Thanks Tim. I really appreciate your feedback. It's a work in progess and there's so much I need to do in such little time. Any questions about anything just let me know!

Ahhh the RUM! lol some smoothies actually do go good with rum and I'm guilty off adding a little to my drinks every now and then. Alcohol in small servings actually isn't bad for you but most people tend to over indulge. As for drinking smoothies mid-morning I know what your talking about.

Some combinations have upset my stomach in the past especially if I've gone long periods without eating something solid first. Smoothies are more of a mid-day thing for me but there are plenty of breakfast smoothie recipes out there. Rest assured I'll be sure to add some morning-friendly smoothies to my site eventually. Just tell me what you think you'll like and I'll see what I can whip up! I love the ideas your giving me!

cheers-

Lucas

Thanks Jay! I'm very much aware of who you are and it's a pleasure that you've taken the time to provide some feedback for my site. First off, I'm going to dissect every bit of info you've provided in quotes.

quote:

" When I visit a site that is writing about smoothies, I would want to see some images or beautiful colours that represent these yummy drinks.
You've heard the expression that we eat with our eyes? It is the same with homepage content."

This has been something that has been bothering me for awhile now as I'm aware for a site that's about smoothies, my homepage just looks so sterile without images. I've been trying to figure out how to display thumbnail images for each post and forgive me If my terminology is off as I don't want to cause confusion but I've actually switched my theme to Expound after watching one of your recorded webinars! (can't remember which one)

I liked it's simplicity and was switching between several free themes starting out until that point. Not sure if it's a theme specific thing on how to customize as it's still powered by Wordpress right? Anyways, I know your well versed with Expound and I'd really rather link my posts in my homepage with thumbnail images rather text. Suggestions?

quote:

"More detailed content
e.g. Blueberry Super Smoothie
Why is it a super smoothie? You need to elaborate on the benefits of fatty acids from walnuts or why potassium is good for us."

Very true. I'd like to provide as much information as possible without coming across as preachy. It's not that I don't know that already, it's just that I know many viewers have a very short attention span. On one hand I may have an audience who may appreciate having as much information as possible right at their fingertips, on the other hand maybe the other half of my viewers like to keep it simple and to the point. I'm conflicted between the two as evidenced with the consistency on this subject in the articles of my site because I don't have enough traffic yet to know what viewers in my niche like and don't like.

I guess I need to re-evaluate the information I'm giving and decide what people care about and what they can do without. That probably comes along with being in the trenches with your niche and actively participating in social media. Right now, I don't have any social networks linked yet, I'm just involved in a few forums for research purposes and my own personal facebook.

quote:

"re: getting comments
Sometimes you need to encourage people to leave comments. For example:
"Try this smoothie and let me know what your thoughts are."

This one I've been practicing but have not implemented in all of my articles. This goes along with requesting, "a call to action" as many have described before. This one will definitely become important when I actually start reviewing products but I guess keeping my audience engaged would be just as important even in posts where I wasn't promoting anything.

On a final note, thank you for stopping by. I get your webinar notifications all the time but usually they're scheduled on days when I'm unavailable unfortunately.

Also, although your just trying to be humble and offer advice, don't worry about offending me. At this point I'll take criticism where I can get it. Positive or negative it's still useful feedback and even if an affiliate more successful than me says my site sucks and to quit my niche while I'm ahead, I'd probably listen. After all, I appreciate honesty rather someone patronizing me by saying my site is great when really it's not just so it won't hurt my feelings. There's a saying, "don't piss in my pocket and call it rain" You can't improve if you live in a fool's paradise.

Rest assured however I'd still be making smoothies for myself regardless though! Thanks again Jay!

cheers-

Lucas

Thank you Mr. Wailor for taking the time to visit my site. When I think about it, there are many sites I've visited and purchased stuff from without taking the time to comment or leave feedback.

I'm definitely guilty as charged of doing this on Ebay. Not sure how many sellers I've upset by doing this but them taking my money and me never e-mailing for a return or refund is all the feedback they need. I guess I really shouldn't let that bother me. Comments are more of a by-product of providing great information really when you think about it.

First of all I lol-ed when I clicked on your profile hoping to find out what your name is so I could properly address you, but got nothing except mustard seed! Well, thanks for visiting Mrs. seed! :)

Glad to hear some of your issues have been resolved. Planning to open a Pinterest and Twitter anyways and instead of a separate facebook page for advertising my site, I'll probably just use my personal facebook and just casually announce to folks I know. Don't know how well that'll go yet but I've heard some say that a standalone FB page for advertising purposes isn't as effective as it used to be.

Also, is most of your audience from social networks people you know and did you find them using the organic traffic you already had or did social networking give you complete fresh traffic? I need to think about opening and linking a Twitter account soon. To be honest, I've used Twitter once briefly and abandoned the account I opened years ago. Need to read up on their policies too. Thanks for sharing!

cheers-

Lucas

Hey Lukus, Mustard seed I am. I don't have a separate fb page for my site, I just post to my personal page and I even post to pages of other people that are relevant to my niche. It's mainly the post to others' pages that generates the fb traffic. The traffic has mainly been new traffic from people that I did not know before.

G+ has also been quite good and again, it's a completely new flow of traffic. I use linkedin and pinterest as well which as alright too but I've never had a twitter a/c and I don't intend to create one. Again, I also post to my personal G+ and linked a/c and not a separate one. To this point. G+ and fb have been working best for me.

Thanks Mustard seed. Great information! I have a G+ account and still learning the ropes but I do hear it's a great source of traffic and is becoming a network which is starting to rival even the likes of facebook.

As for facebook, like I said before I'm more in the camp of those who just use their own personal facebook than those who create a separate promotional page. It makes sense because the traffic is already there! The downside to this is that you have to be extra careful not to step on Mark Zuckerberg's toes and get banned. Worse still I'm concerned about how personal friends may feel about promoting on my FB and traffic can only go so far unless you "friend" people you don't know personally. The former I mentioned I guess could go casual and "soft sell". The last thing I want is to turn my FB into an ad machine. It's really one of my primary means of communication and I have so many phone numbers and addresses linked.

Thanks again for your feedback!