Author: admin

OK, so what have we got here, huh? “Falling through the World”. Some travel blog I suppose, may turn out to be interesting. But, what’s this? http://peopleremember.blogspot.com/ address… “Blogspot.com” address – no money invested – less professional blog? Let’s not cross it at the beginning, just because it has got an ordinary address (not connected with the blog’s title too).

So, the blog loads quickly and what can we see? A blogger template! Oops, it doesn’t make a good impression. At least there are pictures added to some of the posts. But, except a photo of the author, no more graffics involved in the design.

Well, let’s take a closer look at the blog’s content itself then. We can choose from the main page and… that’s all. No ‘about me’ page. Not good. All we have is a sidebar with some links, archives and adsense ads, not even and RSS Feed button… awesome, you may get lost.

But, let’s focus on the real deal, the essence of every weblog – the posts. The author, Mike Danger Bain, tends to write a lot. This means at least twice a week and rather lenghty posts. However, I wouldn’t call his blog a ‘travel’ blog, ash he suggests in a subtitle. It is a personal, very personal and just personal weblog. Good or bad – it depends on what you are looking for. Anyway, the content is about his work, his friends, some thoughts – simply everyday life. The style is… ordinary. Of course, he doesn’t make grammar mistakes (although some spelling errors do occur). The style is not bad, but also not brilliant. Just normal. It doesn’t make me throw up, but also doesn’t engage me too much, make me can’t stop reading.

As you may expect, there are not many additional features of the blog. It looks like the author was running a kind of foundation, raising funds for his backpacking travels, ‘Sponsor A Backpacker’ it is called. Interesting – it has a dot-com address, while the blog itself doesn’t. It wasn’t very successful so far – it didn’t raise more than 15 pounds. No more bonus features.

Well, time to finish. I am afraid I can’t give you a good mark, mister Mike. Your site just looks… poor. And lacks in any content apart from the posts. However, I respect you for writing so much (without having big readership), I recommend you to do some work on the blogs design, some more advertisement and wish you good luck!
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So a name of Insani-Tea Blog has to be about Tea right? I mean what else could it be about? For fun I threw the word Tea into the dictionary on my computer and the last definition was “Another name for marijuana”. Maybe, just maybe it is about pot, but I hardly doubt it.

Oh I was right it is about tea. How to make it, different kinds of tea, different gadgets for helping brew tea, and well anything and everything without tea. The posts are well written and sometimes seem to ramble a bit, but are enjoyable to read. I would have to say it is like a good glass of iced tea on a hot day. Nice and easy without too much stress.

The blog is hosted on blogspot which isn’t always a plus. It also uses a blogspot template, but oh well. The posts are few and far between which is kind of a let down. The blog started off strong, but now the posts are about once a month, maybe twice.

A blog with this specific of a topic has to be great. It cannot just be good. Unfortunately this blog is just good. The infrequent posts by the author make it hard to enjoy and almost discourage checking the site out. The information however is golden and is well worth reading. I wish I could say more about this blog, but all 25 posts are just a quick read, and that’s how this review will be.
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The Simplify Your Thoughts/New Age Spirituality blog has relatively few actual entries with written content. The look and feel of the site is simple. It is a wordpress driven blog with two columns, one for content and one for navigation. The About Us page is still filled with the default wordpress content. There are two months (July and August) where content was posted to this blog, and most of that is video or graphics with inspirational sentiments.

The entry on ‘What is Spirituality’ is the most interesting on the site, and everything pretty much that follows is what our Dean of Chapel in college would have referred to as “Pink Fluffies” — nice thoughts and good feelings but do they really get you anywhere in life? Not really.

I found the site to be dull and not very inspirational. I didn’t sit and watch each of the videos. I feel it is hardly fair to place a grade on this blog seeing as there isn’t much content. Perhaps if the blog owner builds some content over the course of a year, content similar to the philosophical discussion in the first entry, this would be a more interesting and uplifting blog to read.

I’m going to give it a 2.25 rating. I don’t hate the blog, just wish there was something more substantial here to read and learn and enjoy. But right now… not so much.NULL

The Blogging Blog is a collection of tips and tricks to make your weblog look… well, more schnazzy.

The header graphic states that this is blog is “blogging for the fun of it,” and they sure do have a host of fun items to liven up the average blog. Our authors have done a tremendous job over the past two years combing the web for interesting gizmos, gadgets, and doo dads to help you make your blog more interesting, and less Web 1.0.

The founder of the blog, Sharon, writes on the “About” page, “The web is thick with meta-pro-blogs: blogs to help you make money online, or optimize your search engine rankings, or get your readers to click those ads — but there is relatively little for those bloggers who just want to express themselves, connect with others, and have fun. This blog is for you.”

Looking at the front page, the color scheme is really nice with gold, brown and yellow, with complimentary text colors. The main body of the blog is white with black text, so my eyes were drawn right to the core content. The colors reach out and grab the viewer, but don’t beat him or her up. The header graphic is whimsical, and the three column layout is organized and easy to use. The categories section was most helpful, because if one is looking for specific widgets, or blogging tools, results are just a click away.

Not only does the Blogging Blog provide content on widgets and gizmos, but it also points to event blogs and causes online that bring bloggers together. On the front page of the site, there are two specific date-based blogging event days. October 15th is Blog Action Day, and I never would have known it if I didn’t visit here (and yes, I’ll participate! sounds interesting…)
http://quiz.blogactionday.org/

I have two very minor complaints about the look and feel. First, the Feed Graphic at the top of the page is humongous. Way too big. Takes up way too much real estate. Should really be reduced to about 1/3 the size. The second concerns the archive by month drop down menu. It is a bit too small compared to the categories content above it, and gets a little lost. It would possibly would do better to be placed up above the categories box. Also, the 2004 links in the drop down menu did not work, (May, June, July) so those may want to either be fixed or removed.

Since this is a team blog, contributed to by four bloggers, I visited each of their pages to see whether or not they were using the widgets they were writing about. For the most part they are, some more than others, which speaks volumes. It is one thing to write about tools in theory and another to use them in practice.

It is fun to go back through a couple of years worth of entries on web gizmos to see what was “new” in 2006 or 2005! I found this past year’s content a lot more relevant, obviously. With the way the web changes, it is nice to know Sharon and the team at Blogging Blog will keep an eye out for you on the changes, and report back the interesting things to make your bloglife more fun. I give the site a 4, and will certainly be returning to see what is new.NULL

I’ve been blogging for years. I think it’s safe to say I’ve been posting my personal life online since 1998. Anytime I can find a site that will offer me tips towards blogging, I become leery. Nine times out of ten, that site is going to be full of tips on how to get-rich-quick while blogging, and I’m not a big fan of that. I was very relieved when I read the “about” section of the blog and found out that Sharon, the author, was focusing on “bloggers who just want to express themselves, connect with others, and have fun”.

The best thing to do with this site is to dive right in. The archives are listed on the right sidebar and date back to May 2004. I had to do some creative navigating in order to find the beginning, because when I picked the May 2004 option from the drop down menu, I got a pesky 404 message. Other than that, the site is very easy to navigate. The sidebars provide readers with several options of reading through the archives, as well as other site-related links where readers can discover even more information Sharon has included. The layout she’s chosen for the site is simple and aesthetically clean which is always a welcome site to any website.

As I read through the archives and followed a link or two, it seemed like this blog was initially created as a learning tool as the author familiarized herself with how to change things on her personal blog. A learning project that turns into something helpful for everyone on the internet? What an awesome concept!

Through the first year or two of the blog, Sharon does her best to post intermittently, but the Blogging Blog seemed to take a backseat to other blogging projects. Once the site was turned into a group-blog, the posts became more varied, slightly more consistent, and really helped this weblog gain some value.

My biggest, and possibly only, complaint about Blogging Blog is its inconsistency. Each post is full of information on the topic at hand, but the posts come too infrequently, in my opinion. I’ve added this to my RSS Reader of choice, and when I see it’s been updated, it’ll be a nice surprise. I hope it slowly becomes a more frequently updated blog, instead of just a handful of times per month.

This blog is a great idea. People new to the blogging world start their own weblog on a daily basis, and a site where they can find “tips, tools, ant toys for the personal blogger”. Those people will luck out when they find this site.
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