Today we are reviewing Dianna’s blog, Sincerely Me.
Dianne’s online ministry is about a woman (herself), like us, who is growing closer and stronger in her walk with the Lord and she is sharing that experience with us. She is a homeschooling mom who endeavors to help other moms like herself by providing tutorials and other creative ideas for the family. She also posts lots of reviews for those of us who like an honest opinion before making a purchase. While you are visiting Dianne you will also find that she participates in the I Heart Faces meme and Wordless Wednesday on a regular basis.
In reference to the basics:
- What is your ministry about? Dianne’s ministry is simply engaging other like minded women and offering encouragement.
- Is your site easy to navigate? I found the navigation tabs to be helpful and although I did not find any labeling, the navigation tab covered her major topics. I do think she could benefit from labels though.
- Is your design eye catching yet soothing? The design is fun, very soothing and enabled me to focus on the content. I didn’t find the sidebars to be busy or overpowering. I especially loved the cute little interaction in the header. I find it suits her personality without taking away from the content.
- Do I know how to contact you? I did not find a way to contact Dianna directly.
- Is your content alluring and biblically sound? I found her content to be engaging and transparent. It is encouraging to see someone being so real and sharing life from a perspective of constant growth. We don’t do each other any service by pretending to know it all. I sincerely appreciate Dianne’s vulnerability and her desire to reach out by sharing her own life experiences.
- Are you providing the necessary services to encourage long term readership? I quickly located her “follow” widget, and feed buttons. She also made it easy for me to find her on Facebook and the Homeschool Lounge.
- Do you have an “about me” section or page? Dianne has a section in her sidebar that tells us more about herself and her family. We get a quick glimpse into who she is from that feature.
Things that I loved:
- Dianne offers a widget that allows you to read similar posts. This feature is found directly underneath the posts. I also have it on my blog and I can tell you from the tracking on my stats account that it is a widely used feature. You can only benefit from it!
- In her sidebar she links to several other women’s ministries. I think this is so vital to developing relationships and furthering Christ’s kingdom. We can’t be everything to everyone but we can point them to others who have gifts that we lack. The body of Christ at work is a beautiful thing!
- The color palette is great!! I really love it!
- I like that she presents you with an opportunity to purchase through some of her affiliate services or home business but that she is not pushy about it. She has really created a balance with it.
- She has me in her feed reader.
Some areas that could benefit from a bit of a change:
- I am not very fond of the “read more” option on blogs. I would prefer to see the full post laid out than to have to click each time to read it. In dozens of surveys this has proven to be a common consensus by blog readers. I would like to see full posts on the front page.
- I would like to see a buttons that is 125px by 125px so that we could share Dianna’s blog on our blogs.
- I would like to see a link to Dianne’s most popular posts or just posts that she feels are some of her best. If I had been someone who just stumbled across her blog then that would help me to decide if she was someone I wanted to visit again.
- I think it would help to see all of the items in the sidebar either completely centered (use the code
prior to what you want to center and then at the end close it with ) or completely aligned to the left or the right.
Overall I found Dianne’s blog to be fun and alluring. I really felt like she was someone that I could sit down with, have a cup of coffee, and just chat away about the issues of life and God in general.
What do you think of Dianne’s online ministry?
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Amy, thanks so much for doing these posts! They help me tremendously… more than tutorials on how to build a webpage even because they give me something to look at and get ideas.
Like you, I prefer the whole post. I noticed that my feed readership even dropped off when I tried to do a partial post in my feed. I would prefer to have 5 or 10 whole posts on a page than 20 blips.
The only thing that I noticed (and maybe its my browser) is that the section called Sites I Recommend has a scrolling function but all I was getting was a very thin line scrolling up…no banners at all. Again, that may be my browser.
I am gleaning new ideas every week. Thanks so much!!
Sallie
PS — Are you feeling better from morning sickness yet? I'm keeping ya in my prayers!!
Thank again, Amy for doing my site. I will be working on making the changes you suggested this week.
Sallie thanks for mentioning the scrolling issue. I was having issues with it yesterday. I will check on it and get it fixed.
Thanks again. I appreciate all the tips and suggestions.
Awesome! I'll go check it out now!
Great review. I love to visit Dianna…she is so sweet & her blog is just great!
Hi Amy- where you tell us the code to keep things centred I see no code (maybe just a browser thing though)
Thanks for linking to the widget for similar posts- love it and added it!
I too hate the "read more" link… I rarely actually read more.
I love Dianna's header- so cute!