Name of Site: SidelineToday Site Genre: Sports Site URL:http://sidelinetoday.com Type of Review (Full/Quick/Questionnaire): Quick Opening Date: April 14,2014 Additional Notes: N/A
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Thank you for requesting a Forum Promotion review. You will have your review completed in 48 hours or less. If you have any questions regarding your review, feel free to ask me. While you are waiting on your review, why don't you take a look around the forum? After your review is finished, please rate your reviewer on how they did here.
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Decent appearance and organization
I merged the points of theme/appearance and the general layout of the content into one strength. From technical point of view, Sideline Today seems to have it ready. The colors help to make reading easy, the text is easy to read, and the front page is not too cluttered with unnecessary elements. Some of its elements seem to be misplaced, though. For example, I feel that the banner should've been in the first line, above the "MLB/NFL" boxes at least. There are two search boxes and recent posts information in one page. Facebook widget seems out of place in between article categories down there. It can be transformed into a button and placed next to Twitter and RSS Feed buttons shown next to the sliding news bar. There are already Facebook widget on the side bar of other pages anyway, so I figure the one at the front page can be spared. Other than those, there are not really serious problems which can get in the way of browsing.
Weaknesses:
Forum: is it a necessary addition?
The first point I decided to touch here is about the forum. While it is a straight weakness, I feel that it is something to consider more carefully than usual. Forums, as you may have probably known, are not easier or harder to manage compared to blogs. Each has its own positive and negative sides. Running two of them at the same time requires twice the effort. You will need to make sure that both are running properly on their own, and most importantly, not destroying the purpose of one another. Looking at how empty the forum currently is, there are few factors that I can think of. Perhaps it has just started so there is no activity yet, perhaps the forum is not yet advertised properly, or perhaps visitors find the front articles are more interesting than going to the forum. Since Sideline Today is still young, I imagine that ideas which can be brought as a topic in the forum can be transformed into a blog post instead to gain more interest from the visitors.
I do not necessarily say that forums and blogs cannot go together. While it surely expands the discussion area of the website, it needs much effort to run both at the same time, especially if there is only one administrator/owner/founder. It is good to branch out and try new things, though sometimes stay true to one and direct the best effort there can lead to success too. It is your choice, so think about it carefully.
Content elaboration
From quick browsing, there seems to be enough number of content which is delivered regularly. That is definitely a good start. Frequency aside, the actual content of the posts themselves can still be worked on more. I will take examples from two articles which I think are interesting from the titles I see in the front page only, "Kevin Durant’s MVP Acceptance Inspirational Speech" and "NFL Draft starts tomorrow!". Upon visiting those two links, I feel that it was such a waste to have only two to three paragraphs consisted of three to four lines to describe such grand titles. Those seems to be big topics to talk about. Have you thought about adding a video of Kevin's speech, if there is any out there? If there is not, why not share some great lines from his speech? Maybe some articles out there quoted his lines, which can be the reference of the article. What is NFL Draft? You can explain about this activity from years ago (assuming this is a routine, annual activity) as additional background information for those who have never heard of it. The majority of the content of the posts are very short. The author quickly ended the lines with "etc" which is very vague and it makes reading less enjoyable. This can possibly backfire if not handled properly.
One other minor point is related to the tag line of the blog: "Up to date on sports!" The currently available content has yet to talk about all kinds of sports. While it may not be something serious to take care of, to be specific and focus, including if you want to talk about all kinds of sports, is something to emphasize at the blog.
Final Remarks:
Sideline Today is reaching its one month age soon. Such a very young age. It means that there are many things which can be done to improve on the blog and raise its chance of success. For beginning it is usually better to start small and focus; expansion can always be done later when the community supports it. Best of luck to reach that level one day, keep up the hard work!
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