Those readers that share their love with a fur baby in their life will really enjoy reading the ‘Animals Need Help’ blog. This blog is exactly what it says it is, a blog about the prevention of animal cruelty. The owner of the blog is Stacy and has been looking for a way to help abused animals. So she created a blog to use as an educational resource for others on the topic of animal abuse. Stacy also uses her affiliate links with pet companies to raise money for organizations such as PETA and ASPCA, and all monies raised by her blog will go to support these organizations or a local animal shelter. You can get a good idea for Stacy’s commitment to this project by looking at any of her recent bloggeries: Animalsneedhelp.com wins the thinking blogger award, Why are there So Many Pets in Animal Shelters?, Educate our Children on Animal Cruelty, How Many Dogs Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?, Stop Puppy Mills, 10 Ways to Help Stop Animal Cruelty, and Animals are Not Ours To Experiment on.
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The blog is well organized with a clean template which makes navigation very easy. Bloggeries are in black text on white background and the blog is bordered in grey and has mossy green color theme in the rest of the blog. The blog is attractive and appealing and greets the reader with an adorable kitty picture in the header of the blog. Bloggeries are left marginalized and there is a right navigaton bar. In this navigation bar you will find a search button, disclaimer on the non-profit nature of the blog, advertising, blogroll, sponsors list, categories menu, feature pet, more advertising, and feed information. You will also find a handy top menu in the blog that contains the Home link, About page, Partners link, and Contact information. The categories menu is comprehensive and contains relevant links for topics in the blog: Animal Rights Education, Animal Shelters, Blogging Award, Guest Posts, Pet Education, Stop Animal Cruelty, Stop Puppy Mills, and What You Can do To Help. Right now I do not see an Archives Menu, and I do not see a Recent Posts Menu. I think a Recent Posts Menu or widget would really help the navigation of this blog.
Overall I give this blog a 4/5, as it is doing very well on blog criteria for what seems to be a new blog. The appearance of the blog is appealing with relevant pictures that add meaning to the blog content. Navigation is very easy on this blog so it scores well for that also. Content is well written with a strong personal voice that offers credibility for the blogger, and is also appealing enough that it would lead the reader to action which is the blogger’s intent. I think activity could use some consistency, as there is bloggeries coming in every day for a few days, but there are gaps of anywhere from a few days to a week or so in between posts. Regular updating will definitely bring this blogger more traffic. Overall however, I think this blogger is off to a great start and if she continues at this pace should see some regular traffic as the blog grows.
-Chrissie