Reviews

This bloggeries review features a helpful and informative blog on the travel lifestyle of home swapping. The blog is called “Travel the Home Exchange Way” When I think of this blog I almost would categorize it as a resource for anyone currently involved in or interested in participating in a house swap. Whenever you travel anywhere for any extended period of time the accommodation often becomes one of the largest expenses you must budget for. This blog really enlightened me on the concept of traveling the world living at other people’s homes that may or may not live similar lifestyles to yours. Travel the Home Exchange Way features many different helpful topics including general home exchange information, home exchange offers, tourist information of surrounding areas, travel experience and links to other travel blogs and many other topics related to this niche.

I enjoyed reading this website because it was very straightforward, well written and easy to navigate. This blog contains lots of original content on a topic that most who own homes would find fascinating or intriguing at the very least. It also does a good job of integrating images to break up the text which also helps grab the readers’ attention. Another thing I really liked about this blog was its activity. It is updated frequently usual the latest every few days and it has basically been this way since it came online in June of 2006. Many blogs start strong and quickly fade, this one doesn’t seem to be slowing down in the slightest.

One drawback that could bother some would be the rather basic and simple layout. Considering the topic I thought it t be an alright fit as the point of this website the way I perceived it was to share information and act as a resource and I think it accomplishes that in a very straight forward manner. I also liked how it didn’t have a lot of ads everywhere and the “ads” that they did have were actually relevant links to purchase books on the topic. A lot of other bloggers should take note instead of focusing on the many other less successful methods that are popular right now. I’m going to go ahead and give this blog a very deserving 4 on 5. If this blog continues on the path that it is and personalizes its layout and logo it could easily be a 5. It’s a well written and maintained blog with a tagline that sums it up best – All about swapping homes for a vacation at “home away from home”.

-Rob

Calbert Dyer is the son of world famous woodcarver Kenneth Dyer whose art is being displayed in the houses of the likes of Jimmy Buffett.
At a very early age, Calbert has learned his father’s craft, but he has also perfected the art of painting, sketch art and hosting quite a few events in Costa Rica. Calbert is also a musician singing Raggae and performing rap with several local groups.
The blog is brandnew, but the vibe is already there. You can feel the excitement behind it and suddenly you rediscover the reasons blogging is so popular. It gives an additional outlet to those who have something to share with the world.
No matter how new the blog is, I can guarantee that there is still a lot to come. Many more upcoming events announced and many events that have happened will be written about. You can already read about a recent show in Santa Cruz, Costa Rica, follow the artist thru the creation of some of his work as well as look at some of the chalk paintings he has made.
I give Calbert Dyer a strong 5. Having seen so many spammy weblogs and blogs that are created for reasons other than the pure excitement of sharing something, this is a very refreshing blog to look at and read. I recommend bookmarking it and sharing it with those who are interested in woodcarving or artistic creations in general.

Great work, Calbert and welcome to the world of blogging!

Mike

It is nice to be able to sit down knowing that you are about to review a site that you really enjoyed reading. I won’t lie, alot of the time I quickly read 3 or 4 posts and check out some sections of blogs before reviewing them, after-all first impressions count! However, I am about to review a blog I found interesting, clean and well written that blog is… I am screaming and punching myself, no don’t worry I have not gone crazy, that indeed is the name of the blog. While I do not agree with everything in the blog, the posts do give me a insight into what the blog author is like.

Being a web designer myself I am always interested in blog designs, I feel a bad design can ruin the blog, while a good one can really send it into the limelight. This blog is well designed when it comes to aspects such as the colors. The main color used on the blog is maroon, however in generally there is not to much color on the blog, which in this case is a good example of keeping the blog clean. Dispite this, clean does not have to mean dull. The posts themselves keep the blog looking interesting, with well formatted post images that look like that fit right into the design, the viewer will not feel like they are looking at a block of text with no visual advancements. The images used in the blog are of small file size and have been edited to fit into the space given for posts, unlike some other blogs who just copy images from here-there and everywhere. The blog creator includes several things on the left menu, including a somewhat scary picture of the author! The Recent Posts allows for the viewer to quickly browse the posts, which on a blog such as this it is handy to keep up with recent posts. Also it includes Categories, some blogs have recently started to drop using Categories and it good to see that this blog has decided to keep them. There is a select amount of Categories and each pretty much are based around the popular culture topic. However the design in this blog in no way the best bit, the content is pure gold.

Effort really has been put into the posts, with both the use of good images that really work well with the posts content and the great writing style. The posts are long, however not to drawn out and stay directly on topic. Grammar is used well and none of the posts are dull in anyway. The posts cover a wide range of content, however unlike some blogs the posts are always on topic and tend not to walk away from what the blog is about, which is great to see, and it shows dedication from the blog creator.

Overall it was great to review this blog, and while I can’t really point out anything I don’t like, I would love to here your views to see if you to find this a interesting blog. We are giving it our max score, yes this blog has scored a Blogging great 5/5!

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