Tech Blog Need Review

**Francis Simisim** · 02-20-2009 03:46 AM

Hi Everyone, I'm Francis Simisim of TechFilipino.com. Could anyone do a review on my blog with the following aspects:

1. Design
2. Monetization
3. and other things that you notice.

Thank you, I'm looking forward to your reviews

**mxer210** · 02-20-2009 03:53 AM

I really like the look and design. Looks like you might suffer from posting too much tho..

**Francis Simisim** · 02-20-2009 04:07 AM

Originally Posted by mxer210

I really like the look and design. Looks like you might suffer from posting too much tho..

Thank you so much for the review, with the posting, do you mean vertically it's too much?

**undercoverops** · 02-26-2009 09:54 PM

Your site looked very good. A lot of ads, but, honestly, they were placed well and didn't bother me. If you are going to have so many ads, I think you did about as well as can be done in making them reasonably non-annoying, which a lot of people don't do very well.

No one will ever say that you are not a very prolific writer! I got exhausted just thinking about how much you must sit at a keyboard writing. Good quality on the content too.

My comment or, rather question, really, is this site intended to be focused to the Filipino audience, or on behalf of the Filipino tech resources? In other words, are you writing this blog primarily to communicate with tech resources in the PI, or is it intended to market those resources to the rest of the world?

**Francis Simisim** · 02-26-2009 11:02 PM

Thanks undercovercops for the review. I'm happy to hear that i've done well for part 1 and 2.

That's a great question, the reason I named it to techfilipino is because I love tech and I'm a Filipino. But my target is really the whole world as opposed to targeting the Philippines Market tech resources. What do you think?

**EC44** · 02-26-2009 11:16 PM

I recommend cleaning up the layout on the blog posts, it doesn't flow properly. Also tame down on the ads, they draw away from the main focus of the site..the content. It is of my opinion that if you focus your site around making money, and consequently posting mass amounts of ads, you will be far less successful than otherwise. I would recommend going and trying to draw an audience, and cut back to a few key ads. More traffic = more money per ad.

**Francis Simisim** · 02-27-2009 12:05 AM

@EC44, thats true, but which ads on the side do you think I should cut down on?

**EC44** · 02-27-2009 01:04 AM

I would suggest cutting out google adsense ads, use the side bar and maybe display a max of 6 ads on the side. How much do you plan on making from the site? There are plenty of alternate revenue streams you can utilize if you have traffic. I also suggest smaller pictures for each blog post, maybe 80x80 max? Overall not a bad design, just needs to be cleaned up in some spots. On top of that, you're a decent writer. Good job, and good luck.

**trisario** · 02-27-2009 04:24 AM

1st impression : woah!

Hmm...how come there are those Submit Company and Company Directory sections? Ain't it supposed to be something like a tech/gadget site or something?

**justy540** · 02-27-2009 04:29 AM

you might also list fewer articles per page, if they click to the next page, another round of impressions.

**Francis Simisim** · 02-27-2009 08:06 AM

@EC44: Actually I'm not thinking of how much I can earn yet, but trying to establish a reputation and make money *if possible*. What other ways can I do to monetize my traffic? any suggestions?

As for the images, I can't seem to resize as I'm displaying logos and if it's small then it would just look weird. Any other suggestions? I'm using medium size in wordpress.

Thanks for the really thorough review, I badly needed that.

**Francis Simisim** · 02-27-2009 08:08 AM

Originally Posted by trisario

1st impression : woah!

Hmm...how come there are those Submit Company and Company Directory sections? Ain't it supposed to be something like a tech/gadget site or something?

I was thinking to add companies that I write about. Sort of a way for users to find background of companies that I blog about. Sort of Crunchbase for the smaller sites.

I've removed it for now until I get it done properly.

Thanks as well for the woah! hehe, Appreciate the review

**Francis Simisim** · 02-27-2009 08:12 AM

Originally Posted by justy540

you might also list fewer articles per page, if they click to the next page, another round of impressions.

actually I was thinking about that as well. My thought was if I was to cut it to say 5 posts, would users have to wait more for loading? And if it was 5 wouldn't it look quite empty as I'm using the read more function?

**undercoverops** · 03-03-2009 01:29 PM

Originally Posted by Francis Simisim

Thanks undercovercops for the review. I'm happy to hear that i've done well for part 1 and 2.

That's a great question, the reason I named it to techfilipino is because I love tech and I'm a Filipino. But my target is really the whole world as opposed to targeting the Philippines Market tech resources. What do you think?

You have gotten some really good feedback here from these folks. I personally could live with amount of ads, because I thought that they were reasonably well handled, but clearly, I think all of our messages are really about cleaning things up a bit, and making it less busy overall. So I think the other folks advice about "less is best" is probably the better way to go, and EC44 had some very good input on that.

And it makes sense, really; you are better off with fewer, very targeted ads that get high click rates than trying to have many ads with very little use.

I also really liked your "Ideas" area...be neat to see if that section can really take flight.

As to my question about the audience, either way you go is great, it just wasn't really clear as to who this site was primarily directed. If your desired audience is more worldwide, you might be limiting yourself with how your site is named. That said, I think you could also find a good mix between the two audiences, and the content. You might even be able to build a pretty decent and strong congregation within the PI audience in particular that you could expand on.

Looking forward to see where you go with this, and also appreciate that these things are evolutionary. Best of luck!

**Francis Simisim** · 03-04-2009 01:49 AM

Originally Posted by undercoverops

You have gotten some really good feedback here from these folks. I personally could live with amount of ads, because I thought that they were reasonably well handled, but clearly, I think all of our messages are really about cleaning things up a bit, and making it less busy overall. So I think the other folks advice about "less is best" is probably the better way to go, and EC44 had some very good input on that.

And it makes sense, really; you are better off with fewer, very targeted ads that get high click rates than trying to have many ads with very little use.

I also really liked your "Ideas" area...be neat to see if that section can really take flight.

As to my question about the audience, either way you go is great, it just wasn't really clear as to who this site was primarily directed. If your desired audience is more worldwide, you might be limiting yourself with how your site is named. That said, I think you could also find a good mix between the two audiences, and the content. You might even be able to build a pretty decent and strong congregation within the PI audience in particular that you could expand on.

Looking forward to see where you go with this, and also appreciate that these things are evolutionary. Best of luck!

@undercovercops That's true, placing of ads were really tricky when I started. I found it really tough to find spots that readers found acceptable and high CTRs. Thanks, I'm actually coming up with other ideas right now so I stopped updating it. I've recently spoken to the founder WorkOutBox whose website is similar to my website idea and is really very exciting for me to have the same idea.

Yeah I thought about it for quite a while. I thought of JohnChow.com and how he did manage to be top in online money making so that's why I pushed thru with techfilipino. And plus the PI audience as well

.

Thank you so much undercovercops for the review, really appreciate the input.