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Hello and welcome. I am Red Herring. Also known as Charade, for the present moment. And in this thread, I aim to service you in the form of a comprehensive and detailed review written on your community in exchange for FP$. My rate is higher than the standard Forum Promotion Review Team's price, but in return, I promise a full-length aesthetically pleasing review full of constructive critique and helpful tips on how to improve.
Why Would My Reviews Interest You?
Ultimately, the only opinion that truly matters is your own. If your community in its current state makes you and your users satisfied and content, then my opinion shouldn't bear much weight for you. If, however, you would like an outside opinion, or tips for continued improvement, then I will do my absolute best to give you that. I've been in the "forum scene" for over eight years now. I've participated in and staffed numerous communities and I intend to put that experience to use in my critique.
A Few Things To Keep In Mind
- I Am Here To Critique, Not Raise Self-Esteem
While my reviews can be expected to contain praise in some form if I feel an aspect of your community is well-executed, the primary purpose of these reviews are to point out weaknesses or flaws and advise on how to work them out while simultaneously praising that which deserves it.
- My Rating System Is Harsh
I tend to take a more literal approach to ratings. I consider 50/100 (or 5/10) to be utterly average in every possible way. Whereas 100/100 is an absolutely perfect score and 90/100 is near-perfect. I will not hand these out lightly. You can consider 60/100 and 70/100 to be reasonably good ratings from me.
- I Can Be Blunt
I am not going to go out of my way to deliberately stomp on your community. I will be as polite as possible, but if I feel I need to be blunt to express my opinion, I will (Blunt, not personally attack). If I am, please do not take offense, it's merely to get my point across. I harbor no ill-will towards your community, I promise.
- Be Prepared For The Worst
As mentioned in the above three points, I am here to (constructively) criticize. My standards are set quite high in that regard. It's not uncommon to receive an unfavorable review from me, so brace yourself for the possibility upon request.
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My reviews can be written catered to the perspective of two forms of audiences. You will need to specify which one you desire in the request template.
Perspective 1: Yourself
The review will be written with your perspective in mind. It will focus more on critique and how to improve, and the style of writing will be read as though it's being directed at a single individual.
Perspective 2: Public
The review will be written with a public audience's perspective in mind, focusing more on describing your community and pointing out pros / cons while still maintaining a satisfactory level of critique. The best way to compare this perspective is to that of a game review's, pointing out all the interesting, being generally informative and listing any downfalls it may have. This perspective is if you intend to share the review or post it publicly somewhere.
EXAMPLE REVIEWS
Complete Blog Review
Ah, College. Every year, millions of High School students graduate, reaching the end of a very long road and taking their first steps onto a new one: adulthood; many without so much as an inkling of what they're to do next in their lives. Some leave their education where it is and immediately begin adapting to society.
For those with enough patience and drive to climb the career ladder into a more comfortable life, college is the obvious choice. Indeed, High School seniors are often bombarded with information on college recommendations, course information, etc. It's an onslaught of data that can be overwhelming for the average student. As such, the right advice could well be a godsend for any to-be college applicant. Similarly, it doesn't hurt for those already admitted to research on how they would get the most out of their education.
Naturally, a blog catering to such an audience would be a very wise choice of topic. In fact, if ever there were any topics worthy of a blog, "College" would be near the top in that list. So what's the catch, one might ask? Well, what's the catch of any informational blog, really? Written material needs to be legible, accurate, relevant, and above all; offer instructional advice and helpful information that your readers might not have considered. This arguably applies even more-so to a field such as "college", as your audience consists of individuals making a difficult transition across the threshold of adulthood.
With all of this in mind, is your "College Blog" able to live up to such standards and provide nurturing for the fruits of adolescence to fully ripen and assist in reaching their potential?
Let's find out, shall we?
FIRST IMPRESSIONS & AESTHETICS
I wasn't sure what to expect on my first visit to your blog. I had recently been suffering from many an eye-straining website background or theme and prepared for the worst as I entered the URL into my browser. My eyes braced themselves, but my caution turned out to be unwarranted as I was greeted with a most warm reception. It was a delightful change of pace.
The "College Blog" logo, though simple, stood bold and dignified amidst a pleasantly colorful background of smiling students, all seeming to enjoying themselves within their college environment. The primary body of the blog itself consists of minimalistic colors contrasted well by splotches of brighter colors such as orange and vibrant mixes exhumed by the article thumbnail images.
The allure was enough to draw me in and further explore your blog of my own accord.
That being said, aesthetics were not awe-inspiring nor particularly impressive in any sense. I've seen countless more beautiful or clever designs that offered my eyes a grand and delicious feast, whereas your blog offered me design more akin to an appetizer, making me hunger for more when there was no more to be found.
I'd even have to go so far as to say aesthetics lean more towards a generic front. The smiling happy students in the banner are a very common and uninspired choice when it comes to design for educational oriented websites. Some of the thumbnails used to represent the articles seemed to have been pulled from a quick Google Images search in favor of convenience.
Minimalism is a solid choice for a blog, allowing for a reader-friendly environment, never contrasting with the text so far as to strain the eyes. At the same time, this seems to be rather cowardly from my perspective, to put it bluntly; avoiding more professional and exciting design for the safer choice in lack of design.
The boldly standing "College Blog" logo leaves much to be desired, and is found lacking any personal identity of its own. Even the name and domain of your blog, "The College Blog", is generalized and unimaginative, I get the impression as though it's trying to avoid taking on any personality.
In short, what this "College Blog" of yours lacks is any unique or defining traits of its own. Nothing sticks out and everything manages to remain generally run-of-the-mill and unmemorable.
Unfortunately, the solution to this problem would mean taking on a monumental task. The entire theme would require a redesign. This is not something I could specifically advise you in, as a design should reflect the owner his or herself, and I can't choose your preferences for you. I can, however, specifically point out what needs changing.
For instance, let's start with "The College Blog" logo. What you currently have states "I have no personality or identity whatsoever." A logo should be a logo, not a string of text slapped onto a thin black banner. It need not be particularly fancy, nor should it, but it should show a bit of cleverness. A Google image search of "logo designs" can provide you with numerous examples as to what a proper logo should look like. Furthermore, drop the header of smiling students for something more more classy and personalized.
The general design itself should move away from minimization in favor of unique themes catered towards your blog. Even something as simple as a patterned design to the sides of your blog's index could do wonders for your theme. Create and make use of icons and buttons designed specifically for "The College Blog" image and try using less stock photos for your article thumbnails. If you have a camera available for live photos, it could dramatically improve thumbnail quality.
With all said and done however, there is nothing inherently wrong with what aesthetics you currently have. They're inoffensive to the eyes and allows for easy-to-read articles. The minimalism works. It's unexciting and unintuitive, but it works. And should you feel it works for you, there's no need to change anything. You will not find yourself drawing in an extensive audience with such design, but it certainly won't push anyone away either.
It's a meek but solid design.
ORGANIZATION & CATEGORIZATION
There are many essential aspects to running a blog. Probably not so many as compared to a forum or community-based website; but a blog arguably requires that its own aspects be nailed with a lot more precision than its community-based counterparts. One of these aspects is "Organization." An aspect which I feel to be one of the most underrated when it comes to running a Blog. Proper organization is quite important and will ensure that the articles your audience wants to find are easy to be found.
When I was browsing your "College Blog" to write my first impressions, I can say with certainty that my sense of direction was not impeded. I was not wandering around for days in the Lost Woods with no hope of escape. I did not have to find the seven magical McGuffins of the "College Blog" kingdom and defeat a final boss to find my way out. I'm exaggerating of course, but I've suffered some terribly unorganized blogs in the past where I've certainly felt those like I've been in those situations.
My navigational experience was quite a pleasant one, actually. I had access to not one, but two nav-menus; one for navigating blog functionality...such as the home index, a FAQ about the blog, etc. The other served for navigating the article categories themselves. It's unfortunately often that I encounter blogs with only the former kind of menu (along with perhaps a measly box off to the side), so I was most grateful for such a boon; it made my navigation of your blog smooth and easy.
This is where my praise ends, I'm afraid.
There is another aspect that ties together directly with organization. One that's equally underrated and just as equally important. The aspect I'm referring to is "Categorization." This characteristic is the primary driving force behind the efficiency and practicality of a blog.
Before you get the wrong idea, I am not implying that your articles themselves are improperly categorized; they're all very much organized to the exact specifications of your current navigation system. The problem is in the navigation system itself.
I would find it understandable if your blog catered to the lifestyle involved with college, but from what I've come to understand from reading your articles and browsing your blog, "The College Blog" is just that: A blog oriented to college and every aspect attached to it. Your navigational categories do not reflect this, however.
The worst offender, by far, is "Fashion." Why, in all the dimensions of time and space, would "fashion" be one of the defining characteristics of college? Now, it's true that you don't want to go to class and campus dressed like a total slob or tool. It's also true that you want to be dressed to impress, especially when it comes to your professors and the education staff. When it all comes down to it, however, it's really only barely relevant. Barely is certainly not enough to qualify for its own category and I find myself quite perplexed by this choice.
On a similar end, do "Living On Campus" and "Living Off Campus" qualify for their own categories either? I certainly don't believe so. "Living Off Campus" only has one article, itself. If they even deserve a category, both should be filed under a single category. Furthermore, the two of these come first on the navigation bar, adding an unwarranted accent to their importance.
So, you have three categories, all of which offer a bit too much to topics of medium importance at best. You don't have to get rid of them, per se. In fact, they're all relevant topics, just not ones deserving so much attention. My suggestion would be to merge all three of them into a single category. "Lifestyle." Or a similar title, if you can think of something more clever. Place all of your Fashion and Campus topics there. If still you want to keep them as categories, you could add quasi sub-categories through use of the tag system. Use "Lifestyle" as the primary category and add a drop-down menu to it on the navigation bar with "Living Off-Campus", "Living On Campus" and "Fashion" as the menu items. Each of these would link to their relevant tags, creating a form of sub-category but still categorizing them all in the primary category.
Also, you could desperately use a search function of some sort.
I have more to say on matters of categorization, but it ties more into your articles themselves, so I will discuss this further in the "Quality of Content" section. I'll see you there.
For now, to summarize, your organization is fine.
But your categorization is questionable.
QUALITY OF WRITING
In the last section, I discussed how underrated and important that organization and categorization where to a blog. And are they: Underrated? Most definitely. Important? Of course; but not as important as the aspect I'm about to cover in this next section. Quality of Writing. The style of one's writing "The pen is mightier than the sword", so goes the old adage, and I could not agree more. When penmanship is directed with flair and elegance, one can forge an article that captivate worlds and ends wars.
So what does your "College Blog" offer in that regard? Do your words dance on the page and mesmerize your audience?
Yes. Yes and no.
I took great care to read every article the "College Blog" had to offer me. Every last word went in, out and through my eyes until I had taken every droplet of information.
It was not a displeasure to read. Every article was detailed, sleek and professional. I came across an occasional spelling mistake or odd grammatical error at times, but they were not frequent enough to negatively affect my opinion and usually appeared in articles written by your subordinates rather than your own articles. If I had to use one word to describe the writing style of your articles, I would use "concise."
Perhaps too concise.
Much like its design, "The College Blog" lacks much in the way of personality in its quality of writing. In that sense, it blends right in. Your articles had the tendency to feel a bit bare-boned and dulled. Now, I would not go so far as to say they were "boring", but I found them to be quite lacking in flair and grace, which made the end result disappointing. Refinement without sophistication, as it were. Elegance without style. I often felt as though I were reading through a text book than I were articles. I suppose that's somewhat fitting for a blog catering to college, but the fact remains that I did not find myself enthralled or charmed by your articles, which might be an issue. A blog is read for entertainment as much as it is information and knowledge.
When it comes to your audience, you will inform, but you won't captivate. So I advise you try and keep this in mind and work to better your articles in the future. Crack the occasional joke; make an appropriate metaphor or two. Write as though you're enjoying the article and not simply serving as exposition. Don't go overboard or create an unnecessarily long article, but do embellish. Entertain as well as inform.
Your audience will thank you for the experience.
QUALITY OF CONTENT
We arrive at the final aspect of this review, and by far the most important one; the grand finale, one might say. "Quality of Content." This is the most prominent and defining characteristic of a blog. It's why an audience visits a blog. Article content is the entire reason for a blog's existence. Without it, a blog means absolutely nothing. And you can't simply add whatever comes to mind. Content itself serves a purpose; whether it be to inform, or entertain, content is only valuable if the audience feels genuinely enriched after digesting it.
So, would I say I was enriched by the experience after imbibing all the content that your "College Blog" offered me? You're going to hate me for this, but...
I was not enriched.
Now, before jumping to conclusions, there is nothing particularly wrong with the writing of the articles themselves (aside from being a bit dull) as I outlined in the last section. Your articles lack flair, but they're generally well-written. The faltering point lies in what they're about; their general content, topic and information.
You do not offer essential knowledge, need-to-knows, or generally helpful information. What you offer is "common sense." Truth be told, every blog should have common-sense articles; they serve as a reminder to the more scatter-brained, lazy and absent-minded individuals that they should really be making better use of their time. The problem is that "The College Blog" consists of almost nothing but common-sense articles with perhaps a helpful tip or two.
Yes, I realize I should not be spending weekends getting drunk at parties late at night. Credit cards are not toys with infinite spending limits, I know. It's pretty evident that I should not be a complete nutter to my professor and pulling at my classmate's hair on my first day of class. Oh, believe me, I have no intention of blowing $400 on that guitar.
Information without knowledge, to put it frankly. There are occasionally some clever tips, such as the rather interesting envelop system in the article on Impulse Buying, but often not enough to make reading the article truly worthwhile. As I mentioned previously, it would make sense if it were a blog centered purely on college lifestyle, but "The College Blog" appears to want more than that.
I asked five acquaintances of mine (all of them college students) on their opinion of "The College Blog" and whether or not it offered them any assistance. All of them looked over several of your articles. But not one of them had anything positive to say about content. When I asked them to sum up their thoughts on your articles in one sentence, this is what they said...
"Not even remotely helpful."
~Joseph Bennett, 3rd Year Student of Michigan State University
"It feels like a generic blog with somewhat relative content."
~Jessie Ricker, 1st Year Student of Stetson University
"Eh."
~Lewis [CENSORED], 1st Year Student of Scotland Dundee College
"Yeah, nothing that I don't already know. Kind of a waste of time."
~Simon Black, 1st Year Student of Sierra Nevada College
"Okay, I guess. Nothing that great though."
~[Anonymous], 2nd Year Student of San Diego State University
Having read everything the College Blog had to offer myself, I found one article that was genuinely helpful. "Textbook Hunting: Top 8 Places to Download Textbooks". There were also a few articles that came close to being genuinely informative, but didn't quite get the cigar. "Want a job? Study Computer Science", for instance, would have been an excellent choice of article if it had only covered more. It told me why I should study computer science and why it would be useful, but failed to provide more specific information.
You are missing a truly golden opportunity here. Those considering college and high school seniors especially don't want common-sense tips about living in college, they want informative content that can tell them about what college can offer their lives.
As I mentioned in the "Organization & Categorization" section, I find it a bit silly to have three primary categories for college lifestyle. Turn those three into one, then create a few entirely different categories truly deserving and desperately needed within "The College Blog." Career Courses. Course Subjects (Calculus / Quadratics / Etc). Perhaps even a category for notable individual colleges themselves.
Fill those categories with information that college applicants and residents can truly make use of. For Career Courses, do some research and provide articles with specific data on career paths; such as: estimated salaries, how long it'll take to finish your education for that field, what the career entails, what courses one could expect in their education in that field, etc. For something like Course Subjects, elaborate and go into detail on more difficult subjects, explain their concept and solutions in detail, etc. Generally, give more specific data in your articles that can serve as accurate research and information for an applicant or student.
This is truly what the "College Blog" is lacking in. If you can alleviate that and push out much articles of far greater quality and use, I have no doubt your blog could become an extraordinary blog.
Sadly, in its current state, the content might as well make it a book with empty pages.
FINAL REMARKS
Your College Blog has excellent potential. I know more than a few college attendants and those considering application that could desperately use proper advice in this regard. It's a major life-affecting decision, after all. Unfortunately, little has been done to reach that potential. Your blog suffers from generic design, questionable categorization, a writing style leaned more towards the dull side and common-sense content that servers very little to assist potential applicants and students that might read your blog.
If all of these issues could be solved, I know that your blog could become quite a popular read. It caters to a very wide audience and having an area for condensed informative content would be a life-saver to many a student or applicant.
In any case, I wish you the best of luck with "The College Blog" and hope that success is eventually granted to it.
Generally pleasing to the eye. Minimalism makes articles easy to read, but it suffers from lack of identity and comes off more as generic.
Perfect organization. Dubious categorization.
Sleek, concise and professional. Lacking in any flair or creative writing.
A harsh, perhaps even undeserved rating, I know. But your current content serves little more as reminders to use common sense. Lacks any specific, statistical data that would come in great use to a student.
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