Chris Brandrick

This is the third post in my series of BlogReviews, if you are interested in receiving a free blog review, please click here to find out more information.

ReviewBunker is a relatively new blog which launched in November of last year. It has a simple yet ambitious goal to review ‘everything’. It would probably be more appropriate to say that ReviewBunker will review ‘anything’.

To those new to the site you are instantly greeted with a simple yet concise blurb of text as to what the blog is about, which contains links to other sections of the site, this is a great way of letting visitors know what your about, although a suggested addition to this front page presence would be to add a link to the ‘request review‘ page.

The content on ReviewBunker is random to say the least, and for those of you looking for a review blog which concentrates on a specific area then this blog is not for you. ReviewBunker covers a wide range of products, websites and services from things like Brownie Cake Mix, Office boxes, even movies and restaurants. Despite this random mix, the writing is very concise and informative as well as pleasantly informal. If you do happen to find a review that takes your interest then I recommend reading it, as without a doubt it will be helpful.

ReviewBunker also offers readers the opportunity to become a guest blogger and review anything for the blog, so if you are looking for an outlet to review something, or anything, then this may be worth checking out.

The site uses a free blog design, which is customized with an appropriate header image, the colour scheme is easy on the eyes and overall flows well, and boasts well integrated AdSense adverts. Oh, and it has the Entrecard widget, which is great.

My only concern for ReviewBunker is that its content area is to broad, and it may be wise to cut this down, visitors will never know what to expect. Maybe even just reviewing offline products exclusively, and not reviewing websites. Reduce confusion.

A well written blog, with potential to shine. Focus and concentrate your niche to a more specific area, and keep up the good work.

http://www.reviewbunker.com/

I recently outlined my plans to be making £100 ($200) per month from this blog by the end of 2008, and although this may not seem like much to some bigger bloggers, I think its a realistic goal that I have good chance of reaching.

In order to monetize my blog I decided to sign up for various review networks and try them out, and recently I got approved for Smorty. Smorty describes itself as a tool to connect various advertisers with bloggers like myself. Smorty works in a similar fashion to other advertising networks in that advertisers can pay bloggers to write opinions and thoughts in a post and link back to the advertisers site. With smorty you get paid to blog.

Upon signing up, my blog got approved rather quickly (impressive), and without little hesitation I logged into this blog for money service and was instantly greeted with four money making opportunities, some I will take others I may not, but either way you will see the results here at ChrisBrandrick.com. Whether the opportunities will continue to roll in is yet to be seen, but Smorty has a sleek interface which is easy to use, navigate, and offers you your current opportunities at a glance. Simple.

Once you have earned enough you can get paid via PayPal, and for those of you with multiple blogs Smorty supports you to.

Smorty - Get paid to blog. Check it out, what have you got to lose!

It’s been nearly a month since I installed the Entrecard widget here on my blog, and I am more than happy with the benefits gained from adding it.

Haven’t heard of Entrecard? Here is a brief description of what to expect from this social blogging tool:

Entrecard is the first and only free exchange network for 125×125 ads. Through this revolutionary platform, you can advertise your own 125×125 Entrecard on any blog in the network, for free, for a number of days.

Since installing the 125 by 125 widget here at ChrisBrandrick.com my visitors numbers have doubled, with a good majority of that new traffic coming directly from Entrecard. This increase in visitor numbers is also down to me blogging more, but still the incoming traffic sure is encouraging and proves that this advertising system works. For the traffic benefits alone Entrecard is worth looking into, but it offers so much more than that. In the month I have been a member I have found several new blogs which I now regularly read and enjoy checking.

I highly advise installing this hot widget, not only for traffic but to increase your RSS count, readership and earn new blogging friends.

This review is part of my free blog review offer.

Bloggin-Ads impressively aims to review a new blog every single day. The owner claims that his inspiration for creating the site was to enable smaller sites to get some exposure along with helpful advice, and I admire that goal.

This site has a really impressive backlog of blog entries, and as although it may not be an actual review every day, it appears Mike and his wife sure have been posting consistently since the blog started in October of last year (see archives). The daily posts made are informative, detailed, and in some instances can offer solid advice and ‘food for thought’ for any blogger. All posts offer up social link options, like bookmarking and adding to digg for example, a good move which will help bring in new and returning visitors. Other positive social aspects of the blog include MyBlogLog and Blogosphere widgets among others.

Additionally to Mike and Michelle posting on Bloggin-Ads the site also employs an interesting user-content style approach which allows registered users the opportunity to have their own review(s) posted. These reviews can be about a blog of the users choosing, and of course their own. This is a unique way of gaining additional content, and a nice way for start up bloggers to get some external exposure and link-backs. It’s like guest blogging for all, an open way for the blog owners to get more blog posts, and more importantly they can pick and choose.

The site has an About page which actually informs the reader what the site is about, it’s inspirations, and it’s overall goals, if only the same could be said for mine! More blogs, mine included, need to work on there about pages. Here is a good post from Skelliewag about writing a good about page. Other pages include the advertising page, which offers up various reasonably priced options, and a basic contact page, with links to social networking sites along with the expected email form.

One thing Bloggin-Ads does have which surprised me is a forum. This surprise was only down to seeing very very few blogs with forums, and as expected the forum was quiet with only 4 members posting in a measly 5 topics (at time of writing). Now a forum may well be a worthwhile addition once the blog grows and has users wanting to discuss and request reviews, but right now it seems like a worthless addition to an otherwise good site.

The site is using a good colourful free theme, and although it is a suitable theme, when the blog grows I suggest going custom.

If the blog keeps up it’s healthy rate of posting and continues to offer free reviews I can’t see why the site will not succeed in growing. Remove the forum for now, and keep on blogging.

Bloggin-Ads is a blog about blogs.
http://bloggin-ads.com/

Before I begin, just a quick word, hoping you all had a good Christmas.

For the first in a series of blog reviews I will be taking a look at DailyNintendo.

DailyNintendo, as the name suggests, is a blog which concentrates on aiming to deliver daily news about the popular videogaming company Nintendo. The site appears to have started posting Nintendo news back in March of 2007 and since then has been reporting various informal tidbits of information at a healthy rate. Despite having a healthy flow of news, it is worth noting that this rate is far from the advertised ‘daily’ (more so every couple of days), maybe something for the site writers to work on in order to stay true their name.

In terms of design the blog has a simple layout which appears washed out and unfortunately somewhat bland. The world of Nintendo is bright, colourful and fun, maybe the blog should reflect this. The header image is a positive step in the right direction, offering the visitor various imagery from Nintendo history (just refresh or visit another page), something no doubt any Nintendo fan would appreciate; although it may worth stylizing the DailyNintendo logo to increase recognition of the sites name and on a whole the sites identity. A splash of colour and a tweak to the logo will go a very long way.

Upon opening the blog, my eyes were immediately drawn to the Google AdSense advertisements on the right hand side, now this may well be down to my personal familiarity in dealing with AdSense, but the placement of these ads are very apparent and will probably result in very little organic clicks. The AdSense spots underneath each individual news post are much more effective, and no doubt receives more clicks. Check your stats and if so maybe consider removing that unsightly ad spot on the right.

At the very footer of the page a blurb of text quotes ‘Podcast Powered by podPress (v8.5)’, DailyNintendo may well have a podcast, but I can’t see it, and this is a problem as podcasts are great ways to bring return visitors and a superb way to interact with your loyal site fans. If the site doesn’t have a podcast, then why is it there? Am I missing something?

DailyNintendo is connected. Each post offers the reader the opportunity to bookmark it and add it to a wide selection of social sites, such as social news sites like digg and del.icio.us, and even networking sites like Facebook. This is a great way to get the site exposure. As expected of any blog you can also subscribe via the RSS feed, this is offered to the user via a small graphic on the right sidebar, and should be exposed more (bigger more attractive RSS image perhaps?) to increase readership; maybe even run a contest to get people to subscribe.

This blog delivers content at a healthy rate, but could be improved, as lets not forget, content is king. Spruce up the colours (Maybe a classic Nintendo red, or the Wii’s subtle blues?) and pay some attention to the logo. With these changes implemented no doubt your visitors will appreciate them, and no doubt you will too. Keep at it.

www.dailynintendo.com

When coding any website it is imperative to check that your code renders in a suitable fashion (preferably valid of course) on all browsers, be it Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer or  Opera  making sure your site is accessible to as many potential visitors is something that can not be ignored; and why should it? If you decided to code for just one browser exclusively you would be denying yourselves could be visitors.

Of course checking that your site looks right in individual browsers can be a chore, so before downloading every browser on the planet make sure your code is valid, sure your code may well be pretty stable but different browsers has a habit unfortunately of rendering code in various alternative ways.

I recently stumbled upon a helpful site which allows you to enter any given URL to see how it appears in various browser windows, in fact it offers over 15 browsers (various versions) to try it in.  The site in question is Browser Shots (http://browsershots.org), it offers a simple interface and plenty of options for your desired results, from window size (800×600, 1024 etc), colour depth, and whether flash, javascript and java should be enabled and if so by which version. Upon submitting your desired URL the site takes a few minutes (so be patient) to retrieve your results, and when it does you will be presented with clear images of how your site looks, so click through them to spot any inconsistency’s.

If your currently in need of checking cross browser compatibility for your site Browser Shots is a highly recommended solution.

That’s right, from now until the end of January I shall be offering free blog reviews on ChrisBrandrick.com. If you would like your blog reviewing just check the following conditions and get in touch:

• Your blog must have been active for over 30 days.
• No blogs featuring explicit or illegal content.
• I can decline to review any blog.
• A backlink to my blog on your site (in any form, be it a blog post or text link) would be appreciated.

The reviews will feature my opinions on your area of content, the content itself, blog design, update frequency and so on. The reviews will be done on first come first served basis. You will receive notification from me when your blog review goes live on the site, or if you get declined. Just use the following form to get in touch, and be sure to include all the necessary details!

NO LONGER AVAILABLE, OFFER OVER, MANY THANKS TO ALL THOSE THAT SUBMITTED.

Thanks for the submissions in advance!

If you have never visited ChrisBrandrick.com there is a good chance you are here thanks to Entrecard, but if you are here wondering what Entrecard is then this blog post sets out to explain this new ‘Web 2.0′ service.

Entrecard (www.entrecard.com) is a recently launched website which offers the opportunity to share a ‘digital business card’ via your own personal blog. It’s a simple yet brilliant concept which allows site owners to widen there online horizons, find new blogs, advertise their own blog, and up their RSS count.

Upon signing up you create an advert that represents your site, and then start earning credit to use on advertising. Credit is earned via sharing your advert (entrecard/business card) on other peoples site, and when others leave there card for you to check out.

With this credit building up, it can then be used to advertise your card on a external blog of your choice (depending on several factors).

My Entrecard section can be seen on the right side of my blog under ‘Blog of the day’, so if you are already a user drop me your card! The site is growing fast and with good reason, it offers a free way to advertise and a superb way to expand your network.

Recommended.

Recently a friend recommended an interesting little website, DailyLit is a simple site which through the power of email (and RSS) you can read a book of your choice. The site has a simple clean look and it just requires you to choose a book from the somewhat small selection, and sign up via email or rss, and then each day you will receive a chapter or section of that book.

The idea behind the site is that those that find themselves lacking the time to sit down and read and commit to a book can have it in easy daily chunks, and although the site is still ironing out some copyright issues to make more books available it seems like an interesting idea worth keeping an eye.

Check it out.

While using stumbleupon earlier today I stumbled across this website: ‘Don’tClickIt‘. The site is simple but interesting and questions the ideas behind clicking on the web and explores alternatives including various mouse-over gestures. The site also includes a handful of stats on how many visitors clicked while using the page, and it’s high! An interesting look at web usage, be sure to give it a read, but don’t click!

http://www.dontclick.it/