First and foremost, congratulations on a great blog! When I first took a look at it, I wondered what I could possibly “advise” you to differently. Frankly, I was impressed with your design. I liked your crisp and simple design, and liked your choice of photos. For me, it set a positive tone to your blog.

In reading through the comments on this post, I agree with a couple of things that previous commenters said. For instance, that the name of your blog is a little small compared to say the title of your first post, so it’s bound to be a little less remembered. Also, the font in your sidebar was a little small for me and so discouraged me from actually reading through a lot of what’s written in your sidebar.

I can’t give you any advice about monetization because my blog is not monetized, but I noticed that a lot of your sidebar below the fold is empty. That’s a lot of room to put interesting stuff for your readers to interact with, be that ads or other things.

That’s just my 2 cents worth. Overall, I think you have a great blog, which I’m sure will become even better with all the advice that you’ll get through the comments of this post.

I wish you luck and success.

Biche

I look forward to following your blog. Thanks for sharing so much.
Doug

Thank you for being 98% interested in me. lol. I do appreciate it. And I very much have taken to heart the feedback you have so generously shared with me. (and others on PB)

I feel I have loads yet to do on my veg blog, by no means am I where I need to be. But I am definitely listening and hope to implement many of the ideas and tips given to me here.

@Dr.Doug: I will do my earnest best to occasionally show more of my “colors” on the blog. Great tip!

Cheers,
Missy

When I look at a new blog, I skim the top half of the home page, then proceed directly to the ABOUT page. I would have loved to see a picture of you. You mention that you love animals. I would have loved to see a picture of you and either your pets, or with any animals that you interact with. Something real, not necessarily a portrait shot.

Your type of blog is going to attract the 10% of the population that cares about global issues. About Animal rights. People that rant about their passion. If we went out to dinner, we would probably get on a few topics and hours would fly by, as we voiced our opinions about “changing the world”, and leaving the planet a better place for future generations.

So… are you like that? I probably wouldn’t have bookmarked your blog, because I don’t know who you are and what makes you tick. I would like to see your rant. And let the reviews, be dovetailed into the rant.

For example, on your post about Soy causing man boobs, which it can, along with other xenohormones. It would have been interesting for you to rant about how soy is a huge cash crop, and in the last 20 years, the agriculture industry has taken a good protein source and shoved it down the world’s face in order to make profits. Now instead of simple soy products, we are getting soy hotdogs, and soy american cheese, which are highly processed, genetically modified vegetable proteins. Man boobs are on the rise, so is testicular cancer and infertility. Does this upset you? Occasionally, show us your colors.

Today I noticed a few items you recommend. Like a slow cooker. It would be great to have a Comment: or Tip: inserted,where you personalize your choice. For example,
“I love throwing 5-6 ingredients in my slow cooker, 9 hours later I come home, and I have a hot savory stew waiting for me. Here is the type of cooker I use (link), Amazon has a lot of good ones. This cookbook blew me away (link), I made a dish on page 242, that was a Moroccan Cous Cous. They actually had you put honey in the sauce!”

That way, again, I see you and how you live, and what you read, and I can really line up with you.

With your topic, I am 98% interested in you, and 2% interested in your technical skills and layout.

Check out this blog I just finished the design on in Thesis. I love it and I’m very excited about it.

http://www.forty2fifty.com

Good luck…

Wish You a Merry Christmas. :)

Switch to thesis theme or some paid theme which can represent your brand as professional.

Background should be related to some veggies photos and try to add buttons of some veggies as well.

Your big aspect is you are sharing your own thoughts on your blog.

Thank you for all the additional feedback. It seems many of you are mentioning that I should stick strictly with vegetarian only articles.

But why?

Yes! it is a vegetarian blog, but that doesn’t or shouldn’t mean I have to ONLY write a vegetarian article. Right? lol. C-mon, surely not.

As for my title. It isn’t I who is the “groovy vegetarian” it is YOU. Or at least that is how I originally meant it. But I can see how it could be interpreted the other way.

I do want to also mention that since the blog has been up, it has had several WordPress themes. The one on there now was sort of a quick choice because with my (then) webhost repeatedly told me that my THEME was causing the blog to crash. But long story short, I had server issues as recent as three weeks ago and had to completely switch host providers. And with that colossal move, a few things went haywired and or were lost. Such as changes I had made to the sidebar and other things. But Im working on all that now, at least the blog is stable for now. Yiippee!!!

I want to thank all of you for visiting the blog, leaving me your constructive feedback and an extra special thanxs to those who have offered collaboration ideas. Sweet of you!

Thanxs again.

Cheers!

2. I would move the Google ads from above the articles to below. They are a distraction for me as a reader. Though they are topically related, when I go to an article, I expect to jump right in.

3. A 3 column theme might work better as it would allow you to place the links from Keetsa and Blogroll, which are more topical than the Google ads, in a more prominent position rather than being almost below the radar.

4. You have a niche that is unique – Latina and vegetarian – which you could focus more on via recipes, restaurants in your area (or other areas) which provide good vegie dishes/sandwiches with a Latina flare, exploring issues of being vegetarian or vegan in the Latin culture especially with teenagers. My wife is vegetarian and Brazilian, but grew up in a meat loving family which made some meals difficult.

5. Though the two costumes columns were interesting and provided a good laugh, they seemed to be a sideline to the focus of vegetarianism. If you do want to bring in those type of items every so often, you might wrap them around a topic like ‘Introducing Your Friends With a Vegie Themed Party’.

I would also move many of the links in the top navigation to the bottom somewhere. Most folks know you have to scroll to the bottom of a page to find a privacy policy link. No sense taking up good space for that sort of thing. The top navigation should send people into your site. Not bury them in the particulars of how you run your blog. Maybe have a few important category links up there?

Outside of this, I think it’s a pretty nice blog.

Having a “beginner’s guide” will help your readers know where to start if they are new to vegetarianism or if they just want to add more vegetarian meals into their lives. I have this on my site and it is really popular – it is based on the one Leo at Zen Habits did. I added a short video to mine to show readers how to use the page to find the information they needed and to give them a taste of my personality so they could decide if it was a good fit for them.

My theme is Arthemia, which is a magazine layout. The thing I like most is that I get 5 categories under the headline article that cover my main subjects. New readers can click on whatever subject interests them most without scrolling through all the blog posts (which they wouldn’t do anyway). Make it super-easy for your readers to find the information they need. Your regular readers won’t mind.

My husband does some web design work and uses Thesis for almost all his clients. Each website looks vastly different, so I don’t think you will be limited to something too simple if you go that route.

Good luck!

First off, I commend you Missy! Putting a blog together, despite the “anyone can do it” nonsense is still no easy feat, especially if you’re trying to put one out that serves a real purpose.

I won’t bother you with repeating what you’ve already read, only that I agree that branding would certainly help you quite a bit. Stating that you’re a “groovy” vegetarian led me to believe that I’d see a bit more groove, so definitely dance with that idea for a spell. We worked with a really good graphic designer for a few weeks before deciding on a look that we felt epitomized the “modern hippie”. Take a look, would love to hear your thoughts.

Simplicity works for me, but some people need lots of bells and whistles to keep their attention…ADD, hello!

Stay the course. I love your content and would like to discuss a possible link exchange or guest posting.

Let’s chat, jaszy@modernhippiemag.com.

Be well.

Most definitely needs a better header though – just a custom logo in the top bar would do wonders.

A few posts I see on the front page a little off topic. That may or may not be a problem, but I did notice and it threw me off a little bit

I would suggest some more prominent categorization of posts. I see that there are categories at the end of the posts, but I only notice that because I’m familiar with WP… I don’t think many people will be compelled to see them. You should figure out what your 5 or 6 most popular categories are and focus on them and make big obvious links to them!

I was looking forward to your website, because my daughter (22) is a vegetarian, I go through bouts of being vegetarian, I love vegetarian restaurants (I find the innovative), and I’m a fan of Peter Singer.

BTW: I recently visited the restaurant “Raw” in Santa Monica. A great place: the food is not only veg, it’s also all raw.

You wrote: “I would love to be a go-to resource for the vegetarian lifestyle. To have more pillar content. To showcase more cool vegetarian products.” What disappointed me was the lack of pillar content, in both the blog, and the side bars.

Here’s a detailed critique:

BLOG

Jeremy Piven… lose it. Here you’re opening with a negative story about soy, one which I’ve never heard before. And in it, you counter one authority (a medical doctor) with your own (no qualifications.) Overall, this has left me wondering whether I had better start googling and see what the science is.

Style: you write in an informal, readable way, but you insert too many personal opinions. I don’t care whether you think Piven is funny. I come here thinking I’m going to learn about how to be a “groovy vegetarian.” I want you deliver on information on how to do that. You can deliver that information in a way that is full of personality (which you are)… but don’t interrupt with personal opinions (which are off-target.)

Cool coasters. Are they vegetarian? Lose it.

Latin blogs. Completely off-promise. Looks like an “advertorial”.

81 Veg Recipes. The first targeted content. Keep it.

Morningstar Farm coupons. How “groovy” is that? Sounds like my grandma.

Ketchup costumes. Advertising processed foods from agro-industry? Drop it.

Vegetarian wordpress themes? Whose your audience? Other bloggers, or people that want to become groovy vegetarians? Marginal at best.

SUMMARY: “Groovy vegetarian” is a promise. Make sure every article keeps the promise. Elsewhere you mention that you want to find more vegetarian products. What’s the obstacle to do that? That’s a road to monetization that’s consistent with your promise. You can’t break the promise to your readers. The blogs on your home page today do not keep that promise. So: you know what to do… better to make one post a week that’s good pillar content, then 7 posts, 6 of which drown out the good one.

SIDE BAR:

Why heart amazon, which is just an off-promise. Ad. Why not linke to 10 great groovy vegetarian books that you’ve selected. Why not a groovy veg book club?

The rest looks good and appropriate, except:

• the “Groovy visitors”: who cares? And too small to tell me anything, even if I did.

• Ditto: I don’t want to know the value of your site… it works against your authority as a blogger (so… this is what she’s really about, eh?)

• Latina blogger, again. I’m not a latina, and this is not the latinavegetarian blog!

•  Why are the Keetsa and Blogroll so low on the list? Push them up farther. Isn’t the Keetsa list what’s going to get you paid?

Don’t put stuff on your website unless it really adds value to the reader. If you do, you waste shelf-space (so to speak) and dilute your content.

SUMMARY:

Again, delete content that is not directly relevant.

I think this is the best place for monetization… people expect that the side bar will be a little more “ad” based. But really, there must be more groovy get product out there than you’re showing us.

And can we see some photos? Keetsa is not doing it for me (I don’t know anything about it: can you get photos appearing?)

Strong, bigger headlines.

Maybe ads that rotate, so you can see which ones get the strongest response, and increase the rotation on those? (Don’t have the technical nous to know if that’s possible on WP.)