chrissie

If you are into gaming, then you may want to take a minute to check out Lagorama: Sucking Up Your Bandwidth to Discuss Mine… I have to admit, it took me some time to find out what this blog was really about. It doesn’t really say anywhere for us ‘non-gamers’, Hey! This is a Gaming blog! If you have any experience in gaming, then you know there is a tendency to fall into the lingo, and only fellow gamers, can speak and understand the lingo the way that you can. I do have acronymed convos myself in IM or the like, but this was a whole new world to me. Nothing wrong with getting an education though. The Lagorama blog is about a gamer that essentially got into the gaming experience, albeit ‘late to the party’ as he states. The game (I think) is called MMO, and like many other gamers, he was succumbed by its appeal. But this gamer took his fun and experiences a step further and uses his decades of experience in the broadcasting industry to start Internet radio broadcasting an Internet Radio Station called Paragon Radio to broadcast the gaming experience. It has been, quite a success. And you can read more about it through this bloggers recent bloggeries: A Brand New Day for Marvel Online, Chinese TV is Specced for Graphics Theft, Valkyre Needs Caffeine…..Badly, Starcraft online is a Definite Maybe, Shadowbane Starting from Scratch, The LagORama List of MMORPG Cliches, The Perpetual Lawsuit that Wasn’t, and Age of Conan Delays Release for Orken Army Time.

The blog is neatly laid out which makes it very easy to navigate. Bloggeries are centralized and there are both left and right navigation bars as well as a small top navigation system. Bloggeries are in black text on white background and the odd one is associated with a relevant picture. In the top navigation bar you will find the Home page, About page, and contact page. In the left navigation bar you will find Subscription buttons, Entrecard, AdSense, and Archives Menu. In the right navigation bar you will find email subscription links, ads, MyBlogLog Widget, Lagtastic Audio Menu, The ‘Must Read’ List, Things of Interest, Video Gamers Media Network, and Webmaster and Blogger Resources.

I give this blog a 3.5 at this point. My only complaint about this blog is that it is not initially clear what it is about. Perhaps this is intentional to get the stray reader to spend some time on the blog, but perhaps not, I am not sure. However, it did take some time for me to figure out this was a gaming blog as so many acronyms and game slang were used I honestly had no clue. The blogger could take advantage of the About Page to explain to new readers what the blog is actually about. Navigation and appearance scores were good, though I would suggest the use of more pictures associated with the bloggeries. I would also suggest adding a categories menu, as I think this niche is well served by a little more organization. The content is well done and is certainly active enough, so the blogger does not lose marks there. The blog clearly has a good readership as is evidenced by the feedburner and by the good amount of comments. I think this blog has nothing but continued growth in its future and could maximize that by making just a few tweaks to the blog.

-Chrissie

Bloggeries is going to look at another blog about Internet marketing and what does and doesn’t work on the Internet. The blog is called The World Wide Web Blog. The WWW Blog is about observing the Internet with fun, but primarily, how to make money on the Internet. Experience the world of making money online through an amateur expert by the name of Chetan Bhawani. Chetan is an amateur expert because he has begun his launch into Internet money making in less than a year. Having started out with some curious interest in May 2006, Chetan has since become an Internet entrepreneur and makes a solid living on the Internet. How? He has a long list of 29 blogs, owns his own SEO company with 5-8 employees, owns between 10 and 12 web directories, and so many more accomplishments. And yes, all in less than a year. But don’t get him wrong, the Internet isn’t his life. Chetan is actually a dental student and focuses most of his time on his education. But find out more of what Chetan has to say about his Internet pursuits through his recent bloggeries: Apple, Google and Microsoft in Fortune’s 20 Most Admired Companies; Google Knol – Still a Big Exception?; Netscape – Dominating Once, Disappearing Now, Changes Made in the Blog & a Question to All, 9 Reasons why Mozilla Firefox is better than Internet Explorer, and Why WordPress is Better than Blogger.

The blog is well organized into several navigation systems and this makes navigation somewhat simple. It is however almost *too* organized as I find the layout a little distracting. Everything is organized into menu boxes and it is hard to see what is content and what is blog advertising. There is a top navigation bar that lists links for Case Studies, Gadgets, Contests, WordPress, Blogging, and The WWWblog News. In the left navigation bar there is a box for latest blog updates menu, and one for WWW channels or a tag cloud. There is also a middle navigation system that contains boxes for subscription information and for Most Viewed Articles. Moving to the right navigation system you will find a top menu box that is divided into three sections of posts – latest, popular, and sections or categories. You will then see in this navigation bar a Recent Comments menu, favorites menu and stats, and a Top Commenters Menu.

Overall this is an excellent blog and I rate it at 4.1/5 for now which is good considering it is very new. The appearance of the blog is neat and clean and so the blog scores well there. I would like to see some personality in the form of a personalized header to make it stand out; a favicon would be great as well. The content is excellently written even when English is not a native tongue, it is very difficult to tell. Content is also very active with posts sometimes more than once a day, so this blogger is keeping his readers active which is always great. The only issue I had with the blog was as already mentioned. The blog seems to be divided almost entirely into menu boxes and columns which makes it difficult to see where the blog content is actually located. It made a few issues with navigation but mostly I found it distracting from an appearance perspective. I might suggest moving the blog boxes into one or two navigation bars down the sides of the blog with bloggeries running down the center or marginalized. Not finding content can be detrimental to the blog, and though its current layout is neat and clean, it is almost too much so as it is hard to find content potentially for a more novice user. Overall however this is a good blog with a lot of excellently researched content and will serve its readership well.

 -Chrissie –> Join us at the Blog Forum!

If you are looking for some free traffic to your blog and an innovative way to market your blog, then you definitely want to check out the Bloggers Showroom. Bloggers Showroom is a unique blog directory of sorts. Bloggers Showroom is a continuous blog of blogs that have been submitted by people just like you who understand that proper networking brings valuable traffic. The Showroom is dedicated to helping you discover what people think and feel when they visit your blog, as well as helping you make improvements to your blog and how to bring in more traffic. If you get featured in the showroom, you will be able to send your visitors to the showroom page to critique your blog. The showroom is designed to maximize your blog’s potential, receive constructive criticism, and to help you drive traffic. Each bloggery is a featured blog where a blogger submits the blog, introduces you to its purpose, and provides an ‘author’s plea’ on why you should check it out. Readers can then vote or review the blog themselves on criteria such as layout, content, and overall appeal. Check out the most recent featured bloggeries yourself: Dance Floor, Jim’s Scratchings, My Wife and Twins, and MommiesHome.net.

The blog is very colorful and offers an organized design which makes it easy to navigate. In the right navigation bar you will be able to subscribe to either the blogs showroom, journal, or news grid feeds. You can also find links here to submit your blog, see how it works, visit the showroom, see the bloggers grid or journal, find widgets, about page, and contact pages. You will also find here a Categories Menu, Recent activity in both the showroom and hot topics, and a long list of the featured blogs. If you question whether or not there is a place for you here, question no more. This blog offers an extensive category listing where there is sure to be a place for anyone. Each bloggery is very extensive and offers pictures and detailed information on each blog that is being featured.

I will go with a 4.5 for this blog as it scores well on all criteria. The blog’s overall navigation is well-laid out and organized and it is not difficult to find anything you may be looking for on this blog. The content is well done and it is not difficult to understand what this blog is offering. The blog offers a lot of blog meat as well that will assist the reader and blogger in finding out what this blog really has to offer. The blog also scores well on activity with regular daily content. Further, this blog is a unique concept that is sure to attract attention so the blogger definitely receives good scores there as well. The only thing I had trouble with was the overall appearance. I find this blog very busy with graphics and advertising. Though it does offer some good appeal to the blog, in some cases it is a little too much. It is difficult to sort through in some cases what is a blog post, and what is advertising. Also, I would suggest the blogger make the headlines of the featured blogs in the bloggeries bigger as where they are font wise right now makes them very difficult to find. Overall however, this is a good blog that has a tremendous potential and a lot to offer its readers. If you are looking for a new means to market your blog, check this one out

-Chrissie