Bloggeries

New Blogger Forum Announced!!

We would like to announce the opening of the official Bloggeries Blogger Forum!

The forum will be yet another way for bloggers to form a community and express ideas and opinions. We would love to see bloggers from all over the world gather and form online relationships, and show off their blogs.

Enjoy free wordpress themes, help with setting up blogs for those that are new to blogging, helpful tips and advise from experienced bloggers and developers, and just general conversation between bloggers about all of our favorite past-times. BLOGGING!

So, come on over to the forum and sign up! Make sure to post in the Introductions forum to let us know a little about yourself.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Bloggeries

Jul 24 2006

Review of the Travel Rants Blog

Since I’m in the travel blog state of mind, I decided I would go ahead and do a review that had been requested by DarrenC at V7N. According to the title of his blog, Darren is a self-proclaimed travel addict. After taking a look at his personal page, I have to say I agree with him. Although Darren is only thirty-three, he has done a lot of traveling.

Upon visiting the homepage, I was met with an attractive WordPress blog. I have to admit that I’m especially fond of the header animation. The man holding the phone and looking like he is about to snap reminds me of a few all too familiar situations in various airports. As far as the layout of the blog, it is very organized and free of ad clutter (I only noticed a few, unobtrusive ads throughout the site). At the top of the page is a navigation bar, which provides links to various pages, along with a travel forum. Although the forum is relatively small, it still has over two hundred and fifty members, along with a lot of good information. The only downside I see to the forum is the lack of comments on the blog (this goes back to Mike’s review of the Mark Joyner blog, however, Darren’s blog does not pressure visitors to go to the forum).

I didn’t take the time to find out exactly how old the blog was (there was no monthly or yearly archive link), but it does contain over one hundred and fifty posts. It seems like Darren does a very good job of posting fresh content on a regular basis. Although there is a link that allows visitors to submit travel articles, it looks like Darren does the majority (if not all) of the writing and posting.

I have decided to give this blog a four because of the nice template and extensive content. Although I wasn’t overall interested in the content (mainly because my travel opportunities at this point are slim), Darren has created a very useful blog for travellers (especially international). The posts and categories range from advice to news, and everything in between. This was the aspect of the blog that I liked most. Although the blog relates to travel, Darren varies his post by addressing many different areas of travel. On the homepage alone, his posts vary from “Wine Tours in New Zealand” to “Be Healthy During the Heatwave.”

As long as Darren continues to post regularly (and maybe even step up the pace a little bit), I see nothing but good things in the future for his blog.

–Tyler Banfield

Review of Vermont Travel Notes

Rated 3 at Bloggeries
I want to preface this review with this note: If you are not interested in Vermont travel, this is not the blog for you. Mr. Connor has created a blog that fits a specific niche and audience, so I will critique it accordingly.

Vermont Travel Notes was created on April 5th, 2006. Although the blog started off pretty slowly (only three posts during the first two months), the posting frequency has gradually increased over time (between three to five posts per week). During less than four months of existence, this blog has had over fifteen thousand visitors, which is pretty impressive for a niche blog.

As far as the content of the site goes, the title says it all. Jeff’s blog is a collection of events, tips and personal stories about traveling through Vermont. Whether you want to hear about Route 100 or current attractions in Vermont, this blog probably addresses it. In addition to providing plenty of useful information, the blog also provides external links for users to follow. On a topic that is as extensive as this, it is very wise of the author to supplement his posts with additional information from other sources.

The Vermont Travel Notes blog is actually a part of a larger site for the Grunberg Haus Inn. If you couldn’t figure this out, the Grunbeg Haus Inn is located in Vermont. I was impressed that Jeff avoided making the blog a blatant plug for the inn and actually made it a useful resource.

Although I think the content of this blog is useful, there are some areas of the template that I didn’t particularly like. In my humble opinion, the blog had way too many links to bookmarking and feed subscription services. A simple FeedBurner link (along with a couple bookmark links) would suffice. The excess of links makes the margins of the blog appear a little too cluttered.

I rated this blog a three for two main reasons. First of all, as I mentioned above, I think the template could be improved through some minor changes. Second (and most importantly), this blog is fairly new and needs to stand the test of time. Although it is being updated three to five times per week, less than a month and a half ago it was being updated much less frequently. As long as Jeff continues to maintain his current posting rate, he will have no problem making his blog grow and flourish.

–Tyler Banfield