Blog Review
First Impressions
When I first visit your site I see a very clean and attractive layout with many images that catch my attention. I am also drawn to your logo which is very strongly coloured compared to the rest of your site; this can be a good and bad thing depending on what your aim is. The logo doesn’t tell me much what your site is actually about, this is something I am left wondering even after viewing your site for 15 minutes. The name Level Unlocked would to me suggest gaming, but the first image I see is about the evolution of technology which doesn’t suggest gaming; however after reading further I see that it is a gaming blog, the wording did throw me off there though. This is something I feel you need to work on a little, creating an identity for your blog. This isn’t something that happens in 10 minutes, it is something you need to work on for a long period of time and take every detail into account. The easiest way to start is by noting down on a piece of paper what your goals for the blog are, what you want to write about and who your target audience is. After you have decided this then you will need to structure your blog around this, that includes the logo and especially the slogan; but it also includes images and content as the way you write your articles should be based on the language capabilities and understanding of your target audience.
The first section of the site that is seen before the new visitor scrolls down is the most important and can often determine whether the user continues to read or closes the page. The first impressions I get from the top of the page are very good, I can immediately see a lot of interesting content of offer to me. I especially like the question on the featured article, The New Gaming Direction, but where? This is a very intriguing and well written title that makes me want to continue reading the article; I hope to see more of these titles.
Apart from these two things there is nothing that stands out to me or gives me the WOW factor on your main page which is a real shame. I feel that you need to do something to awaken a little more interest for a new visitor. A good logo may just solve this problem for you or introducing a little bit more colour to the layout. I just feel I need something more for love at first site.
(Score: 17/20)
Appearance
I will start off on the logo as I have already mentioned it. I don’t really know how to explain my feelings about it, in my opinion it is too strong, but you have chosen the correct colour scheme. As I have already mentioned the logo is what creates a sites identity, something which I don’t feel your logo does. You obviously want your site to be known as “LU” but the way you have added these letters to the logo makes them look out of place, also they don’t stand out much as they are the same colour as the rest of the logo. For a sleek looking logo for your blog I am thinking something along the lines of this:
http://i.imgur.com/4YO4A.png Please remember this is only a suggestion for a clean and sleek way of creating a logo and identity for your site that you can use in many different places, giving people something to associate with your site.
The theme you use on your blog is very clean and easy to view. It doesn’t hurt my eyes even when looking at it for a longer period of time which is always important when it comes to blogs. As you have a nice wide and open header space I feel that you could make more use of it, something to remember when making your new logo. Try centring the logo, this way you can make it bigger too. I know that it is common to have logos on one side, but sometimes it is better to spread out and get noticed. I feel the stripes behind the post titles and post information (Comment count bar) are a bit too strong and make the font a little fuzzy to read. This is something that you can change very quickly by just toning them down to 50% opacity. What I do like about your blog is the big images you use to make an otherwise quite plain and simple theme fun and interesting. The images you use are all of a good quality and related to the post they are inserted on.
The sidebar along the left hand side which contains all the Latest News, articles and twitter feeds I feel is fine and is needed, but I don’t like the three huge Advertising images that are underneath these. They are far too overpowering and it makes it look like your only interest is to earn money off the blog. I would suggest four smaller squares that are together as big as one of those big ad images you have now. These four squares could sit next to each other and upon roll over display the link to the site being advertised, sleek, modern and not too off-putting.
You have, counting the footer, three menu bars on your site with different links on each which is really confusing. The top menu bar contains four selections, Home, Forum, Advertise, and Support whilst the same links are on the footer menu but the Advertise link isn’t there. The home and forum buttons are then on the main menu but the other two aren’t. This is getting messy just me writing about it. My suggestion here is to move the social media buttons off that top menu bar and scrap it completely. The social media buttons and all four of those links in addition to all other navigation links can then be added in the footer menu instead. This makes it all look much cleaner and improves navigation. While we are on the footer, I feel there is a lot of dead space here that you can make better use of. Here is the place to add paid links or a small ad image. It is shown on every page and not intrusive, one of the best ways to earn money (if that is what you are interested in) and at the same time not annoy your readers.
The individual post layouts are very similar to the index. The font size is very good, making the posts easy to read. You have the information box for the author at the bottom, but you haven’t filled in any information about the author which I find a real shame, it spoils the professional look. The sidebar on here is the same, and again, the same changes I suggest here.
You have 2 search bars, one on the main menu and one on the footer; I feel that you only need the one that is on the main menu. As for other small details, it is good to see a custom favicon but it needs to be adapted to the new logo. You have a good flow going with the blue, don’t be afraid to use a little more blue in the theme. Overall this is a great choice of theme that will look very sleek and professional with a few minor changes.
(Score: 16/20)
Content
Your articles are detailed and well researched as I can see from the sources supplied at the bottom of the articles. This is always a good sign as it shows quality and commitment. The information in the articles is all related to the original topic even if you do have a habit of wondering away from the main question that you started on. This is both positive and negative, but I found some of your articles losing me half way through as they jump quite a lot between different pieces of information. One very good example of this is your article “The New Gaming Direction, but where?”. In this article you start off by expressing your opinion on the extinction of game discs in the next 5 years. You then move on quite quickly from your opinion to high street retailers, which first of all feel to me that you are saying the extinction is a negative thing. The next paragraph then suddenly asks for the readers’ opinion before floating swiftly over to the creation of new laptops and games consoles and then ending on a small analysis of different products. I hope you understand what I mean when I say this feels a bit jumpy. To give your article some more structure I would suggest you start off the way you have, then discuss the positives and negatives of this, using the facts you have in the article to support your reasoning. Then end the article by summarising what you have brought up and then leaving your reader with a question. I don’t feel any analysis of consoles or other items of technology are needed in an article such as this.
The suggestions I mentioned above are things that bring down the professionalism of an article which is a real shame. I don’t however have any doubt in your writing capabilities and I feel that once you have sorted out the structure of your articles then the rest will come on a silver platter. Your spelling is perfect, when reading your articles I didn’t notice any mistakes even if your grammar is a bit more uneven. In some places you write very well, with perfect grammar and wording and then suddenly a part of the article will dip and the grammar will become a lot worse. Things that I notice are very long sentences with commas appearing in odd places and odd choices of words. This looks to me like a classic lack of inspiration, change of source or tiredness. It is important to write your articles when you are wide awake and have a clear head but also to try and use your own wording at all times even when switching between different sources. I know this is easy to do without even thinking about it, it takes some practise.
When reading the about me page I get a very different impression of the writer I see on the rest of the blog. I see the real, relaxed Jamie who uses a bit of humour in his writing and shows a love of gaming. It is when I see this that I realise what is missing in your articles. You seem like a really fun, a little crazy guy and crazy is good! Use that humour and witt in your articles, make them more personal as this in turn will make your articles much more interesting. I believe you have all the qualities to write amazing articles, you just haven’t quite learnt how to make full use of them yet.
(Score: 30/40)
Comments
On 6 pages of articles I was only able to locate around 3 comments which really doesn’t do your site justice. I find it odd to understand why you have this little comments, I would expect you to get a decent amount of readers and you are writing your articles in a way that should provoke discussion. You have a lot to work on here, as if you get a few people commenting more will follow which will help boost discussion and in turn help you create more interesting articles.
This is the area of your blog that needs the most work, what you need to remember is the comments you have are very high quality which is very good. It shows you have the readers to make the comments; you just need to encourage them more.
(Score: 5/20)
Total Score
68/100
Final Remarks
A blog with huge potential that just requires a bit of tender loving care and a lot of promotion.
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