You know why they show up at your site; you have the statistics and the search terms.

If they don't return then it sounds as if you need to change/improve what you are providing, *and* really assess how your site looks and what sort of impression it makes on the visitors.

Here's my take:

There are thousands of coding, web design sites. How many more website-related blogs do we need that link to articles other people have written? Blogs are fine but there are countless web design/coding blogs -- your site has to have a good angle and target a particular group.

I know you from here first, not your site. You have indeed been helpful to a lot of people at CWM and, as you noted, seem to be good at programming. So if that's what you're good at, I would say that's what you should emphasize.

I would like to learn PHP, but have only dinked around with it. Lack of time, not desire. I'm not likely to become a programming expert but would like to understand it enough to use it effectively in the sites I design and manage. I've found a lot of tutorial sites but almost all are pretty much the same. Here's the syntax, let's find out how to say "Hello, world!" on a webpage!! Then they branch off into various aspects of PHP but hardly ever do they relate this to practical uses in actual website building for the average person.

My suggestion: build up a selection of articles/how-tos that fill that need: teach php (or other programming languages) to beginners but relate the lessons to helpful features of websites, things that an average site owner would want to incorporate. Forms. User info. etc.

Appearance: Your current site is, well, green! Green is my favorite color, also. And I like simple and clean layouts, too, but I think yours needs to look a little sharper in order for you to "sell" your ability as an advisor. And a little less green, though I dislike saying that! I think it's too green and would suggest white in the main post content area; easier to read, and easier to look at. This would also provide some contrast. By chance, at work today I was on this site: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/ which is also green, but has some nice touches that might inspire you.

The site also needs some more attention to navigation. It covers some good topics, but I did not see any way to easily find out what else is there other than scanning down the page to see what you've written.

Find some way to index the posts, and not just in monthly archives. A list of posts for June 2007 isn't very helpful to me. Make it easy for me to find what you've written with categories and even sub-categories.

Try to write in a way that sounds just a bit more professional: a blog should have a personal touch and tone, but I think you would be wise to tone down the chatty sound a bit. I don't mean stiff and formal, but just a little bit less teen-speak /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> For example, instead of this:

Recently I had some people come to my site searching for "what makes divs so great" (Yes, big brother is watching your moves! MUHAHAHA!) I didn't think any of my articles made that completely clear though - so here are 4 reasons why div tags are so great.

possibly

Recently, a number of people have reached this site because they searched using the phrase: "what makes divs so great". Allow me to make things perfectly clear!
1. etc.

Don't get rid of *all* the humor, not at all! I like the friendly style in your writing, but in some articles, there is almost more friendly than there is substance. Double-check your writing on the articles; I know, I write also and sometimes we're so close to the words we can't see them as clearly as we should. Try to assess each one as to how it will come across to the reader. Make sure you explain things adequately, define terms, etc. You've done a really great job so far, these are just suggestions to bump the site up a notch or two.

Part of this, too, (sorry but I have to say it) you have a few misspelled words and word usage errors. Not too many, but they do detract from the impression you're making. You want to look knowledgeable, friendly, helpful and dependable. That's the sort of impression that would make someone think it's worth coming back to you, and spelling errors, missing words etc. don't contribute to that.

Best wishes -- I hope this helps!

Thank you very much! That was very helpful! Do you work as a consultant? You should,,, /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

The other day I started working a a comprehensive guide to learning how to to make a website as well as improve design skills. Sorta in the spirit of HTML dog, just covering a bit more a bit differently. I think I may have to add a section to the (already long... all well. When I first started writing I had trouble coming up with stuff to write, now I don't have time for all my ideas) table of contents about server side programming and templateing. In your reply you addressed some of my concerns I've had - primarily the lack of organization of my articles.

I like your suggestion on writing for people wanting to learn how to program websites. I never really thought about it... I thought there were already a bunch of help on that topic... although come to think of it, I was never able to find any helpful material on learning PHP back when I used it - I learned reading through the phpnuke source (I know I know, but I didn't know any better /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> )

Not to flatter, but your reply is probably the most helpful one I've ever seen writtin on a message board (Not that I've read a lot of forums.)

I'll be leaving for 2 1/2 months for the US in a few days and then when I get back I'll have a startup in full swing, so it may be a while before I can revamp my site, but I definitely will!
Thanks again!

Thank you very much! That was very helpful! Do you work as a consultant? You should,,, /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />
....
....

Not to flatter, but your reply is probably the most helpful one I've ever seen writtin on a message board (Not that I've read a lot of forums.)

I'll be leaving for 2 1/2 months for the US in a few days and then when I get back I'll have a startup in full swing, so it may be a while before I can revamp my site, but I definitely will!
Thanks again!

Thank you. /wub.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":wub:" border="0" alt="wub.gif" />

I threw together a very rough mockup in inkscape:
http://joey101.net/static/drawing-6.svg

You think that is going in the right direction?

(firefox svg rendering works OK, it will look better if you open it in inkscape though /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> )

woo, that looks really spiffy!

You just aged yourself there, WeBBy! My Grandma is the only one I know that says "spiffy". /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />

Hey, I use spiffy too! Err... I didn't just say that... /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />

Looks great, my one comment is that you might want to have a spacer of some sort between items in the top menu bar... Maybe bullets or something similar.

--- Mr. DOS

Well, I went ahead and converted it all into html/css and uploaded it. A bit different from the mockup but in a good way. Still somewhat unpolished but it will do until I get back. It uses a bit of transparent pngs but I don't think it will be too big of deal as only %2 of my visitors use ie6.

Now hopefully my site will be more helpful to more people /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

That's a big improvement! I'll look forward to seeing the actual Polished Version.