Dec 23, 2008

photography exposure: Weekly Photographer Interview, Tom Arbour Part 1

photography exposure: Weekly Photographer Interview, Tom Arbour Part 1

Nov 23, 2008

Candleday

Blog author: Tomas
The depth of the steps we leave in life is defined by our love to others.
You've got a very well laid out and organized blog, I like how simple it is and the blog is very low on the clutter factor, great job.

I see four posts on the front page, very good - this is perfect. Readers don't read anything if you've got an overload of info on the first page.

You might want to center some of the items in your sidebar, just google html code for centering text and apply it to your buttons and badges in the sidebar.

Navigation is easy enough to do but it would help if you placed a link list in your sidebar showing popular posts or some of your favorite posts.

to get more visitors, go to other blogs with a similar theme to yours and leave meaningful comments and people will come check your blog out. Your comments on other peoples blogs are like a small advertisement or business card for your blog - make it good.

You might want to add a social bookmarking tool to the bottom of your posts, this way readers can share your work with others - check out addthis, sharethis or te!!

You've got some really interesting art work, keep it up.

http://candleday.wordpress.com/

Ludo and The Lion

Blog author: The Lion
Ludo and The Lion is a compilation of many things. But mostly, it is my way of reaching out to the world. I believe strongly in education of the masses and hope, in some small way, I can educate someone on some issue.
Great layout, I really like the color and template you chose.

Your blog is organized very well and you have done a god job adding useful tools such as the sharethis after each post.

The terms in the sidebar could be placed elsewhere and linked to as well as the copyright, you want to post quality content there.

You should go through your posts and find a few you like and then link to them from your sidebar - having a "favorite posts" section is a great way to get people looking through your site. Then after you get the navigation squared away you should reduce the posts displayed on the front page to three or four.

You've got email subscriptions now you just need RSS subscriptions, check out feedburner for that.

Great blog keep it up.

http://www.ludoandthelion.com

Views from the Emerald Isle

Blog author: The Emerald Islander
Personal thoughts, opinions and comments of an independent consultant, political analyst and historian, who lives in Ireland but is aware of the whole world.
Your blog takes a little while to load, you may want to consider shortening the front page. You can show three or four posts on the front page, then your readers will navigate through your archives. The main reason for this is load time but there are many other reasons as well.

If you were to add a links gadget in your sidebar with your most popular posts you could show less posts on the front page and still bring more readers in. There's just to much content to digest on the front page.

The banner is very nice, but I would crop it. You want to show more of your blog content immediately to the visitor - so they can find something that interests them.
¤ I have actually never scrolled down past your image at the top of the page while visiting via BlogExplosion.

You've got lots of widgets and stuff in the sidebar, while it is great and many readers will contect and use some of them - you should keep it to just the necessary items.

You've got the Email subscription option which is great but you'll want to place an RSS subscription option at the top of your page as well - this will bring in many quality readers.

There are some huge chunks of text in the sidebar, try to break it up with paragraphs or consolidate and summarize.

http://inishtrahoull.blogspot.com/

Ashish Gourav:Exploring The Hedonism of Life

Blog author: Ashish Gourav
Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.
What type of blog is this? I had a hard time figuring that out. You might want to choose one specific point of interest and focus on that for your blog. You want to stick with one theme or idea - it might be hard but remember that there's a wide range of info in any topic.

Your title is almost invisible, try adjusting the font and or color of the text. You can adjust the colors of your whole blog to customize and personalize your blog. Change the top blogger navbar color to match your blog.

No RSS subscription button? - that is a necessity, get one and be proud of it!

I see some adsense right away, ads work different for everyone but I've had the most success with placing adsense in my content after posts.

I like the triple column layout but you should really reduce your widgets if you can. Think about what type of readers you get and try to make sure your widgets are targeted at your readers.

You're doing a great job using images within your posts, but you have too many posts displayed on the first page, reduce it to three or four, your page will load quicker and look more professional - not to mention readers will be more prone to look through your archives(lower bounce rate!)

http://iitashish.blogspot.com/

Incredible Indians

Blog authors: Harshad & Yash Chitalia
India is my country and all its cuisines are my brothers and sisters.
Hello Incredible Indians,

That's a great T shirt, you might want to try experimenting with reducing the size of the image though. You want more of your content shown to the visitor immediatly.

I don't see a RSS feed button anywhere, get on and place it at the top of your sidebar, this is important. RSS subscribers are the best kind of traffic, it's returning viewers and people that trust you.

You've got a little adsense in your sidebar..you need to remove it and place ads within your content. Try placing them after every few posts.

Speaking of posts, you only want three or four at the max on the front page, there's many reasons behind this but the main reason is that people will feel overwhelmed by a page with that much text.

Try to use more images within your posts, use creative commons search engines to find shareable friendly copyrighted images.

You've chosen a nice layout, now customize its colors and fonts to match your personality.

http://hdeshpande.blogspot.com/

Nov 22, 2008

Guerilla Info

Blog author: chrisjrt & Adam McG
Views and reviews on anything from news to blues
Hey guys,

My first idea would be a banner or something near the top possibly in the sidebar, a "brand" an image that you use to promote your site. It could be a guerrilla even.

Next, instead of having the social bookmarking buttons in the sidebar like you have done, use a button at the bottom of each post, check into addthis, sharethis or te!!. Either one will let your readers share your info on social bookmarking networks.

Next you'll want to move that RSS subscriptions button up to the top, your most valuable type of visitor is the one that returns to your blog on a somewhat regular basis - they are the people that trust your advice and will most likely recommend your blog to others(via social bookmarking or email.)

I just scanned your blog posts quick and it looks like you've got about seven posts on the first page, bring that down to three or four. Then go to your blog layouts, create a new gadget and choose link list - link to some of your favorite posts from the sidebar.

People will navigate through your site, don't try to show them every post all at once.

To get more visitors/comments on your blog, go and leave comments on other blogs.

I see at the bottom of your blog you advertise free link exchange - I'm in.

http://www.guerillainfo.com/

Cranky Chicks

Blog author: Cranky Chick
A place for cranky chicks to find info on cosmetics, make up, anti aging, PMS remedies, relationships, nutrition, herbs, weight loss and more...
I would try changing the top navbar from silver to black, it might go better with your pink background.

The site translator is a good idea, just make sure it's needed. You could run a pol to see how many readers actually utilize this tool - alternatively you could check into using analytics such as google analytics to see where your visits come from. When I looked at my map of visitors the first time, I noticed almost all of my visitors were coming from english speaking countries.

If someone wants to translate a page they will usually already have a translator tool in their browsers tool bar.

The adsense banner at the top is in a good spot for visibility but you may want to try applying adsense within your content after the posts. The adsense in the sidebar is almost useless(check the amount of clicks you've got from that ad alone.)

Move your RSS subscription buttons up to the top of your sidebar. You want to get a strong readership, this one of the best ways to keep people coming back.

You've got a lot of widgets, just check to make sure they're directly related to your readers and make sure they don't contain adsense.

Change the donation button into an image(check my sidebar for the coffee image) get creative and make your own donation image that is targeted at your audience.

http://crankychicks.blogspot.com/

The Pragmatic Liberal

Blog author: Marc
Rantings on the election from a pissed off and somewhat cynical liberal. More democrat than republican, I try to understand both points of view, but man those rovian make it so hard to be sympathetic.
H i Marc,

I really like the idea behind your blog, great topic. The first thing I see is that it's mostly text. Try to find or create a good header/banner for the top of your blog. Then go into your settings and layout and customize the colors and personalize the font etcetera..

The blog catalog widget is great and all but it really shouldn't be at the top of your blog sidebar, there should be an RSS subscription button there and then you can follow that with the bc widget.

On the topic of widgets - go with what is directly targeted for your readership. A few of your widgets come with adsense in the bottom of them, this means your making the creator profit every time your page is loaded. You can find many good free widgets for blogger - just google it.

Your archive is ok at the bottom of the sidebar but you might want to experiment with moving it up. Speaking of site navigation you might want to link to some of your favorite posts. Just create a link list gadget in layouts and then enter the links for your favorite posts.

After you get navigation squared away reduce the number of posts on your front page to three or four max. Having more than four posts can cause readers to lose interest, if people want to read more they will search your archives or navigate through other means.

The text only posts aren't going to get you very far, use creative commons search engines and look for copyright free images to incorporate in your posts.

Get active in other political blogs, search the listings at some blog directories and bookmark the popular ones. Now make a habit of commenting on good blogs, leave quality comments and people will check out your blog after reading your comment.

http://pratimazan.blogspot.com/

Nov 20, 2008

Celt's Blog

Blog author: Steve
My feeble mutterings on many aspects of my life in the Philippines. The good times & the bad, The laughter & the tears. Oh & if I get the time I'll tell you a little about the Philippines OK...?
Hey, how's it going Steve?

Your blog looks to be part of a forum of some type so the layout and design can't really be critiqued. I might suggest you try a free hosting site like blogger or wordpress.

There is one problem I encountered with your site though, the scroll bar doesn't work for me. I tried to load the page in a few different browsers but the scroll bar just doesn't work and even disappears when I try to use Firefox..

The only real comment I have about your content is the text. You might want to try to break it up or format it differently every once in a while to add interest. Photos work wonders but aren't necessary. Try creating more paragraphs or just dividing the text a little more.

http://www.surigao-expats.com/forum/index.php?blog=4.0

iblogZone


Blog author: ditesco
Information and Resources on Making Money Online, Blogging Tips, Building Traffic, and Personal Finances
Hey ditesco,

You've got a very well organized blog, navigation is real easy and you don't have to dig much to find something interesting.

The navigation bar is easy to use and you've done a great job keeping things neat and uncluttered. Since your navbar is so well laid out I would say you should just show three or four posts on the front page. Readers will quick read those posts and then go look for more. I scanned your page a few times but never actually scrolled all the way down - less is more sometimes, it's hard to show fewer posts but experiment with it.

You have done a great job with RSS feed links but you might want to try putting your email subscription a little higher up the page, maybe on top of the ad in the far right top corner.

There's a lot of blogs out there with tips on blogging and helpful stuff so you need to check out the competition and see what they're saying. Then offer something different and unique that is helpful for bloggers.

http://www.iblogzone.com/

Nov 18, 2008

Nurse Jen Doll

Blog author: Nurse Jen Doll
Reality Student Nursing. My quest to becoming a liscensed nurse in the USA, for real. Seriously! Sarcasms, satire, oppinions, and gossip.
Hey Nurse Jen Doll,

You've got a cool blog with a unique topic.

The first thing you could add is a favicon, it helps readers identify with your site and sticks out when they bookmark your blog. Google the words favicon generator and you should be able to find it from there. Try and make it something that is an image somewhere else on your blog too, this will help promote your "brand."

If you could make the banner image/logo a bit smaller it would show more of your content to visitors. The next line down is perfect, it's adsense mixed with subscription info. The next section down is your navbar, which is very well laid out but the border is a bit large, you might want to try and shrink the border to fit if possible, doing this will again, show more content to visitors immediatly.

You've got some great related widgets and links in your sidebar but it's always best to go with the most important ones only. People will look through a few links or headlines but when there's more than five it just gets skipped over.

Try showing less lines in your blog catalog widget, when you have more it doesn't really look better, it just takes up space. Also try turning the background black for the blog catalog widget, it would probably match better that way.

Instead of having adsense in the sidebar, try placing it within your posts, it is much more profitable when your ads are in your content.

You might also want to look into a social networking button for the bottom of your posts, google sharethis or addthis or te!! a friend.

You've got a nice little niche here where you could really get a large readership. You're doing great asking and polling your readers about additional content. Keep it up.

http://nursejendoll.com/

Hackers Enigma

Blog author: Amol Wagh
Hackers Enigma aims to provide an complete 'Ethical Hacking' database for beginers in this field as well as for those who are currently working in the same. We are covering here topics like XSS, SQL Injection Atttacks, Viruses, Penetration Tests, Open Source Security and Recent Security World News.
Great looking blog, you might want to have a small description at the top of your blog letting visitors know what you're all about or link to your about page from there.

I really like the blog layout, everything is crisp clean and easy to find.

The only real big problem I see is the sidebar, you have a few too many posts displayed on the front page but the sidebar goes even further down the page than the posts. Try only having the necessary amount of widgets and try to have gadgets and tools that really are targeted towards your audience.

One thing that might clean your sidebar up would be putting some of the ads within the content. Many people find this much more profitable and it helps reduce clutter in the sidebar.

You don't want to have too many terms or tags up at the top of your page, less is more sometimes. Try to narrow it down to the most accurate tags and it will look cleaner and be easier for visitors to read.

I like the way you have it setup, great blog.

http://www.hackersenigma.com/

Everything Under the Sun

Blog author: Lanie Yu
the assignments' blog
Hello, interesting blog topic - I don't think I've read one about academics yet.

I like the layout and everything looks very clean. The tabs at the top caught my attention at first. There's a loner, one tab below the rest, is it possible to divide all the tabs between the two lines? If possible maybe you could decrease the amount of tabs there and just have the necessary ones.

Theres no RSS subscription button at the top of the page. It is lower down and all I could find was the email subscription. That's a good start but it needs to be higher up, the very top thing, you want people to see it first. You have a lot of widgets in your sidebar, try to organize and or clear out the unnecessary ones. The problem with some of the widgets is that they have ads in them put there by the widgets creator, so you're making someone else money by having it there. Only use widgets that relate to your readers.

Your posts really stick out well in this theme, the red border helps them pop out and grab your attention, that is nice. You have a few too many posts on the front page, try three or four posts at the most. This is a good number because it keeps thing clean and clutter free but also allows a good chance for readers to find something interesting.

You might want to consider placing a blog description above your posts. Just a couple sentences telling visitors what you're blogging about. One thing that would really help is to break your posts up a little more with paragraphs. When the text is separated and broken up more it helps readers digest it all and it's more interesting to look at.

Looks nice, keep it up.

http://lanieyu.blogspot.com/

Latest Football Highlights


Blog author: shaquil
Latest Football Video From Top Competitions including Premier Leaque, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera División, Champions League, UEFA Cup Games of The Season.
You have a very eye catching banner at the top of your blog, it looks great but it might help to make it a little smaller if possible. This way visitors will see more of your content when the page first loads.

Theres a bunch of ads that show up right away, there's nothing wrong with this and it's actually the best place to put ads but there needs to be balance between content and advertisements. Other than that the layout is organized very well.

It would help to move your RSS subscription higher up the page. You want this to be one of the first things people see. When readers keep coming back they will trust you more and more and then maybe even eventually click on one of your ads.

For the RSS button check out feedburner, they've got some good stuff or just google around for RSS buttons.

Sorry but I'm going to return to the adsense ads again. When a reader sees ads they usually will be more critical of your blog. You need to have everything very professional for ads to work properly. It might be best to wait on ads until you have a lot of subscribers. After your site starts to get a lot of comments and views then you can introduce ads slowly to see the effect. The reason for this is that you won't make anything more than just pocket change until you have a solid readership.

Sports blogs can be difficult to do, it isn't impossible though. Fans can go just about anywhere to get the latest updates on sports, try to show a unique angel.

Keep it up your blog looks good so far.

http://latestfootballhighlights.blogspot.com/

Nov 17, 2008

Naturocity


Blog Author: Dan Bodenstein
Naturocity: The art of loving nature

Photographs, tips and more
I have been following your nature photography blog for a while now, you have some amazing shots and all are top quality.

Your site is top notch as far as the main elements go, I have been looking into scraping my photo blog and starting one with the one of the shutter themes layouts.

One thing you are missing in the top portion of the page(what the visitor sees first) is an RSS subscription button. Check out Feedburner to burn a feed for your site. There's also a bunch of navigation links in the bottom right hand side that you might want to reorganize into a flat line.

You could try moving your recommended reading to the sidebar to even things out. You have a bunch of posts on the front page which may seem overwhelming to some readers. Try showing three or four posts on the first page. With just a few posts on the front page it helps reduce clutter but still lets the visitor find something they connect with.

One thing that really helps draw new and quality readers in is posting on other blogs in the same category. Try to create a bookmark list or RSS list in your reader of choice(I use google reader) and make a habit of commenting on popular and theme related blogs.

http://www.naturocity.com/

Nov 16, 2008

Lipstick Addict

Blog author: digitalbodega

This Blog is all about what women want, beauty fashion, make up and product reviews!


When your blog first loaded there was one thing that really caught my eye: PINK! that is really pink but it looks like you're doing a good job working with the color.

You might want to play with the fonts and colors a little more to make the text contrast a little better. Try a darker shade of black in some places or a bright white. Some of the links are hard to see such as the comments link.

Using pictures within your posts is a great way to break up the text and/or draw attention to the text. It looks like you have consistently been centering your images, try placing them on the right or left. This way your text is next to the image and they compliment each other a little better. You could also break your paragraphs up a little more. Breaking paragraphs into little chunks makes it more readable.

It looks like you're using TE!! a friend and another social bookmarking tool - choose just one and try to keep things uncluttered.

You have a lot of good widgets but try and just use the things you need or think your users need.

http://lipstickaddict.blogspot.com/

The Life Uncommon

Blog author: Isolde


The Life Uncommon is following my journey as an aspiring freelance writer/novelist who is trying to transition out of the corporate world into the world of the written word.


First couple things I noticed were your banner, adsense and sidebar. The banner image at the top, while very nice looking, may be a bit large. The adsense thing is hard to get right - most people have had luck placing it within there content i.e. after each post. Sidebar ends ends abruptly after scrolling down the page just a little.

After scrolling down a little it looks as if all of the good stuff you want in your sidebar has somehow moved to below your post.

I see you have a donate through paypal button, it might help if you use your own custom image. I have used a coffee cup(see sidebar). This helps users determine and amount and also makes some people realize that just a little can actually help. When readers see "buy me a coffee," they think I can afford that and it would be nice to help a little.

Your RSS/Email subscription area is way down at the bottom, you want this to be one of the first things people see.

You might want to give a description or short explanation at the top, this helps readers know what to expect at your blog.

Try showing fewer posts on the front page, if someone wants to read more they'll go look for it. If you have three or four posts on the front page then people can get a taste and then they will go look at your other stuff. Anything more than five posts and people feel overwhelmed and don't connect with anything.

Great blog, keep it up.

http://www.thelifeuncommon.net/blog/

What People Hate


Blog author: whatpeoplehate


This blog posts funny articles about pet peeves, things people hate, or otherwise annoying things.


This blog is still fairly new but it looks like you're off to a good start.

You should have a sharing tool for any blog that has these type of comical posts. Check out ShareThis or any other social bookmarking button add on. This way people will send your post to other people who will most likely be interested. Referrals are the best way to get new readers, they stick around longer.

People bookmark these kinds of blogs because they like to come by every once in a while for comic relief, they become accustomed to your style of posting so try and keep it fairly constant and regular. Get in a habit of posting everyday if you can - if you can't try and get a post out every other day.

Try to find some blogs similar to yours and exchange links with them, this is a great way to bring interested readers to your blog.

The banner at the top is perfect, it gives people an idea of what the site is about. With a blog name like this it's important to be as clear as possible. Keep using images in the posts, it really helps get the point across and it also helps break up the text.

http://whatpeoplehate.wordpress.com/

SFCHESSNEWS

News relevant to San Francisco chess players as reported by your average Joe...


Blog author: Joe R.

Hello Joe,

You have a nice layout and the blog looks well organized.

If you were to place an image behind your title banner it might help the page to grab more attention. You could use an image of a chess board graphic or chess pieces on their side.

At the bottom you have a "notable links section" which you could place on another page. Just create a new post, then go to post options and back date it so it will be archived as one of your oldest posts. Then create a link to that post from your sidebar.

You have a unique blog here which will require a certain type of readership, I don't know if your already active in chess forums but you could try posting in forums and put a link to your blog in the signature of your forum posts.

Another great tool that would be perfect for this blog is craigslist. You need to try and not look spammy with your posting at craigslist but offer a link to your blog that way too. Craigslist is very targeted to specific areas which would work well for your blog.

http://sfchessnews.blogspot.com/

Nov 10, 2008

Mini Chandeliers

Blog author: kril

Mini Chandeliers are perfect for area too small for regular size chandeliers. Add a mini chandelier to bathrooms and bedrooms for an elegant touch

Hello Kril,

Interesting blog topic, there might not be a lot of blogs on this subject so you could have something here.

First thing I noticed is that there's a huge open blank space at the top of the page.. If you were trying to put adsense there remember that you can have three ads maximum per page, so if all of those other blank spots on your page were meant to be adsense as well, just delete the code from where you do not want it.

You might want to wait on ads anyways until you have at least a small readership. Once you have some constant traffic then try and throw some ads up to see what the response is. You could also use this same technique for comments. Don't allow comments until you'll be able to get at least three or four. Many people judge blogs by how many comments they receive.

I would move the archive to the sidebar, you want it closer to the top so it is more visible. Keep tweaking and adjusting things on your blog until the colors and framing are just right.

http://minichandeliers.blogspot.com/

COGADGET

Blog author: Safi Baig

If you want all the latest gadget news, tips, hacks and reviews then cogadget is right place for you.
There are lots of gadget and technology blogs so you will need to continue offering something unique. It looks like you are covering some of the more popular tech news, this is needed but needs to be complimented with some unique view or input.

I like the sidebar, it's organized very well and only contains the necessities. If you could shorten up the image gallery to match the others it might improve the appearance.

Other than that looks like you have all the good RSS and sharing tools in use.

Great gadget blog, keep it up.

http://cogadget.com/

Nov 9, 2008

Jay Zuck's Sketch of the Day

Blog author: madhollywood

Sketches and artistic musings from the mind of Jay Zuck

Hello madhollywood,

Great sketch of the day blog, that is a big commitment, but if you're up to it that's great. A blog needs to be steady and regular. One of the biggest things though is to remain consistent in your posting style/timing. If you fail to post daily you might lose readership. Try pre-posting or time release.

The images are amazing and you've chosen a very cool way of displaying them.

You may want to adjust the text color in your sidebar to make navigation easier to find.

If you could have fewer posts displayed on the main page that would help with load time and make first time visitors more likely to search the archives. Try bringing it down to three or four posts on the first page.

I really like the Hank Hill sketch and it's sad to see him go, you've got a good blog keep it up.



http://jasonzuckerman.com/



Gadget talk

Blog author: raghu

gadgets,apple,iring,technology,recent,forum,phpbb,opencourseware,wall,tourism

Hey raghu,

You have chosen a nice layout for your blog, very clean and involves some interesting graphics.

Gadget and technology blogs are everywhere and to really capture an retain readership you need to have a lot of quality content and content that no one else has - original stuff. Looks like you're doing a good job so far keep it up and keep adding unique posts.

Your sidebar is a little disorganized, I've had this problem for a while and it seems to be one of the hardest areas to get just right. You don't want too many widgets but you want to offer a few target audience related tidbits on the side. The key is to really only use the necessary and most applicable widgets to your blog.

You have some really long posts and a few too many on the main page. To make navigation easier set it so there's just three or four posts displayed per page and if you have a really long post consider breaking it up into a series. Making a series of posts is a great way to bring readers back to your blog.

http://www.heightz.blogspot.com/

redbubble

I haven't reviewed a blog in a while because I've been focusing on my photography blog. But I will start catching up here in the near future, so keep checking back.

I' going to review an artist community that I have recently joined though, it's not a blog but it does offer journals and other blog like features. I've been trying to find a site to share and monetize my photography and it looks like I've found a winner.


Buy my art



I have had a great time at redbubble so far, it seems like a nice place for artists to discuss and showcase their work. The merchandise appears to be of good quality, I will be purchasing a few prints of my photographs just to make sure but user reviews have looked great.

The tools this site offers are unparalleled, I haven’t been able to find another site that offers this level of quality.

The promotion tools offered are very helpful. I was able to easily add buttons, sideshows and viewers to my blog I then added a widget to my Facebook profile so my friends can see my work that’s up for sale.

The best part about this site so far is the community, I have met a few people already that were more than helpful with any problems I ran into.

Thanks to everyone out at redbubble,

http://photoexpose.blogspot.com/

Evan

Oct 31, 2008

personal development blog

Blog author: johnlazy

This is a personal development blog of john lazy join me in bringing productivity in the world


Hey johnlazy, great looking blog.

You have a very nice looking blog but as with any blog you need to experiment until you find what works best.

You could try adding a summary or description of your blog at the top, this would help readers understand what they are about to look at.

One thing you could do is remove the feedburner subscriber counter until you have more than 20 subscribers, this way people will look at your amount of subscriptions and say, look at all these subscribers, maybe I should join them.

Great blog keep it up.

http://johnlazy.com

Septagon Studios News Blog

Blog author: Nick

Septagon Studios Inc. is a publishing company founded in early 2003 by company President and C.E.O Nicola Defina with his two cousins, Philip Defina (Vice President and Art Director) and Domenic Defina (Consultant and Art Direction). Septagon Studios has carefully positioned itself to occupy a historic place in the industry, and combining comic book publishing


Hey, great blog and very professionally done. It looks like your providing some useful information to your readers.

You have most of the social networking bases covered through the ShareThis add on. With these types of niche blogs it is really great to have a tool where your readers can recommend your articles to their friends.

You have an adsense ad at the bottom of the page, this might be better placed within your content. Try using a blend template and placing adsense within your posts, a lot of people are having more success this way.

The thin navigation bar on the right side is a little awkward, if you could make it fill the area better or find a way to center it within the space it might help draw more people to look through your previous posts.

Your homepage has a favicon but your blog doesn't. To help further your brand(blog) you could add a favicon to your blog, this helps readers identify with and keep returning to your blog.

Great blog, easy to read and well thought out.

http://news.septagonstudios.com/

Resources and Money

Blog author: charles

A money making and blogging tips blog that shares resources, money, tools and news in the blogosphere


Hey charles, clean looking blog, you have things set up fairly well and navigation is easy.

Your doing a great job with advertising by placing it within your posts and content. That seems to be working best for most people.

One major osurce of traffic that you're missing out on is the social networking sites such as Digg and Stumble. If you add a feature at the bottom of your posts where your readers can share the article with like minded readers.

Check out the ShareThis tool: http://sharethis.com

You have some good content, keep up the good work.

http://resourcesandmoney.blogspot.com/

digit-8

Blog author: Evaldas

Tips and tricks used to make money online. It's not just about money, business, forex, loans though, there are a lot of different topics that are discussed: entertainment, games, sports, cars, videos, real estate, security, torrent tips, tutorials.
Very professional page, looks like everything is placed well and thought out.

One thing that is hard for a reader to do is trust, unless you give them good reason to trust you your efforts won't produce anything. The more trusting subscribers you have the more you can earn from your ads. So keep up the good work and try to build upon your original and helpful content.

Your website has some good SEO tips, I'm in no way an expert in search engine optimization but there is always the struggle between creating your webpage for the readers and making it optimized for search engines.

Here are a few tips I found helpful:

• Keep your website to only one topic, this way you'll be able to place higher in rank because your keywords are similar.
• Use shorter titles but be more to the point. If you condense your titles to just the few necessary words then they will appear much stronger to search engines.

One thing that you could add that would help your blog gain more repeat subscribers is a Favicon. google search for a favicon generator then add it to your blog.

http://www.digit-8.com/

Loic Brohard Photography

Blog author: Brohard

Welcome to my PhotoBlog, featuring daily photo from the place I live, places I've lived, places I like and places I've travelled to.

I have actually been following your photo blog for a little while now, you have some amazing photos and a huge variety.

I really like your banner, the bottom letters almost look like trees. The first things you show are subscription RSS, bookmark, Email updates, good stuff and it is the first thing people see.

Try adding a subscribe button to the bottom of each post as well, this will boost your subscriptions. Go to Feedburner and then the optimize tab:
http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/home

A great way to get your blog out there is social networking websites i.e. digg, stumble, they can bring lots of traffic if used properly. Check out ShareThis for an addition to your blog, readers can share your blog with their friends much easier this way. http://sharethis.com/

I like that you have a description of your photography blog at the top, it could use a little trimming though. You could try condensing it so it is more appealing or alter the format of it by using bullet points • (hold Alt + 0149) for a list of other alt codes visit this page: http://www.tedmontgomery.com/tutorial/ALTchrc.html

Your page takes a while to load due to the amount of photos displayed on the first page. You have your archives and tags links set up really well and they're easy enough to find so you could try displaying fewer posts on the first page.

I like the way your photo blog is setup and use some similar techniques in mine.

At the bottom of your blog you have a lot of stuff displayed. You might want to try and reorganize some of it although it can be hard to get stuff to fit together well.

An alternative to the site meter and map is google analytics, it's a great site meter plus it has the added benefits of where your visitors are visiting from, for how long, which pages, where did they find your page, etcetera. Give it a try:
http://www.google.com/analytics/

brohardphotography.blogspot.com

Oct 29, 2008

Pimp that Food

Blog author: Gordy

Change the way of eating good


Your blog took a while to finish loading in Firefox for some reason and my connection is fairly fast. It loaded in internet explorer fine but the whole center column sank down below the two sidebars, looks like this:



Try editing the size of some of your widgets, they may be too wide. You should only use necessary widgets that really target your main audience.

You have some good info on your blog but people will scrutinize your professionalism even more when you have lots of ads. If you are just starting out it will take a lot of experimentation to figure out which ad combinations work best. If you have too many, people become blind to your ads and might just skip right over them.

Make sure that whenever you use someone else's information such as a quote or picture on your blog that you attribute it to them. I'm not a copyright lawyer but you need to be careful and make sure you ask permission and give credit to the author of something if you will be using their work.

http://www.pimpthatfood.com

Oct 28, 2008

Zufort.com

blog author: dale clark

My name is Dale Clark, and this is my life. Contained in these pages are a history of the things I was paying attention to at that time. The events that shaped my life and meant something to me. A “reality documentary” in web form of me and for me.

Hello Dale,

Very professional looking blog, looks great. I like the layout selected, works well for many different browser types. I was looking through blogs on my Nintendo Wii(Opera browser) the other day and noticed that layouts that are centered appear much better.

You could add a few things to your blogs setup to improve readership. First an RSS subscription Icon would fit very well right below your nice little navigation links and above that adsense. You want this at the top for optimal visibility - check out feedburner for help with this. http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/home

Next you need to let people know you're out there. SEO(search engine optimization) is something to look into but many companies are paying a lot of money for their keywords and it's often difficult to place well in the search engines without going hard core into SEO.

Something to supplement SEO would be using a sharethis icon at the bottom of every post. This way your readers will let like minded people know about your articles. Look into http://sharethis.com/ or a similar network sharing device.

Your text could use a little experimenting, the color might be a little light.

I see you have placed some ads within the posted content, that is the best place for them - try to place any ads right in the middle of your content.

http://zufort.com/

Ruprecht Studios Photo Blog

Blog author: peter ruprecht

This is the Ruprecht Studios Photo Blog. This blog is dedicated to the photography of Peter Ruprecht. It is usually updated once a day. The blog usually has photos taken by Peter across all genres as well as reviews of events that Peter attends.

Hey, you've got some great photos on your blog and I like the favicon. Your photos vary in size so it might be beneficial to center them. At the bottom of a few photos the text is placed oddly. If you could bring the text down another line so it's by itself it would look better.

Consistency is something that you need to have in any blog, so when you have the text aligned in a certain way after a photo, try to replicate that in all posts. You have advertised that you'll be updating daily, so try to stick to that. If you know you'll be gone for a while then pre-post or set a few pictures for time release so that you're covered.

One thing you could add to the sidebar is an archive where photos are either listed by date, genre or tags.

Everything is placed well, your RSS feeds are in a great area, everything is clean and looks good.


http://www.ruprechtstudios.com/blog

your world today

Blog author: Caleb
A totally cool gathering of news and opinions from around the world.....with a twist

I really like the template you used, I might have to try that one for a blog. You need to be careful with "free" blog templates that you find on the web. They're not always "free," as in you may find some unwanted links or items that came with the template.

Looks like you're fairly well organized in your sidebar, try and keep the widgets related to your blog topic. A few of your widgets don't fit into their slot and have created scrollbars. Many times when you grab the code for your widget they'll have an edit area where you can change width and height of the widget. Another option is to do it manually by editing the html. Be careful and always preview your changes before you save.

There are two widgets in your sidebar that have adsense in them. Both the Travel National Geographic and the News Map contain ads at the bottom. This may be because the creator added their adsense code to the bottom to make money when someone puts it on their blog.

You can find widgets without ads in many places, try spring widgets for some great widgets, they also let you easily adjust the size before you grab the code.

To boost your subscription rates add a subscribe now button at the bottom of each post. Feedburner should be able to help you out with this in their optimize tab. http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/home

To help get your blog out there in the social networks use a sharethis button at the bottom of every post. This way people can easily digg, stuble and share your posts.
http://sharethis.com/

http://yourworldtodaynews.blogspot.com/

South African Riches!

Good placement of subscription buttons, contact buttons etcetera. The header might be a bit larger than it needs to be, with a smaller banner up top you could also show more content immediatly to the reader.

You are using a great sharing tool at the bottom of your posts, the buttons are clean and only the most common social sharing networks are used. But then underneath those nice little buttons you repeat them all over again in text:

Email this • Email the author • Post a comment • Subscribe to this feed • Save to del.icio.us • Add to del.icio.us • Digg This! • Share on Facebook • outside.in: geotag this story • Discuss on Newsvine • Stumble It! • Add to Mixx!
If you could remove the repeated(digg, etc.) links from the bottom of your posts it could help readers transition to another post.

You have a lot of great widgets in the sidebar, I would keep experimenting with their layout and try to find things that really apply to your audience. Start by placing the framed widgets in one column and the link lists, word clouds and plain text in a separate column.

http://sariches.blogspot.com/

I Love Sterndal

Your blog is beautiful, great color scheme and layout. Some of the text is a light pink color, maybe try a darker shade of pink and play with the bold or font settings to make the pink text at the bottom easier to see.

One thing you could add is a RSS subscription button on the top right hand column. It is always good to have repeat visitors. :-)

Your archives are kinda hard to find, try adjusting there settings so your users can navigate a little easier. You could have your archives sort by week or even by day.

You might want to try showing fewer posts on the main page. Sometimes when there is too many on the homepage it can get overwhelming for a first time reader - this is where your previous post archive comes in and organizes the content for you and your readers.

Blog looks the same in IE and Firefox.

sterndal.blogxi.com/

Buddha of Hollywood

First impressions - I see an adsense banner, a RSS subscription area and a shortlist. Great places for these items to be.

To improve your first impressions you could add an image to the header or sidebar that represents you and is appealing to readers.

The adsense, well I'm no google adsense guru but I have experimented with it, and that is what you'll have to do - experiment - track your results and try new things every once in a while. Different things work for different blogs.

A major problem I've ran into and it looks as if you have too, is the ad not fitting, the last link is cut off about midway.

Good choice for a blog template, it really fits well with your theme.

Blog looks pretty much the same in both browsers I use, there is an extra white frame in the Firefox browser - not a big deal though.

I like that you use ShareThis, it's a great way to get more readers.

http://buddhaofhollywood.blogspot.com/

I Am A Boomer

Hello lilac,

The first thing I notice is your archive is at the top right, you could experiment with putting it lower down. I would try a subscription widget and then maybe follow with the archive.

You want to try and make the first impression(top portion) of your blog as appealing as possible.

Nice blog template choice, I like this one because it divides things very well. One thing you could try is customizing the colors a little more or adding an image at the top behind the header.

A few of your banners and sidebar pictures don't fit into their alloted area. Try adjusting their size and or placement - this can be frustrating at first but once you figure it out, it's so much easier the next time you add something.

The peace/flag symbol on the sidebar loads but doesn't fit when viewed in IE, in firefox I'm seeing part of the symbol with a scroll bar.

I like the blog.

http://boomerbabyboomer.blogspot.com/

Owen Chubb Landscapers

Great blog design. Navigation is easy to access on the left side. Great little description to the right side, not too lengthy but gives some background.

The RSS subscription button is in a great place, sticks out and is one of the first things you see when the page loads.

Blog looks the same in IE and Firefox.

www.owenchubblandscapers.com/news/

Bending Tree Arts

Nice layout to your blog. I like the Color combination, it's very easy on the eyes. You could try having fewer posts on the main page, this helps things load fast and sometimes it makes people more apt to look through your archives.

The right hand side column is floating there all by itself. You could try framing it or find a way to separate it from the main text.

I like that things are simple though and the design looks well thought out, very easy to navigate as well.

Your blog looks the same in EI and Firefox browsers, so you're all good there.

As for more visitors.. I can't really say that I have huge traffic but this is what I've read and or observed.

• Content, you need to have original frequent posts, set time aside for a few days a week or everyday for blogging.

• It takes time, I just started recently, but it looks as if most successful bloggers have been doing it for more than a few months.

• Comment, go to other peoples blogs(somewhat similar blogs) and comment, then leave your blog's URL if it is allowed.

http://www.bendingtreearts.com/blog/

Oct 27, 2008

How to submit your blog


• One blog submission per day, please. I will not review any of your blogs if you Email more.

• Don't forget to subscribe to this blog after submission, this way you'll know when your blog has been reviewed.

Email blog URL, title and category to: getblogreview@gmail.com

¤ I am in no way a professional in this topic, take my advice if you want. You could try my suggestions but do what you think is best - it's your blog.

Oct 26, 2008

Get Your Blog Reviewed

I started this blog because the the discussion at blogcatalog was getting a bit too lengthy and hard to manage for me.