Bloggeries

If you have any interest in photography, go see TornButtons.com a “collection of experimental series using traditional and alternative processes including pinhole and polaroid”. In other words, this site is anything and everything you want to know about digital photography. Despite the fact that this site is relatively new (it has only been around since January 2007) it contains quite a large spread of information on digital photography how to’s and 101’s. Recent posts include “Picture Perfect Photos”, “Digital Single Lens Reflux”, “Macro Digital Photography”, “Perfect Shots”, “Basics of Digital Photography”, and so much more. If you dig a little bit, you will also find a wealth of information on how to get the perfect wedding shot, and behind the scenes of fashion photography. This site is extremely informative and could be very useful to the potential photography buff, but the fact that it is not very old is not well hidden.

Navigation on this site is very simple, and that is probably because there is very little to navigate. The posts are left marginalized, and there is a right sided navigation bar. In the right-handed bar is a series of AdSense that is graphically incorporated into the theme of the blog. There is also a list of categories, currently only containing one link “Uncategorized”. It is in the Uncategorized link that you will find the total of 29 posts that are on the site since its birth in January. The right sided navigation bar also has an about page that is currently still in its Word Press default mode. In this bar you will also find a photography feed, as well as a link to comments that exist on the blog should there be any. To spice this section up a little bit I would recommend adding some recent posts links as well as setting up some categories for readers to have easier access to specific information. (i.e. weddings, fashion, lighting, etc.) For a photography site however, it does market itself very well in terms of the photography on site. The pictures are clear, relevant, and give each post meaning.

I’m going to give this site a 3.1 because it is well done but could use some touching up. I reckon that if the owner increased the posting activity as well as selecting a more search engine optimized name for each post he could increase his pageviews and hopefully readership. That aside the advertising is alittle much, I recommend the owner puts the menu up top and if they choose to have adsense put it in a less intrusive location. I do however like how the adsense is integrated into the top and bottom (footer and header). I think the ads down the side would be best as text ads underneath each post because currently they are clustered at the top then leave a blank column for most of the blog. Another HUGE factor to this blog is Uncategorized category listings!! If there is one thing the author should take from this review is to make suitable categories that are searached on technorati and use them. Putting all these posts in uncategorized is not a wise idea and by simply using proper categorization the blog would look nicer, serve as a better resource and begin getting blog search engine traffic. Good work and if they make these simple changes it will improve the owners bottom line; guaranteed!

-Rob

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This bloggeries review features a helpful and informative blog on the travel lifestyle of home swapping. The blog is called “Travel the Home Exchange Way” When I think of this blog I almost would categorize it as a resource for anyone currently involved in or interested in participating in a house swap. Whenever you travel anywhere for any extended period of time the accommodation often becomes one of the largest expenses you must budget for. This blog really enlightened me on the concept of traveling the world living at other people’s homes that may or may not live similar lifestyles to yours. Travel the Home Exchange Way features many different helpful topics including general home exchange information, home exchange offers, tourist information of surrounding areas, travel experience and links to other travel blogs and many other topics related to this niche.

I enjoyed reading this website because it was very straightforward, well written and easy to navigate. This blog contains lots of original content on a topic that most who own homes would find fascinating or intriguing at the very least. It also does a good job of integrating images to break up the text which also helps grab the readers’ attention. Another thing I really liked about this blog was its activity. It is updated frequently usual the latest every few days and it has basically been this way since it came online in June of 2006. Many blogs start strong and quickly fade, this one doesn’t seem to be slowing down in the slightest.

One drawback that could bother some would be the rather basic and simple layout. Considering the topic I thought it t be an alright fit as the point of this website the way I perceived it was to share information and act as a resource and I think it accomplishes that in a very straight forward manner. I also liked how it didn’t have a lot of ads everywhere and the “ads” that they did have were actually relevant links to purchase books on the topic. A lot of other bloggers should take note instead of focusing on the many other less successful methods that are popular right now. I’m going to go ahead and give this blog a very deserving 4 on 5. If this blog continues on the path that it is and personalizes its layout and logo it could easily be a 5. It’s a well written and maintained blog with a tagline that sums it up best – All about swapping homes for a vacation at “home away from home”.

-Rob