Blog Reviews by Bloggeries

Bloggeries is looking at another personal blog today, and this one is a little bit of everything in a world that is ‘Delightfully Deranged’. The owner of this blog is Kathleen who is self-descrbed as ‘rather insane’. She views the world differently and has some rather strange experiences. Her blog is a medium to talk about these experiences and ramble on about nothingness. Get a feel for all that is delightfully deranged in Kathleen’s world by checking out some of her most recent bloggeries: There is Nothing Wrong with Windows Vista; Tundra Gear: Hats Brought to You by the Winner of Survivor Exile Island!; Do the Batty-Bat with Your Friend, The Count!; Men and Cars: Why do They Love Them?; Race a Psycho Chick and WIN!; Have a Good Night with $44 and a White Flag; Down with the Democrats – Why No colbert?!, and Reality T.V. Shows: Retreating From Oblivion, or Deranging our Society.

The blog is only a few months old and thus with little content it makes it very easy to navigate at this point. Bloggeries are in dark green text on a beige background and the blog is bordered in a forest green “Delightfully Deranged” motif. Bloggeries are left marginalized and there is a right-sided navigation bar. In the navigation bar you will find a Featured Presentation that is a cute little widget containing the blog’s goals and objectives, such as to reach 3000 hits and to increase in traffic by 20%. The navigation bar also contains a Recent Posts Menu titled “Yada Yada Yada” and a bit of advertising. Most bloggeries are accompanied by relevant pictures which makes the blog easier and more interesting to read. I currently do not see a Categories Menu or even labels or tags on the posts and I would strongly recommend the blogger begin doing this as this will definitely help to bring in some search engine traffic if effective keywords are used for labeling.

Overall I am giving this blog a 3.0 and this is largely due to the youth of the blog. With such a young blog some essential blog meat is missing, and with time and growth the blog would probably see a better mark. Navigation scores are fine and that is due to the bare bones nature of the blog. To enhance navigation as the blog grows, I suggest adding categories and labels to the blog. I would also suggest moving the About Page from the footer of the blog to a top position in the right navigation bar. This will give the blog some credibility to the readers, and new readers will be able to attach meaning to the personal voice of the blog. Content is well written and in an effective personal voice, but the activity is lacking. Currently there are no bloggeries for December, and November only saw about 13 posts. If the blogger wishes to reach her goals in the featured presentation, she will definitely have to maintain the blog content on a more regular basis. The blog itself however is unique enough to sustain a readership if the content becomes more regular. As a new blog it looks like an interesting read and could do very well with just a few minor changes and regular addition to content.

-Chrissie

Bloggeries is taking a look at another personal blog, and this one is called Swiftworld. The writer of this blog is 14 year old Lee Oixian fro Singapore who also goes by the nickname Polar/Swift. Lee is a student studying and living in Singapore and he loves computer games or anything computer related. He enjoys finding new things, exploring and experiencing different and unique concepts. His love of computer games is relatively obvious throughout the blog, and he hopes to use the blog to influence his readers to play the games that he reviews. At swiftworld, you will find many product reviews and news articles, but you will also find out what the daily journeys of Swift are, as he says, it is his world, his word, and his story. You can get a true feel for his story by reading any of his recent bloggeries: An Update on my Life, SimCity Societies Review, Advertlets – Quick Money…, Advertlets Advertisers Pay for Nnothing, Avencast: Rise of the Mage Review, Learn to Mix and Get an iPod Free, Advertlets vs. Nuffnang, Project Torque Review, and Protect Your Mobile Equipments Today!!

The blog is very well organized and this makes it extremely easy to navigate as well. Bloggeries are left marginalized in black text on white background and links are highlighted in blue. The blog contains both a right sided navigation system as well as a bottom navigation system in the footer. In the right sided navigation system, you will find at the top a home and about link with time and date clock. This is separated from the rest of the navigation system which contains on the left side a categories menu and an archives menu on the right. The categories menu is broken down into several distinct themes that speaks well to the nature of the blog: Advertisement, competition, contests, games, PC, Personal Life, Review, Services, and Website. Scrolling down to the bottom of the blog you will find a recent posts menu that contains a brief description of every recent post, as well as a recent comments menu that illustrates how well read swiftworld is. The bottom navigation system also contains an AdSense column.

I am going to go with a 3.4 for this blog, and say the only thing really hurting this blog from a better score would be more regular activity and maybe move the adsense below the first post instead of above. The blog is nicely laid out in a clean and attractive design, and is extremely organized and easy to navigate. The blog scores well then for both navigation and aesthetic appeal. The blog scores well for uniqueness as well, as it is a personal blog that also contains product and game reviews that would be beneficial to the readership. The content is well done and is written by a 14 year old in a very candid manner, but with a strong personal voice that I think is appealing to the readership. The readership is also obviously a healthy one judging by the number of regular commenters. The only thing I would suggest to improve this blog is to try and get in some more frequent activity. Right now content is coming in approximately every few days to a week at a time or more, and I think more frequent activity would make this blog even more successful than it apparently already is. Overall however, the blog is doing very well, and if it maintains the personal voice and credibility, I can see the readership growing even larger than it already is.

-Chrissie

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Bloggeries is going to look at another personal blog today, and this is the blog of Czian Contreras. To see a personal blog from someone of the ripe age of 13 doing so well is always inspiring to other bloggers. Czian lives in the United States but originally hails from the Philippines, and he is proud of it. He uses his blog to show his insights, ideas, opinions, and any other commentary to the things he sees. You may enjoy it, you may not, you may not even agree with it. But the blog is definitely a fun and excellent read. He is hoping, as some people say, that you find it extraordinary nonetheless. You can get a feel for Czian and his thoughts from any of his recent bloggeries: Eagle Pride, Shopping Against Laptop, Czian’s Official Soundboard, I’m Back!, Geek or Gifted?, and What’s the Spelling of Furniture?

The blog is well organized and thus this makes it easy to navigate. The bloggeries are right marginalized in black text on white background and accents are in blue. There is a left navigation system that includes a search bar, About link, ‘Czian to the world’, Shout Out Box, Link Exchange Box, Categories Menu, Archives Menu, Recent Comments Menu, and blog achievements. The categories menu is eclectic, just as is the nature of the blog, and if you enjoy reading about Czian and his life you can find it neatly sorted out into the categories of Opiniated Side, iLife, Tagalog, Rude Czian, Must Read, Interests, and many more. Almost every bloggery contains a relevant picture associated with it giving the post meaning. And it’s fun to read, because some pictures you don’t really understand the relevancy until you read the entire bloggery. But this is the blog of Czian, it’s quirky and fun and offbeat, and you will enjoy it.

I give this blog a 3.4/5 for now. The blog generally scores well on all aspects with the exception of activity. Appearance scores are good as the blog is well laid out and easy on the eyes and it offers a clean presentation for a personal blog which further lends to its navigation scores. A unique header would add lots to its personality though; especially as a personal blog. The blog is also very unique in both its niche and its content. Currently however the blog is not being updated enough with only 73 posts in 2007 and this is hurting the blog tremendously. Even the most attractive blogs with good content can not do well if they are not kept up to date. So I do recommend that Czian work to update his blog to see continued success. Czian however clearly has an excellent readership, and thus, he could definitely sustain that and even make it grow further with just a little bit more blogging. Keep up the great work, Czian!

-Chrissie