Oh what a day this has been! I have been banned from my own website! None of you may of known that I have been stupid enough to forget my password to this blog (trying serveral different possibilities). In doing so, I automatically banned myself on the hosting server list and have been completely sealed off of all contact with Brad Blogging.

So whats a guy supposed to do in a case like this?

• First off, I tried to reboot my computer in case it was software that was blocking my desperate attempts to blog. To my disappointment, It did nothing to solve the problem.
• Secondly, I launched a proxy to see if it was client-side or server side issues and luckily it was just client-side (Meaning the problem was on my computer/network and not the web hosting)

After trying to connect via email, browser and FTP client.. I finally decided that it had something to do with my network as I could connect to any website except the ones that were hosted by my hosting package.

Stumped and getting slightly pissed off, I decided to submit a ticket to Bluefur.com’s support section. This was the actual message I sent:

I cannot access it with my ip (142.46.1*.***) and I think sombody has hacked my .htaccess file. Can you confirm?

WHen I use a proxy service with a different Ip, I have no conflict.

Brad

Expecting not to have a response until tommorow, I decided to surf some blogs that I had bookmarked for later reading. Within 11 minutes, I received a ticket response with the following contents:

Brad,

I removed your IP from the firewall. Please review your .htaccess file.

Thanks
Tina
BlueFur.com Support

Did you Make the Support Top 10? - http://blog.bluefur.com/2006/12/08/top-10-support-questions-of-2006/

11 Minutes?

I could not believe my eyes. I was both shocked and happy that they resolved the problem that fast. Compared to other hosting services I have used before.. This was definitely different. (not to name any services.. you know who you are). Impressed by their speed of service and how easy it was to resolve the problem, I decided to pass it on to my readers.

Thanks for visiting my blog! You may want to subscribe to my RSS feed so you will be able to get these daily blog tips for free!

I type in http://ecoinsomniac.com into my web browser and BOOM! I’m sitting in front of a logo that says Ecoinsomniac with a tagline, “An Inspired Change” with options to my right to subscribe to the feed.

Then I see their latest headline and a huge 350px*300px advertisement about organic beer and other eco-friendly alternatives. Tempted by the beer I click it. A New Site Appears… Review Over.

Nah, I’m just kidding with ya. Assuming that the ad didn’t distract me from this blog, I later scroll down to see more headlines and a standard blogging sidebar. This blog design really doesn’t, “WOW” me as it is just a 3 coloumn Cutline Theme, but then again, it doesn’t blast you full of ads and play annoying music.

What Is Done Well:

• An “Environmentally” Friendly Blog - Hosted on 100% Solar Power
• Content is well written and keeps reader interested
• Logo is really simple & easy to remember

What Could Be Improved:

• 12 Different Social Network Icons should be reduced to one or two.. See why here.
• The HUGE advertisement really takes up space that could be filled with the “Recent Posts” and “Latest Comments” functions of a sidebar - Is the cash really worth it?
• The BlogCatalog Widget - Does the reader really care about who saw your site 6 days ago?

Overall, I can’t say that this blog doesn’t have a ton of environmentally friendly tips for everyone but I can say that there are a few changes that this blog could make to really maximize it’s potential. Their content is good and if you write it.. they will come.

Your blog is very interesting. You have a nice logo, uncluttered sidebar and good rolling content. If you’ve implemented some of my “previous strategies” to get links and subscribers, I’ve come up with a way to make a website review…..

Interesting Again.

They say a picture is worth 1000 words. In that case, I should just post a picture of a youtube video and call it a wrap. Since many of those philosophers were wrong, should we not listen to them? Of course not.. the principal can be taken that much further.

Instead of posting a picture/text review of a website and making the viewer read it, mostly not benefiting anyone except the blog owner thats getting reviewed, why not use a video to convey your message? Not only would it have a cool music background, it would allow you to focus your readers attention on the box, making them all the more interested!!

Be honest, whenever you see a box with one of those “Play” symbols in the middle, you can’t help but to watch it. I KNOW I can’t.

BackFaqs.com is a very good name for what it is about. Telling its readers how to get rid of dreaded back pain with natural stretches, yoga and other interesting techniques. Though I personally have not tried these stretches, it seems to work for a few people…So if you have a spare moment and want to fix your back — check out her blog!!

Now, not all is going to be nice about this blog as that what a “Constructive Review” is so lets get down to it shall we?

What has been done well:

• The content is easy to read and will help readers with back pain
• Recent Posts are Accessible
• Images are eye-catching and draw you to the attention of the post

What could be improved:

• The images at the top come with the standard Cutline theme and no graphics have been changed to suit her “Niche”
• The Recent Readers widget isn’t very relevant to what she is talking about.. (Another fact is that if people see that the last visitor there was a week or month ago, they won’t think to highly of the traffic and user interactivity)
• Under the Archives, There are 2 ads that I don’t think should really be there (She already has adsense and a “Free” back pain kit, perhaps Entrecard may aid her there)
• The Sub-Headings in the latest posts are bigger than the titles
• She has 10 different social icons, which I outlined in a previous post is NOT a good thing to do.

Overall, If you can get by those little tedious things above, back pain sufferers might get some knowledge that they have not found out before.

This review was not sponsored and was given free to the recipient. Think this is something you would like? Simply visit this page for more information on how you can obtain a free review here on www.Bradblogging.com

Doing the weekly website review project has been fun and has opened my eyes to my readers blogs! I’m sure that pretty much every reader here knows about my free offer for them (If not go here, Where have you been? ). This week I’m going to “Constructively” Critique both of the blogs in the form a competition. The first blog is CrafterBS and is about “The personal experiences of a crafting business.” The second blog is The Path To Total Financial Freedom and is about “A Guide on how to succeed with the amazing Passport To Wealth Business Opportunity”… Let the Games Begin!

First Impressions:

- CrafterBS - When I load that blog into my browser, a simple template comes up with her title and description. if you look closely at the title image you can see that you changed the blue background to a white one. Also, you can see the blog catalog box behind the sidebar almost as if it’s being used as a background in the top left corner.

- Path - the path to financial freedom is also using a blogger template with little customization, except the sidebar. you can see a larger image on his first post when you load the blog so that instantly draws attention to what he has to say.

Winner - Path To Financial Freedom because of the large image that instantly attracts attention to the post. Since CrafterBS has ones on her other posts but not the first one, it makes the reader gradually look at the sidebar and then the content, which could effect readers. Solution? Place Images in Posts.

Sidebar and Footer Clutter:

- CrafterBS - The sidebar on this blog as everything from feed burner to latest posts and even when she is going to become a grandma. There are some widgets that she could take off so that it would be less distracting, such as: the caps lock on all of her latest posts which instead she could just use regular font, and everything in the following picture should be removed.

- Path - The sidebar and footer are cluttered beyond the point of being able to read the large articles on this blog. Thousands of links, pictures, even manta rays and fish are on the side bar. The footer is just a large mess of links. My advice? Take off some widgets Remove everything and only put on essential widgets.

Winner: CrafterBS for obvious reasons.

Most Importantly, The Content:

- CrafterBS - As the title suggests, its about her crafting buisness and her adventures while doing it. My personal favourite post was about how she travelled with her husband to go to a craft show. It provided some laughs and made you think of your experiences when you were in the same shoes as her. Although, not everything is perfect, as she somtimes will stray off topic (take her latest post for example which is about how her daughter could find her soul mate on American Idol )

- Path - The path to financial freedom is more about Search Engines and Making Money with either a home buisness, or online. Since the articles are very long, it may sometimes be hard to follow the entire article and you may get bored. Although there are some great tips inside, shorter articles would be a great way to increase readers as then you could get down to the point, and fast!

Overall Winner: CrafterBS and close behind is the Path. The only reason Crafter won was because of the easy to read articles (large font, kept reader interested) and a little less clutter than The Path.

Of course, my opinion is only half of the story.. Whats yours? Did I make the wrong choice?

Comment below and let the world know!

Wendy’s OBA is a buisness blog about blog tips, tips and tricks and more. Since her blog is hosted on Wordpress.com, this gives her no customization or editing of the source code. So the design is something I cannot comment about inside this review because of the lack of editing that is allowed. Which means that I will have to focus on the content and widgets… For better? Or for worse…

What has been done well:

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Imageshack has become the standard for photo hosting and everyone knows about it. By personal experience, Imageshack can somtimes not display pictures which ultimately comprimises posts, titles and or background images. I’m not so sure I can trust that yellow frog with pictures that I really want to show the world. So that is going to be the focus of my post… Can you Trust Imageshack to be More Reliable than other  networks?

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