Site Review Blog

I tend to read quite a few websites and blogs and can usually spot something that is good (and bad) within a short amount of time. I took a look over the Technology Reports Webmaster Blog and added the feeds to my feed list.

The content of the site is of personal interest - a webmaster who makes occasional posts about various web related activities that earn a bit of money. The only dissapointing thing is that the posts are fairly infrequent. The quality of the posts seem pretty good and seem to offer some sound advice on how you might be able earn from your website or blog.

There are a couple of posts that I want to highlight - the first one is all about making your blog unique - It talks about doing a few small things to the Blog template so that it has a look all of it’s own. They used their own site as an example on how they acheived a unique look. I guess I should take heed on that one myself and see if I can’t do something better with this site They have another article in 2 parts that I really like as well - It is all about blogging for Profit. The articles provide valuable info on how almost anyone can get started blogging and earning a bit from it.

Visit technologyreports.info

My first question was why? then after I read a little bit it was How. Everone who runs a website knows how important it is to keep in contact with their site visitors and it is even more important with a Blog. Most people have a blog so that they can share information about something, and people read the blog because they want to know more about the topic. Now back to the original why.

The why you might want Email for your blog is pretty easy - You want to be able to let your readers know when you have made an update. Sure, they could visit your site to check if there is an update, they could even subscribe to your RSS feed. The Reality is that everyone checks their email and if you send a snippet from your sit you give them a reason to come back.

Now we know the why we would want to use email marketing to promote our blogs, lets look at the How. This is where Zookoda comes into play. They have developed an email subscription system that is just perfect for Bloggers. They take care of the managing of subscriptions via email and provide you with all the tools to easily prepare and send out the email to your subscribers.

While the FAQ answered most of my questions, I decided if I was going to review what they offer that I would need to sign up. The sign-up process is straight forward, you fill in a form, click the confirm link in an email, then get your login details in another email. Once logged in, you are presented with a comprehensive control panel and everything presented in the FAQ makes more sense. I think that if they had a couple of Control panel screenshots as part of the FAQ it would really show you what you can do.

From the Control panel, you can follow the instructions and start creating your mailing lists. You do everything from here, from creating, managing and tracking your email marketing of your Blog. The best thing about this is that it is totally free. Yes, it costs you nothing to set it up and try it out for yourself.

Visit www.zookoda.com

Technorati Tags: Zookoda

My initial reaction when asked to review the Irvine Housing Blog was pretty negative - I know nothing about Irvine and had to go and search where it is! I took a look at the about page, still no clues. I started reading a few posts and Finally worked out that it is in The Orange County in California. By the time I had discovered the general location, I had skimmed thru quite a few of the posts.

My thoughs on the Irvine Housing Blog had changed somewhat - which actually surprised me. I personally have absolutely no interest in the location or really what is going on it. BUT, this is where things get much more interesting. The blog is written by 3 people who have very different interests in the particular market from someone who has recently sold a house and is looking to purchase another one and a Developer.

What really intruiged me about the blog is the depth of information and the research that has gone into the info presented. It goes into recent sales, sales of newly developed properties and examines them in-depth. They put together quite a lot of info on the reality of the real estate market in their area and give some insight into the prices, real price and what people are willing to pay/lose on an investment property.

Like I said at the outset, I have no interest in the actual market of Irvine properties, but the info is incredibly interesting to anyone who has or is considering investing in property anywhere. I would have to say that if you consider the info in the blog and see how it applies to your real estate market, you will gain a valuable insight to how it all works. The Irvine housing blog is definatley one of the most interesting niche blogs we have had the pleasere to review and anyone who is considering starting a blog could learn a lot from reading this blog from end to end.

A blog is a blog is a blog when it comes to functionality - content, date based archives and category based archives are all there. They chose a 3-column layout for their front page and a 2-column layout for other pages. I think that their site would benefit from a little more general info on where Irvine actually is, and maybe a nice graphic header would help the visual appeal. As already noted, the content is top-notch.

Visit www.irvinehousingblog.com

When asked to take a look at this blog the first thing I did was to find and read the about page.  It gives just a little bit of a glimpse as to what you might find among the posts in the blog.  Well, I’ll give you a quick glimpse - it is a personal blog of someone who spends a lot of time online running several business websites including E-commerce and content sites.  Anyone who spends a lot of time online will usually turn up all sorts of stuff, and by blogging about some of it, you can add your own spin or commentary.  This is exactly what we are seeing here.

This blog has a very diverse range of topics - from comments about running online web businesses and dealing with wholesale suppliers, political comments, world events and even just light-hearted entertainment.   That was just the current first page of the blog! A look at the Topics this blog covers and these posts pretty well cover it!  The blog is about 6 months old at the time of the review.

Now, a personal blog has absolutely no need to be accurate on anything - it is personal after all!  If you read a few of the posts on this blog you will soon see that the Author is opinionated!  I am guessing that a lot of their personality is coming out in their posts for sure.  If you like to read about “real Poeple” rahter than watching all the fake ones on the telly then this blog is a pretty good starting place.

Visit www.lorien1973.com

Most webmasters are on the prowl for the next tidbit of info that will push their site to the 1st page of the SERPS.  Now, the SEO Haiku blog might not have that tip, but it is an interesting blog on SEO-related issues.  They comment on a variety of current SEO-related issues that are of interest to most webmasters.

Anyone who has looked up Haiku will know that it is a 5-7-5 format of poetry that originated in Japan.  Now, apart from some great SEO commentary, I was expecting to find a little bit of Haiku on the site.  I only found one in their header -

Discover Secrets
To Optimizing Your site
Through ways of Haiku

Now, while it is reasonably clever - 1 is never enough!  So, I have made my own attempt -

Referers from Search
Google, Yahoo, M.S.N
S.E.O. Success

Ok, as much fun as that was, lets take a bit of a closer look at the site.  A nice header, the usual static pages, typical blog navigation of latest articles and archives are easily found.  The content of the posts is reasonably closely aligned to what are the current “hot SEO Topics” on the Webmaster Forums.  The Blogger reviews the issue, and either makes a comment or poses a question about the topic.  It gets you thinking a bit about the subject of the post.

While there is not a post everyday, SEO Haiku generally gets updated about once a week, so in your overall blog -reading, it won’t take a lot of time to stay up to date with what is going on.  Reading it won’t make you a SEO professional overnight, but it will give you additional things to think about that might improve your results.

Visit www.seohaiku.com/blog/

You sometimes hear of all the weird stuff that goes on in the world, but  for all the things that just make you say “WTF!” you just need to dig a little deeper.  All the WTF stuff can be found in the one place.  Now, we don’t need to mention what the letters stand for now do we - you are smart I am sure you can work it out!

The site, if you have not worked it out, is a News site with a difference - it is all the really weird stuff that you would never beleive that people actually do!  The site itself is blog-styled, which is perfect for news articles that are presented.  As a Blog, it has all the usual things you expect to find, such as archives and categories of previous posts.  You can comment on various posts as well.  The only thing I would have liked to see on this site would have been somewhere to submit or suggest stories.

WTF Stuff grabs various newsfeeds from media sites, provide a snippet of the article and add value or a twist with their own commentary.  They don’t simply grab the syndicated content - they add it it as well.  I like what they are doing - grabbing ony items that make you sit back and say WTF!

When you are bored at work, take a look at the site, tell your work collegues about it and you can all enjoy reading about the weird and not so wonderful.

Visit www.wtfstuff.com

Ever get the feeling that you could be doing a bit more with your time? Yeah, me to!  Being more productive can give you a lot more time to do the things you want to do, rather than what you have to do.  The Productive Strageties blog deals with all sorts of issues around, yes you guessed it - personal productivity.  The Site has had regular articles posted for about a year.  The posts are all fairly short - You can read them quite quickly.  The downside with this site is the only way to read back over the older posts is to go to the monthly archives - I would have liked to see a category link to all old posts as well.

Whenever looking at a blog type site, I always like to read a couple of the most current posts, oldest posts and a few in the middle.  This gives me a sense of what the writer is all about.  I can usually tell how well the subject is known, and if the rest of the site might be worthwhile reading - I guess you could say that I am making productive use of my time reviewing the site!

There is a mix of posts that explore a subject in a “sterile” type way and others that use personal experiences to address a point.  A recent post titled borders is a great example of the personal style of writing.  A lot of the posts have had comments left on them which also indicates a bit of a community.  Blogs don’t get comments unless they either provide good or controversial content - I vote that the content tends towards the good.

One of my favourite posts is the Optimal Time for Productivity post.  It is all about the time of day that you are at your peak productivity.  Of course this varies from person to person and also from task to task.  For me, I am best able to focus and write my reviews after dinner each night - when I am a little relaxed and not so pressured to get it all done. Take a look, and find your own best time of the day.

Visit: www.productivity501.com