A Luxury Travel Blog

Looks good. I would spread the google ads out a little more, but it’s ok as it is. Categories are awesome.

Y’know, that’s maybe the only “red” blog I’ve ever seen that didn’t immediately cause me to click away…. very nice. Interesting info for those who travel, and your googles are quite well-targeted.

Very nice! I like the idea of your blog – alas, I’m more of a budget traveler, but maybe I can upgrade one day. ??

I do admit I was a bit concerned that there were going to be ads with every post, and was relieved to see that there weren’t. I think any more ads than what you’ve got now would indeed be overdone. I agree with tylerwillis – I would spread them out a bit more so that they aren’t all in the top three posts…maybe every other post would be better.

You have a lot of content in your sidebar (which I actually rather like in this case, usually I don’t like so much) and probably because of that I would break up the categories just a little bit more. I would keep all the travel locations together in one group, and put the rest of the categories in another group. Just an idea – I’m kind of an organization freak.

Hope that helps. ??

nice but i think there are too many ads.

Thanks for the feedback so far everyone.

I very much agree with the suggestion of spacing the ads more, but I’m not sure how to do it! At the moment, I’m using the Google AdSense deluxe plug-in, and I have it assigned to the index.php file. This means that it appears in every post on the page, until it has been displayed three times, and subsequent posts on the page won’t carry it. I would very much like this to appear every other post so that the ads are more spaced… is there a way that this can be achieved? (I realise I can assign the ads on a post by post basis, but this doesn’t really overcome the problem for people looking at individual categories.)

As for the structure, I actually have over 300 categories and subcategories (many of them don’t appear yet because there are no posts yet assigned to them), mostly covering locations. I have one category for (pretty much) every country, as well as one for each state in the US, and various other categories, many of which you will already see. I thought it was important that people could immediately look at say, all the entries for France, if they wished to.

Aaron

Hi everyone

I’ve done an overhaul of the site’s whole look now, and I’d appreciate any additional feedback.

It’s still using the Red Train theme as it’s basis, but it doesn’t really resemble it any longer. The colours are different and the top graphic has been changed.

The Google Ads blend far better now, I think.

I’d be grateful for your opinions.

Thanks!

I like the green very much, it is quite soothing. It makes me think of something exotic and different.
I know that you have put a lot into moving the google ads around, but I have something to nitpick. Now, this is just a personal preference. As a user, the first three articles I see all have ads under them. This irked me, because a first impression is everything on a website. If users come to your page, and skim through it, it is likely they will only view the first few posts before making up their mind about your site. I think if you moved the ads to one every other post, rather than 1-2-3, it would more pleasing to the eye and a load off the reader’s mind. Other than that, it looks great! I look forward to any new changes you have and I’ll certainly be back. Good Luck!

I agree with you, spirit, and I would like to do that. My problem is simply that I’m not sure how to go about it! If anyone can help with this, I’d be grateful.

This is not completely tested but I think it should work, make sure you backup first….
Above the line the starts the loop <?php if (have_posts()) : while [...]
paste this:
<?php $adcount=1; ?>

Then, within the loop add this where you want your adverts to appear:
<?php if($adcount%2) { ?>
<div class="your ad div">
Your ad code here
</div>
<?php } ?>
<?php $adcount++; ?>

Hopefully that will put ads on posts 1, 3, 5 etc.. to put them on 2, 4, 6 etc use
<?php if(!($adcount%2)) { ?>
instead.

To limit the number of posts that show adds I would think the code would be
<?php if(($adcount%2) && ($adcount<=6)) { ?>
where 6 is twice the number of ads that would appear (untested).

Thank you for this, Ian… sorry, but which file is it that I edit?

I did forget to mention that part sorry. Will be index.php (in your theme folder) or home.php for ads on the front page, and then depending on how your theme is written you might have search.php etc.. which you will also need to edit if you want ads there.(index.php would be the best place to start I think).

Hi Paul, I continue to love checking out your blog– we share the same passion for travel and it sure is addictive… I wonder if you’ve had any luck with spacing out the Google ads (to every other post)… Am thinking of doing something similar with the Informed Traveler!

best, Mary

Nice site! Looks very professional–The only thing I might change is the type of green you’re using in the type. Looks a bit too ‘olive’ for me. Maybe just a shade different would be more ‘striking’. IMHO.

Cheers, Alan

I like it a lot. good work