It’s a new month. I think that’s a good time to think about what’s going to be happening around here on the blog and I thought that’s something that you might want to know as readers as well. Here’s what you can expect from Diary of a Smart Chick this month:

• Photo of the Day. I haven’t gotten much feedback about whether or not the Photo of the Day is a good feature of this site. However, I’m enjoying the fact that it gives me a reason to take more photos so I’ll continue on with it through September. Your thoughts are welcome.
• Book Reviews and Author Interviews. Last month I started doing a “book of the day” as well but that didn’t really work out so well. Although I do read an average of 5-7 books per week I was finding it too difficult to really keep up with reviewing them all daily. However, I do want to feature more book reviews on the site. There will be approximately one review per week this month and that will include at least one interview with the author of a book.
• One giveaway. I did a giveaway last month that worked out really well so I’ll be trying to do at least one more this month.
• Question of the Week. This will be a new feature on Diary of a Smart Chick. It will be a simple question that I’ll pose to my readers for you to answer and debate in the comments section. This will be going live every Tuesday morning starting next week. Let me know what you think of it!
• Links to my Work Around the Web. Part of what I do here on Diary of a Smart Chick is to link to the work that I’m doing around the web in order to share it with others and to create an online portfolio. When you see links on the site that’s often where they’re directing you to so if you’re interested in my writing then you may want to follow those links.

What else would you like to see on Diary of a Smart Chick?

Tags: Blog, blog update, question of the week

I’ve been doing some blogging for Maverick Hammers, a really cool company that creates hydraulic hammers for the demolition industry. I’m happy to say that two of my posts for them were included in blog carnivals recently.

First, I wrote a post for them about being green in this industry. It’s not an industry that’s focused on green issues at all so it’s been interesting for me to learn about how they stay green and continue to get greener even though it’s not an industry focus. This post was included in the All Things Eco blog carnival. That carnival is filled with tons of great green links to check it out if being green interests you.

Another interesting thing about this company is how it considers itself to be part of a chain of businesses. Maverick Hammers believes in a job well done because the company knows that failure at that results in problems for many other businesses as well. The post I did about this topic was included in the Muse on Everything carnival.

Tags: Blog, blog carnival, busines, green, links, maverick hammers

One of the things that I do every few months is take a good hard look at my website and all of my blogs to make sure that they look the way that I want them to. It’s hard to remember to do this because you’re usually working on the back end of your website (adding content and optimizing it for search engines). However, the thing that people see when they come to your page is ultimately the only thing that really ends up mattering so I think it’s important to try to get a viewer’s perspective on your sites and blogs every once in awhile.

One of the things that you have to ask yourself when doing this kind of review is whether or not your site looks trustworthy. Most people have ads and links out on their sites and this is normal but the wrong ads or excessive linking can make people feeling like they’re just looking at a lot of spam when they come to your site. The design of the site, the content that you choose to put up, the way that you categorize everything … all of these things have a visual impact on the people who visit your site and you want to make sure that the impact they have is a positive one.

Basically, you have to think about the fact that most people who come to your website aren’t planning to stay there long, especially if they just clicked through from somewhere else on the web. You want to create a website that looks friendly and professional and aesthetically pleasing. You want to make a good first impression. When you meet a new person for the first time, you probably want them to believe that they can trust you right? It’s the same thing with a website.

What are you doing to make your site look like it can be trusted?

For me, the bottom line is that I try to create a site that not only looks trustworthy but actually is trustworthy. I try to stick to writing about topics that I know well enough to provide accurate information about them. I try to make sure that the things I promote through the site are things I would promote in real life if asked. And I keep checking to make sure that the sites look the way that they should so that I can feel comfortable with what I’m putting out there.

Tags: Blog, customers, design, kathryn vercillo, site design, trustworthy, web 2.0, website