Reviews

Bloggeries is going to look at a personal Sandro photo blog. This blog is being used by 20 year old Sandro to showcase his work, talent, and passion for the field of photography. You can find a wide range of photography on this blog including cars, landscapes, portraits, and a number of creative expressions through the use of photography. Sandro uses 3 different cameras for his work, all Canon products, which you can find more about on his About page. Sandro does not just take photos, he writes about them as well, and has an interest in the field. His blog contains displays of his work, reviews of photography products, and even profiles of well known artists. If you would like to see some of Sandro’s photographic creations, and read about his interest, check out some of his most recent bloggeries: Smart Car, Canon EOS 450 D/Rebel Xsi, Trams in Budapest, Edward Steichen, Yousef Karsh, Bicycle, International Airports, and my personal favorite, Geometry.

Navigation on the blog is very simple. Bloggeries are right marginalized and there is a left navigation bar that starts off as one navigation system, and is divided into two navigation bars towards the bottom of the blog page. Bloggeries are in black text on white background and headlines are highlighted in blue. The overall appearance of the blog is very simple and clean, and this lends the reader to focus more on the artistry in the pictures rather than the blog template. In the left navigation system there is a bridal photo which serves as a blog header with the headline “My Photo Blog”. Also in this left bar you will find AdSense, and Sandro’s portfolio which includes Cars, Conceptual, Landscapes, Portraits, and Slideshow. The navigation bar then includes a box of random photos and a tag cloud before it divides into the two navigation systems. In the left navigation system at the bottom, you will find the Archives Menu, Categories Menu, and Copyright information. Categories for this blog include events, Famous Photographers, News, Personal Journal, Photo Stories, Published Photos, Reviews, and an Uncategorized section. In the Right navigation bar you will find an Inside Menu that will take you to pages of photos with categories such as cars, portraits, and the like. You will also find here the About page, blog Meta info, and Feeds information if you would like to subscribe to the feed.

I give this blog a 4/5, as it is very well done and scores well on all accounts. As mentioned, the appearance of the blog is clean and attractive and nicely laid out for the reader. Navigation is done well also, with an organized template that allows the reader to go exactly where they want to go. The only suggestion I would make at this point is perhaps a Recent Posts menu so the reader can see what activity has been recent in the blog. There are however no navigation issues on this blog as it is very well organized. The blog scores well for content also, each bloggery is written with a strong personal voice that shows the passion Sandro has for his art, and this adds meaning to each of the pictures he displays for his reader. Activity is the only area where I would suggest some changes for Sandro as currently there is no clear consistency with activity. I am seeing bloggeries coming in every other day or with a few weeks in between. If he would like more traffic and a consistent readership, regular posting would serve him well. As this blog grows, I think Sandro will do very well with it, as it is a beautiful portfolio of some very good talent and give him the audience he clearly deserves.

-Chrissie

Bloggeries is going to look at another money making blog today, and this one is called Minty Money – Online Money Making Help Source. The blog does not have an author profile or about page, but it does appear to be a money making blog. The blogger uses standard money making services to make money on the Internet, and offers information and advice on these services. You can get a feel for how this blogger makes money on the Internet by reviewing any of his recent bloggeries: Website Name and Feed Changed, Referral News, Use MyBlogLog, Please Don’t Blog, and The Clickbot Fraud.

The blog is fairly young so there is really not much to it at this point. This normally makes it somewhat easy to navigate, but the blog does have some navigation concerns. Currently the formatting is set for only one post at a time appearing on the main page, and I do suggest the blogger change this setting to allow for a more blog-like look with at least a few more bloggeries on the page. If readers are looking for older posts, it will take them a long time to do so, and they will not likely stick around to keep clicking until they find them. The other navigation concern right now is that the Home link in the Header navigation bar does not work. It clicks back to the former website for the blogger with a ‘Page Not Found’ error. The blogger definitely wants to fix this as unworkable links are never good for the success of a website.

Bloggeries are left marginalized and are in black text on white background with links highlighted in blue. There is a right navigation system that contains subscription information, Content List (Archives Menu), Recent Posts Menu, and a menu for step-by-step signups for services such as Feedburner, Gmail, and blogroll. There is currently no categories menu which I attribute to the youth of the blog, but there are labels attached to posts. Currently labels look like ‘Feed Address Changed’ or ‘Website name changed’ and I recommend the blogger change these labels to searchable terms that the search engines would pick up. I also recommend the blogger add an About page or profile as this will enable the readers to connect purpose and vision to his blog a little bit better. Again, due to the youth of the blog, it is a little difficult to get a real grasp on what the blogger is looking for.

This blog definitely needs some growth and some work, and thus I am going with a 2/5 at this point. The blog does well for content and appearance, and at this point these seem to be its saving graces as the rest of the blog needs some cleaning up. There have been some issues the blogger needs to work on already discussed, so I would suggest the blogger start there. I also think if the blogger updates a little more frequently than he may see some additional traffic as well. Overall, I think this blog has a great running start, and with some advice out of a review, it may be just what the blogger needs to get his site rolling with some good readership.

Bloggeries is looking at a blog pertaining to the music industry today, and you can find ‘My Life My Music’.The blog is owned by 22 year old Carl who is blogging from the Phillipines. The blog is entirely about the music industry and entertainment news related to music in popular culture. Carl expresses his love for music in his blog header, which says, ‘Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul’. You can see this philosophy in action by checking out any of Carl’s latest bloggeries: My IMS Family; Winehouse Scraps Awards Gig, Heads to Rehab; Beyonce, Rihanna, Underwood Performing at Grammy’s; Keys Still Atop Album Chart in Slow Sales Week; Florida Remains No.1, but Brown Closes in, Heath Ledger Found Dead in NYC at age 28; American Idol Ratings Down from Last Year; Brad Renfro, 25, found Dead in Los Angeles Home; and Meet the Funky People.

The blog is well organized and nicely laid out which makes it very easy to navigate. Bloggeries are in white text on a black background with red colored musical bordering and links are in red. I personally found this theme to be difficult on the eyes and made reading difficult, so this may be something the blogger wants to look into changing. Bloggeries are left marginalized and there is a right navigation bar. In the navigation bar there is an advertising offer, Recent Posts/Archives Menu, Interesting Blogs Menu, Feeds Information, Blog Directory Buttons, Comments Window if you would like to add something to the Blog Main page, MyBlogLog Readers widget, Friends List, and an About page. Each bloggery is accompanied by relevant pictures, which works well for the blog and adds meaning to each piece of content. What I do not see is a Categories Menu which would be a great addition to this blog with its niche being in Entertainment. Categories would definitely add to the searchability of the blog and provide the blogger with more search engine traffic.

I am going with a 3/5 for this blog. My first suggestion would be to remove the annoying pop-up that occurs as the blog is loaded. This is extremely distracting from the point of the blog and as a result, affects both the overall appearance of the blog as well as navigation. The content scores well for the blog as it is written by outside news sources. Despite the fact that the blogger does not write his own content, he does cite each source which, while it loses some of the point of a personal blog tone, he still maintains active content. I would suggest the blogger hire someone to write his About page if he does not speak English, as the about page is not in English and thus the blogger will be unable to connect to his English readership through this about page. Otherwise however, despite not having a true personal voice and having some appearance issues, this blog is a good read for those interested in the music industry.

-Chrissie