Bloggeries Blog

We all love to laugh at our finances once in a while (don’t we?) and this next blog is a good outlet for that. This blog is called Money Moose. Money Moose likes to be known as the money blog for real professionals, and is self-professed to be the number one non-financially skilled financial advisor in the world. As the blogger himself will tell you, many have referred to Money Moose as a parody site, but the blogger says that was is required to be a parody site (funny, jokes, and many page views) can not be found at Money Moose. Money Moose takes itself seriously, and ranks itself with The Wall Street Journal and CNN Money despite the fact that Money Moose is bringing in 600 page views a day. However, along with some humor you will be sure to find quality content in money, business, and finance, as well as some good investing guides at Money Moose. Go and see this for yourself by reading any of their most recent bloggeries: The 101 Dumbest Business Moments, Frugal Living EXTREME! 16: Financial Advisors, About that Tuna You’re Eating, The Customer Is (n’t) Always Right, Frugal Living EXTREME! 14: Shampoo, November News of the Moose, and Guerilla Job Recruitment Techniques.

The blog is very neatly organized, and this makes it very easy to navigate. Bloggeries are centralized in black text on white background and links and menu borders are in a light blue. The blog has both a left and right navigation system, as well as a top navigation bar. In the top navigation bar you will find links to Home, About the Moose, Advertising on MoneyMoose, and Contact forms and information. In the left navigation menu you will find a Pages Menu offering again these same links from the Top Menu, Categories Menu, Recent Posts Menu, and an ad for Entrecard Business Card. The categories menu is not large, but comprehensive for the topic and contains sections such as Financial News, Frugal Living EXTREME, Irresponsible Investing, Miscellaneous, and Money Quick Tips. In the right navigation menu you will find subscription options, Sponsor the Moose link, Valued Associates Menu (aka blogroll), Recent Comments Menu, and an Archives menu indicating the blog is just hitting the three month old mark.

Overall I am going to give this blog a 4, which is an excellent score considering it is so young. But the blog is very well done, professionally laid out in a clean easy template that makes it easy to read. The blog is organized nicely within this template that makes finding all of the blog meat very easy, and thus, easy to navigate. Content scores well as it is fresh and unique content written well and very clever humor. The activity is the only thing I would suggest improving at this point. The first two months of blogging looked fairly consistent, but the blogger has only brought in 8 posts in December. I would suggest the blogger bring in a little more consistency to not only keep the readership active, but also to bring in more traffic. Overall however the blog is doing well with an excellently established readership which can only improve as the blog grows.

-Chrissie

If you are up for a little intellectual reading, you may want to check out a personal / spiritual blog called Punctum Saliens. The owner of the blog is a computer programmer, though you would never guess after spending some time in the blog content. He urges you to ‘take a flying leap and see where you land’. The blogger writes from the philosophy of ‘If you’re gonna do that, you gotta…..’ which means his blog is focused on inconsistencies in the world in the way people think. He tries to point out where we make arbitrary lapses in logic, where one way of thinking or one rule implies another, but we don’t go that far. Being brought up in a fundamentalist Christian home, he notes this may affect his writing as he admits he has some observations on that as well. Largely however, he is trying to do something artistic and far reaching with his blog, and hopes his readers constructively comment on his thought processes as he does not believe he will learn very much from his own writing and wishes to see alternatives. Confused yet? Good! Because it is the blog content that really speaks to the nature of the writer and to understand this, you need to check out his recent bloggeries: Man’s task is….;Ah, to be a pre-tribulationalist/pre-millenialist; Anais Nin and Carl Jung; Syndrome….causes [some[to….[see] the Messiah; The Psychic Mediator; Seeing God through Polarized Sunglasses; Jesus is back, and this time he’s funny; and The Creation of Consciousness.

The blogger is clearly dedicated to the writing portion of the blog and thus there is little blog meat to distract the reader. This makes the blog very easy to navigate. Bloggeries are left marginalized with standard black text on white background and there is both a top and a right navigation bar. In the top navigation bar you will find links to Blog (ie. Home), About, Quotes, Creed, Books, Archives, and subscription links. In the right navigation bar you will find a Latest Posts Menu and a Blogs I Visit menu. The only navigational aspect I found difficult was that the Categories Menu was listed on the Archives page. I would recommend moving that to the home page, as the categories menu is extensive and if someone wanted to read on a specific topic, say, C.G. Jung, the blog would be much more easy to navigate. Currently there are no pictures with any of the bloggeries, though if you find yourself immersed in the blog, you will find yourself immersed in the blog. Truly the content is king with this blog and the read is a very intellectually stimulating one. There is no need for pictures with these bloggeries as in fact, they would more than likely distract from the content that is so rich.

I am going with a 4.5 for this blog, it did well on all accounts for scoring criteria. The first suggestion I have for this blogger is to move the Categories menu to the main page as not many readers will check out the Archives section. A few points were lost for activity as well as bloggeries are coming in not on a steady basis, and activity ranges from every few days to a week or more in between bloggeries. Content however is outstanding, and this blogger’s graduate level work is definitely noticeable. The blogger states in his about page that if eloquence is something one is born with, he has some worries as he hopes that it is more a talent he hopes to nurture. Clearly this is not something the blogger needs to worry about as his eloquence is the most noticeable thing about the blog. Appearance and uniqueness scores are excellent as well. The blog is both aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate. Couple those with the excellent content, and it does very well for review.

-Chrissie

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If you are a parent then this next blog Bloggeries is looking at will make you want to stop for a quick read. The blog is called Watchful Eye Foundation. The blog is about ways that parents can keep more watchful eyes on their children. The header for example asks ‘Is it obvious my son or daughter is in a gang?’ and appeals to parents that the children of today are the future of tomorrow. This header speaks to the nature of the blog as a resource for helping children from the harms in today’s world and society. The Watchful Eye Foundation itself began due to the need to inform and educate the public in regards to sex offenders, gangs, and the harmful effects that these tough to talk about issues have on children. In essence, the Watchful Eye Foundation teaches children and their parents how to stay safe. Take a look at exactly how they are doing this through any of their most recent bloggeries: Is my Son or Daughter in a Gang??, Petition for the Hershey Company, Boycott continues against Hershey Company, and Boycott Hershey This Christmas.

The blog is found on blogspot, so this offers some already built in blog features which make the blog fairly simple to navigate. Bloggeries are white text on dark green background with a lighter green bordering around it. Bloggeries are left marginalized and there is a right sided navigation bar. In the navigation bar you will find a Menu for list of Hershey products to boycott, Poll on Hershey’s latest PAC candy, About Page, Live Traffic Feed, Blog widgets and advertising, Watchful Eye Foundation in the News Menu, Archive Menu, and link list. There currently is no set Categories Menu though I do see labels on some posts. Labels for this blog include categories such as police, polls, sex offenders, sexual abuse, and watchful eye. Most bloggeries are accompanied by relevant pictures which makes the blog a little easier and more efficient to read.

I am going with a 2.8/5 for this blog as it just needs a little tweaking to give it a more professional and credible appeal. Right now the blog will need more activity and content if it wants to see a larger readership. Currently there are only four posts in December and more content is needed to see growth on this blog. Navigation is fairly simple on this blog, but I would change the Hershey boycott menu around with the About Page so that the About the Watchful Eye Foundation is the first thing in the menu that readers have access to. This will give the blog some credibility and link the personal voice with the message for the readership. I also think adding a Categories Menu to the navigation system will make the blog a little easier to work with. The blog definitely has a unique concept and its topics and writing certainly earn it points there. Overall this is a good blog with an excellent concept that has the potential to reach a large audience. With more frequent content and more navigation features, both this blog and its message could be a tremendous success. I did just notice when I visited the blog seems to be converted to MySpace and Your Child. Not sure what is going on. 🙂

-Chrissie