Commenting on a Commenter's Site

If you visit the Comments list, you'll see that someone going by "Juno 888" recently commented on Rottweilers, a post I made in the early days of this site. (All the other responses date back to 2003, so this really is ancient history. My post even includes a broken link to a 1996 article.)

Juno 888 may well be right that my comments were pure drivel. Publish twenty books and a thousand articles (plus numberless blog posts), and your drivel content is likely to be fairly high.

But since the commenter had also listed their own URL, I visited it and found it technically interesting. I sent a fairly detailed critique in an email, but my message bounced; Juno888's address "has been disabled or discontinued."

What a shame. Maybe the site isn't even Juno888's. Some folks are eager to share their opinions, but not their names.

But I hate to waste web analysis, so here's what I suggested about the site:

Hi, Juno--

We'll have to agree to disagree about my analysis of The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, but since you provided your URL, it seems only fair that I offer some comments on it...after all, web text and design are one of my specialties. Moreover, I teach communications and marketing to tourism students, so a site like yours is professionally interesting as well.

Overall look of the 1Explore site is super--good mix of blues, attractive but not obtrusive graphics. I like the wavy curves in the banner. The two-column layout works pretty well.

Big recommendation for the home page: Shorten the sentences, shorten the paragraphs (6-7 lines max), and break up the text still more with two or three subheads. A stronger contrast between light-blue background and dark-blue text would also help. (See how the right-column text stands out so well against a white background?)

This is your site's first impression, and it should be an inviting one, attracting readers to find one welcome surprise after another before moving on to the various packages and the other pages. (I realize some people strongly prefer a sans serif font for webtext, and I use sans serif myself on some of my sites, but for relatively long text, serif fonts are more readable.)

As for the other pages--please ditch the "website under construction" graphic. That may be the first such piece of dancing boloney I've seen since the 1990s, and it was hokey even back then. If the site's under construction, it shouldn't be out on the web in the first place--all you're doing is wasting visitors' time and annoying them.

Webwriting really relies on the "you" attitude--putting the reader right in the center of the story. Your home page starts with "We," which tells us we're not the real object of your interest. Consider:

You're going to enjoy the best accommodation in paradise!

It would also help if the home page gave clear instructions on what to do to get into such accommodation.

Put yourself in your visitors' shoes, imagine what they're looking for, and offer it to them. They'll understand that you really want to help them, and they'll respond accordingly.

Hope this helps--best of luck with the enterprise!

Cheers,
Crawford

Comments

[Genevieve]

Thanks for the tips.

[Genevieve]

Mmm, maybe I should make my remark above a little clearer -- I'm not Juno 888. I was just passing through, and I thought your tips were good and left a comment to tell you so.

I have a tendency to write pieces in my blog that are too long, and I sometimes try subtitles to break them up a little.

[cutiger95]

Absolutely fantastic blog, and I can tell you exactly where Juno 888 is coming from as my own blogs are getting hit frequently with spam issues.

Juno 888 probably needs backlinks to his or her site. A new and popular method for those unscrupulous enough is to post on various blogs that will accept a posted comment a backlink. This backlink helps their site, much as this posts helps mine.

The unscrupulous are now hiring indian/philliphian and other south asian workers to populate blogs everywhere with drival.

Again you have an excellent blog and I would personally love a review of my site.

[Werner Patels]

Which is why I have begun moderating comments; spammers like that 888 guy are not only deleted, but also have their IP address banned, so that they won't waste my time again.

[Crof]

I don't consider Juno 888 a spammer...just a very slow responder to a very old post. I happily ban real spammers as you do (and unto the seventh generation).