Appearance and Style - (Out of 20)
Having visited your forum a few weeks or so back, I can tell you straight away that your banner is quite nice (at least compared to the other one). I think it looks nice, but I feel it would be better if it kind of blended in more with the background of your blog. I would recommend that either you change the background of your blog to a solid back so that the banner blends in with it more, or you add the end of the scrolls that purposely got cut off into the background, so it makes a divider before the content of the blog.
Speaking of the background of your blog, I really like how the background of your blog kind of looks either like cracks in the ground or cracks in old stained scrolls (which ever way you prefer to look at it). I think that the background kind of gives a nice feel to your blog and just generally looks really nice.
I strongly dislike how you do not have a favicon (if you do not know how to add one, PM me and I'll send you the instructions on how to add one in wordpress). I strongly recommend you to get a real favicon that's unique or semi unique. I mean by semi unique is that if you can't have a custom favicon made either by yourself or from requesting one here on ForumPromotion or somewhere else, you should find a pretty one from
free favicon. And that being said, this really isn't as big a deal as some other things that I will continue to mention. In fact, not many people mind if you do not have a favicon (heh I actually have the link to free favicon in my bookmarks because I have to mention this in so many reviews I do), so if you would put this last on your to-do list, I would support that.
I dislike how you have both widgets on the bottom of the page and on the left of the page. I think that you should move all of the bottom widgets over to the left side widgets. Simply because people tend to not like to have to scroll that much on page (and for some it even makes the page freeze up or load slower when the page is too long). Since you have a lot of posts displaying on the index page and some of them are long, it would be best to even get rid of that little unneeded space being taken up at the bottom, and move it to the side where there are already widgets.
I believe that you should make the banner able to be clicked then it will redirect you back to the blog index, because so many people are accustomed to doing that. Also, since you have the blog title and you click that (or the home button in the navigation bar) to go back to the blog index, I think you should just remove that altogether and just leave the banner and navigation bar in the header.
(Scored 10/20)
Blog Layout and Categorization - (Out of 20)
You currently have five different categories that all of your blog posts are categorized into, and a drop down list of those five categories of posts can be found right at the top of your widgets. I really like that drop down menu, because if I was only interested in reading your poetry (for example) then I could simply click the Poetry sanctuary and be directed there. That's great for someone who has not been following your blog since the beginning wants to read (or reread) old[er] posts.
This is just a suggestion based on opinion, but perhaps for the stories basically all of the posts except the poetry ones you added the "read more of this post" at about half way through the first paragraph or second paragraph or so. That way the blog index is not so long, and guests can easily scroll down the page and read mostly posts that interest them by clicking "read more".
I feel that your layout on the blog is really simple (in fact, I'm not sure how it could be simpler and easier to navigate through) with the blog posts under the banner, the affiliates on the site, and the blog category links there too. Nice job on that, there's not much else I can say other than that you've done a nice job categorizing the blog posts and the layout is nice and clean.
(Scored 20/20)
Commenting Activity and Other Interactions - (Out of 20)
I only notice one comment out of all of the blog posts that are on the index page. That's not really good, but one is better than none. Since your blog seems to be a bit personal I would recommend that you Email the link to it to some of your friends and family in real life through Email, a messenger, or a social network. Posting the link on advertising/administration forums wouldn't hurt as well (if you need, I have a list of 25+ promotion/administration sites that may be useful to you).
Or a clever way of getting more interactions is joining poetry/writing based forums and just generally being an active member there. A link in your signature can make a world of difference if used correctly. Since it would be a writing/poetry forum then the members there obviously would have an interest in poetry/writing and may like to comment and give feedback on your stories/poetry and other posts.
Or, you could use the simple 'posting packages' and 'exchanges' method of getting more comments and active readers. Unless that is unethical in your opinion, in which case you should completely ignore this small paragraph. If it doesn't violate your ethnicity, then I would recommend that you make sure the people you order packages/exchanges from you know have decent quality.
(Scored 2/20)
Quality and Frequency of Posts - (Out of 20)
From what the calender says (in the widgets) you're posting about one day every week. That's not counting when I'm assuming you added all your posts in on the first week you started your blog. I think that's a good amount. I have a feeling that you don't write particularly so that you can post the stories/poetry/posts specifically on your blog and that you write them when they come to you, so I can't really reasonably comment on this.
But I do like how you posted yesterday and you're posting about one day a week otherwise. That's good so that users don't get overloaded with content very often, but it still provides something new for guests to read when they return to view your blog. Regardless of whether you planned to be posting X amount of posts one day a week, nice job on that.
I would also like to mention that I love how personal all the blog posts are. Literally, all of them make a really interesting read.
(Scored 19/20)
Spelling/Grammar - (Out of 20)
I have not been able to find any spelling or grammar mistakes in the posts. However, I did notice some very minor things -
"Way back in 1986 when Fergie took over he was one of the best young managers in the game
. He had been at Aberdeen for a few years and whilst there he managed to break the stranglehold of the big two Glasgow clubs there Rangers and Celtic
. He took them to 3 Scottish titles numerous cups and the UEFA cup against the mighty Real Madrid."
"Fergie knew what he was doing when he brought the enigmatic Frenchman to us as we went on to win the Premier league in its first years followed by a double the next year
. Fergie is not one to rest on his laurels though and when the likes of Hughes, McClair, Robson, Bruce, Parker were getting a bit slower
. He introduced a load of youngster to the team and this was a shock and all the papers
, they said he lost the plot it was going to be the demise of United even the famous quote that no United fan will ever get tired of hearing form Alan Hansen ‘you’ll never win anything with kids’ which came back to bit him on the back side royally. "
"It was a nice morning when daddy woke up at 6 am, he moved quietly off the bed where mummy was still fast asleep cuddled up in her
pajamas next to Adam who had awoke the sometime in the night with a bad dream which made him wet the bed
. Daddy went down stairs and started getting thing ready for the day first off
, he made himself a nice cup of tea and then started to make some chicken sandwiches for the children and himself and mummy for their picnic which he was going to surprise them with
. Then daddy got some apples golden delicious they were and grapes red and green and he also got a big bottle of Ribena as well, a few cake bars and some treats, he put them all in a basket and wrapped them up and put them in the boot of the car."
I've bolded what I edited in the three paragraphs above. Both of those are run on sentences, which really doesn't matter much unless you're doing it with whole paragraphs (which you are in some cases, but not always), but since the rest is not terrible with spelling errors (mind me, there are some which I've edited in bold but they're not really noticeable and it's not terrible) regarding spelling and typing, something as small as that is worth mentioning. I did notice that you do the run on sentence thing quite a bit though, so you may want to watch out for that when you're typing up the blog posts. if you find yourself using a lot of commas or a sentence that is more than three spaces down, try to add in a period somewhere.
(Scored 12/20)
Total Score - 63
Final Remarks:
What was most liked about the blog: The background, the posts.
What was disliked most about the blog: There's nothing I particularly "disliked" as the review was a lot of suggestions, but I would have to say the lack of a favicon and the teeny-tiny mistakes in the posts.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to read my blog? I would read it how it is currently.
After you have read your review, please click the following link and rate our service to help us make it better for you.... [
Click Here]
.
