Review: BloggerNoob

It seems most people that start a Web site or blog attempt to make money in some form from their endeavour. I for one have a few money making items on Technically Easy, so I fall into that category.

There are many new blogs that have started up with the main focus being making money online. This week’s review focuses on one of those blogs. This week I review a relatively new-comer to the “make money online” arena called BloggerNoob.

Web Site: BloggerNoob

Description: How a bloggernoob tries to make money online with his blog.

Design 

The design of BloggerNoob features the content on the left and two sidebars on the right. The sidebars, as you can probably guess, hare filled with ads above the fold, and then the navigational links following the ads. I’m not a big fan of this style, since I feel that the author attempts to push the ads on each visitor that arrives to the blog. This is one of pitfalls for visiting a “make money online” blog.

There is, however, a menu bar at the top of the blog that can be used for navigating, although not through the posts. There is a slight problem with the menu. If you highlight an item that contains a submenu, such as “About Us”, drag your cursor over a submenu item and then move the cursor back to the blog, the submenu will stay on the screen. If you do this with all submenus, you can have them all open on the screen.

There really isn’t a whole lot of information provided in the links regarding the blog, such as links to the posts. Most links are more for information purposes.

As I mentioned above, the actual navigational links are down the pages in the right sidebars. The sections in the sidebars are neatly laid out and well defined. This makes it easy to find and read the links for navigating. There are many categories, however, that could be consolidated into fewer, more easily readable categories.

As with many of the new blog designs, the footer contains additional blog information, such as the “About Me” and “Archives” sections. It’s nice to have that there so it doesn’t clutter up the sidebars with less essential information.

The design of the blog overall is what I would expect from a “make money online” blog: lots of ads in the sidebar, followed by the navigational links. I’m not a big fan of this concept, but to each their own.

Focus 

The whole focus of the blog is making money, nothing more and nothing less. For the most part, the focus is well kept throughout the posts.

As you visit the blog and read through the posts, you can definitely tell that this blog is geared towards money making because of the posts titles, and the ads on the right.

Content 

The content on BloggerNoob is what you would expect from “make money online” blogs. There are, however, a few things that are unique about this blog.

On BloggerNoob, the author occasionally runs contests in which the winner of the contest usually wins some amount of cash. The contests that are run on BloggerNoob are usually creative and appears to get many applicants. If you are not sure how giving away money can make you money, then you just need to think about traffic. To make money you need traffic, and to get traffic you need something interesting to entice people to visit. On BloggerNoob, this is in the form of contests.

The other thing that makes this blog unique is the images the author has chosen for each post. Knowing that “sex sells”, the images that accompany each post are of attractive women. When I first visited the blog, I wasn’t sure how the pictures fit with the niche, but it does make it stand out. The pictures also seem more geared toward menu than women.

Besides the contests and pictures, much of the content is geared towards making money. The author provides a status update on their profits, as well as provides tips on how you can make money as well. Some of the tips, however, can be found on other blogs or Web sites.

Spelling and Grammar 

There are very few spelling and grammar issues on BloggerNoob. The one mistake that I noticed in the posts is the fact that the author doesn’t use capital letters in the posts. For example, the word “I” is written as “i” in a sentence, when it should be capitalized.

Besides the lack of capitalization in sentences, the posts are still well-written and easy to read.

Overall 

I’m not a huge fan of money making blogs as I feel they are all pretty much the same – lots of ads and similar content. The author of BloggerNoob has added a few unique features to the blog such as contests and the unique idea behind the pictures.

The writing style of BloggerNoob is easy to read and does keep you entertained.

Review: iMod – Thought Promotion

There are many types of blogs on the Internet, but the two most common, at least from what I have noticed, are blogs that provide money making tips and personal blogs. The money making type blogs usually provide the same posts as other blogs, and don’t really have much of anything new to say. The personal blogs, on the other hand, contain posts on anything and everything in the life of the author. This can lead to some very entertaining posts.

This week’s review is a personal blog from an individual in South Africa, and like most personal blogs this one tends to lost its focus at times.

Web Site: iMod – Thought Promotion

Description: The ramblings of a 25 year old, eMarketing developer, cigarette smoking guy who is a complete Internet junkie.

Design 

The design of iMod is very simple with the content on the left and two navigation sidebars on the right. The top of the two sidebars consists of RSS subscription, an about the author box, sponsors and ads and boxes of links such as popular and latest posts. Futher down the sidebar are the navigational links.

The header takes up a large portion of the top part of the site, and starts further down the page because of a rather large margin at the top. The header may be large but the author has included some nice and easy to read links on the right side of the header. The white font colour stands out nicely against the blue background.

As with many blogs, the font size chosen for iMod is rather small and some visitors may have trouble reading the pages. In the navigational sidebars, the font size is also small but the colour chosen makes it even harder to read. I can easily read the small font, but reading the sidebar is more difficult as the font colour doesn’t contrast well with the blue background.

There is a small footer on each page that is almost impossible to fully read because of the light font colour. The text in the footer indicates the blog engine, host and subscription links (both entries and comments).

Although the design is nice and clean, the font size and colours chosen can make it hard for some visitors to read. Losing the top margin, or decreasing it, will allow more content to appear above the fold.

Focus 

One of the many traits of a personal blog is the lack of focus. Authors of such blogs tend to write about what they feel like at the particular time the post is published. This is no different with iMod.

For the most part, the author tends to focus on technology and the Internet. As you have read in the description, the author is an Internet junkie. There are many technology posts, with everything from Microsoft, Google, and the Internet discussed in various posts. Information about other Web sites is also provided in various posts.

The author then loses this technology focus when writing about videos on YouTube and pictures of celebrities. This is one of the downsides to this genre of blogs – lack of focus. The flipside to this is that author’s of personal blogs aren’t restrained by a niche, and can freely write about anything.

Content 

As previous stated in the focus, the content of iMod is mostly on technology, but there are a few non-technical posts as well.

Some of the blog posts contain only text, which is a rarity in the blog world. Some posts do contain images that are appropriate for the post, and the author even includes posts about videos, which include the actual video from YouTube.

The content is not too long, which is a nice read as the author gets to the point. The posts also aren’t too short to the point where some important detail is missing. The writing style tends to be more personal as if the author is talking directly to a visitor on the blog.

Since the author appears to be from South Africa, much of the content is geared towards visitors from South Africa. A good example is the advertising costs. Many bloggers would indicate the ad costs in US dollars, but in this case the ad costs are listed in South African Rand (I had to look that one up).

I found the content overall to be easy to read and enjoyable. I liked the length of the posts as they weren’t too long or too short.

Spelling and Grammar 

Although I didn’t find too many spelling and grammar mistakes, some did exist. The errors that I did find didn’t reduce the readability of any of the posts. I did, however, have trouble reading a few posts because of long run-on sentences. Although neither the spelling or run-on sentences prevented me from understanding what the author was trying to say in each post.

Overall 

iMod overall is a good South African blog with some nice technical content. For those that don’t enjoy reading technical posts, there are also non-technical but informational posts as well. The size of the font, and some of the font colour chosen, mainly in the sidebars and footer, can make it harder for some to read.

The posts are well-written with a few spelling mistakes and run-on sentences, which don’t detract from the readability of any of the posts. Overall, iMod is a good blog to visit.

Review: Blog with Ric

When creating a blog there are two things that separate a good blog from a great blog: a focus and a good design. A blog needs to be focused on a specific subject, unless it is a personal diary, and it also needs to have an easy to follow navigational design.

For this week’s review I will look at a blog that contains a long description, but short posts, and all the elements of a good design. The author has chosen to talk about many subjects, but can they all be tied together under a single focus? Let’s have a look at Blog with Ric.

Web Site: Blog with Ric

Description: This blog is intended to share my experiences with just about anything. Postings can be about blogger hacks and tools, design and templates, programming and web development, earning online, my investments, savings tips, useful links, personal rants and other topics that catches my mind’s fancy.

Design 

I feel the design of a blog can help determine if a visitor stays and reads the posts you have written, or simply closes the site and moves one. A site should be easy to navigate and well designed to help a visitor find their way around.

The design of Blog with Ric almost accomplishes both those tasks. It has all the information that I look for in a blog, an “About Me” section, “Categories”, or in this case “Labels”, archives, and a method of subscribing to the RSS feed. All of this information is provided in the right navigation sidebars, in which there are two.

With the left side dedicated to the blog’s content, the author has moved all navigational links to the right-side, similar to Technically Easy. The one thing that, unfortunately, Blog with Ric lacks is some organization on the right side.

For the right side, it nice to have the subscription information at the top, but it could be followed by the “About Me”, and “Labels” sections to allow the visitors to navigate through the many posts. The ads on the right part of the navigational sidebar could display the ads, and other links. This sill provide a nice balance of navigation and advertising for the blog.

The one major downside to this blog is the lack of colour. There are two dominant colours: yellow and green. While a few posts provide some images, they don’t add much colour to the blog. I’m not a huge fan of yellow, at least for the background, but adding some more images to the blog could help spice it up a bit soon it doesn’t look too drab.

Overall, the design of Blog with Ric has all the elements needed for a good blog, but a bit more colours, and some minor organization in the sidebars could make it even better.

Focus 

The focus of the blog appears to be a long-winded description of various topics that the author has chosen to discuss. When I read through the posts on the blog, it appears the focus is more geared towards Web sites.

Many of the posts talk about the author’s success with this blog, with topics discussing how the blog success came about and the Web sites that were used.

Many of the posts simply contain links to Web sites the author has found interesting, and overviews of various technologies, whether they are related to Web sites or not. To some degree, the focus can be hard to determine as the author has chosen to talk about many different topics with regards to Web sites and technology.

Content 

It can be difficult to rate the content of a blog if there is no real focus. In this case I will look at the content without regards to the focus.

Most of the content are posts that contain only text, with very little images, which can be both good and bad, as text is quicker to download, so the blog loads quickly, however, at the same time a picture can help enhance the topic of the post. It would be nice to use a few more images in some of the posts to add colour to the yellow and green look of the blog.

The posts themselves are quick and to the point, which is always a plus with blogs. This allows a visitor to read many posts quickly without getting bogged down in lots of off-topic discussions. Many of the post themselves consists of a one line introduction to a Web site, followed by a link. Although this is nice, additional text about the site would add more value for a visitor.

The one big plus to the content is the fact that a new post is published on almost a daily basis, which can help keep visitors coming back for more.

Spelling and Grammar 

I found that the posts are well written and contain very few spelling and grammar mistakes. For those posts that do have a mistake, the mistake doesn’t reduce the readability, or distract from the point the author is trying to make.

Overall 

Bog with Ric has a lot of potential of being a great blog, with some minor modifications to the design and focus. The posts are well written, short and to the point, but don’t have any real focus. Many of the topics discussed can be divided and written over several blogs. This is one blog, however, that you may want to check out.

Blog Designing Tips for New Bloggers

I have been busy writing free blog reviews each week for those that have requested a review. When I review a blog one of the criteria I use to rate a blog is how well the blog is designed. There are many different designs that you can use for a blog, but I think for many new bloggers what to include in the design can seem confusing.

I have decided to compile a list of the items I look for in a blog. Others will have their opinion, but here are mine.

The Layout of a Blog

Before I talk about the elements, or widgets, to include it is important to have a well defined layout. The layout sets the tone on how your blog will look and feel to a visitor.

There are a few layout standards that you can see throughout the many blogs online. Some blogs incorporate one navigational sidebar and the content, while others include two sidebars. Some layouts place the sidebar on the left side of the page, while others place it on the right side. For those with two sidebars, you may see them split on the left and right side with the content in the middle, or both sidebars on one side only.

Some will argue that putting your sidebars on the right side is better for SEO (Search Engine Optimization), but I haven’t really seen any proof of this. I have my sidebars on the right side so the content is read first.

The layout you choose should include at least one sidebar for navigation, and a location for the content. Above both of these elements, you should include a header that includes an image of your blog and links back to your home page. Some may include the blog name in text in the header, but I like images as you can do more with them.

What to Include on Your Blog

This is where many new bloggers may have difficulty. There are so many widgets on the Internet that you can include in your blog, which may be confusing as to what yours should actually use. I’ll try to make it easier for you.

The first thing you should include is a way to subscribe to the RSS feed of your blog. This can be either through a button/image, a form to subscribe via e-mail, or both. This should be located at the top of your navigational sidebar.

It is important to introduce yourself to your visitors by writing an “About Me” page. Many visitors that like reading blogs, especially those that provide information or advice, like to know that the author of the blog has some experience on the topic they are writing about. This should be near the top if you can put it there.

The next is a listing of the categories of your posts. This helps visitors read posts for a specific topic without having to perform a search. For blogs created in Blogger, the labels function performs the same thing. Each post should be assigned a category, and then the categories listed in the sidebar below the subscription buttons, or the “About Me” information.

You should also include a list of archives to allow visitors to look through your past posts. This isn’t as important, so it can be included further down your sidebar.

Including Advertising on Your Blog

It seems most people that start blogs always include advertising. Why not try and make some money with your blog? The problem is many new bloggers get carried away with the ads.

Making money online takes time and effort, and doesn’t happen overnight. You need to first build a visitor base before making money off your blog.

When placing ads on your blog, ensure that you keep things organized, meaning don’t just place ads everywhere on the post pages. The ads should blend in nicely with the blog, to make the content stand out and not the ads.

When you first start out, don’t worry about placing ads, in fact forget about them until you have over 100 visitors a day. You won’t make much money from them anyway, and you should be concentrating on your content in the beginning. Then as the number of visitors grows, you can place the ads on your blog. Remember to blend in the ads so they don’t standout.

Summary

For many new bloggers creating a well designed site can be a daunting task. When starting a blog, it is important to add several elements, such as RSS subscription, categories, and an “About Me” page. Next concentrate on writing good unique content, and not worry about such things as advertising. Once your visitor count gets above 100, then you can start looking into advertising. Remember, however, not to bombard your visitors with ads, but instead blend them into the blog.

I would like your opinion on what elements you think should be included in a blog.

Grouping Posts by Categories in Blogger

I recently had questions regarding adding categories to a Blogger blog. Although it doesn’t appear like Blogger supports categories, it in fact does and they can be added easily. In one of my recent posts titled Blog Designing Tips for New Bloggers, made mention of categories and that all new blogs should include a listing of them in their sidebar.

In this post I will explain what categories are, and how to incorporate them into your Blogger blog.

About Categories

Each post on a blog is usually about a specific topic, and a blog may have several topics overall. When you create many posts about a topic it would be nice to allow the visitor to view all posts that are related to that topic. This is where categories come into play.

A category is simply a tag, or label for a post. When you add a post to a category you simply begin to organize your blog in a meaningful manner. You then list you categories on your blog and when a visitor clicks the category link, a new page displaying all posts in that category is shown to the visitor.

It is important, however, not to create too many categories. I believe roughly 15 categories is a good number to have on your blog. Too many and your listing would be too large to read easily.

In the next section I will show you how to implement categories in a Blogger blog.

Labels = Categories

In the Blogger world you can attach labels to each post that you publish. These labels can then be listed in your blog’s sidebar as links. When a visitor then clicks one of these links, it will take them to a Web page that displays all posts that are assigned that label.

To add labels to your blog, use the following steps:

1. Log in to your Blogger account, and then click the Layout link to the blog you want to change.
2. Click the Add a Page Element where you want the categories to appear.
3. From the list of page elements, click the Add to Blog button under Labels.

4. Enter a title, and then click Save Changes. This should add the new Labels element to your blog.

5. Now when you create or edit a post, enter some labels in the text box labelled Labels for this post. Each label should be separated by a comma.
6. When you publish the post, a label will show up on your blog with the number of posts associated with it.