Feedback required on a new blog

1. Using of copyrighted images without accredition is an Indian style I guess. A blogger had got sued by Corbis for this reason. But you probably don't need to worry as long as you're copying images owned by Indians, since Indians are never too bothered about copyright anyway, others' or their own. :D 

2. I think your site has too broad a focus. I'm not experienced enough to say the last word on this. But all I know is successful blogs dealing with politics and economy and personal don't exist. 

3. The purpose of your blog is not clear. If you're looking to monetize your blog you need to write for the readers, not yourself. Readers can have just two reasons to read your blog-1. information 2. entertainment (something that'll make them REALLY laugh). I didn't find any of these (to the levels to which it is requried for a blog to be successful, going by the standards of any successful indian blog) in the posts on your site that I read. It all seemed like your experiences and your opinions.  

Maybe you can have a look at any successful Indian blog to understand what I mean. 

Thanks guys for the feedback. Will respond one by one.

Sulagna, Thanks for the brutal feedback. I am overflowing with appreciation that you gave me such a beating even though my family jewels are in pain. I will consider your feedback as seriously as I can, but would like to give a couple of clarifications.

1 -  Image copyrights are duly credited in the image that was copyrighted. I would never use any picture without passing on due credit, Indian or not.

2 - I mentioned in my opening post (above) that I have not yet decided what to focus on. It will happen over time. Meanwhile, it is a personal blog where I may have opinions on any topic, hopefully with some dirty, sarcastic and even sick sense of humour (or seriousness as shown in my post about labour issues).

Also, I hope I made you REALLY laugh with my review of your blog on your review request topic. :o)

3- I am trying to learn to write. I am an engineer by profession, not a comic, and I would like to be able to write well. Hopefully I will learn with time. In some posts, I have tried to infuse information with my own version of humour(eg: the JJ Aunty post contains a lot of information-If you read it fully, you would know a lot of things about Laptop sales in India and possible implications of JJ's promise for the poor people in Tamil Nadu). Perhaps, over time, I will develop a sense of humour (and some common sense as well) that will engage you enough that you would review me in a positive light. Or at least view me in a positive light.

Thanks a lot for your review. I asked for a frank review, and I got it. Now its best if I man up and accept your opinion. :o)

Jai, thanks for the feedback. I am definitely serious about blogging. the number of posts I have put up in the last 10 days should reflect that. The Writers page was written to provoke genuine LOLs rather than the internet ones where we type LOL while our face looks like someone has just died. I hope some of my other pages are also in that category, otherwise in the long run my personal LOLing capacity will come down. For now, I am charged up. Hope to see you on the site soon. Would love it if you took and email subscription or added the RSS feed. err...  is this considered shameless self promotion?

Suhail, Thanks a lot man. I can see you are a a man with great taste. ;o)   I am not sure if I could reduce or remove the %*^%#% yet. It is what comes to mind and so it is what is getting typed out. Perhaps as time goes along I would be able to control the expletives.

Regarding the length of the posts... If you see the length of this comment, then do you really thnk I can control my posts? hehe   Though, the truth is, I have been given this feedback by 7 people in the last 4 days. But kya karoon Papaji, Petrol khatam hi nahin hota! Will try to keep the posts shorter though. I hate reading long posts too, so I know why everyone is giving this feedback.

Thanks guys. And keep visiting and letting me know if you find improvement.

All the best to you all....

For those of you who come to this review request, please don't read everything above. I still need more feedback, I am sure. So please go ahead and review my site till you are sick of it :o)

Hey, great blog. Have been seeing that you seemingly review Everybody's blog, i think you deserve one more review yourself. :)

Your background is very soothing. It instantly makes the reader, visitor calm and settle into your blog. Even though it contains a shade i personally never liked (the orange- red shade), your blog still makes me feel at home.

The matter is great. If I had the time, I would spend a long time on your blog for sure. 

Personally, I really also appreciate the fact that you have not draped your 'strong language' in sugar words. It's natural and makes your blog more attractive.

Take care. Continue blogging. And best of luck for blogging and life.

Thanks Janhvi. Actually, When I discovered the review section, I thought to myself, "This would be a great way to see what Indian bloggers are up to. And I can give my feedback as well as a reader." And then I went around looking at so many blogs over the last couple of days. Hence, the large number of reviews.

I tried around 20+ themes before deciding to use the one that you just saw. It was a long night but I finally found a theme that I was comfortable with. I actually ditched a theme that I had worked on and edited for 3 weeks last year. But your appreciation has made my decision seem the right one.

I would hope that you do manage to revisit.

The 'strong language' just comes naturally to me. Just have a disagreement with me and you may get a live demo as well. J/K :o)

Thanks for the feedback and the wishes. And thanks for leaving a comment on my site.

BTW, I just responded to your comment on the DC-Facebook post. Trying to give you an idea. Have a look when you have the time. ;o)

It's good to know that something i said made you value your own decision. And I understand the language point as even though i am a female i use the language often myself (around people i am very comfortable with).

And I know this is kind of self promotion, but while you are at reviewing so many blogs, how about giving mine some time too... :) http://www.indiblogger.in/forum/review.php?id=8664

Thanks.

arre, madam, it's already reviewed. have a look! :o)

Didn't see any 'language' on your posts though. I wonder what I would hear if I used your invention. hehe

Thanks Rajyalakshmi, for your feedback. :o)

Will try to cut down the length of the posts. I have been getting kicked in the cajones enough times on this in the last few days.

I do seem to be focussing on social issues right now, but I will be adding in some jeeping stuff, photography related posts, reviews (mostly movies), and loads of other stuff with time.

About the monstrous post feeling: I know what you mean. I need to take my own advise and add more images into my posts just to make them feel a bit , err, lighter. This would especially apply as I am unable to contain the length of my posts. I am not confident about editing the theme to increase the width of the content table (or whatever) yet. Will work on that and will also experiment with the color if I receive more feedback on it.

Would appreciate if you could visit when you have the time and read through the content of a couple of the long ones to see if it makes sense to keep the length as it is instead of cutting the posts short.

I don't know who Rajeeps is, but I definitely want to know how to edit posts here. My typos need correction all the time cos fingers are unable to keep up with the screaming in my head. And I inevitably miss the typos until the moment after i have clicked "Post Reply".

Thanks, again, for your honest feedback. Do come back to the site and rip my heart out some more :o)

LOL thats why editing is needed.

Rumbaho, my reivew for you.

I wont divulge into the content bit as I think its going the right way, understandable. I believe as long as it is understandable, there will always be a reader base for you.

Let me tell you abt my first impressions.

Your Blog Theme: Rumbaho name itself means a lot different and exotic and if i land up on your blog after seeing Rumbaho, your template does not live up to that expectation. I dont even see the image of RumbaHo! you created as your Gravatar on your blog which is a tad disappointing.

Find a theme that suits the blog name. For a personal blog, a clean and elegant theme is always preferred (i hope you understand why my theme is that way) and for something like Rumbaho deserves a bit red curry, spicy theme (atleast to your Indian audience).

Run away from the basic fonts like Times new Roman or Arial or Verdana. There are so many custom font based themes too (madhumati has one). So try out those for your blog. It will do a hell of a difference.

Content comes first and then everything else, so keep your sidebar to the right. Always remember, a reader's eyes will hit to the left top of screen first and the right bottom end the last. You need to give empahsis to this aspect to score for a content blog. Being unique at the cost of reader satisfaction does not help you garner enough support.

I understand from the The Writers page that this blog has multiple writers. But is it that they actually exist and do blog on Rumbaho.com? If no, then I think you should take that away. It gives a wrong impression for a personal blog.

But I still think, who ever saw your gravatar here and visited your blog, without they realizing, wont have likened your template. Get that sorted first. Everyother details, only after you change your theme.

PS: Do let me know once you have done that, may not be able to keep updated to this thread as you asked me to reivew.

Thankshttp://www.indiblogger.in/forum/review.php?id=618

Dude, forgot to add..

Living up to the livliness of Usha Uthup is never an easy task. If you have listened to this song, you will know why incidently we relate the word Rambaho to dancing and disco. But if you see the video, you will never get the feel of that song. Thats the same with your blog too.

Ramba ho youtube video link.

PS: I never was so exited about a blog name as it was for yours and certainly got disappointed to see the theme didnt live up to my expectations

thanks for the honest feedback.

1. Will add the logo in the header soon.

2. I have tried 2 different and more "colorful" themes, but I thought I should tone it down a bit. That's why I have a simple theme now. Still, there is no denying that my current theme can be spruced up a bit. Will work on it over the next few weeks.

3. Will check if the sidebar can be moved to the right. I tried it but the "Save Changes" link in the sidebar settings page doesn't seem to be working. May be a theme related issue. Will mail the theme creator and check with him.

4. The other writers are lazy fools. I have threatened them that I will copy-paste the "Writers" page into their obituaries if they don't start writing soon. Let's see if it works.

5. I actually received positive feedback on my theme. But I think you're right. It needs work to bring it back to the "Rumba HO!!!" styling like it had earlier (which was changed before I joined this forum). 

6. Arial, IMO, is the simplest font. Times New Roman is a close second. I find it hard to read in other fonts since I spend a lot of time on my laptop. I will probably not change this as it would give me some personal discomfort.

7. If I were ever able to live up to the charisma of Usha Uthup, or even a fraction of it, then I would consider my blog a success.

All the feedback you have given is being taken seriously. Thanks a lot. Will update my blog and come back to you for additional feedback.

About the fonts from my experience as a web designer and visualizer:

I think you should mix it up with your comfort and readers. Fonts should gell with your theme too, as it is imp to mix everything up and set up right equilibrium.

hmm, will consider it.  I can probably change font's for the sidebar and any titles, but the post content would probably stay the same. Is that OK?

Changed blog theme. Still working on it.

Pls ignore the pixelated images in "Featured". I will update them in a few days. It's a bloody pain that the size needs to be changed now that the theme is different.

NEED Feedback.  Pls be brutal.

Thanks for reviewing my blog. I dare say I have the qualification to comment on your blog, but here are my two cents, for what its worth!

1. As someone who prefers a lot of white space on the blog, I found your site design a little chaotic. Somehow it seemed flashy and reminded me of my old My Space page.

2. While I do not always find your articles suited to my reading needs, I must say you have a brilliant flair for writing, cussing and all. Nowadays, in formal publications the f-bomb or other commonly used swear words are finding their place, so I guess you should keep your style and keep on writing like this.

3. I believe that this is a group blog and hence it will be eclectic in nature and will have different viewpoints and topics to boot. That should add the spice of variety!

4. Since multiple authors are there, maybe you could consider running something like a monthly debate or something, with everyone pitching in with their point of view.

I must say I loved your blog and you should not let the obligation of writing to a focussed topic/demography shackle you down. Just write. For yourself. I believe if you enjoy writing a post, we shall enjoy reading it!

Cheers,

Pranab

that was a really good review mate. very feel-good, like a romantic comedy. ;o)

will take up your suggestions. Thanks a lot :o)

that was a really good review mate. very feel-good, like a romantic comedy. ;o)

will take up your suggestions. Thanks a lot :o)