I have reviewed a few personal blogs since I started offering free reviews in November 2007. They are probably the most difficult to review since they aren’t usually focused on a single niche.
This week I review a personal blog from a blogger in the Philippines who apparently will be moving to Singapore.
Web Site: Makoy’s Memoirs of a Certified Blogger
Description: Makoy’s compilation of thoughts and ideas, comments and reactions to current events, major and minor happenings in his life, photo collection, and whatever things that can be classified as BLOG.
Design 
The design of Makoy’s is very simple. The content is on the left and a single navigation sidebar is on the right. I recognize the blog template as one that is available for Blogger users, with the exception of the header.
A portion of the header is taken up by Project wonderful ads that stretch over the content and sidebar sections. Two more Project Wonderful ad segments appear in the sidebar with another appearing below the posts. That is a lot of ads for a blog that has 40 subscribers.
The size of the font for the content and sidebar sections is a little small, which could cause some readability issues.
Once of the weakest parts of the design is the navigation sidebar. It is a hodge-podge of advertising and links. There doesn’t appear to be any order to the sidebar, meaning you will have to scroll down and hunt for specific navigation links. The author has included the necessary navigational links, such as categories and archives, however, finding them in the sidebar can be difficult.
A quick cleanup of the sidebar, a reduction in the number of Project Wonderful ads, and an increase in font size will definitely help the design of the blog.
Focus 
There doesn’t appear to be a specific focus of the blog, as it appears to be more of a personal blog than a niche blog. Much of the content is focused around the author, so those that know him may be interested in the posts. The author has also included other posts that are not directly related to him, which makes the blog lose even more focus.
Content 
The author enjoys publishing posts to the blog as can be seen with the multiple posts on almost a daily basis. The posts themselves aren’t very long, with many containing an appropriate image or photograph.
The home page itself contains many of the more recent posts and images. This can cause the home page to take time to load as all the text and images must be downloaded. some of the images can be over 20KB in size. When you click on a post you will usually only see one image.
A few posts may contain several images, sort of like a photo journal. These posts will only contain images and no actual content.
The content is the stongest point for the blog as the author does provide daily updates which indicates he is dedicated to blogging.
Spelling and Grammar
There were a few spelling and grammar mistakes, but they didn’t take away from the readability of the posts. There were also a few run-on sentences that did cause me to reread the entire sentence again, but those were infrequent.
Overall
A cleanup of the design, and possible getting non-standard Blogger template, will hlep improve the quality of the blog. All the necessary elements are included in the sidebar, however, they are buried among the many widgets and advertising so can be difficult to find.
The blog is updated on a daily basis, and at times with multiple posts. There are a few spelling and grammar mistakes within those posts, but they don’t take away from the readability of the posts.
If you do enjoy reading personal blogs, then you amy want to check out Makoy’s Memoirs of a Certified Blogger.