Please can you give me feedback on my blog

[tryingtobethebestican]

Hi, I started my blog in January so it is in it's early stages. I'm learning as I go along as completely new to this but I am trying to make my site look attractive and appealing.
Please, if you have a spare minute or two, could you take a look and let me know what you think?
Also if you have longer than two minutes minutes spare I'd love feedback on my content.
Thanks (hopefully.)

sunraintea.com/

I had a wee skim through, it's very pretty looking. One small thing is that the recipe for healthy oat bars, although very tasty looking is exceptionally high in fat, sugar and carbs. It might be worth adding the calorific value to your recipes. My fitness pal does it quite easily if you enter the quantities and divide it by the portions.
Your other posts are nice and visual appealing.
What was your purpose of the blog? How do you feel it's going?
Please don't take offence at the recipe comment. It's probably just me.
Xx

Thank you so much @Clarabumps for taking the time to have a look and give me your feedback. I'm glad you like the look of it and have taken on board your comments about the recipe, I thought it was ok carb wise as gluten free oats, will see if I can get the calories. For me it's a healthier option than chocolate (which I seem to be eating more than I should at the moment!)
I originally started my blog as I decided I needed it give up alcohol and wanted to track that initially. I'm on day 83 now 😊 the more I write about things the more I enjoy writing, if that makes sense, so now I'm writing things that I feel like writing about - and hopefully people will enjoy reading it. Sorry just realised how many times I have used the word writing 😂

Hi tryingtobethebestIcan

Can I just ask a quick question before I read your blog properly?

What theme have you chosen on Wordpress? I have just started a blog and there's a lot to navigate. I currently have a very plain theme but I really like the way your posts are under a photo and then you click on them to read more.

I'll come back later once I've read your blog through

Thanks

It is very attractive, with lovely images. Are they your own? I only wondered as they are not credited and you have to be very careful only to use images that are creative commons/free to use. Sorry if I am stating the obvious!

It’s very lovely- great colours and photos.
Couple of questions & ignore if i’m barking up the wrong tree. Can you add a pic of yourself? Just makes it seem warmer & less anonymous.

Who is your blog for? Ie) I would guess that it’s aimed at young women? If so then great colours and style.

What’s your aim? Is it to encourage people to relax / be mindful or to visit places locally? Might be worth thinking about who & what you’re writing for? It’s a nice blog.

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just lost my post!

I've read your blog and I really like your earlier posts especially. They seem to me more 'raw' although that may be because they resonated with me. I also stopped drinking at New Year. I would love to hear more about how you feel about drinking now and if you have started drinking again.

Your blog has developed into having a more uplifting feel to it - almost like saying your daily gratitudes. And it is very consistent in layout and photos. It does make you feel good once you have read it so I can how it would be addictive and people would follow it.

How do you find the time to write - do you set aside a specific time or is it more ad hoc? I'm finding it tricky!

Hi thank you so much for your replies and positive comments 😊
I'll try and answer your questions as best as I can...
@MyBoysHaveDogsNamesthe WordPress theme is Maxwell, I have experimented with a few different ones but do quite like this one (at the moment anyway!). Well done to you too for giving up alcohol, I still haven't had a drink. When I originally started my blog I intended to make it mainly about sobriety but there are quite a few around already that I'm sure are much better than mine. I also thought if, for example, I manage to stay sober for six months or so, what would I do with my blog? My first few posts were about drinking, then not drinking, under a different blog name but I moved the posts across to my current one and changed my focus. I hope I made the right decision with that. I just write what I think about and hope people are interested. I have also enjoyed having a go at a short story and a couple of poems. Working full time, it is really difficult to find the time to write. Sometimes it doesn't take too long but other times - like my letter to my cat who I had to have PTS almost three weeks ago - took about three days to write because it was very emotional and I wanted to get it just right. I can only write evenings and weekends, I wish I had more free time!

@beachygirl some of the photos are mine but most of them are from Pixabay. I think that these are all royalty free so anyone can use them - please let me know if I have misunderstood that though. I have written a little on my About page that says where my photos are from. Do you think I should say on each post where the photos are from?

@guggenheim At the moment I haven't put a photo of myself because when I realised I had a problem with alcohol and decided to write a blog about it, I didn't want anyone in real-life to know how much I was drinking - rightly or wrongly I felt embarrassed about it.

That's also why I haven't broadly advertised my full name or where I live. In time I will maybe feel more confident and then will change the pics to proper photos. Btw those moment cam images are based on a photo of me. You have the photo of yourself and then choose a drawing and the photo and drawing are kind of morphed together. I chose the hair to look like mine. The facial features are basically mine, although I've made the eyes nicer (same colour though!)
With regard to your questions about aim and audience - I don't really know. I think originally it was about giving up drinking and then I progressed to talking about general everyday stuff, a story, some thoughts and a couple of poems, oh and a recipe. I guess I'm doing a bit of everything. Soon I may include some bits about gardening too. Do you think it's ok to write about lots of different things?

It would make me really happy to know that I help in some way to make people feel happier and I would love to be able to contribute to everyone being nicer to each other but I guess in reality it's just little old me writing things that I think which may be of no interest to some people at all!

I hope I've answered all your questions ok 😊

@MyBoysHaveDogsNames re the drinking I'm so much happier not drinking and although I think it would be nice to have a drink every now and again, I'm not sure that's a good idea. I think I might wait until it's exactly three months or maybe 100 days and do an update on my blog about it.

How are you getting on with your blog?

You should be fine with Pixabay. As long as the image is marked 'no attribution required' you don't need to credit on the page.

Gosh, many apologies! I had a quick look at your photos & didn’t read your blogs- which I absolutely should have done!!!!!
I was giving very, very general feedback, the kind of th8ng which could have applied to anyone.

Ok, it’s a lovely blog. Beautiful presentation, I would absolutely read a sober blog , I didn’t pick up that it was a sober blog so I wonder if you could make that more obvious in some way?
I agree that I wouldn’t put a photo up because sobriety is a personal th8ng, unless you are confident in which case- go for it!

I should have read through but I was in a hurry, please accept my apologies. I shall go & read properly & follow you!

Hi again @guggenheim absolutely no offence taken at all 😊 with the sobriety thing it was a massive deal for me initially which is why I wrote a few posts about it. I haven't lately because I don't want to be boring going on about it, however I think perhaps I might update my blog at perhaps 3 months alcohol-free - only a few more days to go 😀

I'm really pleased you like my blog, thanks for taking the time to look at it 😊

Hi again. Well, I've only done one post so think I'll wait until I've done a few and see how it develops. It's really a forum for me to just practise writing. I love it writing but finding the time is proving difficult. Although I suspect I'm distracting myself and I should be more focused!

Well done on all your alcohol free days. That's such an achievement. I know what you mean though. There are so many blogs about not drinking and I feel I want to focus more on the good things that have arisen due to that choice. And not dwell too much on the booze itself.

I think updates now and again about being alcohol free (or not!) on your blog would be very interesting and would also tie it together and give it an overall narrative.

I look forward to reading more of your writing !

Thanks @MyBoysHaveDogsNames, I'd love to see your blog when you're up and running. Sounds like your outlook is pretty similar to mine. In reality I'm actually amazed that I have some people following me! I've found that Reader on the Wordpress app is brilliant, there are some lovely supportive people out there

Hi trying Love the update on how you are feeling now about the non drinking! Very upbeat. i know what you mean about the temptation of a holiday weekend. My sister is here and we usually enjoy -lots- a drink together.

So, I am needing to concentrate on not drinking. Have had a walk and now may have an antisocial bath to take my mind off of it!

Have a good weekend.

Hi myboys thanks for looking again! How long have you done so far without a drink? I'm on the hard stuff tonight- belvoir blueberry and blackberry cordial with sparkling water! Have a lovely evening with your sister and a Great weekend 😊

@mumsnet I had A message to join the mumsnet blogger network but haven't heard anything back from you yet.