Website Review of: Search Engine Panel

Getting To Know the website.

What is the purpose of this website?

Search Engine Optimization

Recent Blog Posts

Hitwise’s March 2008 U.S. Search Results - Some statistics for the 2008 year of which search engines are being used by users.

User-Generated Content and the Power of Blogs - An article that talks about the growing content of the internet, and how user generated content is increasing.

Microhoo Takeover Battle Rages On - Talks about the recent events between Microsoft and yahoo.

Index and Root Pages Merged by Google - A post that talks about Google changing the way they handle the index page/root page of a website.

Acquiring .EDU Links Through Yahoo Search - A post that gives details on how to see where your competitors are acquiring their .EDU links.

Website Review of: Michael Aulia’s Tech Blog

Getting To Know the website.

What is the purpose of this website?

Tech news, personal reviews, and a geek to geek’s ramblings.

Who is the owner of the website?

Michael Reza Aulia, a full time software researched and development manager at an IT company located in Melbourne, Australia.

Michael is currently an active member of the Emmanuel Baptist Church. He plays the bass, and is involved in other ministries in the area.

Michael considers himself a geek, and enjoys playing games, loves everything about computers, and technology.

Recent Blog Posts

PC Games: Frontlines: Fuel of War Review/Impression - A great review of Michael’s personal experiences with the Frontlines fps (first person shooter) game. I have never played the game myself, however I would have to side with Michael on the issue of splash damage in the game. As an experienced fps player myself, I can vouch that, the usual tactic with a rocket gun, is to shoot near the enemy’s feet. Strange, that the game does not account for splash damage as heavily.

On a business note, I would say to Michael, to add an affiliate link for others to purchase the game.

The answer for “Guess the right girl”… - Wow, out of all the initial 8 choices, its so hard to distinguish who is a boy and who is the one and only girl. You might as well just pick any random one, lol.

Free Lapbooks for Sunday School Teachers - Good post, and I am sure this one has likely received alot of search traffic. Doing a search on Google for, ‘Free lapbooks for teachers’ yields Michael’s website at number 6. And doing a search for ‘Free Lapbooks for Sunday School teachers’, yields a position of #2. So this post likely is receiving alot of other nice searches as well.

A good free tool for your Windows housekeeping - Great post, and explanations of how Glary Utilities can be a helpful tool to maintain your windows running smoothly.

Don’t like WordPress “Fresh” administration theme? Try Fluency - Useful post, although one problem is the image blew the first paragraph. The image has been resized, and you can’t click on it. If you know what you are doing, then you can just right click on it, and view the image in its original size. However, I am sure not alot of people know that you can do that. One suggestion, I would say is, instead to resize the original picture, and have it as a thumbnail link to the original image.

Final Thoughts on Getting to know the website

Great content, keep up the good work!

Theme / Design Critique

Header

Fantastic! I love it!

Sidebar

Overall the side bar is laid out very well. However I do have some suggestions for Michael.

I would recommend to Michael to change the layout of the adsense code. To do a test. Instead of the 160×600 pixel Wide Skyscraper adsense unit. Try the Medium Rectangle or Large Rectangle above the categories. In all of my websites, the rectangle has performed the best. Keep the same colors as is though.

The other adsense placement is, to place another of the same 160×600 wide Skyscraper below the first one.

Other than the adsense placement, there are no other recommendations I can give to enhancing your sidebar. Your sidebar is really well built.

Final Thoughts On Theme Design

Out of all the reviews that I’ve done, I must say this one of the best themes overall. Everything threw out the theme is really clean, blended and well presented.

As with tradition of the JeanCosta.com blog, Thursday’s is Review Thursdays. If you want me to review your website, then read the post on how you can get a free constructive website review.

Website Review of: Josh’s Unconventional Marketing Blog

Getting To Know the website.

What is the purpose of this website?

Dedicated to the unconventional marketing techniques displayed on and off line. Writings will be unique and full of passion. There are high goals and expectations for this blog and for the ideas being presented. Full participation and interaction is encouraged.

Who is the owner of the website?

Josh Whitford, a graduate of Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. He was an employee at a call center in Fargo, ND, however shortly after Christmas 2007 he quit his day job and is now working for himself online.

Recent Blog Posts

Backpacking Breakfast ND 2008 - A video from Josh’s backpacking trip.

Sunday’s Random Rants 3-30 - Just a quick update post on what Josh is doing, and then a link to a youtube video of some April Fool Jokes.

Nothing brings people back like FREE BEER. - A great lesson to be learned about hidden marketing influences.

Hi y’all, Sitehoppin delivers traffic and now 25% OFF - Seemed to be a good post, good effort was put forward towards it.

March stats on the Unconventional Marketing Blog - A good post that outlines the short success that Josh has achieved in a short period of time. In his first official full month of blogging, Josh has achieved a total of 51,489 unique visitors. My only question of curiosity would be, is that number “absolute” unique visitors? And I would definitely want to see perhaps a graph of where the percentage of his visitors are coming from. Whether they are from referrals, search engine traffic etc. The more

Final Thoughts on Getting to know the website

Overall pretty good content, you can tell that Josh keeps true to his words on trying to put out the best effort that he can. I hope he continues on the good content, and continues to improve.

Theme / Design Critique

Header

It is different, and definitely unconventional, fits the theme. One key link that is missing though is a link to an archive page. One would be very useful!

Sidebar

Taking a look at the side bar, there is nothing that screams out to me that shouldn’t be there. Theres is not an overload on the side bar, nor is there too little, it feels right. One thing that bothers me though, is that there is no border protection. A nice border to distinguish the sidebar from the main content, would go really well with the theme.

Final Thoughts On Theme Design

Border up the theme, it feels empty.

Website Review of: Duckeldannys Money Blog

Getting To Know the website.

What is the purpose of this website?

To teach other bloggers on how to make money online. Topics range from Affiliate, seo, money, blogging and others.

Who is the owner of the website?

I was not able to find any information on who the owner of the website is. All I can guess is that the owner’s name is Duckel Danny. Although after doing a small search on google, I was able to find out at that he is an 18 year old from Germany.

Honestly, there really needs to be an about page. Readers of the blog are very likely to want to know more about Duckel danny.

Recent Blog Posts

How to Hide your Affiliate Links

How to Hide your Affiliate Links - An excellent post that highlights some of the ways how users can hide affiliate links. Danny explains the methods of meta refresh, php 301, .htaccess 301, JavaScript redirect, and then he adds on his own personal method that he enjoys the most.

Entrecard Me! Plugin for Wordpress - A post that gives reference to a useful wordpress plugin, for bloggers who use entrecard.

SEO Elite Review - A review of the SEO Elite software, a software that helps you to submit your Website into Search Engines and Directories. Although to be honest, the post doesn’t really give a review on the software. An extensive and personal review by Duckeldanny would go a long way.

Useful Free eBooks by Chitika - Just a link to a free ebook. Some comments on Duckeldanny’s opinions on the ebook would be very beneficial to the post.

Make Money with BlgAds - A short post about a blog advertising network. The post needs more though. The post is about “make money with BlgAds”, however it does not really identify how to make money, or how other webmasters have made money with BlgAds.

Final Thoughts Comments on Getting to know the website

In the description meta tag for the blog, you say that you are a teacher, trying to help other bloggers learn how to make money online. However, to be perfectly honest, there is a lack of teaching. Perfect case in point is the ‘Make money with BlgAds’ post. You point to the website for the opportunity, however, you make no mention on how bloggers can make money with Blg Ads.

The ‘Seo Elite Review’ post. When I first clicked to read the post, I thought I would be getting a review. However, there isn’t a review. Just a generic message promoting your own affiliate link. If you want to have better sales rate, and conversation rates. You really need to do a serious personal review of the Seo Elite program.

Theme / Design Critique

Header

The header image is alright, but the biggest current problem that I see, is that it takes approximately 537 pixels in height to get to the content to read. The most common resolution users currently use on the web is 1024×764 pixels. So you have 764 pixels in height, then you have to reduce the pixel height for the browser header and information. So do you see how Users of 1024×764 might not even be able to see any content when they land on your page? Not good.

One note about the archive page. It is very hard to see the history of the posts. When you click the archive link, you can only view 5 at a time. Thats not good. As a reader, I want fast and easy access to be able to read the archive page. What I would recommend, is utilizing a similar archive page to mine.

Pictured below are the settings I am using for the archive plugin, in order to get a clean feel for the page, otherwise the default feels way too spammy.

Sidebar

It is way too busy. Information overload, and the other thing is that the more things you have in yourside bar, the more time the readers needs to wait for the website to finish loading. If the user is on dial-up you can forget about them staying and reading the website. Unless they are very patient on website loading.

An example of something you can eliminate, the Alexa rank tool bar, theres no real point to having it in the sidebar. Most readers reading the blog, don’t really care what your Alexa rank is. If they do care, they probably know how to check it themselves.

Final Comments

Considering that you just started your blog, about 2-3 months ago, it is just my personal opinion, that your blog is way too spammy, way too early. It almost feels like you are putting more emphasis on generative some quick money, over creating quality content that will make readers want to come back, again and again. Focus on creating rich, and original quality content, and the money will come later.

Website Review of: JJMelo

Getting To Know the website.

What is the purpose of this website?

To discuss various topics ranging from freelancing to website design, to Joe’s hobbies.

Who is the owner of the website?

Joe a 24 year old born in Medellin, Columbia, and is currently residing in Los Angeles, California. He is an entrepreneur, network engineer, graphics designer, marketing director and accountant all wrapped in one!

He enjoys learning to play the guitar, radio controlled cars, helis and planes. Joe also enjoys camping, loud rock concerts, snowboarding and traveling.

Recent Blog Posts

AVOID AVG 8.0 AT ALL COSTS! - A short post, but a useful one.

The best password-remembering tip you’ll ever encounter - A fantastic post where Joe shares a method to create safer passwords, and passwords that can be remembered easier, with a pattern.

What’s up with Paypal? - I liked this post, but I think it had more potential. The only let down is the lack of details, and words. With only 199 words that make up this post, the post could have had more words, and images.

Settting up and maintaining Mozy properly - A post that talks about a program to protect their data at a very reasonable price. Oh and by the way, setting is spelled wrong in your post title

My First Mac Rant - I liked the post, and enjoyed reading it. But I feel like, there should have been images showcasing the differences. That would have really spiced up the post.

Final Thoughts on Getting to know the website

The overall content of the website is good and on target. However, I am a fan of longer posts, and more detailed posts. If anything, that is the one things I would suggest to Joe.

Theme / Design Critique

Header

I like the header image, its not too flashy, and it represents what Joe likes, with the heli on the right.

Contact

Right now, when you visit the contact page, you can see an email address, and a screename for instant messenger. I would highly recommend a contact form page. Not only it is more efficient, it is also safer than leaving an email address.

Sidebar

Introduction

I really like the introduction part in the sidebar. It quickly introduces the website owner to the new visitors, who might want to know.

Sponsors

I am wondering if Joe will eventually sell add space under the sponsors in the sidebar. Right now there is no indication of it.

Final Thoughts On Theme Design

Overall a very clean design. The colors are easy on the eyes, and looks great.

Final Comments

I would highly recommend adding an archive page to the web site. Similar to the one I am running here at my web site http://www.jeancosta.com/archives.

Pictured below are the settings I am using for the archive plugin, in order to get a clean feel for the page, otherwise the default feels way too spammy.