Month: January 1970

Jesse Gersten is a comedian based in New England, and his blog is a well-done, professional introduction to his humor, his upcoming dates and his career. As you explore the site it becomes apparent that Jesse is a very funny guy, but I was also impressed by his savvy approach to marketing himself on the Internet by integrating social media with his website, and the overall quality of his site.

Recent blog posts cover Jesse’s suspicion that his cat may in fact be Italian, and a hilarious account of a recent show he did in Connecticut. Jesse doesn’t pull any punches with his humor and everyone seems to be fair game but like most really good comedians he’s not afraid to expose himself and his own foibles as well.

For anyone interested in creating a big break for themselves in show business, Jesse Gersten’s blog is an example of how an artist or performer themselves can really take the bull by the horns and establish their brand.

By actively using his website to give the world a taste of what his comedy is all about, Jesse has a way of connecting with his audience–and potential audience–beyond shows that he does. I’ll bet that many performers starting out are not willing to go the extra mile that Jesse does go with his site, and it is to his credit that he pours extra energy and talent into his online presence. It just might make all the difference in the long run.

The Jesse Gersten blog is built on WordPress using what appears to be a customized theme, and the whole site is executed very professionally. In addition to being a comedian that you’ll be interested to see if he comes to your town, Jesse’s website is full of laughter, generously shared. Definitely go take a look.NULL

The High Speed Training website focuses on providing training and certification required by all people in the food service industry in the UK. The site looks to be quite useful in helping both individuals through the process of getting qualified to work with food, and it would also be a solution for businesses in need of an easy method to get their employees or potential employees educated and certified quickly.

In addition to the blog, which contains articles that would be relevant to people working in food service, High Speed Training offers formal online Level 2 courses in food hygiene, health and safety, and health and nutrition. These courses can be completed in a matter of hours. Though I’m not familiar with the specifics of this industry, it appears to me that a “one-stop shopping” approach to getting workers trained in all three categories could be quite valuable.

The blog portion of the site is built on the popular WordPress blogging platform, with a simple and attractive layout including Twitter integration so that the company can easily deliver up-to-the minute information to visitors.

The High Speed Training site is another excellent example of how niche businesses can create a comprehensive Internet presence that not only facilitates delivery of a product (in this case training for the food industry), but that also focuses on giving people more general, up-to-date information on the subject. I would say that to toward both these ends, the execution of the site is excellent.

If you’re contemplating a career in the food service industry, especially in the United Kingdom, I would recommend a visit to the High Speed Training website to quickly get what you need to become employable. The site makes it very convenient for any motivated person to present an employer with training credentials proving that he or she has foundational knowledge necessary to work in the food service business.NULL

Esther, the creator of the My Ten Bucks website, states her mission very succinctly in one of the first posts on the site:

‘My vision for this blog is simple: to encourage regular people to take pride in their small donations, and make them carefully.’

Esther challenges the readers of My Ten Bucks To donate $10 every two weeks to the local charity of their choice, and to do a little more too; namely, get out and meet the people behind these worthy charities in an effort to know where your hard-earned donation will be going, and perhaps other ways in which you can help.

My Ten Bucks profiles different charities in Esther’s home state of Delaware, USA. And yes, she actually goes out and meets people doing the good work that it takes to keep charitable organizations going. As I looked through the website I found myself thinking that every locality needs someone like her and a site like My Ten Bucks to sing the praises of organizations that probably never get the recognition and attention they truly deserve. Who knows, maybe others will see this site and be inspired to create similar sites around local charities in their areas.

This attractive site was built on Blogspot using a blog format and features a really inspired header of dandelions being blown by the wind. New though it is, My Ten Bucks already has 14 followers on Facebook and I can only imagine that if Esther is as social media savvy as she is proficient in getting an attractive website together, that number should increase rapidly.

Even if you’re not from Delaware, a visit to this site might inspire you to do something similar for local charities wherever in the world you live. My Ten Bucks is an illustration of the saying “Think globally, act locally” and if you share that sentiment, why not drop by the site and be inspired?NULL

The Once Upon A Family website is an interesting and well-executed concept for a niche business that ingeniously addresses one of the pressing needs that most families have today: how to combine everyone’s busy lifestyles with the desire to slow down and document family traditions and family values, with the help of various tools and products from the Internet.

The creator of the site, Tiffany, calls herself a “family traditions consultant”, and has structured Once Upon A Family into sections that correspond to various periods in a family’s development, from young couples getting married and just starting out, to having children, all the way through to becoming grandparents.

Products offered on the site include everything from a ‘marriage survival kit’ and keepsakes for retired couples, to a baby hand prints book, a ‘while I’m away’ gift selection for couples separated by circumstances, and various attractive photo albums. Everything is tastefully presented, and the commercial aspect of the Once Upon A Family site is completely de-emphasized so that it feels much more like a website that a friend might create to feature family-related themes.

The site is built on Weebly, a blogging tool that is rapidly becoming more popular for people who are less interested in getting into the nuts and bolts of coding and simply want to create good-looking and functional sites such as Once Upon A Family. The general design of the photographs Tiffany taken has chosen is real high point of the site.

Tiffany has done a fine job on Once Upon A Family and I predict that she will see a big increase in visitors over time as people come looking for the kinds of family-related themes, keepsakes, mementos and gifts that she features. If you would like to refocus a little bit of your attention on the most important people in your life, I’d recommend taking a look at this attractive site.NULL

Thought Smash is one of the more interesting websites that we have had the pleasure of reviewing recently. It’s a very interesting concept that is part review and opinion site and part social media destination. After a fast registration users can leave their opinions about movies, music, products, people, shows, games, politics, religion, romance, food and tech, as a way of sharing their thoughts with the whole internet. Even short comments are welcome, so the site already includes opinions about a remarkable range of topics. In addition to being a place to leave your own thoughts on a given topic, you naturally can leave comments on threads that other Thought Smash users have created.

One of the best things about Thought Smash is that the site is totally intuitive to navigate. Whether you want to simply look at opinions left by other people on any of the available topics or you can’t wait to broadcast your own opinions on the latest hit song, etc. it only takes a minute to interact with the site.

One thing that is necessary for a site like this to succeed is to have as many users as possible leaving comments as well as creating new thread topics on which they leave their thoughts. Thought Smash is a relatively new site but it already has multiple comments left on almost every thread that has been created so far. This leads me to believe that user adoption of the site is high and a community built around Thought Smash is well on its way to existence.

I would definitely suggest bookmarking the Thought Smash site as a fun new place to interact with people and make your voice heard. It’s a lot of fun to share and debate your thoughts with the world out there, and I predict that this site will catch on quickly. In terms of both the basic concept of the site as well as the execution of the idea, we here at The Weblog Review think Thought Smash is a winner. NULL