There are probably thousands of people with blogs and web sites that are trying to make a lot of money online. There are many avenues, some good and some bad, that you can take that will help you achieve your goal. The problem, however, is that most people take one of the bad avenues and think that making money online is quick and easy.
This week I review a blog where someone is trying to make a certain amount of money, whether it is online or offline. Although, once you look at the blog you may think the author is trying too hard.
Web Site: Geek and Money
Description: A geek talks about technology, personal finance, investing, and frugal living.
Design 
The template of this blog uses three columns with the content on the left and the navigational links on the right. At the top of the blog is a nice blue header and a simple menu. While the original template was probably nice, neat, and simple, the author has chosen to add a lot of clutter.
Before I get into the clutter, lets discuss the header. I like the blue colour chosen for this template as it is nice on the eyes. With the white font chosen for the header text, the blue provides a nice contrast and makes it easy to read. The menu at the top is easy to read and simple, which works nicely.
Below the header are the three columns. The content column is on the left and begins with a large box of Google ads. Placing these ads at the top has pushed the first post down the page, which is also followed by a second box of Google ads. This means that the top of the content section contains two Google ads and one post (not a good ratio).
The remainder of the posts follow one after the other without any more ads. The posts are easy to find as the titles are large and blue while the text is smaller and black.
To the right of the content are the two navigational sidebars, at least that is what was to be intended. The top of the sidebars are full of ads, and coupling that with the two ads at the top of the content section, it makes the blog look more like a splog. Unfortunately, with the author’s pursuit of making money, it looks like he is trying too hard.
To find any sort of navigation links you have to scroll below the ads, where you will find a few sections used to navigate around the blog. It does appear that such links as archives and categories are included, they are unfortunately buried down the page. After the links, however, you have a lot of widgets that the author thinks are needed. Usually, they only serve to slow down a blog’s loading time.
As a side note, besides the ads, the author has also included a donation button. With all the ads and donation button, I don’t think I would take this blog too seriously. If I were the author I would re-organize the sidebars and remove some of the ads, as the blog looks unprofessional as is.
Focus 
From the title of the blog I expected posts regarding technology and money. Maybe even a focus on the dreaded “make money online” niche. Instead I was greeted with Olympic results.
While I did manage to find a few posts on financial matters, the author seems to be more hung up on the Olympics and continues to post results in an almost daily frequency. This appears to move away from any real focus of the blog.
If the author wishes to post Olympic results, I would suggest the author start another blog dedicated to this topic, rather than push it into a blog where that isn’t the main focus.
Content
As mentioned in the focus, the author has been publishing Olympic results for the past week. Each post only contains a table of the results, and at times I had trouble identifying if the results were daily or total. Another post talks about the USA basketball team which still doesn’t fit with the focus of the blog.
The first page of the blog doesn’t contain any images, however, looking through other pages I could see several images that the author has included. The images themselves do relate to the topic of the post as well as the focus of the blog. Some images, however, were rather large and could take time to download for those visitors on slower connections.
The posts are short, so for those visitors that like short posts you will not be disappointed here. Keeping the posts on topic should be the main concern of the author.
Spelling and Grammar 
While the posts aren’t difficult to read or understand, there are a few spelling and grammar mistakes. The mistakes don’t take away from the readability of the posts, but they do show up on a frequent basis.
Overall
I would like to rate this blog higher, but there are too many glaring issues. The first is definitely the layout of the blog. Too many ads make this blog look more like a spam blog, or it makes the author look like he is trying too hard to make a buck.
The second issue is the focus. While the intention of the author is good, the posts don’t reflect the true focus of the blog. Keeping the posts within the focus of the blog could help visitors return for more.