Archive for the 'Parenting' Category
Posted by Bloggeries in Parenting
If you are a mom, then you will appreciate the sentiments that you will find at The Parenting Diaries. The Parenting Diaries is exactly what it sounds like – a blog about parenting. The blogger is writing her way through the joys and journeys of parenting, and it is most definitely a personal blog. The blogger describes the blog as an honest to goodness account of the joys of motherhood, its bumps on the road, and the joy her child has brought to her life since 2003. She also speaks of nothing but love for her daughter, who is described as the inspiration and strength she herself gets everyday. You can get to know this blogger and her daughter a little more through any of her recent bloggeries: The Experiment, I should get a Tattoo on my Forehead, Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Party, Falling Sick Has No Perfect Time, 24 K Gold, Talking About My Lines of Valor, He Just Wouldn’t Quit It, Time Travel, and How Would You Interpret This.
The blog is well organized in a clean layout that makes blog navigation very easy. Bloggeries are centralized and there is both a left and right navigation bar. Bloggeries are black text on beige background and the blog is bordered in a soft orange with links highlighted in deep rustic color. The color scheme and theme is very warm and inviting, excellent choices for this type of blog. In the left navigation bar you will find a blog calendar, Recent Posts Menu, and a stats counter. In the right navigation bar you will find the RSS button, Archives Menu, and blogroll. All bloggeries are accompanied by relevant pictures which add meaning to the bloggeries, and make the blog aesthetically appealing overall.
I give this blog a 4.5/5 as it scores very well on all accounts. This is a blog I found myself wandering in between posts and activity, which for me is always a sign of a good blog. The content is well done with the personal voice you would expect in a personal blog. You can truly get to know the blogger well from her writings. Activity gets perfect scores as well, this blogger is truly dedicated and writes in every day. The appearance of the blog is very well done, with no distractions and in a theme that is warm and inviting to its visitors. Navigation is also very easy on this blog. I would suggest moving the two navigation bars into one however, as there is a lot of space on both navigation bars which could be made better use of by filling that space up a bit. I also think a categories menu would be beneficial to this blog to organize it a little more. Overall however, I enjoyed reading this blog and I think it could sustain a healthy readership over time.
-Chrissie
Posted by Bloggeries in Parenting
The next blog that Bloggeries is going to review deals with a sensitive subject matter and readers should take this into consideration when reading the blog. The blog is called PPD Connect. This is a blog for women that have suffered or are suffering from any degree of Post Partum Depression to join, meet, share their stories, raise awareness, and help other moms that are struggling. Post Partum Depression is a psychological disturbance that happens with some women after they have given birth. There are varying degrees of the disorder, which you will find out for yourself when you read the most recent bloggeries: Liz’s Story; Advice for Moms with PPD from Another Mom; Leah’s Story; Lisa’s Story; Amanda’s Story; A Readers Response to the Author’s Story; A new moms story, seeking Welcome to Postpartum Depression Connect. What you will find when you read this blog is story upon story that will touch your heart of real women, with real stories and the struggles they face every day when coping with this psychological challenge. PPD is a real disorder, a real problem, and this blog has been created to reach out to everyone to educate, raise awareness, and help heal.
This blog contains two navigation systems and is very easy to navigate. Bloggeries are centralized with black text on white background and links are highlighted with pink. In the left navigation bar you will find links on how to submit a story, Categories menu (containing only one category – stories), and a Recent Comments Menu. In the right navigation bar you will find a disclaimer about the claims of the blog, Learn More about PPD Menu, PPD Resources, and information on Support Groups. The blog is strictly stories and content so there are no associated pictures with the posts, and as of the time of review, the blog does not have an about page, though the blog is fairly self-explanatory.
I will give this blog a 3.4/5 for now and offer a few suggestions for the blogger so they may see some growth to the blog. At this point, there is only one category in the categories menu, and I do recommend the addition of more categories to ease navigation of the blog. The blogger could make use of additional categories for not only navigation purposes, but for traffic as well. With so many degrees of PPD, the blogger could add ‘Post Partum Psychosis’, ‘Baby Blues’, and things of that nature to sort the stories out for the reader. I also suggest the blogger use keywords in the titles of headlines for the same purposes, it eases navigation, will bring in more traffic, and sorts the stories. Adding keywords like ‘Post Partum Psychosis’ to relevant headlines for the bloggeries would make a tremendous gain on the navigation of the blog. Content is well written, and has the potential to move the readership to action which is the goal of written content. While I recognize that the point of the blog is based on story submission, I do recommend the blogger allow the readers some editorial rights to edit the submissions as some of them are not that easy to read. There was for example one bloggery I read where a run-on sentence lasted about 5 or 6 lines. By using editorial status on the submissions without affecting the integrity of the story, the blogger may make her posts easier to read on the readership. The blog is also new from what I can tell, though without an archives menu it is hard to guage this. With newness, comes a lack of blog meat for any blogger, and I suggest for Appearance sake the blogger move the navigation bars into one navigation bar for the time being to ease up on some of the white space of the blog. Overall however, this is an excellent blog with a unique niche. If it follows some of these suggestions, and works on continued improvement, it should do very well. This blog has a large target audience and with its quality content has the potential to really hit the mark with its readership and see tremendous success.
-Chrissie
Posted by Bloggeries in Technology, Parenting
Here is a blog that will spark the interest of both the techie lover and anyone looking for parenting tips. It is called Geek Parenting. The blog is primarily a blog for pop culture junkies who have spawned but refuse to give up their geeky obsessions, and at the same time, it offers parenting tips and aids to help make the joys of parenting just a little bit easier. The blogger is Amy Cottrell and she is the creator and author of Geek parenting. She is a mother, wife, and a self-professed full-time geek. Amy is also a professional writer and works in content producing for the Internet, as well as search engine optimization. As a full time mom and wife however, her preference for coffee chats is focused on babies and her other geeky love, comic books. Get to know Amy a little better as well as pick up some useful techie tips from some of her recent bloggeries: Top 10 Gadgets and Gizmos to Help Keep Your Little Geek Safe, Lil’ Geek of the Week, Fisher-Price Recalls Dangerous Toy…Only in Illinois?, Welcome to the World, Baby S!, Pretend to be a Time Traveller Day, Roswell is for Lovers (And Other Geek Vacations), Hobby Horse Memories, The Favorite of Girls and Boys, and More Geeky Goodness for the Holidays.
The blog is fairly new and just getting some of its blog meat, so thus at this point it is very easy to navigate. It has a clean template and organized design with a left navigation bar and bloggeries being right marginalized. Bloggeries are in black text on white background with a dark green border and links highlighted in green. In the left navigation menu you will find a Back to the Main Page link, About Geek Parenting information, Sponsors, Subscription information, What I’m Reading Menu, Contact Information, and an Archives Menu. All bloggeries are also accompanied by relevant pictures, and more than one in most cases which adds to the interest and appeal of the blog. There are however no categories yet listed on the blog, and the bloggeries do not contain tags or labels, so this may be something the blogger wants to look into as the blog grows to attract search engine traffic and help its readers find older posts.
I am going with a 3.6/5 for this blog, and this is primarily because the blog is in very early stages and still going through some growth spurts. Right now the blogger is doing very well for activity and keeping regular bloggeries that attract and interest an already growing readership. Navigation scores are hurting a little bit, but I suspect these would grow as the blog does. There are currently not very many standard navigation menus associated with the blog such as Recent Posts, Recent Comments, or as previously mentioned a Categories Menu. Adding these elements may make the blog a little easier to move around, and if the blogger keeps up with her current rate of activity, they will be a necessity as more content is added to the blog. The blog also scores well for uniqueness and appearance as this blog is not only cleanly laid out and thus easy to read, but also comes in a unique niche that attracts a healthy readership. Judging by the current comment tabulations with each bloggery, this blog is already doing very well in sustaining an excellent readership and thus with time, should experience even more growth and success.
-Chrissie
Posted by Bloggeries in Reviews, Parenting
When looking through the parenting blogs, I stumbled across one of extraordinary uniqueness. Seeing Barb’s “Cigarette’s and Coffee” reminded me of an angst ridden song where the mainstays were caffeine and nicotine. For the life of me, I can not recall what song that is, but I do know the emotion behind the song is about angst and the pain’s of day to day life. So appropriate then a title for Barb’s blog which is about the adventures of a birth mother in open adoption. While the posts are not all that regular, her most recent ones include “the dangling conversation” which is a relation of a conversation had with her husband on the “when” they will start the trying to conceive process. Other posts include “sing a long” and then a small tribute to a personal favorite of mine, “GPS and Nick Drake”. The purpose behind the blog is to serve as an outlet for Barb and her quest for motherhood, and given by the regular amount of comments she receives on it, she has a tremendous support group that is sharing her pain and using the blog to Barb’s intended purpose.
Navigation on this site is very straightforward. The opening page is standard blog format with the most recent posts listed from most current and on. The layout is a black background with white text and the posts appear on the right side of the site. On the left you will find a picture of Barb and her profile and contact information as well as a list of her favorite links. These include “33 Writes 25”, “Color”, “Great Dorito Analogy”, “He Tells Me a Joke” and many other eclectic all about something blogs. You can also subscribe to her blog and view other blogging birthmothers in the blog ring she has on her site.
This blog scores an overall 2.8 from me and with a little work this could become an outstanding representation of a young woman’s plight to motherhood. I find the white text/black background very difficult to read and think some softer colors may make this a little easier on the eyes. While I get the need for a black undertone in this blog, I think the same effect could be created in a different manner. I also find the posts extremely sporadic with only 3 posts being entered for the month of April. I would like to see some more pictures on the site, and some additions to the right sided navigation bar as there is a bit of empty space underneath the standard blog links on the right sided bar. Barb clearly has a devoted following to her blog and I think some advertising may monetize it a little bit for her at the same time. Content however scores above average, as Barb’s writing is outstanding. I think anyone reading this would literally feel her pain as she so relates it in writing just beautifully
-Chrissie
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