Log For Blog

This seem to be the second review for I Am Blogging and I’m happy to report some stuffs were “corrected”!

The meta was removed and I like the blog layout and theme: loads fast, not too many widgets or plugins, clean and professional. The blog is very easy to navigate, with a search box located in the navigation bar. The RSS feed and email feed buttons are clearly labelled and social medias buttons are nicely added in the sidebar.

Oh, don’t be shy: you could move you reader count widget to the top, 83 readers isn’t bad for a relatively new blog!

Now, after the layout, the second thing I usually look for on the blog is an “about” page. Who are you, why are you blogging, what is the blog about? I’m a bit lost here because the blog is quite impersonal and if I don’t look at the previous posts closely, I don’t know what is the main theme… this is not obvious by the blog’s title, “I Am Blogging”. The posts are signed either, I don’t see the author metadata.

As a user, it doesn’t make me feel like leaving a comment, because I don’t know who am I talking to!

The posts are short, but it doesn’t bother me. They are easy to read and convey the informations well.  Some tips are quite useful: I like the way the author explained the difference between a PR0 and a PR N/A:  it’s something I had wondered!

Overall, I’d say there are some good tips here and a potential growth for this blog. But I’d definitely add some personal and profesional info, to better relate to the readers.

Next blog to be reviewed: Correr Es Mi Destino

When I saw the blog at first, I thought another cashback blog. I am not very much fond of those topics But then I thought lets find out what is different about it. And the first thing that caught my eyes is “So what is this all about then?”. It shows what the site is trying to implement as a blog. But I dindn’t like the positioning of it. It could have been in more prominent font or could have been placed as another page with a prominent link. Oh! There is “About” page too. It could have been added there too.

The template looked good to me. But there are too many widgets, I have to say. For instance, you can find subscribe bars in two places on the same page with duplicate Feedburner & Twitter count links. I think it is totally unnecessary. I would have liked a 5 recent posts show up rather than that detailed archive widget. So many post links look a bit clumsy. There are two searche boxes. But it makes sense as one lets you search different items from a product site.

And for content, it is look quite ok. There is plenty of info & I have read a few. Writing style seems to have a bit of personal touch & I like it. Otherwise the cashback reviews will become too boring.

Over all, a good blog with plenty of content. The post submission is quite frequent. Good luck with it

Next Blog to be Reviewed: I Am Blogging

InkweaverReview

On going to the InkweaverReview website at http://inkweaver-review.blogspot.com/ I was impressed by the colours and layout of the site. I like the way the main text is graded the way it is actually being text and not an image and the colours work well with each other.

On moving my mouse around I was pleased to see a Follow Me widget that opened up onmouseover around the subscribe box that I added myself to. Being a fan of some books myself and possibly only ending up looking for a site like this in the future it only felt right.

The first thing I done was check out the first link on the menu bar which looks quite modern the way it also has a light/dark gradient and the how the subscribe field is built right into it. However I feel this would better suited as a search field rather than a subscribe field to enter your email address. Maybe some small icons at the top would be ideal for that instead. Better still, there is a search field on the top left of the page above the links. Maybe it would be good to have that as the subscribe field instead and swap them around but that is just my opinion.

Anyway on going to the Contact page I was delighted to actually see a Contact Form as opposed to just an email address left on the page. The Contact Form also blends in well with the rest of the pages colours making it “Asthetically” pleasing and not looking out of place at all. However this says it’s for a book review and if you want a book reviewed to use that form. I felt as though it would put me off using that form to contact the owner of the site if I only have a general question. Perhaps more signfication that it can be used as a general contact form would be good as well.

Moving on I clicked onto the Book Wizard link. This opened a page with different genres of books. About 10 different genres in all. I wonder if more will be added over time. Anyway clicking on either one of these will open pages filled with books relevant to that genre. I have to say while some of the genres don’t have countless pages of books. I will have to give the site the benefit of the doubt in that it is only a fairly new website anyway. However I was pleased with the books that are already on there and TBH I found this quite a novel idea. I am not totally into my books myself but there are some books that I want to read in the future and I will look to inkweaver-review to see if they have just that. A review on the book I plan to read. If they don’t have one I would like to request a review on that book. That could be a good idea.

So I like the Book Wizard part of this inkweaver-review site. A very useful feature that I’m sure many over time will find very useful in deciding what book to read next. Whatever his/her favourite genre may be.

Moving on again and we come to the final link in the menu bar “Book Covers”. This so far is basically just a gallery of book covers taken from the book reviews already written on the site. However there is more to it than that. On browsing through the various book covers, you can then click on that cover to be taken to the page where that book review is. Very novel!

That, I feel, is one thing that will make this site. More work put into that making it a little bigger perhaps and with different ones for the different genres would be good to but still a novel idea none-the-less.

Just to check the search option was working okay I done a random search and was presented with a selection of books that were relevant to the search terms I used.

With what looks like a large amount of books reviewed. This looks like a site that is trying to establish a name for itself in the book readers world. Going by what I have seen so far already I wouldn’t be surprised if that is what will happen.

Another thing I have just noticed which I like is the alternating links that appear at the top of the page that fade in and out with a new link to a review.

Overall I would actually say this is a great book review blog that any avid or not so dedicated reader will enjoy alike.

Next Blog to be Reviewed: Get Cash Back Online

The first thing that I noticed about Germany-Today was its extremely bright and vivid color scheme.  The black, red, and yellow bars across the top of the blog are the colors of the national flag of Germany, and so they suit the theme of the blog very nicely indeed.  The header of Germany-Today has a nice circle reflection making it look like the top of a reflective iPhone screen.

From there, I began analyzing the site’s structure.  I liked the fact that the search form was right at the top of the left sidebar.  This is very convenient and easy to find.

What wasn’t easy to find was the site’s feed.  The RSS icon was hidden down at the very bottom left corner of the blog.  This is very inconvenient, and Germany-Today would do well to create a prominent subscription form using Feedburner.

Another thing that was missing was a prominent “Contact” page.  All I saw was an obscure link at the very bottom of the page.

The content of the blog was interesting.  The posts were well-written, with a solid focus, like mini-German lessons.  The use of images was professional, and not overdone.  A few of them had centered text, something which looks a little strange, as its not seen very much on the web, unless you are reading a poetry site.

Off in the right sidebar is the Link section.  A few blog listing services and directories are linked back to from this section.  I would suggest that Germany-Today not overdo it with these, as they can distract from the other serious links, as well as leaking precious Google PR to sites that don’t give bloggers very much in return.

Overall I would give Germany-Today three out of five stars.  This blog is still fairly new, and I’m sure it will improve over time, as all blogs do if their authors stick with them.

Keep up the good work.

Next Blog to be Reviewed:  Inkweaver Review

I think I ended up lucky with this Blog seeing as I’m a bit of a techy!  Anyway, I’m Sam Willard and my Blog is www.germany-today.co.uk.

On the outside, Gadget Effect seems like a very organised website, what I like about it is the way each post is formatted.  For whatever post there is you have an “Intro” and “The goods” then “Inside my brain”.  Which I find a catchy way of writing, this way people know where the facts are about the tech, but also where the opinion is.

On another organsation note, I can see many catagories down the side, which is a good sign!  I think for a reader this is pleasing to know that the site has so many article and expertise on a range of areas.

One note I would have about the appearance of the site is; the pictures.  The fist few articles on there have very strange images, not that they don’t fit the article, it’s just they could be a bot more helpful for the reader.  For example “Small HDMI is half the size” has a slice of toast cut in half, although this is kind of humerous, I would like to actually see the dimensions or prototype of this new product.  You can take this from blogs like Engadget, where they posted about the same article, but had comparisions and dimensions of the new product.

Apart from that, I’d say the theme needs a bit of an upgrade, maybe something that made it look more like a tech website i.e. a dynamic looking header.

All in all, GadgetEffect is a good read, but there are a few points it could be improved.

Next blog to be reviewed: Germany-Today

Hello there, I’m Eric Foor with GadgetEffect and I’ve checked out your blog recently.

-As a somewhat new blogger myself, there have been a few things that I figure might be better to keep hidden. On your site, you have a meta with your login. I have my meta not listed as to when I go to login, I just type wp-admin as part of the extension in the main link. That way bots can’t just scan the links on your main site and find one to brute force (which is your wp-admin). It’s possible that it won’t matter much if you have it there or not, but I would prefer to take as many steps as possible to prevent bruteforce. I wouldn’t suggest removing the login though if you have other people then yourself logging in to your website.

-With how short your posts are, I doubt you would need a “Goto Comments” link at the top. The posts are short and easy to read and people could see the comments show up when they scroll in no time at all.

-The first poster for the post about Geocities (http://www.anirbanroy.info/yahoo/yahoo-geocities-closing-later-this-year/) made a link to his own site talking about how he made comments about it. I believe what he should have done is make a trackback, not a comment saying he made a post. Then he goes to suggest about a different website with free hosting. Looks like a spam comment to me.

-You should have an About page as to explain to people what are the goals for the website. Like, what the website is about and who you are. I have the basis of what you post about, but I still don’t have the main idea. Is it just help with general topics on blogging?

-If you can, try to have either longer posts with more information and detail, or update your posts more often. I believe more people would come back more often for updates, if the posts can be very informative.

Overall, I like the look of the site, nice and snazzy. I would say it’s simple and not over the top. Your posts are easy to read. For your how-to’s, I would recommend using pictures of showing to people on what to do and how to do it. Try using more pictures in general too. Other then that, good job and keep on trying!

P.S. I am not a expert and this is just my opinion. If you disagree, then feel free to constructively criticize me by sending an email to eric@gadgeteffect.com

Next blog to be reviewed: GadgetEffect

I can’t write any review as there is none. Mine is the first

Let’s start building the community. Review & wait to be reviewed. Tell your blogger friends about the site.

Next blog to be Reviewed: I Am Blogging