chrissie

Bloggeries is taking a look at another personal blog, and this one is called Swiftworld. The writer of this blog is 14 year old Lee Oixian fro Singapore who also goes by the nickname Polar/Swift. Lee is a student studying and living in Singapore and he loves computer games or anything computer related. He enjoys finding new things, exploring and experiencing different and unique concepts. His love of computer games is relatively obvious throughout the blog, and he hopes to use the blog to influence his readers to play the games that he reviews. At swiftworld, you will find many product reviews and news articles, but you will also find out what the daily journeys of Swift are, as he says, it is his world, his word, and his story. You can get a true feel for his story by reading any of his recent bloggeries: An Update on my Life, SimCity Societies Review, Advertlets – Quick Money…, Advertlets Advertisers Pay for Nnothing, Avencast: Rise of the Mage Review, Learn to Mix and Get an iPod Free, Advertlets vs. Nuffnang, Project Torque Review, and Protect Your Mobile Equipments Today!!

The blog is very well organized and this makes it extremely easy to navigate as well. Bloggeries are left marginalized in black text on white background and links are highlighted in blue. The blog contains both a right sided navigation system as well as a bottom navigation system in the footer. In the right sided navigation system, you will find at the top a home and about link with time and date clock. This is separated from the rest of the navigation system which contains on the left side a categories menu and an archives menu on the right. The categories menu is broken down into several distinct themes that speaks well to the nature of the blog: Advertisement, competition, contests, games, PC, Personal Life, Review, Services, and Website. Scrolling down to the bottom of the blog you will find a recent posts menu that contains a brief description of every recent post, as well as a recent comments menu that illustrates how well read swiftworld is. The bottom navigation system also contains an AdSense column.

I am going to go with a 3.4 for this blog, and say the only thing really hurting this blog from a better score would be more regular activity and maybe move the adsense below the first post instead of above. The blog is nicely laid out in a clean and attractive design, and is extremely organized and easy to navigate. The blog scores well then for both navigation and aesthetic appeal. The blog scores well for uniqueness as well, as it is a personal blog that also contains product and game reviews that would be beneficial to the readership. The content is well done and is written by a 14 year old in a very candid manner, but with a strong personal voice that I think is appealing to the readership. The readership is also obviously a healthy one judging by the number of regular commenters. The only thing I would suggest to improve this blog is to try and get in some more frequent activity. Right now content is coming in approximately every few days to a week at a time or more, and I think more frequent activity would make this blog even more successful than it apparently already is. Overall however, the blog is doing very well, and if it maintains the personal voice and credibility, I can see the readership growing even larger than it already is.

-Chrissie

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Bloggeries is going to look at another personal blog today, and this is the blog of Czian Contreras. To see a personal blog from someone of the ripe age of 13 doing so well is always inspiring to other bloggers. Czian lives in the United States but originally hails from the Philippines, and he is proud of it. He uses his blog to show his insights, ideas, opinions, and any other commentary to the things he sees. You may enjoy it, you may not, you may not even agree with it. But the blog is definitely a fun and excellent read. He is hoping, as some people say, that you find it extraordinary nonetheless. You can get a feel for Czian and his thoughts from any of his recent bloggeries: Eagle Pride, Shopping Against Laptop, Czian’s Official Soundboard, I’m Back!, Geek or Gifted?, and What’s the Spelling of Furniture?

The blog is well organized and thus this makes it easy to navigate. The bloggeries are right marginalized in black text on white background and accents are in blue. There is a left navigation system that includes a search bar, About link, ‘Czian to the world’, Shout Out Box, Link Exchange Box, Categories Menu, Archives Menu, Recent Comments Menu, and blog achievements. The categories menu is eclectic, just as is the nature of the blog, and if you enjoy reading about Czian and his life you can find it neatly sorted out into the categories of Opiniated Side, iLife, Tagalog, Rude Czian, Must Read, Interests, and many more. Almost every bloggery contains a relevant picture associated with it giving the post meaning. And it’s fun to read, because some pictures you don’t really understand the relevancy until you read the entire bloggery. But this is the blog of Czian, it’s quirky and fun and offbeat, and you will enjoy it.

I give this blog a 3.4/5 for now. The blog generally scores well on all aspects with the exception of activity. Appearance scores are good as the blog is well laid out and easy on the eyes and it offers a clean presentation for a personal blog which further lends to its navigation scores. A unique header would add lots to its personality though; especially as a personal blog. The blog is also very unique in both its niche and its content. Currently however the blog is not being updated enough with only 73 posts in 2007 and this is hurting the blog tremendously. Even the most attractive blogs with good content can not do well if they are not kept up to date. So I do recommend that Czian work to update his blog to see continued success. Czian however clearly has an excellent readership, and thus, he could definitely sustain that and even make it grow further with just a little bit more blogging. Keep up the great work, Czian!

-Chrissie

The next blog that we are going to review at Bloggeries is called They Are Our Children. The blog is dedicated to children’s charities and it depicts the urgency and importance of supporting unfortunate children everywhere. The blogger is a 39 year old female out of Carmel, New York, and is blogging to inform readers of the real need to do whatever can be done for less fortunate children, as well as to provide means for you to aide and support them. The blog offers articles as well as free means that readers can support these children and organizations through petition websites and many more. The blogger values honesty and respect in the world, and feels that her blog is a reflection of that belief. You can get to know the blogger and her work little bit better through any of her recent bloggeries: Children In Need-In The U.K , To My Readers – Thank You, Mercy Corps – An Excellent Charity, Animals Are No Less Worthy, Make a Child’s Dream Come True, and Blog Review – Stumble Aid.

The blog is fairly simple in terms of navigation and has a dark pink and mauve theme from blogspot. The bloggeries are in a dark text that appear on a light pink background with a darker pink border and links are highlighted in a darker mauve color. Bloggeries are left marginalized and there is a right navigation bar on the blog. The right navigation bar is somewhat hard to navigate as it contains quite a bit of widgets and menus that are involved with specific children’s organizations, but the navigation bar still manages to contain the ‘meat’ of the blog. In the right navigation bar you will find children’s pictures; quotes; links to various children’s projects such as Children’s International, One.org, Project Kindness; Changing the Present, and many more. You will also find in this navigation bar a link list to more children’s charities, AdSense, Recent Viewers Widget, Archives menu, and an About Me Page. I do see labels on each of the bloggeries, such as fundraising, penny donations, children’s dreams, granting wishes, free links, and so on, but I do not see a Categories or Labels menu located on the blog itself. The addition of this feature may make the blog a little easier to navigate for the blog readership.

I will go with a 3.4/5 for this blog. The blog scores at the average level on each of the criteria. Right now it is currently being updated every two to three days, and I would really encourage the blogger to update more frequently. This will increase the exposure of the blog and direct it to a readers demographic the blogger is looking for, those that are interested in supporting charities. I would also suggest adding pictures to the blog to enhance the overall appearance of the blog. Specifically, more pictures within the posts themselves would truly add relevance to this blog. Further, to connect with the readers on a more personal level, I recommend expanding the About Me or Profile page so that the readers truly get a feel for the personal voice and passion that goes behind this blog. There is no doubt that the blogger is a passionate one, but if the readers were able to get to know her more, it may increase the success of the blog. With this I recommend moving the About Page to the top of the navigation bar from its current location at the bottom of the navigation bar. This would make this the first thing readers see, and add to the overall feel of the blog. I would also suggest a categories menu so that those looking for specific charities may have ease in doing so when arriving at this blog. Adding categories and labels that are keyword friendly would also help with exposure in this case. Overall however, I think this blog is a great blog in an excellent niche, and with a few tweaks it has the potential to be a huge success within the charity spectrum.

-Chrissie