Blog Reviews by Bloggeries

If you have ever tried to quit smoking, or are in the midst of it now, then you may want to stop in and have a look at the Reformed Smoker blog.  The Reformed Smoker is a blog run by a former smoker who has just recently quit his 20 years, 20-a day smoking habit.  The blogger is hoping the blog will anchor him in his quest to quit smoking, and will hopefully provide some focus for him as he works on the reformed aspect of the reformed smoker.  The blogger has quit smoking using the “Cold Turkey” method, and at the time of review, had been going strong for 63 days.  Find out what is going on in the mind of this reformed smoker, as he battles this quit and writes his recent bloggeries:  Insane in the Brain, Living Colour, Get Your Skates On, Their Or There, Sixty, Open House, Lock up the Fags, Merry Christmas, Bloody Certifiable, Orange Crush, and Tripple Pizza.

The blog is a personal blog of sorts and is laid out as such, offering a nice clean layout and organization to the blog that makes navigation easy.  Bloggeries are written in black text on a beige almost yellow background and links stand out nicely in red.  Most bloggeries are associated with relevant pics.  Bloggeries are left marginalized, and there is a right-sided navigation bar.  In the right-sided navigation bar you will find buttons for contact or subscribing to the feeds, About page for Reformed Smoker, Search bar for Reformed Smoker, Countback Widget (to last cigarette), Widget to create your own quit smoking certificate, Video of the Week, Gym Activity Tracker, and Archive Menu that also lists Recent Posts within the current month’s archives.

This blog gets a 3.5/5 overall at this point, and I think that score is largely due to the fact that the blog is quite young.  The blog has a certain essence of sparsity to it, as if there is something missing, but I think as the blog grows this will change.  The blog scores well for content and for activity, as the bloggeries are written in a clean personal voice that connects with the readers well.  The activity is very consistent as well with bloggeries coming in every day at this point.  The navigation scores could be improved, and would be if there was more ‘blog meat’ in the navigation bar.  If the blogger added a recent comments menu for example it may encourage more comments from the readers, but also I think a Categories Menu would improve navigation on this blog.  The appearance scores are being affected strictly due to the lack of content and blog meat in the blog at this point.  Also, the main page of the blog only has one bloggery listed on it, if the blogger added more bloggeries to be shown when the blog loads the blog would look a little more beefed up. Overall however, this is a fun blog to read, and if you are one about to join, or in the trenches, of the battle in quitting smoking, this blog may add some company to your misery.

-Chrissie 

Should you ever have any questions about Social Security Disability in the United States, you may want to check out The Disability Blog. where you will find a blog on disability matters from former claims specialist and blogger Tim Moore. Have a look at any of his recent bloggeries to see if your inquiries can be answered here: Social Security Disability – Kansas City Star article; Social Security Disability Las Vegas – KSL News; Waiting for Social Security Disability; Interesting News from Fed Blog; Disability Statistics from a UPI article; Social Security Disability in Indianapolis; Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; Disability Increasing Faster Among Women, Bipolar Disability, Can you Receive Social Security Disability and Veterans Benefits; and Disability Judges Being Added?.

Navigation on this blog is very simple and straightforward. Posts are right marginalized with black text on white background and there is a left navigation system. The left navigation bar contains archives linked by individual date, recent posts menu, and a small about me spot. The blog does not contain much other than regular postings, so there is very little to navigate here. There are no pictures with the posts and the categories menu is missing as well. I think a blog with this kind of topic is broad enough to include a few categories so that readers could navigate directly to any specific questions they may have that do not fall under the previous posts menu. I also find the archives menu a little bulky by being organized by specific date and it would look much neater if it was organized monthly or even weekly.

I will give this blog a 3, there is very little to offer the readers here other than the bloggeries. I am not sure what the readership is, but the blog could definitely use a blogroll or a related links menu. I also think the blog would be a little more aesthetically appealing if pictures were offered with the content. The writing is very well done, comprehensive, and informative. To add to this, the blog is updated regularly which is always beneficial to any blog’s success. Even in the recent posts there is a wide range of topics covered that serves the readership well. I think these could be organized into categories if readers wish to look at specific topics down the road. The advertising is appropriately incorporated and not at all distracting to the readers so it should monetize the blog nicely. Navigation here is a little bland and simply because there is very little offered other than regular posting. The blog has a unique concept and the keywords are used effectively so with these few changes, I think this blog could do very well.

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- Chrissie

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