Enkay Blog

Review: Is Life Really Colorful?

Abhijeet is the man behind the blog called “Life Is Colourful“. He has been the Top Commentator so many months that I have decided to give him the ad spot for as long as he is on top of that list. I subscribe to Abhijeet’s blog where he talks about everything from SEO, Affiliate Advertising and Google among several other things. As many of you may not know, the price of a Review through ReviewMe has now been raised to $100 to keep up with the other bloggers but you can still purchase a review for a discounted price directly through my blog. The price is $20 directly so thats about 80% off. Anyway, getting back to Life Is Colourful, you will notice that Abhijeet posts a few times a week and he was the one that informed me about how one can get reconsidered for being penalized on their Google Page Rank.

Design
Overall, I like the design on the blog but I do suggest that what is missing is some branding. Yes, the theme has been slightly customized but I would like to see what I call, a “differentiating factor” or something that sets this blog apart from others that use the same theme. This can probably be done with a customized header. The colors work well and the RSS Subcriber button is also placed in an appropriate place which is good.

There was an issue that I saw and even though I fall under the same category, I noticed that Abhijeet has a few too many ads on the website. I counted the ad blocks and came up with 6 total ad blocks and I am including a marked image to show that.

Another thing that I really missed was an About page. I can relate Abhijeet with LifeIsColourful.com but I was hoping I could get a little more information about the man behind the blog and things such as where he is from, what he does currently and things of that nature.

The thing that I really liked was the way he integrated MyAvatars into his comments. The image is displayed and then besides it is a dialogue box with the comment in it. I have had so many issues trying to get mine to work properly but that is probably the most likeable integration of MyAvatars in a blog.

Content
Abhijeet has been able to maintain a good frequency of posting and that has definitely helped his blog quite a bit and his posts itself are very well written and to the point. He doesn’t try to make it complex for his readers and that works to his advantage.

I also liked the fact that he has a Disclosure Policy in the navigation bar. Although, I have never felt the need for a disclosure policy, it can be useful to those who may object to some aspect of your blog content and by having a disclosure policy you can do away with all those people who have issues with regards to what you blog about.

One more suggestion that I would like to give Abhijeet is that, he might want to consider moving to the 3-column design of this theme and make the font of his content and sidebars a little bigger. I am used to reading small and large text but it can get to be a strain after a while for some people. I have kept mine at 11pt or 12pt font I believe but I think the theme itself has a stylesheet.css that sets the font at 10px which can be quite small. In comparison, the Google Adsense block on the left has a great font size and maybe making it a little bigger can help him.

So lets break it down to the Pros & Cons:

Pros:
- Great Theme Choice for the blog
- Location of RSS feed button is excellent
- Including Top Commentators is a good way to recognize your readers
- Nice Integration of MyAvatars in comments
- Good Frequency and Quality of Content

Cons:
- A few too many ad blocks
- Need an About Page to tell readers more about the author

Suggestions:
- Possible switch to 3-column design
- Increase the font size
- Cut down to 4 Adblocks from 6 AdBlocks
- Center Align the Feedburner Ticker and the RSS button below it

Hopefully those tips will help you out Abhijeet and I hope you like the review. I am sorry for the delay in getting this out faster! So go ahead and check out Life Is Colourful for a great read! Have a great rest of the weekend guys!

CellWare Reviewed!

I recently reviewed an offer from Cellware to review their website. This offer was placed through SponsoredReviews and so I decided to check it out. Most of us use a cell phone and every so often you want to liven things up with new ringttones, wallpapers, videos, games or applications and Cellware allows you to do exactly that. Cellware claims itsself to be the first mobile social networking website that offers content geared towards cell phones. I haven’t been around the mobile website market as yet so to me, it seems like it is the first of its kind. I browsed around to their blog and found out that they were launched less than a month ago in New York City. I have seen several mobile content websites on the internet but I have to be completely honest, these guys seem to be very professional about it.

The reason they call it a “social networking website” is because they actually allow their members to make money. If you are a little creative and you can create a ringtone, wallpaper, video or anything of that sort, they allow you to benefit from the revenue generated by that particular item. Whenever someone downloads your content, you receive the revenue. I think thats a really neat system. They also have their own facebook application that you can check out here.

I also happened to check out their forum and one thing bothered me a little. Don’t take this as a negative because it could be a database glitch or a glitch in the forum itself, but it states that they have over 28,000 registered users but only 10 posts in total? Those numbers don’t make sense but the forum is also well put together.

They offer all their services without any monthly charges compared to other providers who offer a few months of free service followed by $10 a month contribution requirements. They provide the free service and their website isn’t highly ad supported. Actually, I was only able to find one ad on some of their pages and that too, it was an Adsense ad.

The one thing that you will notice as you browse around is that every aspect of the website follows the main design very well. Overall, I actually enjoyed reviewing Cellware and I wish them the best in the future. I would like you all to check the website out and even if you don’t purchase your mobile content online, have a look at the design and the setup, im sure you will be impressed!

Tech, Gadgets & Weird Stuff

Everyone here knows b5media.com which is backed by our very own Darren Rowse also known as Problogger. Well, its now time to introduce b5 Network which is a very professionally designed blog and they talk about tech, gadgets and as they call it “weird things”. Now, I have to agree that at first I believed that B5 Network was part of B5 Media but that is not the case. B5 Network is not affiliated with B5 Media and still seems like a good blog.

The basic concept of B5 Network is to cover everything related with gadgets and they do showcase some interesting products that I have not come across before. It seems to be a newly established blog because their Alexa isn’t high enough and neither is the amount of subscribers they have but they do offer some good content. The only downside of the B5 Network is that although they have some good posts, there is too much of a gap between posting, meaning that their post frequency is quite low. The last post on their blog is from the second week of November. They seem to get 3-4 posts a month and that may not be enough for them to sustain their blog. I think that B5 Network can go places if they are able to do a few things:

- increase post frequency
- clean up the design with something a little more appealing
- add an about us page so people arent misled into believe that they are part of B5 Media
- capitalize on the fact that they own a great domain name

I think it is all a matter of time before the people behind B5 Network will begin to realize that they can be successful online if they put the effort into it!

Macewan.org - A Great Review!

Robert MacEwan is the owner of macewan.org and if the name doesn’t ring a bell, I am sure you have seen him around some of the top blogs in the blogosphere and as an advertiser on JohnCow’s Blog. His blog discusses a wide variety of subject matters but surprisingly enough doesnt include a “Make Money” category. Considering Robert made a whopping $2,500 from PayPerPost alone, people should be flocking to see how he did it. Robert’s blog has a conveniently placed page named “Make Money Blogging” which is exactly what I was looking for.

Make Money Blogging
The best part about the page is the PayPal screenshot. I just love these and so do most other people because seeing how well others are doing makes you want to do just as good or even better than them. The idea that he made over $840 dollars within 5 days should be motivating enough for most readers. Robert began monetizing his blog in July of 2007, about 3-4 months ago and as of September last month, his earnings was in the $5000 range! You heard right, $5000. The second thing about Roberts blog is that its a PR6 blog so he must be doing something right! Seeing Robert make money through PayPerPost has made me want to jump on the bandwagon too and after you read his post, you will probably feel the need to do so also.

Design
Talking about Design on this blog was pretty easy. I give Robert a high five for picking a unique theme. I have seen a lot of blogs that used the “Misty” look but this theme is different from most and even though its not custom, I haven’t seen it around and that makes it just as good as being custom. I like the idea of the RSS button being placed at a spot where it is visible and yet quite classy in the way its positioned. I also like how the Search bar and the Recent Posts boxes are extended to both columns. Speaking of design, I would really like to see Robert change out the default About picture to a picture of himself. It will really help people identify better with him as a blogger in the long run.

Content
The content Robert produces is what I like mainly because its concise and to the point. He doesn’t beat around the bush just to make a post twice as long as it was meant to be. For example, in some of his posts he just writes a few lines about an article he found interesting and links to it, letting the original article be the source of information. I would really like to see Robert talk about making money online and although he claims he isn’t an expert in the area, it would still help his blog gain better rankings if people see the numbers he is pulling each month. I would like to say that content wise , Robert provides a nice variety of articles so that you aren’t reading the same thing every time you visit. Sometimes if family related, other times its product recommendations or even blogging related. Its good to have a variety and Robert provides that variety very well.

Things I Like:
1) Unique Design & Excellent Theme Choice
2) Variety in Blog Posts Helpful to Readers
3) Make Money Blogging Page well placed on top fold of the page
4) Nice set up of sidebars - makes it easy to navigate through the blog

Suggestions:
1) BlogRush widget - I would highly suggest to relocate the BlogRush widget to allow the categories to rise to the top so that the widget doesnt look out of place.
2) Archives Sidebar - The archives go from 2004 to 2007 and are quite long, it may be sufficient to only provide 12 months, however it may not be possible depending on the coding of the theme.

3) Ad Removal - There is an ad in the sidebar that you can see below that uses a scrollbar. It may be best to remove that ad if it isn’t performing too well, that way you more room can be made for other things.

4) Center Align Sidebar Items - Under the scrollbar based ad, there is some advertising, a TLA button and Alexa widget, it might look more appealing if those were center aligned and that could be easily fixed with a div tag or simple html code.
5) Feedburner Chicklet - I would really like to see the Feedburner chicklet move from the bottom of the page to the top where it is visible. The blog has more than 50 visitors and so it can be tempting for others to join!
6) TTZMedia Ads - I really like the TTZ Media Ads however in the affiliate panel i suggest that he should change the borders from black to white there by allowing the blog to flow better because the black border around the ad isn’t helping the blog flow as well. You can see an example of the border below.

Conclusion
Well, thats about it, I am positive that Macewan will be able to take his blog to the next level because his current statistics are in great shape. I really think that starting to bring in the aspect of making money blogging will help the blog too. I also think that making some of the changes as suggested would be useful to him in making the blog more appealing and thereby attracting more visitors. So, I hope you liked my review and I want to see what your thoughts are on this blog.

Paid Reviews, Are They Worth It?

Hey guys, Enkay is finally back after being bogged down with school for the past few days. I still have exams coming up but since I get a little time off I figured I would get the ball rolling. So, most of you are familiar with ReviewMe, Sponsored Reviews and PayPerPost. If you are new to blogging then its important to understand how these services work.

How Do These Work?
The basic idea is that you are “paid” or “sponsored” by an advertiser to write a blog post about their product, service or website. Sometimes you may be required to write only about the benefits but other times you can write a full critique. According to me a full critique is the best way to go for an advertiser because they can find out what they are doing right as well as what they are doing wrong so they can improve upon the negatives.

Are They Worth It?
Paid reviews can be a great source of income for your blog and if you remember they contributed a large part of my income during my first couple months blogging however, over time I realized that reviewing products or services that were not related to the theme of my blog were not a good way to keep readers interested. If you ever decide to sign up for ReviewMe, PayPerPost or SponsoredReviews you need to remember that if you are a start up that it may not be the best idea to talk about unrelated topics.

One of the mistakes I made was to accept reviews that were unrelated to the theme of my blog and even though I received payments for these reviews, I was unable to acquire new readers and that wasn’t helping my blog in the long run. So hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and know that reviewing other blogs or products/services related to blogging are probably what will help you the most as you can connect to your readers and give them something they want to read about.

Hopefully you see that being paid for a review is one thing but using that review to your advantage to gain readers is another. Hopefully you will take my advice and if you guys have any questions or need help just leave me a comment and ill get back to you.

Thank you!
I want to thank everyone who supported me during my 3 days of hiatus from blogging due to school work. Thank you to TheKingKongBlog, Adsense Tracker, Simon, RomanDock & Blogging The Movie. Here is a video that will help you relieve your stress in case you are dealing with work-filled days!