Reviews

Dads Online is a blog dedicated to the ever growing group of Single Dads and court dictated ‘Weekend Dads.’  Peter, the owner of Dads Online started this website as a result of the unspeakable pain he suffered from being separated from his daughter after divorce.  Taking everything he has learned, it seems he has been able to capture it all and put it in his website.

Peter posts several times a week regarding a full variety of issues and subjects that include everything from activities all over (in Australia) to kid issues/ dad issues to recipes for healthy eating with your child.  All of his posts are interactive, encouraging the reader to comment.

The home page of Dads Online has a very pleasing aesthetic look to it.  The format is easy on the eyes and allows the reader to easily understand what Dads Online is all about and what it offers.  Posts include topics such as “Cyber Bullying” and “Windy Road Ahead bu Keep Going“.  The Facebook block allows the reader to ‘like’ and stay connected for all new activity is they wish.  It is also nice to see that his page is not filled with a bunch of advertisements that distract from the site itself.

Impressive also are the two sections: Activities and Meals.  The activities page covers events, places to go and other interests for things all over Australia.  The Meals section includes recipes for dads that cover all three major meals, as well as snacking.  He also encourages the reader to submit their favorite recipes for other dads/ kids.  The Meals section can use more content but there are enough recipes there to get started with.

In summary, Dads Online is a well thought out blog run by a dad for dads.  Considering this site only kicked up in February, there is an incredibly vast amount of information  available to the reader.  There are articles, E-books, links, resources and even a section named S.O.S. for dads in distress with links and information from AA to Kids Helpline to Depression help to financial help.  On the Brag tab, it is easy to see how many dads are ecstatic to be able to come to Dads Online for enjoyment, understanding and support.

I recommend moving the Facebook fan page widget to the first fold so if people are impressed, they can quickly like it for later and get updates in their feed. Content wise, adding a ‘humor’ or ‘funny story’ tab about dad/ kids and what kids do would be very complimentary to the existing material and layout. Could even build a page that let’s dads submit anonymously…

I’d also recommend that the website build a blogroll to start networking with other blogs in the space, add a “Share Bar” to each post making sharing easy, write guest posts on larger blogs in the niche and make a newsletter (Mailchimp is free) to catch those who are interested but don’t spend much time online. All these will increase the reach of the site and get the word out.

Finally,  move the search near the top of the site and also move the categories from the bottom to the right sidebar and make them easy to click, not all browsers support the current method and it’s too out of the way.

This blog gets a 4.1 out of 5.0. It’s a good blog but with a few tweaks and continued dedication could be great.

Good luck!

This blog “it sux to be fat” could best be described as a personal account of a lady named Jennifer trying to lose 100lbs. Besides the personal nature which is this ladies journey to weight loss, it also acts a bit as a resource sharing nutritional information, recipes, reviews etc…

It Sux To be Fat is updated quite regularly with several updates a week showing on the front page. The design is really nice and the blog has a professional feel to it which is a nice mix with the very personal nature of the content. Jennifer has published over 100 posts and if you’ve been keeping score, she’s losing weight.

Several recent posts include: Fiber One Brownies Review, How To Lose 4 Pounds In A Week and Two Bags of Rocks – Weekly Weigh In. It’s nice how on the front page it has not only personal content that reinforces integrity regarding the weigh in, a product review and an informational page. Believe that this mix is a good one for the blog.

I’d recommend Jennifer start networking more and a powerful way to do so would be to add a blog roll and start contacting other bloggers she respects in the niche. This will help increase the visibility of her blog to readers in the niche. Would also suggest that perhaps she keep a counter on the page to mark the progress and how long it took as a symbol of credibility and inspiration to others.

Finally would also recommend doing some research into what are popular search queries for the industry and targeting some of the relevant ones with posts on that topic. If she meets her goal and builds a community, perhaps an e-book on the topic could come later as there are countless ways to lose weight and she seems to be doing it.

This blog gets a 4.6/5, it’s a great blog it just needs more light to grow.