Archives for July 2008

Bloggeries is going to look at another personal blog today, and this blog is known as The RhodesTer Chronicles.  The Rhodester Chronicles, as the header tells us, is playfully pondering the universe in a strong personal voice on this personal bog. The Rhodester Chronicles is found on its own domain at and is a blog that literally chronicles all that is good, funny, or interesting in the life of the blogger.  The blog is lacking an About page, but you can get to know the blogger better through any of their recent bloggeries: The 4th of Julie, Bad Boys, The Prestigious Palm Springs Savant and Co., RHODES? Where are we going?, A Brush with the Law, VLOG! Yes, VLOG, and WHOA, Like…..

For best navigation the blog is best viewed through Firefox, but overall the clean template of the blog design offers ease of navigation.  Bloggeries are left marginalized, and are in black text on white background with links highlighted in blue.  In the right navigation bar you will find Subscription Info, Categories Menu, Recent Comments Menu (known as Snarky Remarks), Archive Menu (known as In the Vault), Recent Viewers widget, and some blog directory widgets.  Because the blog is a personal blog and is much ado about anything, the Categories Menu contains a little bit of everything relevant to the blogger in categories such as quest Posts, Hall of Fame, Hollywood DAZE, Perilous Pics, Raving Reviews, and so much more.  Each bloggery is accompanied by at least one, but generally several, relevant pictures that add meaning and humor to the bloggeries.

Overall this blog gets a 4.65/5 as it is organized well and has a unique flavor to it.  From a content perspective, the content is fresh and written well enough to make me laugh out loud, and was an enjoyable read, however a higher score here would happen if the activity was a little more consistent. Currently the blog is being updated every few days, and daily activity would more than likely get this blog close to perfect.  The appearance of the blog is well done also, with a clean template and a wide variety of colors and pictures and no advertising to offer distractions.  From a navigation standpoint the blog is well organized to ease navigation, however I would suggest the blogger add an About Page, as otherwise it is very difficult to determine the purpose of the blog. This blog is very creative and I appreciated the unique touches in the side bar with its quirky menu titles that offer a humorous tone to the blog, a tone that blends well with the blog content.  All in all, the content will push this blog far, as the Rhodester Chronicles was an enjoyable blog to read, and it should do very well.

– Chrissie

P.S My only other recommendation would be that you join our Affiliate Program!

Bloggeries is going to look at a blog in a unique niche today, and the blog is called the Avelient Bio Pharm Blog.  This Bio Pharm Blog is run by Mariano Di Fabio and Scott Alexander, who have a wealth of experience in this industry.  Mariano blogs with over 10 years experience as a consulting professional in the Pharmaceutical industry, and he joined with his  business partner Scott to create Avelient. Avelient is a  a project-oriented, full service IT Solutions Provider, specializing in team-based service delivery for Pharmaceutical companies in New York and New Jersey and the blog is a reflection of their work.  The blog is used as a forum for readers to discuss ideas and opinions in the industry. You can see this for yourself through any of their recent bloggeries: $10,000 Health Challenge to Big Pharma, Back to Virtuality, Spurious Motivation, Drinking Other’s Prescriptions, Morphing Blood, and Professional Lab Rats.

The blog offers a clean layout and design which ordinarily would make navigation easy, however there is little blog meat on this blog making navigation cumbersome.  Bloggeries are left marginalized in black text on white background with a beige border.  In the right navigation system you will find a tag cloud, a Biopharm Books and Products menu, Directory Widgets, AdSense, Blog Calendar, Contributors Menu, and Related Groups Menu.  While I see a lot of interesting information related to the niche located on the blog, I do not see many features that the blog could use to connect with its readership. Things of this nature would include Recent Comments Menus, Categories Menu, and general blog meat.  Each bloggery is also very textual with little to no pictures associated within the bloggeries, making the blog a little to informational. In order to lessen this effect, some graphics within posts may help.

Overall I give this blog a 2.4/5 as it is a good blog just seriously lacking in several areas.  From an appearance perspective, the blog is far too texty, and while it offers a clean layout, some graphics would add to its appearance. A graphic here and there would do wonders to interst the first time reader; I couldn’t even find an image to attach for this blog review… Content wise the blog does great with well written content that the readers can connect to, however, activity is hurting this blog as well. This blog has two bloggeries from June on the main page, but nothing more recent than that since April. This kind of activity is not enough to sustain a readership and the blogger needs to get on the updates.  The blog offers a unique enough niche that it can target with more consistent content, and with a few tweaks to the navigation and organization of the blog, it could develop a healthy readership in order to see some growth and success.

-Chrissie