Month: May 2007

I’m a fan of a good photoblog. I would consider myself an amateur photographer (very amateur) and seeing the different aspects from other photographers, amateur or otherwise, always adds an additional bit of creativity or motivation. Tom Sheehan’s photoblog was no different at all.

The layout is fairly simple. It’s a two-column layout, like so many other weblogs of any kind. Each post has a photo taken by the author, which is big enough for readers to get a good view of the photo. The sidebar has several sections with the standard blogger components, including a section that lists the different cameras Tom uses.

Tom has a setting in place that allows him to reply to comments within his posts almost like a message board or like the comments through LiveJournal, with those familiar with that. He responds to his readers regularly, definitely giving this weblog a more personal and valuable touch.

Each post, as mentioned above, contains a picture, a brief description of where the photo was taken or what’s been captured in the photo, and some additional information about the camera used and other situational statistics – whether or not a tripod was used, for example. He keeps the descriptions to a paragraph or two and it’s obvious that the main focus of this site belongs to the photos.

The archives are a bit confusing and became my only complaint of the site. There’s a caveat on the sidebar explaining that some of the photos have been moved over to a different website, which makes it hard to determine when this blog began. The only way to navigate through the archives is a category-based list, which is great when looking for photos of a particular subject, but cumbersome when trying to scroll through by date.

With sites out there that just let anyone take pictures and post them online like Flickr or Fotki, it’s not often that readers can find someone who opts to use their own hosting, template, etc. Tom Sheehan’s photoblog is a nice read for anyone interested in something as simple as looking at original photos to getting ideas on what cameras would work better in particular situations.
NULL

The nice part about people submitting a category with their blog is it really gives me an idea of what is going on. Especially when said category is Photography. There are a lot of photoblogs out there, and sites like Flickr have helped increase the number of them. With that said lets have some fun looking at pictures.

Before we get into the pictures themselves, lets talk about the design. The main content area has a black background which is great for helping to make pictures pop. The header has a picture of a camera, which of course fits, into the site. The site also has a basic two-column layout with information on the left and the pictures on the right.

One thing I have point out is the archive system. I really hate it when sites do not have archives in a chronological order and instead just give you the archives via categories. I have written numerous reviews on this issue and yet I still am faced with it. I don’t care if you have 4 categories or 40 categories, it is simple to do, all the major tools let you do this, so do it.

Ok with that out of the way lets talk about the pictures. A good friend of mine once said his photos were fantastic, and if you didn’t believe him, just look at how stunning his pictures look at 72 dpi instead of 300dpi. The same is true for this site. The pictures are vivid and interesting. Also it took me a couple minutes, but the photographer puts a nice colored matte around each picture. At first I thought there was a standard matte, but then I realized that each one is a different color based on the colors and composition of the photograph.

Overall this is a good site to look at. I have my issues with the archives, but I can get over that because this is a photography site. Tom knows what he is doing and I think everyone should take a look at his pictures.
NULL

Link Building is a tricky name for a blog. I figured it was probably something to do with search engine optimization and not much else. And of course I was right.

The first thing I noticed was that the author linked to his main page when he submitted his site. Don’t worry I fixed the URL to his blog. If you want the main site, just remove the blog/ from the url.

The blog says it is powered by Submit Edge, but really its a word press blog. I know this because it is using a standard template that comes with word press.

The posts are all about SEO and what you can do and all that stuff. I say all that stuff because he even says in one of his posts that SEO work is for the professionals. So why even have a blog about how to do it?

The blog does have some good posts and tips on what to do so I can’t knock it. This blog is ok as far as SEO blogs go. There are far better SEO blogs out there, but then there are a lot of worse ones. I would look at the site and see what he says and take it with a grain of salt.NULL

Had I reviewed this site 2 years ago, I would have had no clue what to think about it based on the name. Today though my thought was that the site would be about posts on Digg that the author found to be amusing, insightful, and well just entertaining. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

To quote Toby his blog is “A blog about recruitment advertising, media, publisingpublishing, HR, work, & technology, among other things.” Despite the spelling error, this is a very good description of the site. Funny thing though is that you wouldn’t assume a site about work and publishing and all that stuff would be entertaining. But it is.

What makes the site so captivating is how the author writes. It flows effortlessly as if this is something that comes naturally for him. In the past 4 days I have had this site up at least twice a day, not just because of the fact that I am reviewing it, but because I have enjoyed it a lot.

The design of the site is a very simple and clean almost web 2.0 design. It is a standard two column layout and headers in the navigation column have a slight gradient to them. He has a lot of buttons in this column that take you to other sites including a new feature I wasn’t aware of which is a community that you can join.

I only have one real complaint with the site. The archives when selected by month do not list the entire post. If I visit the front page then click “previous entries” I am presented with full articles. This is a much simpler way to read the site. I understand the snip it is there so if you are interested in the topic presented, you can read the rest of the article, but you probably want to read them all anyways. So I recommend using the previous entries link at the bottom of the page to go through the archives.

As I said, I enjoyed this site. The author knows what he is talking about and does it with out bragging about it. The writing is some of the best I have ever read. This is one of the few sites I will have added to my rss reader that I have reviewed.NULL

Diggings is a blog that coincides with the job search site JobDig.com, which is a site I’ve used several times for different job search related research. The brief about section on the site describes it as a “blog about recruitment advertising, media, publishing, HR, work, & technology, among other things.” I’m not sure what the “other things” might be, as everything I’ve read throughout the site falls right into the job hunt/research niche.

When I first entered the site, I was greeted by what seems to be a perfect layout for this kind of blog. It’s simple, easy to navigate, and doesn’t at all distract from the main purpose of the blog – the actual posts. If it is a default WordPress layout, it’s one of the better ones I’ve seen.

The archives are laid out in a very convenient matter, especially for a site like this. Readers can either scroll through monthly archives or choose from a list of categories along the sidebar. There’s also an option to subscribe to a newsletter, which is ideal for people that don’t have time to read this blog on a regular basis.

A good portion of the entries focus on things happening in the upper Midwest, particularly the ups and downs of our print media. Since I live in Minneapolis, I was able to connect with these entries, as well as learn other points of view on the subjects at hand, other than what I’d read in the local newspapers or blogs.

The blog began in April 2006, and several entries since then really popped out to me as a better than average entry. In May 2007, the author explains to the viewers why he blogs. He justifies why he spends his time posting frequently to the internet, and after reading his reasons, I don’t think anyone could argue with why he continues blogging.

While this site isn’t really something I’d find myself reading daily, I did enjoy the time I spent going through the archives. I certainly wouldn’t list the topics this blog covers as my favorite things in the world. However, next time I embark on a job hunt, I can honestly say I’m armed with some helpful information thanks to the time I spent reading Diggings.NULL