Posted by Bloggeries in Reviews, Recycling Bin, Seniors
If you are one of those women who prides herself on aging gloriously, you will want to have a look at Aging Outside the Box. Here is another blog based on a radio program called just that – Aging Outside the Box – Fabulous Women over 50. The host of the show and author of this blog is Shirley W. Mitchell, mom to 3 and grandmom to 8, who hails from Guntersville, Alabama and is a national author, columnist, and speaker. The blog is exactly what it sounds like, and glorifies all of the things she writes about in her weekly column as well as discusses on her Radio Show. You can see specifics to that extent by checking out any of her recent posts: ‘Aging outside the Box’ Internet Radio Show, Accents of Reflections, An Embracing Search, Living Outside the Box Package, Artist First World Radio Network, Special Gift Baskets for all Occasions, Aging Outside the Box Upcoming Shows, Artist First Interviews ‘The Golden Egg of Aging’, Listen in to the Show, and the Aging Younger Schedule.
I would like to say navigation on this site is simple, but the site is extremely busy with colors and advertising that I just found it quite difficult. Posts are left marginalized with a right navigation bar. In the right navigation bar you will find a lot of information with a lot of advertising smattered in between so you will really have to dig. But here you will find the about page, recent posts menu, archives linked by the week, news sites menus, magazines menu, healthy living menu, authors and writers menu, among so much more. I didn’t see a categories menu, and this is definitely something that is lacking from the blog. The posts themselves are very colored with specific colors leading to specific links, but otherwise standard black text on a white background.
I have to say 2.2 on this one, though I love the concept and I think this is an excellent niche, the blog itself needs some design work and alot more activity. The advertising is far too busy for my tastes, and the colors within posts and tag clouds I find extremely distracting from the blog content. The content however is excellently written by this established author so if you can get beyond the distractions, you will definitely enjoy the read. The blog has a readership of 4 at this point, perhaps with some format changes it would see that grow. I think this blog has a lot of potential, again, the niche is a good one to tap into marketing wise, but design is distracting from its overall purpose – the serving of the content.
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- Chrissie
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Posted by Bloggeries in Reviews, Health and Fitness, Seniors
If you are over fifty and looking for a source of health information on the Internet, make sure you bookmark Health Over 50, an all inclusive guide to health beyond the age of fifty. This site is geared towards both men and women and provides a wealth of information on just about any topic related to the after50 health category. Recent posts include How Effectively Can you Make Use of the Existing Women’s Health Services, Do You Snore and Sleep on Your Back, Cancer of the Prostate Gland, How Avoiding Women’s Health Symptom Diagnosis can Lead to More Lurking Dangers, Heart Disease – A Brief Overview, and Growths in the Prostate just to name a few. The site has been around since October 2005 and covers just about any health related issue to the after fifty crowd.
Navigation is very simple on this site, as it is designed very informally. There is simple black text on white background and a host of products available to you if you are looking for anti-aging products or herbal remedies to common ailments. There is even a link to get to a matchmaker’s site if you consider yourself to be “on the market”. The site is not divided into categories, but on the right handed navigation bar you can search through the archives to find what you might be looking for. The pictures that accompany posts such as “Prostate Growths” are comprehensive and user friendly. The content itself even with its strong medical basis is also very readable, and easy to understand for the layperson.
I am going to go with a 2.6 for this site, but there are some very quick changes that can be made to bring this review up a few notches. The categories section is too broad, there is only one category. The site is very comprehensive and covers a wide range of topics. I think if the owner was able to break things down a bit and put posts into groupings, it would be easier for the readers to find what they are looking for. For example, if I wanted information on osteoporosis, currently I would have to search the archives. This is time consuming and many readers do not want to go to that trouble. Possible category suggestions would be anti-aging medicine, herbal products, snoring, women’s health, cancers, osteoporosis, men’s health issues, coronary heart disease, and so on. I think each of these topics is relevant to the site topic, as does the owner as there is information on each of these items in the blog somewhere. Grouping things together would organize this site much more effectively and make it much easier to read. I would also consider adding more pictures to the posts just to give it a friendlier appeal. If there is a post on anti-aging medication, perhaps highlight a product that is currently using advertising space. Further, I think some AdSense would do very well for this site and currently there is none available. Overall however, this site is content rich, well-researched, and the writing is very easy to follow and enjoyable to read. I would love to see a few changes added and then review it again. This is a HOT topic and the site could do fabulously if it was monetized a little bit better.
- Chrissie
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