Bloggeries Blog

If you are looking for another site or blog that can offer you additional insight on how to make your blog even better than it already is, then you may want to check out Blog Duck. This site is a blog that provides blogging tips and ideas and is geared towards helping people become better bloggers. You will find here ideas, articles, and information perfect for either the novice or the expert blogger. The owner, CEO, and webmaster of Blog Duck is Brian Alrdich, and he has been around the blogging block for awhile and can offer you some know-hows on what has and has not worked for him. An example of this would be in his anecdote on how using the likeness of Blog mogul John Chow backfired on him. While Brian has some contributing authors working for him at Blog Duck, you can still get a true sense for his personal voice, and his involvement at Blog Duck through any of the recent bloggeries: Is Your Blog Worth it?, When I Used to Think It Was OK to Use John Chow’s Likeness, Get Blog Rushed Already, A Quick Review of RevieWOW, Think and Don’t Drink and Blog, Why Being a Cow is Better Than Being a Chow, and When Hardware Held Me Back.

Blog Duck offers a clean design and layout making it very easy to navigate. Bloggeries are left marginalized and are black text on white background and links highlighted in blue. Though I have yet to understand the meaning of the duck theme, or the name of the blog, I think it’s cute and provides a unique feel to the blog. The header is in large bold lettering and includes a duck motif. Blog Duck contains two navigation systems, one in the right navigation bar, and a top navigation menu as well. In the top navigation menu you will find the Home link, About Blog Duck, Become an Author link, and a Contact Me section. In the right navigation system you find subscription buttons, a list of the 5 current blog authors that takes you to their own blogs or websites, a Categories Menu, Blogroll, Recent Readers widget, Recent Comments menu, and sponsors and ads. The categories menu is comprehensive and contains everything you would expect in a blog advice blog such as Alexa info, Google info, blogging, make money online, increase traffic, ideas, social bookmarks, reviews, speed linking, and many more.

I am going with a 4/5 on this one. I really enjoyed reading this blog and the blogger is definitely a credible source when it comes to advice and tips on blogging. I think the content has a unique personal voice that fellow bloggers will enjoy reading. The blog contains both sound advice with anecdotal speak so it is not only informative, but an enjoyable read. Blog Duck also scores well on navigation, appearance, and uniqueness criteria as all of these aspects make the blog a very easy read. My only complaint would be that there is not enough activity, and this is not to say I am complaining, but serves as a compliment to Blog Duck. The blog is well done, and would be much more successful with more frequent activity. This is the kind of blog that could retain a healthy readership, and would be more successful at that with more activity. Currently the last bloggery noted is October 19, and the bloggeries prior to that are coming in once every week or so. Simply put, we want more Blog Duck! The tips and advice are certainly well worth it.

-Chrissie

We are taking a look at another political blog, and this one is called Phronesisaical. This blog is about politics, philosophy, international affairs, and fruit. There are two main contributors to this blog, Helmut and Barba de Chiva. Helmut is a Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs and is located out of Washington D.C. Barba de Chiva is an English Professor writing out of Texas. Both of these bloggers offer a unique appeal and excellent writing as can be seen in any of their recent bloggeries: Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov at Columbia; Friday Dinner Party Conversation Stopper; Noncombatant Immunity, Blackwater, and the State Department; $1 Billion vs. $1.2 Trillion; Seas and Genes; Ian Hacking on Creationism; Brazil vs. Germany; La Franqueza; and William Faulkner.

The blog is fairly simple to navigate and offers a clean well-organized design. Bloggeries are left-marginalized and are black text on a light green background and links are highlighted in dark green. In the right navigation system you will find the contributors profile pages, ‘Phronesisaicality’ Menu, Bloggery Menu (perhaps a blog roll?), News and Commentary Menu, Magazines, Philosophy, Ethics, Policy, Policy Information and News, Development and Environment, Photography, Fruit Photography, mp3 Blogs, Miscellaneous, Previous Posts Menu, Archives going back to June 2005 and Blog Widgets. What I don’t see in blog navigation is a categories menu or labels attached to the posts, so I don’t think the blog is organized by category. I think this may help the blog given its healthy nature of topics and issues that it covers.

I will give this blog a 3.4/5. The blog is very well written and is updated almost daily, so it scores well for content and activity. I would suggest working with the length on some of the posts as they are currently very lengthy and can get difficult to read. I would either break these up into more frequent posts or perhaps adding pictures to each post to break up the length a little and make the reading go a little smoother. I also think the current location of the recent posts menu is not doing this menu any service. It is currently located at the very bottom of the right navigation system and would be very difficult to find if you didn’t spend a lot of time with the blog. I also think a deeper connection with the readership could be established if the contributors expanded on the purpose of the blog in the About Pages, or even define the term ‘Phronesisaical’ a little deeper. I don’t see any comments or hit counters, so I am not certain what the readership of the blog is. But I think this blog could reach a larger audience with these simple changes and I wish it the best of luck.

-Chrissie

If you are at all looking to travel the Eastern Hemisphere then you should take a moment to check out a professional looking Asia travel blog.  The blog is a blog that operates under the business of Asiahotels.com which is a leading Asian accommodations reservations site. As a reservations network from Asia, you will find it very comprehensive as it offers blogging with a personal voice, yet access to destination guides, travelers tales and guest reviews. Have a look at any of the recent bloggeries to see what I am referring to: Beautiful Sceneries in Japan, Pho King Strange Shirts, Top Noosa Holiday Accommodation, Typical Asian Photo Poses, How to Take Photos in Beijing China, Environmentally Friendly 5 Star Hotel in Beijing, How to Overcome Con Artists in Asia, The Three Most Luxurious Airlines, Best Beaches in Asia, and Ten Things to Do if you are Trapped on an Island.

Navigation on the blog is very easy, and very straightforward. The blog has a well-organized template and a clean layout and design. Bloggeries are black text on white background and the blog has yellow bordering with yellow accents on the menu titles. Bloggeries are centralized and there is both a left and right navigation bar. In the left navigation bar you will find the categories menu, recent posts menu, and the About page. In the Right navigation bar, you will find Hotel Club Blog information, and ‘On the Go’ menu, and an ‘Accom Blog’ menu. The categories menu also is very comprehensive, and for the Asian traveler contains all of the vital information – Airlines, Asia, Australia, Beaches, Japan, Things to Do, Vietnam, and much more. Most of the bloggeries also contain relevant pictures which adds to the overall design and aesthetic appeal of the blog. I took some time to visit a few travel guides and found the guide to Taj Mahal very informative.

This blog is definitely raising the bar for other travel blogs in terms of almost all other criteria we score on here. For this reason I am giving it a 4.5/5. The blog scores perfectly on almost all accounts – Navigation, Appearance, Uniqueness, and Content. The blog is designed with a very professional appeal, and this gives it much credibility to its readers which are obviously the travelers demographic. This lends well to the success of the blog given that travelers looking for information are always looking for credible sources. The pictures and the professional but good personal voice in the blog serve this purpose well for Asia Hotels. The only thing I would suggest is more frequent activity and this is the only section where Asia Hotels lost points. Currently bloggeries are coming in every other day, but I am seeing periods where the posts lapse with a couple of weeks in between. The blog would definitely get more traffic with daily updating and thus, be an even bigger success than it clearly already is. Otherwise however, I am taking a mental note of this one should I ever see the opportunity to Go East.

-Chrissie