As anyone who has read the previous reviews can tell, there are many types of blogs that have been created. Many blogs are photography blogs that display many photographs taken by the author.
In this review, I take a look at such a blog called Hin’s Tech Corner. Like many of the other photography blogs, this blog as plus and minuses that are apparent in many of this blog type.
When viewing blogs I like original blogs. It seems most blogs today discuss the saturated topic of making money online, or SEO (Search Engine Optimization). When I see a blog that is not focused on one of those two topics, it is like a breath of fresh air.
This week I look at a sports related blog, specifically F1 racing. I am not a F1 racing fan, but this is definitely one of the best blogs I have seen. Lots of content, a specific topic, with a great design.
Web Site: F1-ToGo
Description: Dedicated to the fast paced world of F1 racing. Featured are original content news stories, opinions, and a bit of controversy along the way.
The design of F1-ToGo is well done. It is a standard design with the content on the left and two navigation sidebars on the right. There is also a menu bar at the top of the blog for easy access to important pages.
First let’s have a look at the content section. The titles are nice and large and easy to read. The font and font size chosen for the content is also nice and large. Anyone should have no trouble reading the posts.
The sidebars on the right are neatly organized, which is unusual considering the amount of information the author has provided. There are ads at the top, however, they don’t drown out the actual navigation links. There are a few ads on the right side of the sidebar, while the navigational links are on the left.
There are many categories in the sidebars with each one having a well-defined header. The categories, recent posts, and favourite posts are near the top of the left side of the sidebars. This allows visitors to find the posts without having to scroll down the page.
The only issue I found with the design was with IE7. When I viewed the sidebars in IE7 the “Recent Viewers” widget from BlogCatalog stretch from the left side to the right side.
The overall design of the blog is well done, and shows how a great blog should look.
The focus of F1-ToGo is simply F1. Every post is related to F1 racing, and includes discussions on tracks, results, drivers, teams, and rumours. The focus is clear and well-defined. No problems with the focus on this blog.
The design and and the focus are top-notch, and the content is also in that category. After reading some of the posts, I am amazed at how well each post is written.
Most of the posts discuss drivers, teams and upcoming races. For race results, the author includes the placing of all drivers as well as the fastest laps. The content of F1-ToGo shows the author’s passion for the sport without a question.
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.
This is one of the best designed and written blogs that I have reviewed. I’m not a fan of F1 but I still read many of the posts on F1-ToGo mainly because they are very well-written. The sidebars are well organized, and the fonts and sizes chosen make the blog very easy to read.
If you are a fan of F1, then you should definitely check out this blog. If you aren’t you should still check out this blog and see what a great blog looks like.
I have read many personal blogs. These are the blogs that don’t have any true focus since the posts are what the author has felt like writing at a specific time.
I enjoy reading some personal blogs as they can provide quite a break from reality. This week I review a personal blog, that is geared more towards the college crowd.
Web Site: Tetsujin’s Blog
Description: It is about college life, general life on the internet, and random technology, it is a lot of personal blogging fun.
When I read the e-mail requesting the review I never clued in that I have seen this blog before. When I viewed the blog I instantly recognized the image in the header of the blog. The header takes up quite a lot of real estate on the blog, but the image will be associated with this blog.
Below the image is a menu consisting of links to a forum, suggestions, the “about me” and “contact me” pages, and a “One Buck Review” page. More on the “One Buck Review” later.
The actual content portion of the blog is split into three columns. The left column contains the Entrecard card, the BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog widgets, and recent posts from other blogs. The content is in the middle with another navigation bar on the right.
The right navigation bar contains the subscription link, sponsors and category links, favourites, archives, a calendar of post dates and other personal links.
The columns should be switched, with the blog related links on the left so the visitors can easily navigate the blogs. The BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog widgets, as well as the advertising should be moved to the right navigation bar. The personal links could be placed below the links on the left to make the left navigation bar a one stop shop for the links.
I’m not a fan of the green coloured text, especially against the light background. A darker colour would make it easier to read, especially if the text was also larger.
The design could use a few modifications to make the blog better to allow visitors to easily navigate and read the blog.
It is always difficult to rate the focus of a personal blog because there usually isn’t one. That is true in this case. There is no true focus of Tetsujin’s Blog but it seems to be more geared towards college life.
The content of Tetsujin’s Blog ranges from long posts to relatively short posts. The author doesn’t post on a regular basis and can sometimes leave large gaps of time between posts.
The author does include some appropriate pictures to enhance the point of a post. Some images, however, can be quite large and take some time to download. For the most part the images are small and download quickly.
In the top menu there is a link for “One Buck Reviews”, which I’m guessing means you buy a review from the author for one dollar. The reviews are small (about three paragraphs), but for one dollar it is a good investment if you want a backlink.
I did enjoy reading some of the content, which has a college feel to it. If you do like reading these types of blogs, then you may like reading this one.
There are a few spelling and grammar mistakes that did cause me to reread sentences a few times. All posts don’t contains sentences like this, but those that do definitely take away from the readability of the post. A spelling and grammar checker would help in such cases.
Tetsujin’s Blog is a standard personal blog in which the author writes about anything they are thinking about at the time. There are several issues with the design of the blog that could make it difficult for visitors to navigate or read.
The focus of the blog, like many personal blogs, is almost non-existent, but the content is interesting. It would be better if the author wrote on a more regular basis as large gaps between posts could stop people from subscribing to the blog.
A spelling and grammar checker would help correct some of the errors that appear in some of the posts.
Overall the blog is a good blog with a few minor flaws that could be easy to fix.
I enjoy technology, which is evident in the fact that I am the author of a technology blog. Since I have started writing free reviews, I haven’t really reviewed many technology-related blog.
This week I will look at a blog that actually has a very long title, but I will shorten it to Upcoming Technolgies. In case you are curious, the full title I was given was “Upcoming Technologies,Current Technologies,Reviews,News,Info and more!”
I have written various posts about connecting your computer to the Internet, including how to connect using two different routers (Linksys’s WRT54G Wireless-G router and D-Link’s DI-524 wireless router), as well as various configurations.
One topic I haven’t discussed is how to retrieve the IP address of your router. You may not know the IP address if, for instance, someone has configured your router and changed the default address. I will show you how to get it in this post.
All the blogs I have reviewed up until this point in time have been mainly authored by one individual. Although for most blogs having one author is the norm, this week I review a blog that seems to go beyond that norm.
From the design to the focus of this week’s blog, you will see that this isn’t your ordinary blog. This week I review AndroidGuys.
There are thousands of blogs on the Internet today, and a vast majority of them are under the category of personal. For personal blogs, the authors write about the events that happen in their lives.
Many people enjoy reading these types of blogs since they may read about someone sharing the same experiences. This week I review a personal blog about a single mother who enjoys writing in her blog on more than a daily basis.
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.