Making technology easier to understand.
Those that know me know I like technology and that I try to keep up with the latest gadgets and toys. I visit many technology blogs and web sites to keep up to date. Although I won’t own many of the new toys, I still like to see what is out there.
This week’s review is about technology, although not so much on gadgets and toys, but technology in general. I have read this blog in the past and it is usually one of the most popular in the “Technology” category on Entrecard.
While most blogs regarding money are about making it online, some are focused on more saving and investing. These types of blogs usually provide tips on playing the markets and how to invest for the greatest return. As always, however, it is still better to consult with a financial advisor.
The blog I am reviewing this week is about saving and investing money. The catch, though, is that the blog is more focused on investing in India than any other country. This makes the blog more unique than other blogs I have reviewed.
I have reviewed a few money making blogs in the past, and I can honestly say that I am not a fan of that niche. It seems there are more blogs in that niche than in any other niche, and they all contain the same information.
Needless to say, as I read the title for this blog I immediately thought about the money making blogs. When I read the blog I realized there was much more to this blog than just making money, in fact this blog is missing some of the elements that are commonly found in the “make money online” blogs.
Web Site: Internet Business Guide For First Class Progress
Description: This Internet Business Guide For First Class Progress provides you with step-by-step tutorials, marketing strategies, and techniques to shorten your learning curve and boost your online success so you, too, make money online.
The blog has a simple design to it – the content on the left and the navigational links on the right. This keeps the blog clean and makes reading the posts and finding links easy. The background of the blog contains an image, however, the image is simple and doesn’t distract from the content in any way. The background is a nice light colour, and with the dark font provides a nice contrast for easy reading.
The header is nice and simple with the title of the blog, an easy to locate search bar, and two clearly labelled links. The subscription information is located in the top-left, which is one of the first things you will notice.
The content section contains nice large fonts for the title and includes a line separating the posts. The font face and size chosen makes reading the blog very easy for those that have trouble reading smaller text.
The right navigation sidebar that contains the links is well done and very nicely grouped. The links included in the sidebar are minimal but contain the important links such as categories and archives. The only advertising I noticed is under the “Products” section in the sidebar. The lack of advertising is what separates this blog from the ordinary “make money online” blogs, and that makes this blog better.
Secondary, not important, links are located out of the way in the footer. If you choose to use these links the author has provided them below the main content.
Overall I like the simplicity and spacious layout of Internet Business Guide for First Class Progress.
The focus is mainly on helping you increase your online presence for those looking to make money online. As I said before this is much different that those “make money online” blogs. The posts in the blog definitely fit the niche very well, and clearly stay on focus.
A few posts here and there may stray from the focus, but those posts are rare and still provided great information for anyone looking to better their online success.
The content is one of the best parts about the blog. The content is really well written and the author makes it very easy to understand what he is trying to say.
Many of the posts also include an image that is appropriate for the topic of the post. Although many of the images appear on the home page, the author has taken the time to resize the images so they are small in both size and bytes. This will allow those with slower connections load the pages quickly.
On Sundays the author has included inspirational videos. These videos provide you with even more information about succeeding online. The author, however, hasn’t posted the latest video as of this post.
I enjoyed the content provided on this blog and read many of the posts offered.
It is rare to find blogs that have almost perfect spelling and grammar, but this blog comes close, very close. It is apparent that the author takes the time to read and check for spelling and grammar errors in each post. This makes the blog much easier to read as you don’t need to reread a sentence twice.
This is a great blog for those that are looking to help succeed online. The posts are well written and provide great information for success. The simplicity of the layout, and the colour chosen definitely are a nice change from those blogs that include many pictures and small fonts.
If you are just starting out online, or have been online for many years, you definitely want to check out Internet Business Guide for First Class Progress.
I have reviewed several personal blogs in the past, and compared to more niche oriented blogs I find them the most difficult to review. Personal blogs aren’t written with one specific topic in mind, but rather, can span a whole range of topics.
The one aspect of personal blogs that is different compared to some niche blogs is the frequency in which they are updated. Many are updated on a daily basis. This week I review a personal blog that is updated several times a day.
Web Site: My Ideas 4 You
Description: It’s a blog about my personal life as well as gadgets and tools which I have seen or used before. I will also publish my own point of views and reviews of movies, computing software and hardware.
The design of the blog and the colours chosen by the author is pretty unique to this blog. The author has chosen to go with a black background with orange and yellow highlighting. Since the background is so dark, and the orange and yellow is so bright, it provides a nice contrast between the colours.
The actual text used is a gray colour, which may be difficult to read as it isn’t nearly as bright as white would be in that situation.
The layout itself is really simple, with the content on the left and a navigation sidebar on the right. At the top is a bar that includes a menu and several options, such as font size and administration options. The adjustable font size is a nice feature to have. This allows a visitor to increase or decrease the size of the font to their liking.
Below the top menubar is a few links, a calendar, the subscription information, and a hitcounter. The calendar highlights the days containing posts, which you can click on to display the posts.
The navigation sidebar is nicely organized with the main navigational links at the top to make them easy to find. One nice touch to the categories is the grouping of certain topics, such as a Technology topic with several related topics below that.
The blog layout overall is really well done, not too crowded and easy to navigate.
From what I can get out of My Ideas 4 You, it appears to be a personal blog about whatever the author feels about talking about. This can lead to a lack of focus as is evident when you read the blog. The author has chosen to discuss many topics so there is no real focus to the blog.
A solution to this problem is to simply create multiple blogs, one for each topic, which would help keep the blog in focus.
The content is updated several times on a daily basis. This is great for those that like to read personal blogs regularily as there will always be a post on this blog.
The posts themselves are not long and can contain only one or two paragraphs. If the posts were longer, the author may not write as many. Of course the other downside to so many posts is the lack of images. Only a few posts each week contain an image, which reduces the amount of colour on the blog.
If you enjoy reading blogs with short content, few images, and updated on a regular basis, then you may want to check out My Ideas 4 you.
The spelling and grammar is the weakest part of the blog. Although, My Ideas 4 You isn’t dominated by bad spelling and grammar, it can make it difficult to read a few posts. I had to reread a few sentences because of either a word missing, or a long run-on sentence. Using a spellchecker and reading the posts before they are published would definitely help this blog.
As I read the free review e-mail that the author sent me, I noticed that he did make mention about his grammar, and is aware of it.
My Ideas 4 You has some nice features that aren’t common in other blogs, such as the font size modifiers and the calendar control at the top. The blog’s layout is by far its strongest part, with the spelling and grammar being the weakest.
The blog is updated several times on a daily basis, which is great for those that like to read the blog. A few more images in the posts would add some much needed colour to the blog, especially considering it uses a black background.
Making a few changes, such as the images and correcting the spelling and grammar would greatly improve My Ideas 4 You.
There are many blogs for various niches online. Some blogs are focused specifically on a single niche, while others may focus on several niches. Those that do focus on several niches will hopefully focus on niches that complement each other, such as discussing PC games and video cards.
This week’s blog is really difficult to determine the niche. The author has chosen to discuss a variety of topics, which unfortunately doesn’t provide a nice flow for the visitors.
