Showing posts with label blogosphere. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogosphere. Show all posts

19 July 2007

About Elizabeth

Time for another blog review. This time it's Elizabeth's turn. She blogs at Table for five, a personal blog. By personal I mean that it doesn't have a specific theme and she blogs about almost anything (like this blog). I am not sure about other guys but I feel that these blogs are more interesting.

Why is the blog called Table for five? I am not sure but I think it represents her family - Elizabeth, her husband and the 3 kids. The only thing I didn't like about her blog layout / theme was the yellow background for the titles - on the posts as well as the sidebar. Makes it quite hard to read them. A darker colour would have been better.

Nothing much else I can complain about. The blog has great content. I love her "about" page, where she has listed 100 things about herself. Quite unique.

17 July 2007

Sleeping princess

To get my daughter to sleep is quite easy, all I have to do is take her for a spin on the car and it won't be long before she dozes off.

Last Sunday afternoon, all of us went to the Pool Meadow bus station to see off Muz. His bus was going directly to Heathrow airport where he was catching a flight for Malaysia.

As we were leaving the house, my daughter made a very serious comment, "Mama, I don't think that I want to live here anymore", while shaking her head (meaning she want's to follow Muz back to Malaysia). I wanted to laugh but held myself as I didn't want to hurt her feelings. Unfortunately for my daughter, she again fell asleep and wasn't able to say bye to her favourite uncle. I say 'again' because she fell asleep when we went to pick him up too.

She was quite upset later when we got back home and found out that Muz had left, crying "I miss Ayah Muz".

We had a dinner party at our friend Lisa and Zur's place and she was quite reluctant to leave the house. Her mood improved considerably after she met some friends around her age (Lisa and Zur's kids).

At the dinner, I meet another avid photographer and blogger. Check out Mama Sarah's blog about life in the UK.

14 July 2007

Need encouragement?

Go go on over to Kay's blog - 'Howtoencourage' for some inspiring words. As she says:
You never know when a moment and a few encouraging words can impact a life.
The template is quite simple and the colour scheme is pleasing. However, I would have preferred it if she had increased the contrast of the text against the background. Would make it easier to read. The links on the side bar are a bit distracting and I suggest that she reduce the font size.

One way to brighten up the blog would be to upload some pictures along with the interesting posts. I didn't go through the whole blog but I did read all the posts under the label "Encouragement for Kids". Really interesting and I would definitely try to put her advise into practice.

11 July 2007

Blog review update

When I made the offer to review blogs for free, I didn't realise that I would be deluged by requests. Slowly going through them one by one as I want to do a good job.

Given below is the list of blogs I still have to review:
  1. http://howtoencourage.blogspot.com/
  2. http://table4five.net/
  3. http://anylee-anylee.blogspot.com/
  4. http://www.asianwildrose.ca/
  5. http://beccagirlblogspot.blogspot.com/
  6. http://harrymcfryinvestigates.blogspot.com/
  7. http://chatbugkaren.com/myroad/
  8. http://ryansqueerbent.blogspot.com/
  9. http://www.mythailanddiary.com/
  10. http://www.mylittletribe.com/
  11. http://www.investorblogger.com/
  12. http://afrogtokiss.net/
  13. http://wireblissmei.blogspot.com/
  14. http://waitingforcoffee.blogspot.com/
  15. http://www.imbloggingthat.com/
  16. http://chickpealove.com/blog
  17. http://firetruckpony.blogspot.com/ (Can't review because it's only for invited viewers)
  18. http://www.preyanka.com/
  19. http://wolfsperspective2.blogspot.com/
  20. http://enjoydeals.blogspot.com
  21. http://www.realitytvfan.org/
  22. http://infinitelycrazy.blogspot.com/
  23. http://jokingblog.blogspot.com/
  24. http://growingasmallbusiness.blogspot.com/
  25. http://randomtopic.dakotablogs.com/
Please inform me if anyone is missing from the list.

Thanks,

10 July 2007

Just Jayme reviewed

I am going through the blog reviews one by one on a "first come, first serve" basis and I don't know how, but I somehow missed Jayme who blogs at Just Jayme. Sorry about that.

Her blog template is proof that a blogspot blog doesn't have to have the boring generic template. I would have liked it if her font was a little bigger. From my informal research I have found that small fonts might turn away a lot of people, especially those with bad eyesight. As I have mentioned earlier, all we have to do is hit the 'Ctrl and +' key but a lot of people are obviously not aware of that. She has a lot of nice pics on her Flickr page and she should put some of them up on her blog. As they say, a picture says a thousand words.

She's been blogging for almost the same time as me, since June 2003. It's a personal blog and she blogs about her husband of 7 years, her daughter and life in general. Much like mine. It's a nice blog and I am wondering why the PR is only 2. Jayme probably needs to do some social networking and marketing her blog. Getting her blog reviewed is a step in the right direction.

Slightly Mordant reviewed

Next on the blog review list is Michael's blog - Slightly Mordant. As the title of the blog suggest, a lot of the posts are sarcastic and witty. Take the post 'Kids and guns have some sense!' - I totally agree with him when he says "Having children is a big responsibly as is owning firearms." However, not all the posts are negative - take the post 'I love my life I love my wife'. Am sure the wife was really please with that one.

The blog template is nothing to shout about - it's the generic Minima. However I think you will agree with me when I say that the Blog banner looks interesting. This is one the few non-commercial blogs, among all those that I have reviewed so far. Somehow feels refreshing to see no sponsored posts and no ads - not that I am going to revert back. Nice blog.

09 July 2007

Shawn Knight pwn3d

If you are into putting your computer together and other computer hardware stuff, you will like Shawn's blog - Shawn-knight.net He also runs Ocia.net - a hardware review site.

The former blog, which was started in January this year, is more personal. There are a lot of things I like about the site. First of all, the constructive comments. Noticed something strange for "an up-and-coming, hopeful dot com mogul" (his own words) - ads are totally absent from the blog. Not even Google ads. Wonder how he plans to make money. I also felt that there's too much grey on the site. other than that the site is awesome.

First of all he has a great banner. I have considered copying it for one of my blogs. Of all the categories, even though I enjoy the tech related posts - especially the computer upgrades, I like the "daily ownage" posts the most. Some great stuff - will leave you grinning.

Go and check out his site.

07 July 2007

Mrs. Rugged reviewed

Just went through Mandi's (aka Mrs. Rugged) personal blog - 'The Official Mrs. Rugged'.

Nice template and I like the fact that her blog is not cluttered with ads. However, the font might be a bit too small for some people with bad eyesight Of course all I had to do was hit Ctrl+ to enlarge the font on my browser.

I am not sure why, but she has 3 different blog rolls on the side bar. Might be better to consolidate them into one. Couldn't find a link to my blog though. hint! hint! It might also be a good idea to provide a link to the home page from individual posts.

Mandi is also part of the "I follow movement", so go on over to her blog and leave your comments.

04 July 2007

Lost in Thailand

Finally got to review Matt's blog "The Lost Boy". Matt is a "farang", a British expat currently working as the desk editor for a local newspaper in Phuket, Thailand. His blog is really cool and the first thing you will notice is of course the great banner.

I really like reading his humorous posts. Nearly fell off my chair when I read this post: Cooped up Paris will lead chickens to salvation. He has got a nice writing style and it's no wonder as he's been writing for various magazines and newspapers for quite sometime now.

Matt wanted some constructive criticism to make his blog better. However, I couldn't find anything to criticise maybe except for only one thing - I would have loved to see more pictures.

One list I would like to see, not only on his blog but on others' too, is a list of the most popular posts.

Check out Matt's blog to get the latest on everything Thai.

03 July 2007

Betshopboy reviewed

If you read a lot of blogs like I do, you will notice that a lot of bloggers have an online alter ego and I guess I am no exception. I recently got to know Singaporean blogger Cheewee Ng who goes by the online name "BetShopBoy". He blogs at "I Thought, Therefore I Blog".

His blog is using the no frill, purely functional DownRight Blogger Theme v3.0 created by Thur Broeders. I like simple templates like that. He could have personalised it a bit though.

Most of the posts are technical but not too much. Found a lot of them to be interesting and useful - like "Personalize Your Blog Posts - Add a Signature", for example. Noticed a few spelling and grammatical errors but it happens to me too.

Another great blog with great original content.

02 July 2007

Getting it on with Steven

Just finished going through Steve's blog "Get your blog on!". Steve is a former model and Chippendale dancer.

Regarding the look of the site, as I have mentioned several times, I am not really fond of black backgrounds. Nothing wrong with that. It's just a matter of preference. However, some of the colors he uses (for example, red and purple) for highlighting some sentences or words might not really follow the web design guidelines. Some people may find it hard to read them.

Having said that, even if you have a great looking site, people won't come back if your content is lousy. That is one thing this blog is not. Steve's posts are humorous and interesting. You can judge this even without going through the posts,from the fact that it's Google Page Rank is 3 even though it is only four months old. I know of several people who have been blogging for more than a year and still stuck at 0.

01 July 2007

It's a dog's life

Was going through "Tip Tail", a blog about four dogs. Never thought that a blog about dogs would be interesting but as I found out, blogger Cynthia has a way with words. Kept me occupied.

It's not every time I say this, but I couldn't find any thing to criticise on the blog. I guess the only thing I can say about the blog is that images of Lucy and Angel are missing.

Maybe what the blog needs is more advertising and links to bring in more dog lovers. Hopefully it will get a higher PR in the future.

I like the top banner and the way that the blogger has personalized the referral buttons in keeping with the blog's orange colour theme. For example take a look at her "You comment, I follow" and the PerPerPost Direct button.

One of the requirements of my doing a blog review was a a link to either this blog or to my SEO expert blog, however I couldn't find any. Have gone ahead with the blog review anyway.

28 June 2007

Blog with an interesting title

Was just going through the "'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves" blog. That's an interesting title for a blog. In case you are wondering what it means, I guess you better refer to the meaning of the poem "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll.

I couldn't find out much about the blogger as he/ she doesn't have a about me page and there's nothing in the Blogger profile. Some bloggers to prefer to remain anonymous and it's their choice.

Slithy Toves has been blogging since October last year, about random things that the Blogger found on the net. The blogger seeks to increase the Blogs PR (don't we all). Joining various social networks (for example, MyBlogLog, Spicypage )and forums on the net might help. You may have great content but people won't come if they don't know about your site.

I would also suggest that he ( I am assuming that the blogger is male) either replace or modify the generic Blogger template used. There are thousands of blogs with the same template. Doesn't exactly make your blog stand out, if you know what I mean. Maybe the blogger can think of modifying it with a personalised top banner. I can also see a minor spelling error in the description of the blog. Assume that it was supposed to be a "the" instead of "teh."

In his post "Starting to understand this whole blogging thing", Slithy Toves has mentioned some of the steps he has taken to improve his pr. Hopefully this review should bring him some more visitors.

26 June 2007

Janna ripped to shreds

I am not going to do one but two blog reviews today - both owned by Blogger Janna. She says:
I’ve told him to go ahead and rip me to shreds

Well Janna, here goes.

First, Jantics I guess the title is a combination of Janna and antics or is it lunatics. ;-)

I am a fan of clean and minimal blog templates and this happens to be one of them. The first thing that caught my eye was the beautiful banner. It's lovely. Maybe I am biased because I used to be a forester. I also like the "25 Things About Me"

The blog has a lot of short and interesting posts. But as I said in my last post, interesting and longer posts do get more linkbacks and comments. It's also nice to see a blog without any ads on the sidebar for a change. Some pics to accompany the posts would be nice.

Nothing much to criticize about apart from one small thing - I am not sure what that "www.yoursite.com" is doing up there.

Now for The Jannaverse - from Janna + Universe? It's a PR 4 blog - Impressive for a young blog. It took me more than 4 years to get my PR 4.

Again a clean, tidy layout. Some really interesting expressions:
It's not a pretty sight, me, rolling naked on the floor while foaming at the mouth and ripping my hair out, screaming curses at the dead ancestors of my ISP provider.


FYI, this blog is not an adult site. Read "What on earth do they think I WRITE???"

Yes! She's a great writer. I am only concerned that some old people with poor eyesight may find the text size a bit hard to read.

Both blogs seems to quite similar - general without any particular theme - much like my own blog here. I feel that Janna should choose a particular theme or segment for 'Janatics' while keeping 'The Jannaverse<' for personal rants and thoughts. Just a suggestion.

24 June 2007

Lisa's ramblings

Following my offer to do Free blog reviews, I have had quite a few people taking it up. This is the first review.

My thoughts, ideas and ramblings is the personal blog of Lisa, a work at home mom from Illinois. Though she just started blogging in April last year, the blog has an impressive Google PR 4.

Most of her posts are short and easy to read. It is a matter of preference. The debate about the merits and demerits of long posts is still on. However, I have noticed that longer posts generate more linkbacks as well as comments.

What would I like to change on here blog? Nothing much except that I would definitely like to see more pictures Talking about pictures, the blog banner could do with a redesign with sharper images. That would definitely make the blog more attractive.

As indicated by the "U comment, I follow" badge, she has turned off the nofollow in her comments. Go visit her blog and leave comments.

Get reviewed for free

Like a lot of other bloggers, I do get paid to do reviews of websites, blogs or products. However, from today till end of July, I will review your blog (minimum of 50 words)totally FREE of charge.

I will not dish your site but try to give constructive criticisms if there is something I don't like about your site.

It's totally optional but I would really appreciate it if you could put up a link to either this blog (http://ok-lah.blogspot.com) or the SEO Expert blog (http://www.adamok.net).

So are you ready for a totally honest review?

Just leave me a comment with the url of your blog.



updated: 7 - 7 - 07

20 June 2007

Spelling errors

In my last post here I had asked whether any of my visitors could identify the spelling errors in the phishing e-mail I received.

Well only one visitor left a comment. Lucia who blogs at her Mental Jog blog correctly identified the 3 spelling errors:

First paragraph, last word "bellow".

Last paragraph, "incovenience" and "apriciate"

18 June 2007

Always your mum's baby

Found another relatively new blog with a lot of interesting posts. "Call Me When You Get There" was started in March this year by Jackie.

One of the posts that made me think is
Bittersweet
. She relates her feelings as her son grows up.

I feel awkward when my mum treats me like a kid sometimes, especially when other people are around. However as a father myself now, I realise that in our eyes, our kids will always be the baby that you held in your arms.

10 June 2007

An experiment in blogging for money

Just wanted to create some buzz about Lugnut22.com, blogger Lars Krumme's part-time endeavor. According to Lars, the blog titled "Make Money Online", was started in January this year as "an experiment in blogging for money".

Some of my blogger friends who have been blogging for nearly a year and more, have been complaining that they hardly make any money. I guess, they could learn a thing or two from Lars who earned $153.33 in April followed by a total of $168.04 in May. he actually made about $60 after subtracting the costs. That's quite impressive.

07 June 2007

Who would you like to have dinner with?

Was going through "The way it is" Steve Lorenz's blog, when I came across this interesting post titled "Four People to eat with". He answers the question:
"If you could sit down and eat dinner with four people, who would they be and why?"

The people he choose and the reasons for choosing them were quite interesting. Then I thought about it myself - "Who would I like to have dinner with?"

Initially all short of famous people came to my head, dead leaders, actors, prophets and so on but in the end, the people I would really like to have at my dinner table are my parents, who are so far away in Malaysia. The two other people would be my 2 old grandfathers (one from my father's side and another from my mother's side), whom I haven't seen in a long, long time. It's my fault and I have no excuses. Would really like to see them before they pass away - they are really really old.

Thanks Steve for that interesting post. BTW, Steve is a history major at the University of Michigan and writes on several blogs.

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin