Archive for October, 2008
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Posted by Bloggeries in Fashion
Fashion is all the rave these days in the blogosphere what with New York Fashion Week just passing, and London Fashion Week right on its heels. If you are looking for some good fashion advice from the blogging experts, then you may want to check out The Style Watch Blog. The Style Watch blog is a fashion blog that strives to be a collaboration of all the fashion news that one can find on the web. The blog is run by three ‘authors’ or bloggers, and works to provide you with everything you need to know about fashion. Though there is very little original content on the site, the blog does cover quite a range of topics which you can see in any of their most recent bloggerie: NY fashion: politics, celebs, and unsexy clothes; Chanel Mobile Art the Video; Why London is still a fashion capital; New NY fashions appeal to stay-at-home traveler; Fashion Week Fallout: Are Tough Times Ahead?; and “Sex and the City” fans can shop Carrie’s closet!
The blog contains very little meat, thus making it a clean template and somewhat easy to navigate. Bloggeries are left marginalized and appear in black text on white background with links highlighted in blue. The blog offers a right sided navigation system as well where you will find a tag cloud, Pull Down Categories Menu, Authors Menu, a WordPress widget, and a video widget. The Categories Menu is a little odd for a fashion blog and seems to contain labels for odds and ends such as TV, areas of the globe, and a few pertinent fashion related topics. The content also is a little bit strange as mentioned, this blog seems to be more a parlayer of news feeds rather than a provision of original content. Bloggers are not writing content per se themselves, but retrieving content from other websites and posting it. Mind you, they are not claiming originality, however when reviewing blogs the amount of original content on a blog is a factor in the overall review.
Overall this blog gets a 2/5 at the time of review, and this is primarily based on the lack of meat this blog needs. Primarily the blog is lacking in original content, and there is little if any to speak of on the blog. News sources can be reached by other means, so if the bloggers are wishing to retain readers, providing links to news stories is simply not enough. From a navigation perspective, the blog needs more blog essentials for the readers to use such as a Recent Posts Menu and possibly a comments menu. Though, considering the lack of originality here, I would guess few if any comments would be coming in. Further, the appearance of the blog is somewhat bland for a fashion blog, as fashion readers like to see all of the pretty things they like the most, and while this blog offers the bare bones for graphics, I doubt it would be enough to sustain a healthy readership. Bottom line, my suggestion would be for this blog to start again, implement some blog meat and some original content at the very least in order to see any success at all.
- Chrissie
Posted by Bloggeries in Technology
Those who are constantly on the hunt for the latest and greatest gadgets will find them at The Gadget Advisor Blog. The gadget advisor technology news blog is filled with only the most innovative and the cutting edge products and gadgets on the markets. You will also find here add-ons, plug-ins, and extensions that can be used in browsers or other software. What sets this blog apart from all the other gadget blogs out there is that it admits that it will not cover every single gadget coming to the market. However, if you like to tinker with the toys, this gadget will certainly tickle that techie bone. You can see this for yourself through any of the most recent bloggeries which include: Recommended Firefox Extensions; OCZ Releases Triple Channel DDR3 Memory Kits; Free Firefox Web Directory Form Filler Extension; MSI X58 Eclipse Motherboard ; OpenOffice.org 3.0 Released.
The blog offers a very professional layout and this makes it a breeze to navigate. The blog theme is in a quiet green with bloggeries in dark text on white background. Bloggeries are left marginalized and there are many navigation systems on this blog, but not too many to work around. The top navigation system offers you links to Home, About, and Advertisement, while a navigation system in the header will take you to Gadgets, Tech News, Computer Hardware, Computer Software, Featured Articles, and Archives. There is a double wide right navigation system as well where you will find all of the blog essentials you need. A Posts Menu divided into Popular, Featured, Comments, and Tags is the first thing you will find here. Following this you find advertisement, Categories Menu, Site Pages, and Resources Menu which serves as a blogroll. The blog is only a couple of months young, so you will not find too many categories yet, but expect this to grow. Right now five categories exist, and the blogger may want to consider expanding that due to the breadth of the niche. At present, the blog is primarily an information blog and so it looks quite text based. You won’t find any graphics on the opening page, but as you go into the bloggeries pictoral graphics are present in most if not all bloggeries.
This blog gets a 4.5 at the time of review, which is a great mark on such a young blog. Though the blog presents itself well, it still does need some tweaks to amp it up a bit. The categories menu could be beefed up a little as mentioned in order to ease navigation a little, but otherwise the navigation is very easy. The content is well written in a user friendly voice which is important for a blog of this nature. Appearance wise the blog is clean and friendly, though I do suggest offering more graphics on the opening page within the bloggeries to spice it up a bit. Activity seems consistent and regular which is a great sign, but again, the bloggeries themselves do not have time and date stamps, and readers like to see current times on recent bloggeries. Overall however, this is a great blog that is well organized, and will be well appreciated by todays gadget lover.
-Chrissie
Posted by Bloggeries in Movies
The movie buff will really appreciate this next blog, as it is written by a movie lover and for movie lovers. The blog is called Intermission at Work. The blogger is a computer programmer by day, and a movie theater manager by night, and blogs about movies in his spare time. You will find anything you want to know about all of the latest movies, including reviews, previews, trailers, and more. You can see for yourself what the blogger has to offer in his ‘Recently Released’ bloggeries: Joe’s Review: Tropic Thunder; Movie Morsel: Check Your Movie Times; Movies this Weekend!; Movie Moguls: Round 2; and Joe’s Review: Hancock.
The site is well organized and offers a lot to its readers. Almost too much as navigation can get cumbersome. But readers will find plenty of blog meat here and many systems to navigate. There are two main navigation systems in the header where you can go to just about anything the blog has to offer. The bulk of the blog is left marginalized and there is one double wide right sided navigation bar. In the left marginalized frame you will see that bloggeries consume the main and center stage of the page, and then this frame is divided into sub headings such as Movie Reviews, Movie Previews, and other features. In the navigation bar to the right you will find Subscription info, You Tube video of most recently seen movie, Advertising, Recent Posts titled ‘Recently Released’, Top Commenters menu titled ‘Top Critics’ ad spaces for available advertising. You will also find useful information in the footer, where you will see Recent Readers widget, Recommended Movie Sites, and Weekend Box Office Stats.
This blog gets a 4.2/5 right now with only a few tweaks to mention. Content is well done and in a personal voice that lends credibility to the quality of the content. From an appearance standpoint the blog is well organized and offers a lot of variety and color that keeps the reader entertained, while reading about entertainment. Navigation is somewhat complicated due to the many navigation systems. Sometimes when too many navigation systems are used the reader can get confused and not know where to look first. I think the blogger could overcome this through a Categories Menu that would organize things a little more concisely for the readership. Further, the content while it is well written, is not consistent and not daily, and thus the blogger could also benefit from more frequent posting. Overall however, this blog is an excellent resource to the movie lover and I would definitely give it two thumbs up!
-Chrissie
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Posted by Bloggeries in Reviews, Investing
For those of you that like to mix up the pace a little bit and find the grind of the every day well, boring, then you may be looking for something fresh, new and exciting to add some spice to your life. Here is a blog that feels just like you! The blog is called Quixoting – A Blog for New Ideas, and is just that, a blog that is written by someone is on the constant search for new ideas, wants to hear about new ideas from the readers, and wants to spend time exploring and experimenting with those ideas. This is a blog that is on a quest for new ideas, and wants to bring new ideas to life and to release them to the world. Still not sure what exactly that means? See for yourself through any of the most recent bloggeries: Seems Clear to Me – What about a See Through Car Cover?; (Key-ho-ting) In Case You Were Wondering; When your ideas aren’t as obvious as you’d like…, What to do with your old and new ideas?, Google offers $10M for 5 great ideas…Ok, I’m listening; Please don’t drink and drive – really don’t; and How about a coffee mug that Fits in more places?.
The blog is organized in a blogspot template, and this makes it very easy to navigate. Bloggeries are left marginalized and are in black ink on white background with a double right-sided navigation bar. In the navigation bars you will find on the left the About Page, Contact Information, Categories Menu in the form of a Tag Cloud, Blogroll, and some Directory Widgets. In the far right navigation system you will find an Introductory Post, Recent Posts Menu, Archives Menu, and a Recent Comments Menu. A handy Book List is also available in this navigation system which is another great resource for those who are as passionate about ideas as the author of this blog. All bloggeries are associated with relevant pictures or graphics that add humor to the blog and offer a unique element to each bloggery.
This blog gets a 3.6/5 at the time of review, and given that the blog is only a month old, that shows that the blog is off to a great start. Content wise the blog does very well, with well written content in a personal voice that adds flavor to the blog. Navigation is easy with the blogspot template as well, and all essential blog items very easy to find. The blog is also found in a unique niche, and this alone allows it to stand apart from many other humor blogs. And the activity on the blog is consistent, and daily, which is enabling the blog to bring in much traffic as evidenced by its healthy amount of comments. The appearance of the blog is the only thing I would make some tweaks to. I would first change the size of the font in the bloggeries, as the small font is very difficult on the eyes when reading, and this same suggestion applies to the navigation bars. The font in the navigation bars is so small, that essential elements such as the About Page may get overlooked. There also seems to be quite a bit of white space in the navigation bars, and I would suggest that the blogger either move the two bars together, or find some filler to alleviate this white space as it can give the impression of an ‘empty’ blog. Overall however, this blog is doing very well in its first month, and I would encourage the blogger to keep the pace of the consistent posting, as this is definitely an asset to a newly growing blog. If so, this blog should see growth and success.
-Chrissie
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