Archives for July 2007

If you are a football fan, get ready to kick it into high gear with the upcoming season. The blog NFL Football Revealed on Squib Kick is ready to help you out with that if you are not sure where to start. This blog is an anything and everything site for football, and if you are an overall sports fan, the blog here can lead you to an outstanding empire of sports related blogs. For football however, you want to check out some of their latest headlines to see what is happening in the world of NFL as we gear up for the season: Dwight Freeney is inked to a long term pork chop with sea salt; Shaun Rogers, Big Baby won’t be charged; NFL Fantasy Football ate my life; Peyton Manning is on tops, but what about Mark Bulger?; NFL Training camps open soon, Finally!; Cheerleaders in captivity and forced to cheer!; and Calvin Johnson in a long line of Lions Receivers. Whatever NFL football tidbit that you are looking for, you are going to find it on this site.

The blog is very easy to navigate with menus to the left, right, and bottom of the page. On the right you will notice some advertising and recent comments menu. Then take your time to scroll through the categories menu. Awesome! It has to be the most comprehensive NFL category section I have seen yet. Here you will find specific players including favourites Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, specific coaches, specific teams, and on and on. Anything related to the NFL will be here, and if you have a specific question it should not take you too long to get your answer. Also in the right you will find an Archives menu, find out who is linked to the blog, and visit the Sponsors menu and access ticket information. There is also a very extensive bottom menu where a very healthy sports blogroll is listed, any sport that piques your interest has a blog as well as a listing of all of the top headlines from each of those blogs. A very nice feature that I found added to the overall feel of the blog. Appearance wise the blog is appealing with black text on white background and green (think football field) bordering. There is a touch of distraction with advertising, but not enough to take away from the blog content.

I am going with a 4.5 on this one, as much as I do love this blog and its layout. It is definitely one of the most comprehensive sports blogs I’ve seen yet. However it is missing both an about page and a recent postings menu, both features that I appreciate in a blog, particularly when reviewing. I find these two features give the voice to the blog and would like to see them here. Not that it is not clear what the blog is about, but that personal voice from the Author always adds relevance for me. There is some advertising at the top of the right navigation bar as well I would like to see moved below the other content in the right navigation bar. This will give prospective readers a chance to see blog content before being hit with advertising. Otherwise, the blog’s content is spectacularly written with catchy headlines that make me want to read all of it. There is enough pictures with each post to provide relevance to the content as well, another very appealing feature. Further, the navigation is extremely simple, and the activity is just enough to feed the addiction of fellow NFL fans. This blog is very well done, and with just these few formatting changes it would merit a 5 from me.

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– Chrissie

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If you have an interest in boating, you may want to stop in and take a look a unique blog  about Boating on Lake Winnebago, Fox River, and Wolf River Wisconsin, USA. The blog is written by Doug and Lisa who hail from Oshkosh, WI. These bloggers blog about their boating hobby and use the Lake Winnebago, Fox River, and Wolf River in the state of Wisconsin. They focus their blog on places to go in the area, things to do, safety and other boating topics. Their boat is named SeaRay Sundancer “Holiday” Port – Slip #2A. Take a look at any of their recent posts to get a true feel for their boating experiences: Tri-County Powerboat Alliance Brat Fry August 4, 2007; Only 5 of 300 washed their boat after lake Winnebago event; Tri-county Powerboat Alliance Annual Wolf River Cleanup; VHS Confirmed in Lake Winnebago; Questions and answers on Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS); Notice: Menasha Lock Closed as of May 12, 2007; and Menasha Lock to being opening for 2007 Boating Season May 11. As is immediately felt upon seeing this blog, bloggers Doug and Lisa really cater to the local crowds and provide them with the ins and outs of the boating life in Wisconsin.

Navigation on this site is very straightforward. Posts are left marginalized and there is a right sided navigation bar. In the navigation bar you will find a categories menu, and an archive menu. I really liked the archive menu. For the month of June the feature has been added that dates archived entries and provides a link to each post in the archives. There is a link to the profile listed as well here. Some features I would like to see in the right navigation bar would include more information in the profile page. For a blog as personal as this, the authors should put some additional information about themselves to give their blog a more personal voice. The categories feature however is very comprehensive and includes the categories Lake Winnebago information, Marine Safety, Local boating websites, Boating events, Marine technology, local boating destinations, lake Winnebago boating, Please help, Boating safely crossing big water on a small budget, and Wisconsin boating Wolf River.

I really enjoyed reading this blog and getting to know the niche a little more than I did. However I need to go with a 2.4 on this blog just because it is missing some vital information and not updated nearly enough. I would like to see more in the profile page, and I would like to see some more activity. The last post on this blog was in the middle of June and I think this being boating season would be an ideal time to keep this blog active. I also think some of the posts are a bit lengthy, and perhaps breaking them up over a few days would make the posts easier to read, and as well, add content for daily posting if the bloggers are having problems looking for topics. Overall however, the blog is a great blog for its niche, and very informative with relevant pictures and information. I think its readers, presumably fellow hobbyists, more than likely get a lot out of it.

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– Chrissie

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Who doesn’t love a good quote? Whether you are looking for something to lift your spirit, move you, tickle your funny bone or anything in between, you can find the quote you are looking for here at Famous Motivational and Inspirational Quotes where you will find old wisdom and new lessons by Jim. Login here to get a quote of the day, maxim, saying, cliché, or wise words that have been collected from a variety of sources. You can get a good idea about the quality of quotes and inspiration from this blog through any of the recent posts: Inspiring – Happy Quotes – John Dryden, Quotes – Yukio Mishima, Pain – Hatred Quotes – James Baldwin, Work – Luck Quotes – Michael Bloomberg, Management Quotes – Robert Townsend, Perseverance Quotes by Samuel Jackson and Innovation Quotes – Thomas Edison. There is also an entry for Quotes of the Month, and there is a huge source of quotes symbolizing Liberty, Freedom, and Equality in honor of Independence Day.

While the site has an overall appearance of being a little busy, it does not have any navigation flaws. Posts are left marginalized with the standard right sided navigation bar. The appearance from an overall perspective is appealing, though slightly busy. The background is a montage/collage of historical figures and the header and footer both have serene mountain pictures that are intended to inspire calmness. Below the list of the daily postings is a series of cartoons for inspiration and a smile, and then a long list of famous quotes with pictures of the quotee. You will find legends in this list such as JFK, George Bernard Shaw, Woody Allen, and so many more. The right sided navigation bar contains a list of his blogs, advertising, a place to subscribe to the blog either through email or RSS, blogroll, and his extensive list of categories. I won’t list all of the categories here, there are literally scores and scores of them. Suffice it to say that if you are looking for a quote within a specific niche, you will find it somewhere in the categories menu. Some of them included: Common Sense, Achievements, Attitudes, Assumptions and Classic Quotes

I am going with a 3.5 on this one, this blog lost some points with me for appearance. I think there are elements to the appearance that I find very appealing, and as would his readers. But a lot of it is quite busy and I had some issues with navigation as a result. I think the section below the postings with all of the cartoons and historical quotes can probably be moved to a separate page, or within one of the category links. I also find the amount of advertising to be on the excessive side, as I was looking for quotes in amongst the ads, whereas it really should be the other way around. Overall however, I think this blog has a great idea for his niche, and I think it would be a lot more effective once some of these appearance changes are managed.

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– Chrissie

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