Wednesday, 20 August 2008
How to write a review PDF Print E-mail

How to write a blog review

Writing a review of a blog can be difficult, sometimes you have too much to say about a blog and other times you might struggle to even pen a few words. The imortant thing is to explain what you like or dislike and why, Will has written a sample review using the tips we gave on how to write a blog review. So in this section we have published the review as a guide to help you.

Review of Itome by Will

ABOUT ME
My name is Will and I blog under the name of iWill. I have also reviewed a number of blogs here at Rate My Blog. I live in Cricklewood in north-west London, in the United Kingdom. My background is a varied, though far from illustrious career which includes writing, graphic design, data research and administration.

I am a rather shy, retiring individual who guards his privacy jealously, and with no desire for easy publicity. Consequently, I have not posted a photograph of myself on my blog. Because it is natural for visitors to want to 'see what the blogger looks like', this pictorial absence is not intended maliciously and visitors should not take it as a slight. I also like to 'see what the blogger looks like'.

To help assuage possible negative feelings, I have posted an image of the original Macintosh computer saying 'hello', because I feel there is just one thing worse than the absence of the blogger's photograph, and that's the omission of any image which readers can associate with the blogger.

Anyway, I'm still paying for the damage my mush caused to the last camera which attempted to capture it in all it's gory glory!

SUBJECT MATTER
My blog, the iTome, has a core of eight categories; FICTION, REVIEWS, PHOTOGRAPHY, DESIGN, TECHNOLOGY, SOCIETY, LANGUAGE, and PERSONAL.

Based upon these eight categories, the most recent post on the iTome is about whatever happens to be of interest to me at the time I write, or upon ideas given to me by colleagues, those in the blogosphere or those colleagues with whom I want to communicate individually. Topics are as diverse as issues currently in the news, personal matters, a film I have just seen and want to share my enjoyment with others, or issues related to a fellow blogger's country.

BLOG CONTENT?
My blog basically is a 'real-world' job of factual content with a small, though healthy measure of fiction thrown in. Although some fiction-based posts may contain factual elements or be based upon facts, these two genre usually are not mixed within individual posts, and I take great care to show which posts are fact and which are fiction.

I do not believe in the practice of using 'faction', a neologism describing the substitution of largely fictitious events as evidence in support of fact, and have huge difficulty in accepting the dissemination of this form of creativity. You may feel I'm treading quite a fine line here, but to me the distinction is clear.

The style of the iTome is basically (that word again!) serious, but in a humorous sort of way, and my aim is to write in a way which is entertaining, even if only faintly so. My fictional content is intended wholly as entertainment, although whether this is written in an entertaining way or no is for the visitor to decide.

My content is original and all dreamed up by myself, but a small fraction can be derived wholly from other sources and, in this case, I make it abundantly clear who the original author is. Because I do not wish others to use my content without crediting me, I will not do so to others.

Some posts contain pictures, either to illustrate a point, or to help create an atmosphere suggested by the subject of the post, whether that be fact or fiction. As with my textual content, if images have been created by others, I will acknowledge the copyright owner.

Comments are not only allowed but are, in fact, encouraged, with my actual e-mail address shown as a click-able link on the 'about the iTome' page. Sometimes, I actually respond to e-mails from readers.

THE LAYOUT
I have a strong interest in product branding and have constructed my site so that it has a unique layout in terms of atmosphere and navigation, and have taken great care to establish a solid identity for the site. I have constructed the minimalist interface with the visitor in mind, and which renders navigation incredibly easy.

This minimalist ethos also ensures the bandwidth requirements are kept to a minimum, particularly for those visitors who have a dial-up connection.

Unfortunately, Internet Explorer up to version six (IE6) does not recognise the 'position:fixed' declaration in web-page coding. So, in one swell foop, Microsoft has managed to make a complete cock-up of the shining star of my carefully-constructed layout, the fixed sidebar. Visitors still using this browser will experience a huge gap under my sidebar when scrolling is necessary, while all others will see the sidebar remain in the position in which you see it upon first visiting my blog.

This version of my blog was started in October 2006 and is based on another, deleted blog which ran for almost two years until I got tired of the 'far too nice' blog title and created, instead, a title with more of an 'attitude' and an interface which reflected more accurately my love of the simple things in life, but without being 'simplistic'.

NO ADVERTISING
Apart from a few small graphic images ('buttons') showing the operating system under which run the applications I have used to create the site and which allow me to manage it more easily, I do not have paid-for advertising on my blog, for these reasons;
1- based upon the reports of those who rely on advertising revenue, the few pennies it earns do not negate the trouble of setting up and managing the individual advertisements and,
2- more importantly for me, advertising detracts from the minimalist interface I have created.

Furthermore, I find it difficult to accept that blogs can sometimes earn many tens of whatever currency in which you care to think, particularly when those same blogs have nothing of outstanding or unique content with which to attract revenue-earning visitors.

MY COMMITMENT
I don't want to take on more than I handle easily, so my commitment is to post regularly every month, but usually this means a post every week and sometimes two in a week, although this is an exception.

BLOGGER'S NIRVANA
I am not interested in achieving a Google Rank, high or otherwise, and have not concerned myself with the aspects of internet design which implement the search engine magnets upon which these visitor ratings depend. Does this make me arrogant, or is it me just being me? I like to think so!

Basically (not again!), I blog for my own enjoyment and for nothing else. If, in this, others are entertained, enlightened or encouraged, I can wish for nothing more in manipulating this little bit of code which produces so much modern magic.
 
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