii). Your primary navigation menu.

While it's great that you have one (at least we know how to get back home after leaving the home page, we can read about you and contact you and advertise), but there are things you could put up there, like your different categories- Celebrity Gist, Sports, etc so users just click to which category they want to read about.

Oh, and a search button would be nice to see here.

(iv) Thy Right Side Bar scareth me.

Why dost thou hast the big ass envato ad at the top of the right side bar, and thy search bar at the bottom?

Thou obviously dost not want me to search.

Okay, let's rearrange your right side bar, because to be honest the way you have it now, with the big space-occupying lesion of an ad, at the top, and then followed by a big ass trending posts section, then the link (I think) to join the BBM channel then the Advertise With Us section, google badge, search bar, and then blog archive.

Let's look at it from a user's point of view.

This crazy user came to your site.

He thinks "Hmmm, this site is about trending news, celebrity gist, sports and entertainment... let's go find some... okay, there are some posts, but let me find the one about Kanye West... okay, where do I search?.. hmm, lemme check the right side bar, okay, that's an ad... trending posts, I can't see Kanye, BBM channel? Who the hell cares? I want to find the post about Kanye, Advertise with us... Okay, I'm gone."

See what I'm saying?

I think I mentioned this in an earlier review but let me reiterate it:

"EVERY VISITOR COMES TO A WEBSITE FOR A REASON."

If they can't find the reason, some of them might get distracted with something else on your site, but majority usually leave.

Make it easy for us to use your site... Abeg.

Then rearrange it like this:

- Search bar
- Trending/ popular posts

You can put Categories here or not, if you make your menu sticky

- Join our BBM box
- Like us on Facebook
- Subscribe box
- Social Media buttons

Okay?

Good.

(v) Thy footer his too hespansive.

It's a footer, please. Not an extension of your main content section.

That Like Us on Facebook section will be better off at your right side bar

You can list your pages there like you have right now, but also have categories down there, so it's easier for your users to just jump to a section they find interesting from there.

Also social media buttons would also be appropriate here.


Now, we shalt speak briefly of thy content.

II. Content

I think you've done a great job of catering to the needs of the audience interested in your niche. I found myself clicking on not one, two or three, but many of your posts and actually reading through.

The Headlines are great, and obviously everybody (to an extent) loves gossip about celebrities and famous people.

Okay, to be honest, I mainly read the post about "Mushin to Surulere To Banana Island" and a few other posts about the Kardashians and Linda Ikeji.

But you see my point. Your headlines are working, and your content is good. It's not too long or too short and it tells us sharp-a-ly what we came there to find out in not more than 500 words, which is ideal for your niche.

But that's part of where the p lies- Almost every other "Linda-Ikeji-imitator" is doing the exact same thing. So why should I be loyal to your blog if I can find all this info elsewhere?

No reason.

I feel you should write in your own unique voice, that way you stand out from the rest and actually build a connection with your true audience. This connection by the way would be why they'll keep coming back to read your blog.

Let me be the first to say this publicly- The "Blog-Exactly-Like-Linda-And-Buy-A-House-In-Banana-Island" business model is dead... and bloggers killed it.

To blog about the same thing Linda does and be successful, you need to be unique, you need to have your own voice, your own style, and not be another photocopy.

Because obviously, photocopy ko easy. And if I can get the original, why do I have to settle for a copy?

That's the main issue with your content.

By the way, after every post, I noticed you write some story about how you love comments and questions, etcetera shmetcetera. Take that off. Include that in your post... And also the whole contact beneath the post thing, move that to a Contact us page.

Okay?

Good.


III. Promotion

Social Media is really your best bet. So get those pages set up, and get someone to manage it for you. I'm sure if you ask around in Nairaland, you'll definitely find somebody to hire for that... Okay?

Good.

Overall, a fairly okay site. Just make sure to make those changes I recommended and you'd be solid.


P.S. If you're reading this, and you want me to review your site, don't post it here... Post it here- https://www.nairaland.com/3765331/post-website-blog-here-get

Because queue don already dey, and it's better if everything is in one place so I don't have to be going through the pain of going back and forth between posts.

Now... Hi aff finish...

Sank you... Sank you


Hi aff left the building.

Appy Ustling!

Lol! Thanks Boss For The Review! Will Make The Necessary Changes!