Reviews

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

Bloggeries is going to look now at a blog that is dedicated to trade shows. The blog is known as the Trade Show Display Exhibits Blog and is located on its own domain at . The blog is generally a blog all about trade shows, so anything you ever wanted to know about trade shows you can find at this blog. Learn how to prepare for a trade show, about upcoming trade shows, how to market your trade show and so much more. To get an idea for what the Trade Show Display Exhibits Blog is about, have a look at any of their recent bloggeries: Trade Show Giveaways and Promotional Marketing Items; Trade Show Marketing, Post-Show Follow Up; Marketing Matters Within the Confines of my Cubicle; CotC – Carnival of the Capitalists December 3rd, 2007; Exhibitors and Trade Show Attendees; Marketing Stand Out at Trade Shows; Diving into Exhibiting; Dog Day at the Catalyst Exhibits, The Duchess Rides In; and 2008 Trade Show Preparation – How to Plan for a Tradeshow.

The blog is very simply laid out which makes it just as simple to navigate. Bloggeries are right marginalized and appear in white text on a black background with dark gray bordering. In the left navigation bar you will find a Blogroll, Archives, Pull Down Categories Menu, Blog Visitors widget, and Trade Show Blog Feed which is essentially the Recent Posts Menu. There are few pictures accompanying the bloggeries but you will find some on the odd post. The blog is almost entirely content with little extras in there to distract the readers so again, this makes navigation very easy. I might suggest then adding more entries to the Blog Feed Menu, as this will fill up some space on the blog a little more.

Overall I will give this a 3.4. This is a good blog but it seems to be lacking some punch. I might consider changing the theme as the grey and black is not appealing on the eyes. The blog is very texty with few pictures and the darkness of the background and borders makes this a difficult read from an appearance perspective. Navigation scores are okay, though I do recommend adding some more content in the navigation bar just to bulk the blog up a little bit, as it is currently a little sparse. The blog could also benefit from an About page which could be an addition to this navigation bar. Activity could also use some work, as there is no consistency to this either. Bloggeries are coming in every few days to a couple of weeks in between. I suggest some more regular content to sustain whatever readership the blog currently has. Overall however, this is a unique blog that is not unappealing, it just needs some work to spice itself up in order to see some future growth.

-Chrissie

If you are addicted to hunting for the perfect pair of jeans, this is the site for you. Denimology, the science behind finding the perfect pair of jeans is found on its own domain in the UK and is dedicated to just that. Denimology is where you will get access to all of the up to date news and reviews of the best premium and vintage denim available online and on the high street. Denimology also caters to the celebrity conscious crowd, so if you are wondering what jeans your favorite celebs are wearing, you can find that out here. Check out Denimology’s latest bloggeries to see more: Carmen Electra in J. Brand Jeans, Privacy Wear – Clothing with a Conscience, Win a Pair of Terrance Sullivan Jeans, Heidi Klum in Miss Sixty Jeans, ShopBop Denim Guide – Getaway Looks, Mischa Barton in 18th Amendment Jeans, Selma Blair in Siwy Denim, Giselle Bundchen in Superfine Jeans, and YMI 2008 Ad Campaign.

The blog is well organized and this makes it somewhat easy to navigate. I will say that there is quite a bit more advertising on this blog than there seems to be of ‘blog meat’ and this makes the navigation a little distracting. The blog however contains 4 navigation systems – one left navigation bar, 2 right navigation bars, and a top navigation bar. In the top navigation bar you will find links to Home, Women’s Denim, Men’s Denim, Denim Sale, Rate My Denim, Newsletter, and Contact. The left navigation bar is left strictly to advertising, and the first right navigation bar contains more ads, Featured Sites, Categories Menu, Top Sellers, and links to all of your favorite denim brands. In the far right navigation bar there is again, more advertising, Supporters menu, and a very healthy looking blog roll.

I will give this blog a 3.7 for now, as the advertising is a little excessive and this affects both navigation and appearance marks. It’s not a big deal but it’s nice to have some sort of navigation in the first fold sidebars. I think they’d do just as well putting a smaller or even a link adsenes block in the top left with any type of navigation.  The content is well done, and is very active so the blogger scores well for that. I also like the marketing points where each headline is containing good usage of keywords for the hungry search engines. Navigation is overall not too bad, but the blogger could make more use of her many navigation bars by adding more blog meat such as Recent Posts Menu, Recent Comments Menu, or even a Fave Brand of the Week menu or something. I love the concept of the blog and its definitely one the readership will enjoy, as well as the search engines, however, the blogger is too focused on monetization and this could be affecting what might be a healthy readership. Finally I searched too long for the search bar. If you want people to get familiar with your content you must make searching for older bloggeries an easy task.

-Chrissie

Want to learn more or just network with other bloggers? Visit the Bloggeries Forum.