Stef’s blog pointed me in the direction of a very useful article by Jakob Neilsen around the issue of weblog usability I decided to take the test myself. I expected to get a low result as most of this website is still under construction, but either way, it has served as a great guide for me on how to make a successful blog!

Let the test begin!

No Author Biographies
I have one! Well, it’s getting here slowly. I’m also writing an ‘about the blog’ section as it might interest people to know what the blog is about and why it was set up. WIN

No Author Photo
Got that on the about me page with a link to a large photo. WIN

Nondescript Posting Titles
I think I’m a little guilty of this recently. I don’t like using long titles and sometimes it’s a bit hard to think of a relevant short title. FAIL

Links Don’t Say Where They Go
I avoid using “click here” as a link as much as possible, but I am guilty of not using the title tag that much. FAIL

Classic Hits are Buried
I’m a bit unsure if this completely necessary. Sure, it’d be good to have a way to do this manually, say by filtering posts by amount of comments or views, but wouldn’t be a bit contradictory to have a link to the most popular post - even if the post is years old - when I want to encourage readers to read the most current and most relevant posts? Debatable, but by under this test: FAIL

The Calendar is the Only Navigation
I’ve avoided using the categories widget at the moment as I’m still cleaning up category listings. But otherwise, yeah, I think it’s pretty essential to have a better way to navigate a blog. FAIL

Irregular Publishing Frequency
Guilty again. In a post that I’m writing currently I’ll be asking what direction this blog (and indeed whole website) should take. In short I want this blog to be a place to post my own work, finished or unfinished, and also a place to post artwork (video, photography, pictures) that I like and/or inspire me. Until that happens: FAIL

Mixing Topics
I think I’m good at not mixing too many topics. Most of the topics are centered around arts, and even the ones about technology have a arty element to them. WIN

Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss
I’m very careful about what I write on t’internet. I’m sure most of the people who read this will understand when I uze ting5 leik s14ng and wotnot, but otherwise I try to present myself in a professional manner, whilst still letting aspects of my personality, which includes my opinions, come through. WIN

Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service
This is a problem that I think will become a bigger one soon for others. Back when I wrote a post on building a portfolio website I left out the part about having your own domain name. This extract from the article sums it up nicely:

The longer you stay at someone else’s domain name, the higher the cost of going independent. Yes, it’s tempting to start a new weblog on one of the services that offer free accounts. It’s easy, it’s quick, and it’s obviously cheap. But it only costs $8 per year to get your personal domain name and own your own future. As soon as you realize you’re serious about blogging, move it away from a domain name that’s controlled by somebody else. The longer you delay, the more pain you’ll feel when you finally make the move.

I’ve seen a lot of portfolio websites that use a combination of free services, such as blogger/wordpress, deviantart/portfolios.com and even ones that use facebook/myspace with photo hosting websites such as flickr/photobucket. I’m guilty of using all of those services but one thing I am sure to do is to have them all point back to this website. If you’re serious about your artwork either build yourself a website from scratch or use a CMS (I use Wordpress and Gallery2). The important thing is that you have your own domain name. WIN

So, 5 out of 10. Not bad, not great. Time to rectify methinks.