chrissie

Bloggeries is going to look at another personal blog today, and this one belongs to Nathan Pralle, a computer programmer writing from Sheffield, Iowa, USA. The blog is called PhilosYphia. Nathan uses this blog as a means to provide his own commentary on life, events, ideas, and throws in the occasional emotional rant or plea as well. He hops that you find something of value here, or at least amusement, which besides using the writing as a cathartic act, is why he writes the blog. You can get to know Nathan better and get to know some of his thoughts, reflections, and rants from any of his recent bloggeries: Cuddle Me Tightly, Let the Little Ones Drink, Images from a Closet Box, How to Revitalize your Refrigerator Door Gasket, 30 Years of Breathing, Distraught Lesbian Parental Woes, If I had Ten Thousand Dollars, My Child’s Freedom Looks Bleak, Looks go a Long Way, and Sometimes I’m such a Male.

The site offers a clean and well-organized design and this makes it very easy to navigate. Posts are centralized and are black text on white background with links highlighted in a green shade and most posts are accompanied by relevant pictures. There is both a left and right navigation bar and a top navigation menu as well. In the top navigation menu you will find the Home link, Email subscription link, Colophon, About Me page, and an ad link for I love my Phone Company. In the left navigation bar you will find a top commenters menu, Other Messes of Words menu, and buttons for where the blog is listed in directories. In the right navigation bar you will find subscribe buttons, latest posts menu, pull down menus for the archives by individual post, and a pull down menu for the categories sections which contains quite an eclectic mix of choices for categories on everything from emotions to marriage to travel and everything in between. You will also find the blog’s monetization through some advertising in this bar.

I will go ahead with a 4 for this blog. I think the blog scores well on just about every criteria. The blog is clearly well liked which is noted through its healthy number of comments in just about every post. If the blogger is interested in monetization I might recommend some AdSense or more advertising to take advantage of this healthy readership. I think the navigation and appearance scores are very good as the site is clean and well organized and thus, easy to navigate. The content scores are good as well with each post being very well written with clear, intellectual content. The only change I would suggest on the content is that the posts be broken down a little as they are currently a little lengthy and wordy. This makes for a long read and the blogger may lose some readers as a result. This could be changed by either breaking down the posts into a few posts over the day or over a couple of days. The blogger is not currently writing every day so the activity scores are hurt a little bit, but again, this could be changed by breaking up posts and spreading them out. Otherwise however, the blog is well written and aesthetically appealing and this all clearly sustains a healthy readership. With its wide range of topics it appeals to a large audience and I think this blog will continue to see its current success.

-Chrissie

If you like reading international blogs, then you will really find this one unique in its own right. The blog is called Trendy Palermo Viejo. The author of the blog is Nancy, previously known as Dalila, and she lives and works in Palermo, Buernos Aires, Argentina. The blog is unique in its own right in that it is the first trilingual blog about shops, restaurants, hotels, places, and events of Palermo Viejo which happens to be the trendiest neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argetina. She writes the Trendy Palermo Viejo blog because well, trends happen too fast for print so she brings it all to you in three beautiful languages. You can check out any of her recent posts to get a true taste for this trilingual niche: Casa FOA 2007, Today is the World Lymphoma Awareness Day, New Business by Celebrities in PV, Photos by Nancy Kulfas Sept. 11, Jewish Music and Tradition in Palermo, More changes in the neighborhood, Photos from a Neighbor in Buenos Aires Argentina.

The blog is very easy to navigate. Posts are right marginalized and are black text on neutral background with faint pastel polka dots adding just the right amount of color to the background. A few posts have relevant pictures or videos attached, and all posts are written in three distinct languages. I am NOT trilingual so I am not 100% certain what the other two, besides English are, so to prevent errors I will not venture to guess. You will just have to check it out yourself! In the left navigation bar you will find the about page; archives menu going back to 2006; advertising; flickr album; menus for shopping, eating, walking, lodging; map of argentina; blogroll, recent readers widget; and a scrolling menu for recent news in the area. Each post does have labels attached to it, but there is no current categories menu despite the fact that there is space in the navigation system dedicated to a categories section.

I give this one a 4/5 overall, and I think that the activity is hurting the mark the most. Currently the blog is updated every few days to a week at times and the blog would probably score better if there was daily content. I also think the lack of a categories section in a blog of this niche is affecting the mark a little bit. With so many elements to this blog – dining, shopping, etc, this blog would do very well with a categories menu to aid in navigation. The content scores are very good as this blog offers a trilingual approach in absolutely every element to the blog which must be very challenging at times. I find this trilingual effect adds to the uniqueness of both the blog and its niche as well. The readership clearly enjoys this blog which is evidenced by its regular comments and active email feed of 89 readers. I don’t think it would hurt the blogger to add some AdSense or other advertising to the blog to take advantage of this healthy readership and monetize the blog a little more. Overall however, this was a very pleasant and interesting read and I recommend it to anyone that has an interest in international affairs.

-Chrissie

If you are a car aficionado and are looking for a new blog that will feed your love for engines, you may want to check out Babez a blog that offers car news, pictures, and wallpapers for all of the pretty vehicles of the world. This blog started in December 200 and was initially intended to be a support page for the luxury car magazine Classic Driver. But it turned into a blog presenting car news from all over the world on both classic and luxury vehicles. This blog publishes magazine articles from official car manufacturer news sources and with that offers the car lovers high-quality pictures with each of its reviews. You can check out some of its reviews by looking at any of its recent bloggeries: BF Performance GT 660, BF Performance GT 540, Audi Metroproject, Hamann Porsche Cayenne Cyclone, Hamann BMW X5 Flash, Hamann Lamborghini Gallardo Victory, Hamann Thunder, Toyota IQ, and BMW 1 Series tii.

I found navigation on this blog very difficult. In fact the further I went into the blog it seemed it was more a site for advertising than anything else. The blog starts off with advertising located even within the header. Posts are centralized with navigation bars on either side. In the left navigation bar you will find nothing but advertising banners or AdSense if you move within content of the blog. In the right navigation bar you will find a feed subscription and a top car links menu. The footer is somewhat difficult to navigate, or understand, I am not really certain what the links are in the footer. Missing from the blog navigation system are elements that make a blog look like a blog – Recent Posts Menu, Categories Menu, or even a blog roll. There is a large number of posts on the opening page and each post contains a link to take you to more pictures a full review of the vehicle being highlighted. This is one element of the blog that will appeal to the readers is the pictoral content. Anyone that has an interest in looking at beautiful cars will not be disappointed with this blog as it contains several pictures accompanied with every post.

That being said I can only go with a 2/5 on this blog, as its wealth of pictures is the only appealing thing I found with this site. The activity scores however are poor with total lack of regular and frequent posting. I mean on the front page I’m seeing posts that are a year old! As mentioned, the blog is very difficult to navigate due to its extreme presence of advertising. This also affects the appearance mark for the blog. The content does not score well as the content is not actually authored by the blog owner, each post contains a note saying ‘text and pictures courtesy of…”. Overall the blog needs to be neatened up a little bit with some of the advertising being more efficiently formatted. I also think some original content from the author would do this blog a world of good. If however one is inclined to only view pictures of pretty cars, this blog will serve you well, thought it will take you some time to get through the advertising to reach the meat of the vehicle pictures. If this blog were to get a make over and started posting it could be good as it’s already an older established blog.

-Chrissie