Citadel of Thoughts
Review by Migi
First Impressions
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When I heard the blog title for the first time, I thought it sounded really pretty and interesting. "Citadel of Thoughts" is definitely not something I hear everyday, and I even had to open a dictionary to check its meaning. I also became interested to see what kind of thoughts are shared at the blog. I enjoyed what I see when I visited the blog. Citadel of Thoughts is a simple Blogger blog that catches the personal feeling quite well. More modifications may be necessary but it is not too urgent. Jumping to the content they are looking pretty good although they are pretty short. But that makes it easy to read in one go and feels more like a personal diary. The variety of content seems pretty good too so there are many things to talk about. Overall, Citadel of Thoughts has a good amount of charm, and that is a good starting point.
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Good
Design Quality
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From the top, the title of the blog stands out from the rest of the page, despite having nothing special to it. The color combinations are the usual ones but they work well being simple. For uniformity, the 'Send' button may probably better in black or orange color to match the overall color scheme. Then again, I am not too sure about how far you can customize your blog with Blogger. Good choice with adding a navigation bar at the top of the page as sorting method. It looks weird when I click on any category, though.
Here is a screenshot for better visualization. Next, what do you think of modifying the title? Since it is the main spotlight of the header. At least with a change of font type and color, it will stand out even more and looks prettier. The descriptions below the title is unusually long for personal blog. While it's not necessarily annoying, I believe it will be better to have it shorter. The line "
I am always looking for interesting things to try, do, and write about so if you have any ideas feel free to give me a shout. Thanks!" can be placed above the comments/suggestions box, where it also relates to the box. Last is about the background image. It's a pretty image that helps bring calm atmosphere into the blog. However, I believe if it's an image that compliments the word "citadel" and "thoughts", it will give stronger impression. You can choose a rather dimmed picture so it will not stand out more than the body of the index. For example, a picture of books, library, or a sophisticated reading room may be good for this experiment.
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Average
Site Statistics
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Looking at the archive of the blog, April this year shows a big improvement in terms of your posting activity. You seem to have find your daily target and are able to meet the goal. It shows that you can produce articles in steady pace, day-to-day basis. Numbers wise, April is a good start in improving the blog's statistics. Then again, this is a personal blog so a slump in activity is to be expected. What you have been doing is one good solution to this kind of problem, so keep it up! If you feel more creative and can add more articles per day, feel free to do so, although it is not compulsory. It is always better to be able to write only one entry per day but do it for a long, long time.
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Excellent
Originality
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Being a personal blog, content found at Citadel of Thoughts is personal property of the author and therefore making it original and special. It is presented in a good way that is not too long and winding in the process, but still enough to pick visitors' interest to read more. A suggestion I can think of at this point is to actually expand the content of the posts more to make the post more interesting and more informative for visitors. Let's take for example your article about pizza. What do you think if you add a bit more information or fun facts or trivia about pizza? Where it comes from, how it's made, and other fun details you may find as you dig information related to pizza. The article of home remedy for stomachache, for example, can be expanded by talking a bit more about stomachache, what can cause them, and which type of stomachache can be relieved with method you suggested. This kind of content expansion can help to make an article with a decent length (like your ""We always vote for Democrats"" article) but still being fun and informative at the same time.
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Average
Site Structure
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Citadel of Thoughts' blog structure is very simple, straight to the core. This helps visitors to focus on the content without wondering too far. The index page is very focused on the blog posts that we see a large empty space at the sidebar. I suggest to reduce the number of posts displayed at the index page to shorten this space. From another side, you can also find ideas to fill in the empty space. It can be filled with something fun, for example a regular poll which you can turn into a blog post after certain amount of time, funny images, your reading list, and so on. You can also put more serious content such as news widget or maybe affiliate buttons with other blogs. There is a menu called 'Affiliates' under your useful links, so I think the space can be used to let them gain more exposure from your blog visitors. I also think 'Follow by Email' will be better up higher, at least above 'Sponsor' image since it's only advertising.
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Good
Spelling & Professionalism
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I find little mistakes in terms of spelling and grammar in some places, but they are nothing major. Mainly it is related to usage of punctuations, such as commas and full stops. For example, the way you put "lol" after full stop in the mussels article. There are also concerns about using capital letters; as far as I know connecting words like "for" or "than" are written in normal letters, not capital. But these are not very serious that you need to correct it right away. Being a personal blog, writing style is more open and free from strict professionalism. I personally believe that writing in a tidy manner should be done in every possible chance regardless of type of blog. It helps visitors to understand the flow and meaning of the sentences better.
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Average
Final Remarks
Citadel of Thoughts is an interesting blog. I had fun reading some of the posts while doing the review. Being as simple as it is, there are still methods that you can explore to modify the blog to be even more personal and comprehensive while staying simple and straight to the point. Have fun exploring that part; don't be afraid to experiment! Good luck with the blog, Sharon!
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