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.