TechCrunch.com Review
- Filed under: Reviews
This is the second installment of my review series, aimed to help you spot performance and design drawbacks of your blog.
TechCrunch.com is a distinguished blog by Michael Arrington dedicated to profiling internet products and companies. With 389,000 subscribers, there’s not much Tech Crunch can do wrong and anyone would get intimidated by the possible backlash of criticizing Tech Crunch, but that’s not why you’re reading this review so let’s rip TechCrunch.com a new one shall we?
Basic Layout
- Move the content to the middle would you? - Tech Crunch sports the three-column layout with one main column and two right sidebars, a layout that puts advertisers first.
This layout is a win-win because you get to put advertisers first (more money per ad), separate ads from content, and let your readers know the right side of your blog is basically
crapdecorations. (Those decorations earn Tech Crunch more than $60,000 per month.)This layout is a lose-lose because it’s awkward for readers’ eyes to digest the content. When you look at the computer, your eyes naturally focus on the center. With this layout, you have to start from the far left and stop at the center of the page. (Both Tech Crunch and Wpdesigner are guilty of this.) If you want a three-column design and want what’s best for the readers, put the main column in the middle.
It’s also a lose-lose for advertisers because their ads don’t get enough clicks. This layout puts advertisers first, but doesn’t deliver the amount of clicks that it should. What the? It’s because of size and placement.
Placement - If you take a look at the ads, they’re nowhere near the content. The closer you place ads near content the more clicks the ads will get. Size - The main banners are the 125px by 125px button banners. Yea, those. Nobody clicks those, unless a certain banner gets very creative.
If the ads don’t get enough clicks then why do people advertise there? The answer is branding.
- Ow! My eyes! My freakin’ eyes! - Tech Crunch’s main colors are white and green. Reading that blog makes me wish I was colorblind (no offence, I’m just jealous). That’s bad enough, but why does the font size have to be 11px too? With a 570px (5.7 inches) main column, your font size should be at least 12px.
570px main column and 11px font size, that’s an average of 16 to 18 words per line. Your eyes will quickly get tired of having to move far across the screen. 12 to 14 words per line is good.
Comments Template
I actually like Tech Crunch’s comments template. It’s well-spaced (plenty of room in between comments), very clear, easy to follow, and easy to recognize who is posting each comment. However, I would make the gray background color (for every other comment) a little bit brighter. You already know green on white is hard to read so don’t get me started with green on gray.
Another thing I want to point out is the fact that Tech Crunch puts track backs before comments, which actually means you don’t even have to post the first comment or even post a great comment to attract Tech Crunch readers to your site. You just have to be the first to track back.
Personally, I wouldn’t want people to manipulate my blog like that.
Size and Speed
Tech Crunch takes more than 100 seconds to load for 56k users. Generally, that’s bad because you have less than eight seconds to keep a user in front of a loading screen. However, whether this is bad for Tech Crunch depends on the number of Tech Crunch’s 56k users. Most of the problems contributing to the slow loading time are the advertisements. You can’t really blame Tech Crunch because that problem is in the hands of Federated Media, which manages Tech Crunch’s ads. However, you CAN blame Tech Crunch for the amount of ads.
I don’t think this is a big problem for Tech Crunch because most of its readers get content through RSS. Remember the 389,000 subscribers?
Spacing and Alignment
Except for content in the main column, nothing about Tech Crunch is organized. Here’s a thought. How about spending some of that $60,000, generated by the right sidebars, to fix the right sidebars?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Like Problogger, Tech Crunch has multiple H1 title tags on the front page. Although it makes sense to break your content down, block by block, with multiple sets of H1, H2, and H3 title tags, if you’re starting to get into on-page SEO, use only one H1 title tag per page.
The End
That’s it for this installment of my review series. Again, this review series is meant to spot blog design performance problems so you can learn from them to improve your own blog. My reviews are not complete reflections of what I think of the reviewed blogs, just the design aspect. And at the end of the day, you should focus on creating great content (not designs) because the blogs that I’ve reviewed have made it without a pretty face.
Also, I have no problem with you reviewing Wpdesigner. If you do review Wpdesigner, let me know.
good post
i actually dont really mind the green and white
i prefer content in the middle myself though ive noticed a lot of tech orientated blogs using this style
I enjoyed these posts! You made some good points of what should be improved for those sites.
I also suggest that you come out with what have been done right by the blogs on review. It will put your posts on a more positive note.
We learn from mistakes as much as we learn from good experiences.
Just my two cents. Keep up the good work!!
http://www.jennyhow.com
Great review! You should double check the link via the thumb nail. A nasty little “n” seems to be tripping you up…
but techNcrunch does have a nice ring to it….
Thanks Mr.Blog it
I definitely agree about putting the content in the middle of 2 sidebars. I hardly knew they had sidebar links that took you to more content because it’s covered by ads. You should be able to clearly see that sidebar when the page is loaded.
Do you know what the prime advertising spot is in magazines? That’s right, the upper left hand corner. Our eyes automatically go to the upper left hand corner because we read from left to right starting at the top. The same applies to web pages as to magazine pages. So you, and TechCrunch, are putting content first. As for color combos…
Agree about covering up links with ads BTW.
Good review. These are good things for designers to keep in mind when making new themes as well.
Not picking, but just noticed you forgot to link up “Advanced Themes”
It’s so strange I notice all the mistakes on other sites but leave mine a mess with typos…..
Maybe I should do this for a living… but then I’d be like my wife (nag, nag, nag)….
Mr.Blog it - I actually left that empty because I haven’t created any advance themes. The popular and submit links are also leading to nowhere.
As for the point about reading magazine, I don’t think that rule translates to the web. With a magazine or paper, you would expect to start reading at the top left corner, but not with websites. You might still focus on the top left corner, but top left corner of the middle column.
“Nobody clicks those, unless a certain banner gets very creative.
If the ads don’t get enough clicks then why do people advertise there? The answer is branding.”
You actually have no idea how many people click those. Why do you assume they may not get enough clicks? Tech Crunch has decided to put their ads on the right hand side because people frequent their site to READ content first… not watch videos, or download stuff. If you notice in any good newspaper makes you lead your eye INTO the ads by placing them to the right of the content so your eyes naturally go to there… not vise versa or they’ll get skipped over. Tech Crunch has made a good decision by putting the ads on the right and giving their content priority.
I pretty much disagreed with all your thoughts on the site. I find it humorous that you talk like you’re an authority on design, yet your portfolio is nothing, and you have no credentials to back yourself up other than a few very mediocre Wordpress themes… But hey… whatever gets you traffic right?
I will disagree with you here. I always start at the top left of a website. Its just natural. You’ll probally find this is supported by research and exists in almost every media. Including: TV, magazines, books, etc. The only method around it is design. Create your website, or other media in such a way to draw the viewer to a location. I know there are a few noteable exceptions to this rule as well. Take japanese graphic novels they tend to run right to left.
I’m sorry. But I never click ads. Period. No leading will make me click an ad. The only time I might see myself clicking an ad is if its actually something of real interest. And “auction ads” or “voxbone” is not going to do it. Really the degree of advertising on Techcrunch has gotten out of hand from what it used to be. And the color contrast of that website is awful. The blaring white is like trying to read by looking at a light bulb. I think SP is being kind in his crits of the Techcrunch site.
For one thing the website doesn’t even have valid code. I find it refreshing to read valid and critical reviews of the top blogs.
@Shawn - I don’t have to know TechCrunch ads performance to come to the conclusion that those banners don’t perform well and are only there for branding. My opinion about the button banners is based on experience.
Although “Nobody click those ads” is misleading because it’s just a general statement, my point doesn’t change. If you test a 300 or 336 ad with a 125 (button banner) ad, your 300 and 336 ads will get more clicks. Not to mention, Tech Crunch has 6 button banners on the right side, which divides the user’s attention even more. Your button banner would have to be VERY creative to grab clicks (if traffic is your main goal).
I agree with your point about people going to Tech Crunch to get content first. But, of course people come to websites/blogs for content and not videos and ads (unless the content are the videos). That’s true for every blog, not just Tech Crunch.
It sounds like you haven’t had enough experience with ads placement. The closer you put ads near content, the more they will be looked at and clicked on, not just skipped over. When you place ads away from the content, that’s when people develop ad-blindness. “It’s been tried and tested”. You can validate everything I’m telling you by actually testing my suggestions rather than just posting a comment to disagree and to criticize my free themes.
I can honestly say that I don’t do this for traffic because I simply post my reviews without doing trackbacks and notifying the bloggers (of blogs that I’ve reviewed).
I’m sorry if it sounds like I tried to come off as an expert. I’m not an expert and my reviews are just opinions, but they’re opinions, based on experience.
And about the free themes, I know they’re not all that and if you can do better, hey, you’re welcome to show them off on this site. I don’t mind featuring better themes and themes from better WordPress designers.
SP
Nice design, and your reviews are pretty good. However, (I’m not taking any sides here) I do think you should be careful when reviewing. Before I read the comments, I felt the air of the review was far too negative.
When reviewing, it is wise to been with what you like, then gently move to what you don’t like. Then conclude with a brief reminder of both.
Just a few thoughts SP, keep up the good work though.
Oh…before I go, I’ll leave a little design critique; You need a link to your comments at the bottom of your posts on the home page. I had to go back up and click on the headline to get here. However, I like the overall design, and the mix of pastle colours, with bold.
I’ll look into how I can better place the comments link.
For the reviews, I don’t think it’s necessary to compliment before critique. Although the tone is negative, I write to give tips, not to ego stroke anyone or play nice :-).
But, I guess I could try sounding a little nicer or less negative…
I am newbie so thought I will share my candid (and virgin) comment on Techcrunch. Well, I happened to visit Techcrunch for some scoop on ‘Silverlight’ (anti Flash stuff from MS) and I was pretty impressed with the design.
The idea behind putting up a blog kinda site is to share information, knowledge and get some ad-clicks and I believe TC has done it well.
Nice review Potato.
Good review. Thank’s
I really like TechCrunch.com’s theme.
Good review,thanks!
good nice blog
Good review. Thank’s
Nice post