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I’m taking just a little bit of editorial license in calling Mirror Image a blog, as it is really a website without the series of posts that blogs normally have. But why not include such an excellent website in TheWeblogReview.com listings?

Peter Shah is an amateur British astronomer who has about US$32,000 pounds of astronomy equipment set up in a shed in his garden. Incredibly, he has produced photographs with his 8-inch telescope, despite the often cloudy British skies, that have been favorably compared with photos from the multi-billion dollar Hubble space telescope.

The Mirror Image site is Shah’s repository of breathtakingly beautiful photographs which are the product of his relatively humble infrastructure. The photos are of extremely high quality, with endless detail that the eye can peruse for minutes at a time. I’m no astronomy expert, but beauty like this needs no expertise whatsoever to appreciate. On the contrary, anyone would find it totally accessible.

As I gazed at my favorite photo of the Andromeda galaxy, produced with an exposure time of two half hours, I thought “If Shaw is smart he will sell his images in various media as soon as possible, because they are absolutely worthy of it.”

The site is an example of how powerful personal publishing can be, and for we who visit sites like this, it shows again how rich the benefits of surfing the Internet can be, looking for sites created by people who are passionate about their interests and talented at conveying their enthusiasm.NULL

The Direct Creative blog is a simply designed, rather interesting blog about marketing, copywriting, and direct marketing design. It is the blogging corner for a company called Direct Creative, a copywriting and consulting company owned by Dean Rieck. Dean started the blog in October because he enjoys talking shop and sharing his thoughts and observations on his vocation, his job, his career and his life. Dean keeps it all business and doesn’t talk about his personal walk up to this point in his life, and how he really came to be in this field. All business, all the time… copywriting and marketing advice is what it is all about here.

Now, direct marketing is often a term that makes folks (myself included) cringe. Dean makes it fun by pointing out where folks make mistakes in their copywriting. There aren’t a lot of archives, but reading through I felt informed and entertained with the content within.

My favorite entry was a very recent one where it looks like a postcard is selling kitchen cabinets, but it is really a condominium complex that is trying to sell their units. Dean very carefully examines where the writers went wrong by trying to be to smart by half… and in the end, a quick view of the card leaves the recipient unaware that their future home might be in the palm of their hands because the message is lost.

The website itself is nicely laid out. A bright orange header bar is gently overlaid by what looks like to be a “sheet” of paper almost … it is a nice, classy design for a blog on creative marketing. Layout-wise, we are presented with a two-column format with entries on the right and navigation to the left. The left navigation area seems a bit cluttered by a lot of offers and Amazon.com ads and the usual money-making on your blog opportunities, but it isn’t too overwhelming and noisy, and it really could be with all of the different widgets, feeds, gadgets and toys out there in the blogosphere. The RSS subscription feed is easy to find, as are the archives. All told, it is a nice, clean layout without too much noise. The perfect vehicle for Dean’s message.

I have a friend who is a copywriter and will refer her to this page to see if there are tips and tricks she can pick up. For the average, everyday non-marketing type like myself there isn’t a real need to revisit. But if you’re in the marketing industry and direct mail or copywriting is your thing, this blog (and Dean himself as a consultant) are a great resource. I give the blog a 3.75 rating because it is for a very specific audience and not the whole wide world of readers. NULL

It seems to me there are not enough instructional sites on blogging catering specifically to people who are new to blogging. If you know your way around different CMSs or you’re very familiar with WordPress for instance but would like to be made aware of the latest helpful plug-in or theme, there are plenty of places where you can find this information.

I’ve talked to a lot of people who express interest in blogging but sound overwhelmed at the thought of what they would have to learn to get their own blog up and running. And while it doesn’t require a college degree, let’s face it, there is a learning curve.

BigBlogTool.com looks like a site geared specifically towards people who are tempted to start a blog and create a web presence for themselves, but really don’t have a clue where to begin. There are reviews of blog tools obviously, and pointers to tutorials and various tips from all around the web. There are also posts with general thoughts on blogging, where blogging is going as a medium, and what you probably do and do not want your blog to be. All good things to keep in mind as one gets their blog started.

It’s a good looking site using WordPress and the Thesis theme. It looks pretty informative and I found a couple plug-ins for WordPress that I didn’t know about. I would say that if you have a friend or relative who asks you where to look on the Internet to get started in blogging, BigBlogTool.com would be a pretty good site to suggest to them.NULL

The SacredScenery.com blog is a wonderful net destination. It’s well written, with gorgeous photos of tropical places and video snippets to boot. Clearly it was created by someone who cares about the environment and is really inspired by natural scenery. There is also emphasis on personal development, and I think it’s worth a bookmark just for the positive message projected by the whole site.

The blog’s primary writer, John, has somehow managed to find a way to spend a lot of time in Bali, Indonesia, and uses the island’s breathtaking natural beauty as a starting point for his photography and musings. Apparently he spends a lot of time on the beach at sunset (!), and knows all sorts of gorgeous corners of this tropical island. Certainly sharing his images as well as his positive attitude as inspired by his surroundings is worthy subject matter for this first-class blog.

The design of the blog is wonderfully simple, without the busy feeling that so many bloggers today seem to think they have to establish in order to engage readers. So often less is more when it comes to design, and this is one of those cases where the subject matter, i.e. John’s photos and inspiration, require no further embellishment in terms of blog template or general layout.

I found SacredScenery.com to be a place worth visiting especially in these dark, short days of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Spending a little time on the site reminds me of sunny memories of my own, and when I perused the site I found myself getting a lift from these thoughts. I would suggest paying a visit, even if you didn’t spend part of today charging through snow or cold rain.NULL

The Four-Hour Workweek blog is the companion online presence to the book of the same name, by Tim Ferriss. If you haven’t read the book, or even if you have, I would highly recommend checking out the blog, because I think there’s something in it for everyone who’d like to improve their life.

This is one of those blogs that doesn’t rely on amazing design or stylistic touches. Like Tim Ferris, it’s all about substance rather than style. The point here is changing your life, and if you are drawn in by the prospect you have to take a look at this website.

Some of the things that Ferris talks about on the site, which extend the themes of the book, are how to create passive income streams and free up your time to pursue activities that really interest you. There are specific suggestions on how to use the Internet to create infrastructure and recruit help in the name of building often small businesses to enable you to do this. It all about being an entrepreneur, and it never seems so do-able as when Tim Ferriss talks about it.

Travel is a big part of Ferriss’ lifestyle, but not the sort of ‘binge travel’ vacations that we take as 1-week antidotes to lives that we aren’t happy with. He suggests the sort of travel that enriches rather than simply being fun, and not just for short periods either. There’s plenty of talk of ‘mini-sabbaticals’, constructed around an activity you’ve always wanted to try, and places to which you might go to do things like this. In the blog Ferriss also elaborates on his philosophy of ‘geoarbitrage’ i.e. living in inexpensive parts of the world while you’re making money from customers in parts of the world where people will pay more for products that you are selling. I had not encountered this idea before, but it was one of the really liberating concepts from the book and there are many, many practical suggestions on ways to do this in the blog as well.

As Ferris makes heavy use of technology and the Internet to build ways of making a living, he also somewhat ironically advocates carefully restricting the amount of non-actionable, non-value added information we consume. He calls this the ‘low information diet’ and he suggests we all get on it! He points out the dangers of endless news consumption, game playing, etc. which can degenerate into distractions from producing a means to liberate ourselves and lower our quality of life in general.

Like the book, the Four-Hour Workweek website is an exhilarating experience full of specific suggestions that anyone can use to get off the employment treadmill and become a small-scale entrepreneur. Ferriss has done it himself and the website also features guest posts from people from all walks of life who have completely remade their lives in original and impressive ways. This is an inspirational weblog. And every time I visit I find practical steps and ideas on increasing my quality of life. Highly recommended.NULL