Reviews

For those of you that like to mix up the pace a little bit and find the grind of the every day well, boring, then you may be looking for something fresh, new and exciting to add some spice to your life.  Here is a blog that feels just like you!  The blog is called Quixoting – A Blog for New Ideas, and is just that, a blog that is written by someone is on the constant search for new ideas, wants to hear about new ideas from the readers, and wants to spend time exploring and experimenting with those ideas. This is a blog that is on a quest for new ideas, and wants to bring new ideas to life and to release them to the world.  Still not sure what exactly that means? See for yourself through any of the most recent bloggeries: Seems Clear to Me – What about a See Through Car Cover?;  (Key-ho-ting) In Case You Were Wondering; When your ideas aren’t as obvious as you’d like…, What to do with your old and new ideas?, Google offers $10M for 5 great ideas…Ok, I’m listening; Please don’t drink and drive – really don’t; and How about a coffee mug that Fits in more places?.

The blog is organized in a blogspot template, and this makes it very easy to navigate.  Bloggeries are left marginalized and are in black ink on white background with a double right-sided navigation bar. In the navigation bars you will find on the left the About Page, Contact Information, Categories Menu in the form of a Tag Cloud, Blogroll, and some Directory Widgets.  In the far right navigation system you will find an Introductory Post, Recent Posts Menu, Archives Menu, and a Recent Comments Menu.  A handy Book List is also available in this navigation system which is another great resource for those who are as passionate about ideas as the author of this blog.  All bloggeries are associated with relevant pictures or graphics that add humor to the blog and offer a unique element to each bloggery.

This blog gets a 3.6/5 at the time of review, and given that the blog is only a month old, that shows that the blog is off to a great start.  Content wise the blog does very well, with well written content in a personal voice that adds flavor to the blog.  Navigation is easy with the blogspot template as well, and all essential blog items very easy to find. The blog is also found in a unique niche, and this alone allows it to stand apart from many other humor blogs.  And the activity on the blog is consistent, and daily, which is enabling the blog to bring in much traffic as evidenced by its healthy amount of comments.  The appearance of the blog is the only thing I would make some tweaks to.  I would first change the size of the font in the bloggeries, as the small font is very difficult on the eyes when reading, and this same suggestion applies to the navigation bars.  The font in the navigation bars is so small, that essential elements such as the About Page may get overlooked.  There also seems to be quite a bit of white space in the navigation bars, and I would suggest that the blogger either move the two bars together, or find some filler to alleviate this white space as it can give the impression of an ‘empty’ blog.  Overall however, this blog is doing very well in its first month, and I would encourage the blogger to keep the pace of the consistent posting, as this is definitely an asset to a newly growing blog.  If so, this blog should see growth and success.

-Chrissie

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If you are the type that enjoys saving money, and really, who isn’t in this economy, then you will want to check out The Money Saving Blog. The Money Saving Blog is found on its own domain at and is written by two money saving fanatics.  Meet bloggers Kathryn and Captain Frugal who will teach you everything you need to know about saving money. Kathryn herself is a freelance writer which means she has had to work hard to maintain frugality in her life and budget. Captain Frugal has learned from a young age that a penny saved is a penny earned and has made it his life mission to beat the system a few cents at a time.  At The Money Saving Blog you can get a heap of information and promotional codes that may make your life just a little less expensive.  To see this tips and promo codes for yourself, check out any of the recent bloggeries which include The Most Stupid Financial Decisions of All Time, Money Saving Website of the Week! Rather-be-shopping.com, The 13 Most Disgusting Ways to Save Money in 2008, How to Save Money on Air Fares and Holidays, 10 of the Strangest Things People do to Save Money, and 10 Quick Tips on How to Save Petrol.

The site is well organized and thus is fairly easy to navigate. Bloggeries are left marginalized and there is a right sided navigation system as well as a top navigation system over the header.  Bloggeries are in black text on white background and links are highlighted in blue, and the overall theme is very colourful adding aesthetic appeal to the blog.  In the top navigation system you will find links to Promotional Codes Home, A-Z Promotional Codes, Money Saving Blog Home, and Contact Us.  In the right navigation system you will find the About information, Popular Posts Menu, Categories Menu, and a Recent Readers widget.  Not sure if the widget was designed this way on purpose, but it looks like the iPhone theme, which IS mentioned on the blog through bloggeries, and I found that to be a very creative element of the website.  The blog is fairly young with only a few bloggeries to date, but you will find many relevant categories to get you started with categories such as Money Saving Tips, Frugal Living Hacks, and more.  Most bloggeries are associated with relevant pictures which adds to the overall theme of the blog.

I give this blog a 3.7/5 at the time of review, as it is fairly young and needs a few tweaks to get its ball rolling.  From an appearance standpoint the blog is aesthetically pleasing and the advertising blends well with the theme of the blog so as not to distract from its content.  The blog is well organized and thus easy to navigate, however some blog essentials are missing that may compromise navigation as the blog grows.  I do recommend the bloggers add in elements such as the Archives Menu and a Recent Posts Menu. The lack of an Archives made it difficult to determine the age of the blog, though that may be intentional given the blog’s youth.  Readers may look for this though and I do suggest the addition of this feature.  I also find a Recent Posts Menu on any blog is a useful feature, particularly for regular readers who do not subscribe to the RSS feeds, so this addition will complement their current Popular Posts Menu which already adds to the navigation system.  The content is well written and personal to the reader which lends to the credibility of the blog, but activity could use some consistency.  Currenly bloggeries are coming in every couple of days to a couple of weeks in between, and the bloggers need to maintain some consistency to engage the readers regularly. Overall however, for a young blog this one is definitely off to a great start with its unique content and appealing concept, so as this blog grows, it should be very successful.

-Chrissie

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