bsflarva

Thanks for the suggestion mosey, I need to learn more about this SEO stuff.

mrkingid, I had to laugh when I checked out your website. Mr. Pot, please meet Mr. Kettle. ??

By the way I think your artwork is great. It’s very real without being overly “realistic” if that makes any sense. I mean, it’s realistic but playfully so. Yeah, that’s it, playfully realistic, like life seen through a babies eyes.

Perhaps you would like to paint one of my fly larvae photos…

I wonder if anyone would give me a little more advice. It’s been a month since I launched this wp blog and I still haven’t seen it show up on a google search. I’ve installed and used an SEO plugin, kept my blog validating and I’ve posted a fair amount of content in the first month. My previous Blogger site (similar content) showed up in just a few weeks, and that blog has numerous xhtml errors. Furthermore I’ve added a link to my current wp blog on the old Blogger blog. Google analytics for the Blogger blog indicates that 73% of the traffic is from google, but the new site shows no visits via google at all. In fact this thread is the largest source of traffic on my wp site!

The subject matter of my current blog is almost identical to that of the old Blogger site, only there’s more of it on the wp site.

I installed the KB Robots plugin and I’m wondering if I may have used it incorrectly causing a problem for search engines.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

longwing1, I like your site. It’s official, the minimalist phase of the internet is begun! ??

I’m glad you found the information interesting mickey1, I think it’s a good time to blog about green technologies.

mosey, I like the criticism, please keep it coming if you will. ??

My instincts told me not to paginate, but I recognize that there might be an advantage in having more post titles near the top.

The main reason I put the little YouTube player in the sidebar was to add some color and some interest to the main page. I’ll try moving it down a bit a see how it looks.

I was thinking about Lightbox or similar to allow people to see the enlarged images without leaving the blog window. Now that I think about it I’m not sure what happens if I choose “open image in new window”. I’ve been assuming that it would cause the image to open in a full size window, but if it opened a small window over the blog window I would go with that.

I don’t know where I would put a featured post. I started thinking about it because a lot of the content is reference type stuff… I may end up relying on pages quite a bit because of that.

I’m normally a wise guy, but I’m toning myself down a little because I don’t want to scare too many people off with my undiluted personality. ?? I’m fortunate because I have tons of content to post, I just wish I had more time.

Once again, thanks all for the input.

Thanks for the help so far, I have few more questions. I like the simplicity of my blog but I’m considering more features. What do you all think about my adding:

Paginated posts.

Featured post.

Lightbox 2 or similar.

Do you think the sidebar YouTube player adds or detracts?

I made a page for my videos. Can you recommend a better approach?

Video page: https://blacksoldierflyblog.com/?page_id=112

mosey, what you said about SEO seems to agree with what I’ve read so far. Fortunately I have a lot to post about so I’ll just get to it.

I’ll look into permalinks and also featured posts. I can also see where separate pages will come in handy for reference type information.

I sure do appreciate the feedback.

Thanks!

mosey, I’m glad you found the content interesting, I’ll be adding to it constantly once I get myself organized. I agree that my current url is best, but I’m trying to be considerate of another blogger. I’ve asked them how they feel but haven’t heard from them yet. As far as the traffic implications, my blog is so new there really isn’t much to worry about yet.

jonimueller, I actually went with this title font because it was the only one that would fit it into one line. With the other fonts the first and second line overlapped and was distracting. I would also like to adjust text colors, but I haven’t figured out how to locate the code to make the changes yet. It took some blind luck for me to get the blog to validate so I’m hesitant to play with the coding much at this point.

I’m a little frustrated that my blog doesn’t show up with a google search (40 pages). I installed the All-in-one SEO plugin, but I’m not sure if I’ve used the right copy. I’ll have to study SEO some more to understand what to do. I had to laugh because this thread shows up fairly high in a search for “black soldier fly”!

Does anyone else think the watermarks are tacky? I’m not really that possessive, I just want to employ good marketing.

If I need to stop using blacksoldierflyblog.com I’m thinking of using goodflyblog.com instead. Any perspectives on how that might influence traffic?

Thanks for the feedback, it was very helpful.

I thought about inserting a colorful image into the top of the sidebar, at least until I figure out how to manipulate the theme.

I may also need to change my domain name because the manufacturer of the product has one that’s very similar. I’m just hoping it not too hard to switch over. I suppose the blog is new enough that I could recreate it from scratch if nothing else.

I was just teasing if it wasn’t obvious rspence. I changed the subtitle, what do you think?

Also, I originally wanted to color the header but lack teh skills.

Thanks.

“You might want to be more clear about the focus of the blog in the sub-header.
It took me a while to figure out that this wasn’t some Science Fair project.”

I agree, thank you.

“The layout is good for what it is.
Why the small thumbnails. We don’t need the flys to scale. Enlarge!”

I was trying to be considerate of people with slow connections. Is that not a valid concern?

“A splash of color for the background of the sidebar or something wouldn’t kill ya.”

You’re probably right, I’ve survived incredible amounts of color in my life. Perhaps the lack of gratuitous color will appeal to people who read books (without pictures). OTOH if I wanto to appeal to average people I should probably take your advice.

“Don’t be so paranoid. Lose the watermarks on the photos. No one’s going to steal your pictures of flies. If they do. Who cares?”

The funny thing is that I didn’t even realize I was being paranoid! The whole time I was watermarking the photos I kept thinking “if I watermark the photos and someone uses them I’ll get free advertising”. I will consider your suggestion and also seek psychiatric consul.

“Interesting info on flies.
Thanks for sharing.
FWIW, you won’t be invited over for dinner.”

FWIW I would rather spend my time with the flies anyway, thank you. ??

whooami, I’m sure you’re correct about people’s sensitivity. detoam seems to be the opposite though, like he might be too willing to abandon his vision to conform to other peoples tastes. I like feedback about my work, but I think it’s best to apply it carefully, especially when the criticism is about style and not function.

detoam, where the columns white in the first version?

It’s almost like someone who is giving criticism is being sensitive about their criticism being criticized. ??

Hmp. I think those changes are over my head for now rgallacher. Thanks though, I’ll make a note of it.

??

These flies are very different from houseflies… but of course it isn’t for everyone. The niche these insects occupy could revolutionize waste processing. They could be used to greatly reduce landfill and they have many other valuable attributes.

K, back to the blog…. ??