Name of Site: Game Geeks Site Genre: Gaming Site URL:http://gamegeeks.net/ Type of Review ( Full/Quick ): Quick Opening Date: Not too sure :L Additional Notes: 23rd October
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Consistency of Activity
It is quite commendable that you managed to make posts regularly ever since you first opened back in October. I like that you're trying to keep your blog updated with various gaming news. Especially since it seems only one person who updates the blog, it can become exhausting sometimes. I also like the choices of your words. I would say to try give more variation to the posts; not only news but including the reviews and opinions more too. Your grammar is generally okay and easy to read. I do notice some mistakes, for example you write "lets" instead of "let's". That's already a good start on blogging, take care of how you write to make the posts more professional. I do have more suggestion in terms of content, which I'll touch on a latter section, but I applause for the good rate of activity in terms of articles from the author.
Design
What I like best from the design is your blog logo and the choices of pictures for featured image in every post. The theme of the blog itself is pretty common; I remember I had visited another blog using the same theme with a rather similar genre. It is a wonderful theme, but not private. Then again, it's not very necessary to have one; you can balance it out by pumping the layout and the content. I do think you can explore the header more, maybe at least with a background picture for the header so it won't be so lonely in its current dark color. Same goes with the footer, there is one unnecessary empty line there which can be removed. But generally it's quite decent, yes.
Weaknesses:
Layout
What I feel about your layout is that it is rather repetitive and not too eye-catching. Starting from the top, your current homepage is labeled "latest news", and that's exactly the same with your second menu link ("News"). You can replace it with something more interesting; I noticed you have "Opinion" category for example, or move "Reviews" as the next important menu. Next is your "Videos" menu. I find it 'far to reach' to place it there. Too many clicks to get you to the video. Instead you can use your huge empty space at the sidebar, featuring one video and change it once in a while. It's more accessible there, visitors can click play right away as they browse around your homepage. More efficient. You also have two "Contact Us" link on the navigation menu and the footer. Pick either one of them, I'd say. Another way to explore the empty spaces you have is by providing links to your featured articles of the week, or your popular posts, or maybe upcoming games to be released, upcoming consoles to be updated, and so on. Link it to reviews you might have had before, or your predictions, to give an impression of how broad you're touching the topic of games and its updates.
Responses/Comments
In relation to your strength about consistency of activity, I feel that your blog still lack the responses or comments from visitors. From 5 pages of articles, I counted there are 30 comments for all articles you have posted until the day I made this review. Generally posts only get 1-2 replies, but I noticed 2 articles in which you got 7 comments. Now, why can't other posts go that far? The articles which earned most comments, in my opinion, are what you should highlight. The articles contain controversy in terms of opinion of certain games. I take this is what gamers are usually interested in, aside from news. People can get news from many other websites. But recommendations, opinions, analysis; those things can get you far if you play it well. Reading your posts there I feel like you can actually add more; especially for recommendations/reviews, do provide more screenshots and detailed explanation why you think something is good or bad. Such kind of post design hopefully can bring more questions for people to ponder and discuss through comments. It's generally the same for other articles. I notice they are not too long. Perhaps you can add your own insight to the news articles and ask questions which hopefully can drive discussions. While it is not a 100% guarantee, at least it improves the chance!
Final Remarks:
GameGeeks is actually quite a nice website. As you might have known, there are many other websites and forums and blogs about gaming out there, so the key is always to make yourself different. It's in the way you touch the subjects, providing reviews, critics, and opinions. I feel that you're already going that way, you just need to explore more. Since you're aiming for a professional blogging instead of a casual one, this is important for you to gain readers and activity in your posts. Sounds like tough job, indeed. So good luck!
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