Blog Reviews by Bloggeries

This blog is for the shopper or the bargain hunter in all of us, and it’s called the Shopping 4 Coupons blog.  Shopping 4 Coupons is a blog designed to provide online coupon codes where shoppers can check for deals of the day, special merchant offers, promo codes and free shipping deals from hundreds of online stores.   The categories offered for these online coupons is quite extensive, and there is a little something for everyone here.  The blogger hopes that you will save money by shopping online through this extensive collection of coupon codes and deals of the day.  You can see this for yourself in any of the recent bloggeries:  Free Kershaw Knife at OutdoorPros.com, Find a Pet Sitter in Your Neighborhood, Bachelorette Party Gear Save 10% Promo, Tickets Now Tickets Sale Save 20% on FTD Flowers for Mothers Day, and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Coupon Code.

The blog is organized with a clean template design, and this aids in its ease of navigation.  Bloggeries are right marginalized and there is a left navigation system. Bloggeries also are in black text on white boxed backgrounds, and the blog is bordered in a light, lime colored border.  In the left navigation bar you will find the Entrecard, Requests Link, Categories Menu, Blogroll, Recent Posts Menu, Pages Menu, Archives Menu, and Recent Comments Menu.  The categories listing is very comprehensive thus ensuring that any kind of shopper would reap benefits from this site.  The Categories Menu includes categories such as Affilliate Marketing Deals, Amazon.com, Apparel Sale, Blogging, Buy.com, Clothing Sales, Computer Coupon Codes, Deals of the Day and much much more.

I give this blog a 3.0/5 for now and would suggest that most changes occur within the content.  Overall from an appearance and navigation standpoint the blog has a lot to offer with its clean and aesthetically appealing design.  The blog also contains all of the blog ‘meat’ and this assists with navigation and readability of the blog.  From a content perspective however, the more I read I sense that this is more a blog to showcase advertising in bloggeries format.  I am seeing very little written content within the bloggeries, and more advertising from the blogger.  Judging by the recent comments menu, these are more trackbacks and pings from other business blogs, and are not so much an indication of an involved readership. Should the blogger develop a more personal voice within the bloggeries, that may change.  Activity also is  hurting with bloggeries coming in every few days to a week or more in between.  Given that the blogger indicates regularly that daily deals are available on this blog, that activity rate is going to hurt their credibility.  I think with just a few tweaks to the written content, as well as to how frequent the content is added would definitely improve the likelihood of success with this blog.

-Chrissie

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Bloggeries is going to look at another blog that is a product review site. The women will really enjoy stopping into Doryn’s Dish as this site reviews products with the woman consumer in mind. Doryn’ Dish is written by a blogger that loves sharing her favorite things with people when she finds something she really loves. She will never endorse anything she doesn’t herself truly believe in, so you know these reviews are coming from the heart. For a look at any of the many product reviews she offers on her site, check out the latest bloggeries on Doryn’s Dish: Hanky Panky, Take the Time to Thank Our Advertisers, Paint vs. Paint, Bottles Stay Up, Psychic to the Stars, Flipping for Flip Video, Incredibly Soft and Snuggly Robe, and Fast Makeup for Busy Women.

The site is fairly new, so there is not a lot of meat to it *yet* though the blogger is working very hard on this. The newness of the blog makes it very easy to navigate. Bloggeries are centralized and there is both a left and right navigation bar. Bloggeries are in black text on white background and links and headlines are highlighted in pink adding a very feminine, but not too much so, touch to the overall theme of the blog. In the left navigation bar you will find an About Page, Categories Menu, Archives Menu, and Recent Comments Menu. The categories menu is comprehensive and covers all of the essentials a woman may be looking for in terms of product review – Accessories, As Seen on TV, Beauty/Health, Clothing, Doryn’s Notes, Food, Stationery, and Technology. The one thing I would suggest about the categories at this point would be for the blogger to separate the Beauty and Health categories into two different categories. Both are relevant keywords and tags that will be picked up easier by the search engines if she has separate categories or labels for her posts. In the right navigation bar you will find links to subscribe, sponsors, Love from my Readers Menu, and more subscriber links. Each bloggery is accompanied by relevant pictures for each product review, and this makes the site very aesthetically pleasing.

Overall I will go with a 4/5 for this blog. I enjoyed the blog on just about every aspect of the blog scoring criteria and have only a few suggestions that would benefit this blog’s growth. The appearance of the blog is clean and organized, and the ads are incorporated well without being distracting, so the blog does well on this count. I also like the feminine appeal of the blog theme which again, is pink but without being overbearing and will definitely appeal to the female readership. The content is well done with a strong personal voice which gives credibility to the product reviews which will serve the blogger well when it comes to monetization. Organization and navigation are excellent as well with this nice, clean template. The only suggestion I have with this is that while the blog is still new, that the blogger move all content from one navigation bar into the other to sustain one full navigation bar until the blog has more meat to it. Doing so will eliminate some of the white space that is bound to be there on a new blog, and will add to the blog’s appeal. Activity wise is great as this dedicated blogger is posting daily, and never seems to run out of content. The suggestion I do have for the activity and content is that the blogger begin to use keyword terms in her headlines. As she is conducting product reviews, naming the product specifically in her headlines will give this blogger a chance to feed the search engines the keyword food they need, and she will likely see more targetted traffic as a result. Otherwise, overall I enjoyed this blog and think as this blog grows it will do very well and sustain a healthy readership as it serves a wide demographic on a multi-purpose level. Well done!

-Chrissie