In today’s energy and environmentally conscious world, blogs supporting the environment are cropping up all over the blogosphere. The blog known as The Green Theme is one of those blogs and is a blog supporting products, technology, and the environment. The Green Theme Blog is dedicated to promoting awareness of global warming and giving real, practical tips on how to reduce, reuse, and recycle. You can see this for yourself when going through the most recent bloggeries: Are We in a “Clean Tech†Bubble?, What Would you do if You Found a Million Dollars on the Beach, Make Your Own Bag, SPIN your Yard into a Farm, Fill Up Your Tank With Algae, and Adopt a Wild Salmon Fry to Save a Whale.
The blog is very well laid out in a simple and clean template which lends to its ease in navigation. Bloggeries are left marginalized and there is a very simple right sided navigation system. Bloggeries are in pale blue text on a darker blue background, and the overall theme to the blog is in blue, which I found interesting given the name of the blog. In the right sided navigation system you will find RSS information, a blog calendar, Categories Menu, Archives Menu, and Blogroll.  The Categories Menu is comprehensive and offers the readers categories in line with the theme of the blog such as Recycling, Enviro Notes, Energy, Cleaning, and Eco Building.  There are no advertisements on the page except a compelling video promoting the 2008 Earth Hour, which took place on March 29. Not only is this advertisement very well done but it also provides some history on the event, including that it started in Sydney in 2007. This is just another way that the site promotes awareness surrounding global warming. The video is also a nice addition to the other images on the page, of which there are many. The images are all very relevant to the bloggeries in which they appear and also make the site more aesthetically appealing.
This blog gets a 2.4/5 at the time of the review with some suggestions towards tweaking. The activity definitely needs some work as in many cases, a month will pass before the blog is updated. The blog appearance is very well done and in a clean template which makes the blog easy to look at, however the color scheme makes the blog difficult to read. I would suggest darkening the text or enlarging the font as this very light text is a strain for this reviewer’s eyes. I also think the appearance should be more in line with the focus of the blog, and a blue blog that is called the Green Theme Blog does not make sense to me. The navigation is simply laid out, which adds to overall navigation, however some main elements of blog navigation are missing such as Recent Posts Menu or a Comments Menu. The blog’s about page is also located at the very top right hand corner of the blog, and I think it could use some more visibility by being placed in the navigation system. Further, about the About page, I think it would behoove the blogger to provide some information as to the ‘why’ of the blog as opposed to simply personal information about himself. Overall however, the blog has a great foundation and an interesting concept that is relevant today and with just a few changes, the blog could see a tremendous amount of success. I want to give it a 3 but I can’t with it’s current activity scores.
-Chrissie
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