The Ultimate Blogging Toolkit

First impressions are strong sentiments.  After a long absence from reviewing blogs, I was very positively impacted by my first impression of the AJK Artistry site when it loaded. AJK Artistry is self-proclaimed as “your source for handmade paper goods, custom-designed invitations, handpainted ceramics and watercolor art for yourself and for giving.” Based on the beautiful work displayed, I’d say the New Jersey-based artist, Alison Kooney, knows herself very well!

Back to that first impression.

Many of the blogs we visit either on purpose, or in an exploratory way through environments like Entrecard or Adgitize, have widgets and gadgets and many other distractions.  The Ultimate Blogging Toolkit and others use a variety of ways to help pay a few blogging costs. I’ve written many times about how overboard some of these sites can become, to the point where the page barely loads. AJK Artistry occupies the other end of the spectrum with a clean, efficient and quite pleasant design.

Because of that clean design, there isn’t much design advice I can provide. Hey, Alison is a talented artist and it appears she’s used her skills in her web design as well. How I may be able to help is simply with a “second set of eyes.” I am big believer that if I’m designing my own content, I’m too close to it and sometimes I just don’t see some of the subtleties.

First, let’s look at the generic Title Tag.  Notice that my tab in Firefox shows “Home.” This is a lost opportunity to further identify the site visually, and to add more Search Engine Optimization juice to potential customers’ searches. According to W3Schools, the title element defines a title in the browser toolbar, provides a title for the page when it is added to favorites, and displays a title for the page in search-engine results. In addition to all these, it adds just a bit of professionalism.

Next, ETSY.

When clicking on the Cards & Gifts tab, the user is taken to Alison’s ETSY page. Nothing bad about this – ETSY is a great environment for creative people and she has taken the effort to customize her page with similar colors as her site. I’m not familiar with some of the advanced customization capabilities, but if possible, it would add considerable consistency if the same graphical elements could be employed. For example, if the attractive header from her web page could be captured and displayed instead of the text-based header ETSY provides. It may be helpful to adjust the tab’s label to indicate ETSY in some manner. Leaving the AJK Artistry site can be a bit abrupt for some.

I’m now getting nit-picky because I don’t have much dirt I can throw.

In the center of the page, there seems to be some awkward phrasing. “Use the links above shop my work online 24 hours a day!” might be better said as, “Use the links above to shop my work online 24 hours a day!” or maybe make it a link to the ETSY Shop and say, “Visit my ESTY Shop for a complete review of my work.”

• Facebook and Twitter links: Check.
• About and Contact tabs where they should be: Check.
• Even the “Upcoming Events” section has real “upcoming” events! Too many sites don’t keep their time sensitive postings current. Check.

A few suggestions to a well-designed site. One of my more enjoyable reviews.

Dave