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Hi Guys,
Well done on your first site.

Just a few tips from me…

You have a big picture of yourselves appearing on every page. You probably only need that to appear on the home page. It makes people have to scroll down to read your content on every single page (especially if they are on a laptop like me).

Also maybe your home page doesn’t need to actually say ‘home’ right above your blog posts as thats kinda stating the obvious 😉

You cant beat just rolling up your sleeves an diving in.
Maybe start with simple things like tweaking the CSS a bit,
and then start playing with the theme php.

Find a blog you like the look of for design inspiration, then work towards something like that. Usually its easier if you start with a theme that has most of the features you want in the first place.

There’s tons of info out there for the Googling, but you’ll only know what you need to Google when you start playing 😉

If doing that on your live blog is a bit scarey I’d recommend you create a local copy of your site on your computer.

I use a program called Serverpress ( http://serverpress.com/ )

It makes it super easy to have WordPress running right on your desktop so you can play to your hearts content without breaking your live site.

Beware though, once you start tweaking your theme, you might get addicted and end up deciding to make your own (like I did). 😉

The unvarnished truth is that its all a bit busy I’m sorry to say 🙁
Seems to load slow for me too.
The ads and doodads are distracting.
For now I’d remove the ads, remove the doodads, remove the affiliate links, make the colour scheme more readable, and concentrate on quality content, at least until its popular and then think about adding the affiliate element to it with very carefully chosen products.
Less is more in this case 😉

Eleven40 theme is a nice one.
A good start.

I would suggest customising it a bit more to give it a unique personality. All it takes is a nice logo and tweaking colours etc as a minimum.

A site like this would have a bit more authority if we know who is giving the advice and why they are an expert and why we should follow them/take the advice.

Thanks for the linux access tip 🙂

eek!
When I visit your site (using chrome) I see a message that says
that some service or whatever wants to know my location.
Is this the dark side of public safety rearing its head again 😉

I’d suggest using a theme which is a bit more newspaper or magazine style to give it a bit more weight.

John,
First up, the site is quite neatly put together.
The site is loading quite slowly for me though.

It lacks that certain something which gives it authority though. Check out the sites of really successful thought leaders to see the kinds of things you could be doing to encourage trust.

Maybe you should consider a photo which is a little more professional and approachable looking. At the moment I look at your home page and see your eyes staring out at me from multiple places. You maybe need to look more empowered, just like your network 😉

I can appreciate how tricky it must be to do a website in English when your first language is probably something else.
The English in the articles is often not quite right.
I feel the site needs more personality injected into it to give it more authority.

Neat clean site, but here is my feedback. 😉
– On the homepage I would probably have expected to see some pictures of actual laptops there.
– The ‘laptop deals central’ title with the follow buttons underneath seems to be taking up a lot of screen real estate and pushing your blog posts down further than they need to be
– The post title ‘best laptop brand’ while it may be seo optimised comes a cross as a bit spammy. Same for other blog titles on the site.
– The site looks impersonal. When I look at the home page I don’t really get the idea of who is making the recommendations and why I should believe them. I would say the site needs more authority and personality.