“All Habs” Day
Today I’d like to review a blog from a guy I follow on Twitter @all_habs his blog is appropriately called All Habs (aka Montreal Canadians). I love the custom banner on his blog. Some might consider the banner to be a little large but it does a good job in one glance explaining the site you have arrived on.
One thing Im a big fan of is a very simple side bar, or at the very least one that doesn’t complicate the blog. Sadly for my taste his sidebar is a little complicated. If your ‘re looking to sell ad space this can actually hurt click through rates because your audience will stop looking.
Another thing I noticed was the red background in the side bar can make text hard to see. If you want to use a red or yellow I would suggest adding transparency or go with a different color background with highlighted accents in red. The other option is to use a white or gray text so there is a greater contrast.
This blog is a collaboration blog (many authors) and lists the authors in the middle of the side bar. If your blog is going to mention who is offering content they deserve a place of honor at or really close to the top. I always suggest that writers get a top shelf spot on the side bar *within the first portion of the post. They really shouldn’t ever be relegated to the basement of the sidebar as an after thought (All Habs doesn’t do that).
If you use a lot of tags or categories that are unique try to graphically show them rather then list them. Graphics will keep the side bar from growing to unmanageable lengths and offer aesthetic appeal to your blog. If you are looking for a tool to make a graphic cloud on blogspot try THIS OUT.
If you see something I missed, disagree, agree, have suggestions let me know … Comment comment comment
If you would like me to offer my take on your blog let me know Via Twitter @mhandy1 or email me at hockeyonabus@gmail.com
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Hockey on a Bus (Rolling With It) 
Hey Mike, great blog. Glad I found it. We are in need of blogs that talk about blogs. Thanks for the good word on Twitter. Assuming you mean by ‘best on blogger,’ you are talking about aesthetics, and you aren’t being sarcastic, thanks a lot! I never considered my blog very pretty. But I just improved it one little piece at a time, because I’m too lazy to convert to WordPress. I literally knew nothing about HTML when I started…and I still don’t. But I’ve still got lots I want to do.
Looking forward to reading more! See you around. Happy blogging.
I wasn’t sarcastic at all, your blog is impressive! I’ll post a review of your blog in the near future because people need to see it!
Also in January I’ll review this blog and explain why I don’t use advanced/custom features. However that doesn’t mean I don’t want to share tools. If you are looking/willing to highlight some tools you use I’d gladly welcome content. Let me know if you are interested.
Email: hockeyonabus@gmail.com
or DM me on Twitter @mhandy1
Thanks a lot! Everything on my blog that’s unique is custom built. I can go a little more in depth if you want when the time comes, but I just Googled what I wanted, found blogs by people who were skilled at HTML, and struggled through it. I just started with the Blogger Minima template, which is a good coincidence because it’s the most malleable.
Talk to you some more soon.