chrissie

Anyone that works in a cubicle is sure to appreciate this blog. This blog is called Alpha Dork and offers insights from a jaded office worker in the hope of providing them TO jaded office workers alike. The blog is an attempt by the blogger to escape the cubicle life through random thoughts, rants, views, and the occasional office survival tip. The blogger says this is a stand for all Joe Schmoes and Plain Janes who are tired of lateral promotions and power trip superiors. The blogger refuses to spend 30 years working up to the big office 20 yards away, and if nothing else, the blog will lead him out of the cubicle if for only a short while. You can get some insights for yourself by checking out any of the most recent bloggeries: The Five Workplace Eating Styles, This is the degree all in moment, Office Survival Tip #3 – Delegate Your Work to the Temp, Addicted to Technology, Office Survival Tip #2 – Befriend the Janitor in your Building, Those Darn Herpes Medicine Commercials, Office Survival Tip #1 – The Internet Saves Your Sanity, and Money vs. Happiness.

The blog is very cleanly laid out and this makes it very easy to navigate. Bloggeries are centralized with black text on white background, and there is both a left and right navigation bar. The blog is fairly new at this point, only a few months old at the time of the review, so the navigation bars do not have as much meat as some older blogs might, but this should come with time. The blog also contains a small top navigation bar, where you can access the newest article on the blog, About page, or advertising information. In the left navigation bar you can find an Archives Pull Down Menu, Recent Posts Menu, and Recent Comments Menu. In the right navigation bar you can find Subscription information, Office Survival 101 guide, and an ad for ‘drop your entre card’. Right now the blog is missing a categories menu or labels on its bloggeries, so I would recommend adding these features to the blog, simply to bring in more traffic if nothing else. Each bloggery is accompanied by a relevant pictures that add meaning to the bloggeries. And each bloggery is very well written with a distinct tongue in cheek taste that I am sure every cubicle employee will appreciate.

I will give this blog a 3.4 which for a blog so young is excellent. The blog is missing some blog meat at this point that is leaving a lot of space in the navigation bars. For the time being I might recommend taking out one navigation bar and putting it all in one navigation bar to alleviate some of the white space on the blog. The content is spectacular, and I sense the blogger is a writer in his free time and it definitely shows in the content. At this time, the blog needs some more exposure and that alone I think will ensure its success. This blog is a fun blog to read and parallels a stand-up comedy routine almost, making the truths of life very funny. With this kind of quality content the blogger should do very well with this blog. I also recommend the blogger stay a little more active with the blog and update daily if possible, even if to only offer a few quips here and there. More updates will definitely bring in more traffic, and with the quality content on this blog, the blogger would definitely benefit in growth from more frequent updating. I recommend this to anyone spending the majority of their time in a cubicle, and in fact, I work from home and will be keeping a bookmark and an eye on this one. I also recommend the author ads categories which would increase navigation and organization. Unique and funny blogs like this do not come around that often, so I hope the blogger continues with this and he will be sure to see some success.

-Chrissie

For those looking to make a few bucks on the Internet, you will definitely want to stop into the Netvestor blog. The blog owner is a 31 year old male, and he uncovers from his own experiences the to-do’s and the to-don’ts on making money on the internet. Primarily his interest rests in buying and selling websites and domains, however he does have a lot to say about other areas that you can make money online. To see these tips for yourself, check out any of his most recent bloggeries on a wide range of topics: Call out to Subscribers; Reinvest thy money, buy a website!; Little about Netvestor; Netvestor makes an Appearance in New York Times!; How to double Adsense income with 2 simple tricks, Three ways for Successful Conversion; Wake Up Call: Stop Reading Ebooks, Time for Action…; Top List of Best Webmaster Forums; and Two Best Search Engine Ranking Tips I can Give You.

Navigation on the site is fairly straightforward. Bloggeries are left marginalized and there is a right navigation system. Here you will find Subscription options, and then an interesting little box stating the blogger’s current earnings, monetized websites, and his overall goal. Following this you find a menu for Website Investing, Best of Netvestor, Netvestor Projects, Archives Menu, Useful Sites, About Me, and a Reader demographic poll. Right now there are no relevant pictures with the posts, and I think the blog would definitely benefit from an addition such as this. Currently the blog just has a too ‘texty’ feel and I think adding pictures would not only give meaning to the bloggeries, but also break up the text of the blog. I also don’t see a categories menu, and I always suggest this when one is not missing. I think this would definitely add to the blog’s traffic, as the blogger is definitely very good at keyword usage. Lastly, I think the blogger could spice up his About page a little to give himself a little more credibility with the readers. A lot of readers connect with the About page and often it is the first thing they will go to.

Overall I give this blog a 4/5. As mentioned the navigation scores are hurting a little bit, and the addition of some blog ‘meat’ such as categories and profile information would help this. Content scores however are awesome, as the blogger uses a strong personal voice on a topic that he knows very well. This lends credibility to the blogger for the readership and it is easy to see why his subscription base is a healthy size. Appearance scores are good as well, the blogger focuses more on content than on advertising which makes good use of the blog space and does not distract the readers. Activity scores do need some work, but not much as I am only seeing content coming in every few days at best. To get better traffic from the search engines, constant updating will serve this blog very well. This is a unique blog and one that could serve a wide readership. As such, it should do very well as it progresses.

-Chrissie

We all love to laugh at our finances once in a while (don’t we?) and this next blog is a good outlet for that. This blog is called Money Moose. Money Moose likes to be known as the money blog for real professionals, and is self-professed to be the number one non-financially skilled financial advisor in the world. As the blogger himself will tell you, many have referred to Money Moose as a parody site, but the blogger says that was is required to be a parody site (funny, jokes, and many page views) can not be found at Money Moose. Money Moose takes itself seriously, and ranks itself with The Wall Street Journal and CNN Money despite the fact that Money Moose is bringing in 600 page views a day. However, along with some humor you will be sure to find quality content in money, business, and finance, as well as some good investing guides at Money Moose. Go and see this for yourself by reading any of their most recent bloggeries: The 101 Dumbest Business Moments, Frugal Living EXTREME! 16: Financial Advisors, About that Tuna You’re Eating, The Customer Is (n’t) Always Right, Frugal Living EXTREME! 14: Shampoo, November News of the Moose, and Guerilla Job Recruitment Techniques.

The blog is very neatly organized, and this makes it very easy to navigate. Bloggeries are centralized in black text on white background and links and menu borders are in a light blue. The blog has both a left and right navigation system, as well as a top navigation bar. In the top navigation bar you will find links to Home, About the Moose, Advertising on MoneyMoose, and Contact forms and information. In the left navigation menu you will find a Pages Menu offering again these same links from the Top Menu, Categories Menu, Recent Posts Menu, and an ad for Entrecard Business Card. The categories menu is not large, but comprehensive for the topic and contains sections such as Financial News, Frugal Living EXTREME, Irresponsible Investing, Miscellaneous, and Money Quick Tips. In the right navigation menu you will find subscription options, Sponsor the Moose link, Valued Associates Menu (aka blogroll), Recent Comments Menu, and an Archives menu indicating the blog is just hitting the three month old mark.

Overall I am going to give this blog a 4, which is an excellent score considering it is so young. But the blog is very well done, professionally laid out in a clean easy template that makes it easy to read. The blog is organized nicely within this template that makes finding all of the blog meat very easy, and thus, easy to navigate. Content scores well as it is fresh and unique content written well and very clever humor. The activity is the only thing I would suggest improving at this point. The first two months of blogging looked fairly consistent, but the blogger has only brought in 8 posts in December. I would suggest the blogger bring in a little more consistency to not only keep the readership active, but also to bring in more traffic. Overall however the blog is doing well with an excellently established readership which can only improve as the blog grows.

-Chrissie