Blog Reviews by Bloggeries

If you are a parent then this next blog Bloggeries is looking at will make you want to stop for a quick read. The blog is called Watchful Eye Foundation. The blog is about ways that parents can keep more watchful eyes on their children. The header for example asks ‘Is it obvious my son or daughter is in a gang?’ and appeals to parents that the children of today are the future of tomorrow. This header speaks to the nature of the blog as a resource for helping children from the harms in today’s world and society. The Watchful Eye Foundation itself began due to the need to inform and educate the public in regards to sex offenders, gangs, and the harmful effects that these tough to talk about issues have on children. In essence, the Watchful Eye Foundation teaches children and their parents how to stay safe. Take a look at exactly how they are doing this through any of their most recent bloggeries: Is my Son or Daughter in a Gang??, Petition for the Hershey Company, Boycott continues against Hershey Company, and Boycott Hershey This Christmas.

The blog is found on blogspot, so this offers some already built in blog features which make the blog fairly simple to navigate. Bloggeries are white text on dark green background with a lighter green bordering around it. Bloggeries are left marginalized and there is a right sided navigation bar. In the navigation bar you will find a Menu for list of Hershey products to boycott, Poll on Hershey’s latest PAC candy, About Page, Live Traffic Feed, Blog widgets and advertising, Watchful Eye Foundation in the News Menu, Archive Menu, and link list. There currently is no set Categories Menu though I do see labels on some posts. Labels for this blog include categories such as police, polls, sex offenders, sexual abuse, and watchful eye. Most bloggeries are accompanied by relevant pictures which makes the blog a little easier and more efficient to read.

I am going with a 2.8/5 for this blog as it just needs a little tweaking to give it a more professional and credible appeal. Right now the blog will need more activity and content if it wants to see a larger readership. Currently there are only four posts in December and more content is needed to see growth on this blog. Navigation is fairly simple on this blog, but I would change the Hershey boycott menu around with the About Page so that the About the Watchful Eye Foundation is the first thing in the menu that readers have access to. This will give the blog some credibility and link the personal voice with the message for the readership. I also think adding a Categories Menu to the navigation system will make the blog a little easier to work with. The blog definitely has a unique concept and its topics and writing certainly earn it points there. Overall this is a good blog with an excellent concept that has the potential to reach a large audience. With more frequent content and more navigation features, both this blog and its message could be a tremendous success. I did just notice when I visited the blog seems to be converted to MySpace and Your Child. Not sure what is going on.

-Chrissie

The next blog that we are going to review at Bloggeries is called They Are Our Children. The blog is dedicated to children’s charities and it depicts the urgency and importance of supporting unfortunate children everywhere. The blogger is a 39 year old female out of Carmel, New York, and is blogging to inform readers of the real need to do whatever can be done for less fortunate children, as well as to provide means for you to aide and support them. The blog offers articles as well as free means that readers can support these children and organizations through petition websites and many more. The blogger values honesty and respect in the world, and feels that her blog is a reflection of that belief. You can get to know the blogger and her work little bit better through any of her recent bloggeries: Children In Need-In The U.K , To My Readers – Thank You, Mercy Corps – An Excellent Charity, Animals Are No Less Worthy, Make a Child’s Dream Come True, and Blog Review – Stumble Aid.

The blog is fairly simple in terms of navigation and has a dark pink and mauve theme from blogspot. The bloggeries are in a dark text that appear on a light pink background with a darker pink border and links are highlighted in a darker mauve color. Bloggeries are left marginalized and there is a right navigation bar on the blog. The right navigation bar is somewhat hard to navigate as it contains quite a bit of widgets and menus that are involved with specific children’s organizations, but the navigation bar still manages to contain the ‘meat’ of the blog. In the right navigation bar you will find children’s pictures; quotes; links to various children’s projects such as Children’s International, One.org, Project Kindness; Changing the Present, and many more. You will also find in this navigation bar a link list to more children’s charities, AdSense, Recent Viewers Widget, Archives menu, and an About Me Page. I do see labels on each of the bloggeries, such as fundraising, penny donations, children’s dreams, granting wishes, free links, and so on, but I do not see a Categories or Labels menu located on the blog itself. The addition of this feature may make the blog a little easier to navigate for the blog readership.

I will go with a 3.4/5 for this blog. The blog scores at the average level on each of the criteria. Right now it is currently being updated every two to three days, and I would really encourage the blogger to update more frequently. This will increase the exposure of the blog and direct it to a readers demographic the blogger is looking for, those that are interested in supporting charities. I would also suggest adding pictures to the blog to enhance the overall appearance of the blog. Specifically, more pictures within the posts themselves would truly add relevance to this blog. Further, to connect with the readers on a more personal level, I recommend expanding the About Me or Profile page so that the readers truly get a feel for the personal voice and passion that goes behind this blog. There is no doubt that the blogger is a passionate one, but if the readers were able to get to know her more, it may increase the success of the blog. With this I recommend moving the About Page to the top of the navigation bar from its current location at the bottom of the navigation bar. This would make this the first thing readers see, and add to the overall feel of the blog. I would also suggest a categories menu so that those looking for specific charities may have ease in doing so when arriving at this blog. Adding categories and labels that are keyword friendly would also help with exposure in this case. Overall however, I think this blog is a great blog in an excellent niche, and with a few tweaks it has the potential to be a huge success within the charity spectrum.

-Chrissie

When you are looking for a little bit of everything blog, you may want to take a minute to look at a blog called Current Affairs . The blog is written by Samundra and is written with the objective to bring to you breaking world news and current affairs that would ‘freak your brains’. Samundra writes on quite an eclectic group of topics which you can see in any of his recent bloggeries: Hypnosis coach; Bomb attack in India; Great time in Australia; JayZ, Hip Hop Cash King; No interest credit card; Looking for a bike rack; Indian Idol 3; Fun Time; Sanjaya dutta got the bail; and Velvet Clothes Shopping. You can see the eclectic mix of “Current Affairs” stems from Samundra’s affiliation with Pay Per Post which he is very forthright about in a disclaimer located in the right navigation bar. That being said, this blogger could never be short of topics to write about simply due to its eclectic mix.

Navigation with this blog is very straightforward, which is simply due to the simplicity of the blog as there is not much blog meat here other than bloggeries content. Posts here are left marginalized and there is a right navigation bar. Bloggeries are black text on white background with a pale green border and a blue header. In the right navigation bar you will find a links menu, subscription information, an impressive 252 reader feed burner, archives menu, and his PPP disclaimer. The blog has very few pictures within the posts from what I can see, and there is no categories menu or about page attached to this blog.

I am going with a 2.4/5 for this blog as simply, there was very little to appeal to me with this blog other than its content. I do give credit to this dedicated blogger who is currently blogging at a daily pace, however, this blog is simply a skeleton that could use some meat and original content. To connect more with current and future readers this blog would do well with an about page or profile page so the readership can get a feel for where the writer is coming from. I also think a categories menu would do this blog a world of good given the wide topic range within the blog. I personally did not quite understand what the blog was actually about until I spent some time with it which could hurt potential readership. Further, the blog has some spelling errors that need to be looked at, the most obvious one being in the header, which I think could prevent attracting new readers. So I think spellcheck during posting would definitely benefit the content. Many people that stumble across it may not spend the time simply to get to know the blogger. So I do recommend that some meat get added to this blog to make it stand out a little bit.

-Chrissie