I think it's going to take me a while to go through all my feeds and pick out the things I want to write about. After that, I'll probably start searching for specific topics from blogs I may or may not be subscribed to. There's an endless supply of good stuff out there, enough to keep me busy forever.

• Andy Beard rhetorically asked about "Alexa Rating Changes?" Of the blogs I read and check the Alexa graphs for, most have been seeing a decline. I was going to tell Andy that Alexa is pure, unadulterated crap, but he threatened to "…flag as spam any comment questioning whether Alexa data has any value…". My pings already get flagged as spam by Akismet. I don't need to have my comments disappearing into the nether as well.
• Claire at A little piece of me pointed to an article she wrote concerning British speak, at a blog called British Speak, titled "The Story with the rude words" after being prodded to contribute. Do Brits really talk like that? I could figure out by the context what a lot of it meant, but some of it was indecipherable.
• It looks like Brook Durant is busy elsewhere. Nevertheless, he wrote an interesting article back on March 6, 2008, about earning a living on craigslist at A Blog about Nothing. An interesting experiment would be to offer writing services via the craigslist "writing/editing/translation" (wet) category, or possibly the "small biz ads" (biz) category.
• Wow! That's a big rabbit! Truthie at Absolutely True celebrated the 1-year anniversary of her blog on Easter this year and included a picture of a humongous rabbit. If that's a real rabbit, it could be a mutant from outer space! Or maybe Bugs Bunny.
• Todd Morris, at his Success with Todd blog, wrote about how his candle monkey blog got hacked. Luckily, Google (yes, the evil Google) told him about it. I have a theory that most of the hacking on WordPress blogs comes from other users on the same shared servers. If you have multiple blogs on the same account and one gets hacked, I'm willing to bet the others will follow unless the first one is caught right away.
• When I created this blog, I had a heck of a time getting the header image aligned the way I wanted it, tearing up the style sheet along the way. Take a look at how Costa explained inserting a new header image at Blog Gigs. I can't even remember what I did, so never ask me how… ever.
• Rocky John of Blogging Mix says contentment has no place in the blogosphere. In my opinion, a person who's content with his or her blog will not last. When you have goals socially, financially or otherwise in connection with your blogging, you stand a much better chance of continuing with it over the long term.
• Maurice, at his Cayman Host Blog, wrote about how not to run a forum. The unfortunate fact is that forums are only as good as their moderators, just like blogs are only as good as their writers.
• Ram Karthik, one of multiple authors at Freelance Folder, wrote a step by step guide to writing about stuff you know very little about. He mentioned article directories and ebooks, but there are a few more sources you should consider, including Wikipedia. A Wikipedia article may not be a real authority, but you can glean a lot of information from the sources listed at the bottom.
• JD at I Do Things has a crush on a cartoon character. I wonder if she's had a psychological evaluation lately. I'm joking of course, but cartoon crushes are usually reserved for prepubescent males. You don't believe me? Watch what boys are drawing sometime.

It's always a pleasure when I come across a blog that isn't just like every other blog in its category. "Things I’m Grateful For" is a unique personal blog.

What is "Things I’m Grateful For" all about?

It appears to be a daily journal of all the things Solomon Broad is thankful for, and it dates back to January of 2007. It's interesting to read the entries from then and the entries from this month to see how much it's changed.

Site Design

Everyone has their own color preferences, and Solomon's seems to be shades of green and yellow. I haven't seen the theme before and I consider that a plus.

Although the sidebars have a lot of items, they appear organized and uncluttered. There are things missing. I didn't see an "about" page anywhere, nor a contact page of any kind. I also didn't see "recent posts" anywhere. While it's not necessary, it's a handy navigation tool.

I have a suggestion, for the sake of hotspots and readability: Solomon should optimize the placement of his sidebar items, to put the most important items above the fold. I don't think the blogroll deserves the position it's in. That are should be reserved for advertising, recent posts, archives, and categories in no particular order.

I'm always interested in the person behind the blog, much more so than the blog itself. An "about" page is where you tell people who you are and other things that let your readers know the whats and whys of the blog. It doesn't require a lot of detail, and it doesn't require changes except on rare occasions, so why not include it?

Contact pages aren't necessary either, but there should be a way to contact the blog author without leaving a comment. It doesn't even have to be a page. It could merely be a prominent link in the sidebar. Anything is better than nothing.

Article and Post Content

I was looking for something that stood out from the rest. The daily journals are interesting, but I wanted something with a little more bite. His future-dated post, The “Things I’m Grateful For” April Contest, is the only thing I found. By the way, that future-dated post can be fixed by installing the WordPress Redirection plugin. Change the date and then enter the old and new URLs on the redirection page of the plugin. By doing so, you can prevent the link from breaking here and in the search engines.

My Overall Opinion

Although it's an interesting blog, it isn't the kind of blog that'll attract a huge following. I like the design and I wish him luck with it, but I won't be following it. If Solomon has other blogs, I would suggest he concentrate on them more than this one. If not, I'd recommend he start another, impersonal blog, perhaps within a niche of some kind.

Would you like a Review?

My reviews are not the best, and I won't pretend they're even close to being the best, but they're free! You can't beat that with a stick. Submit your blog on my Request A Blog Review page and I'll see if I can do your blog justice.

This is the first batch of what I hope will become thousands of outbound links, all under the guise of article reviews. I'm using the term "article reviews" because it helps to break away from the quick links mentality. I read each and every article and add my thoughts where I think they're appropriate.

• When did the American legal system break down? Matt at Wild Bluff Media reported "Michelle Williams’ Dad Makes Demands On Ledger’s Money". If Heath Ledger's girlfriend and daughter weren't named in his will, how can his girlfriend's father demand anything? I'm no lawyer, but it seems to me the only person with a case is Michelle, the mother of Heath's child (in which paternity can easily be established).
• Does PageRank drop = search engine ranking drop? Mike at Twenty Steps examined the possible effect falling Google PageRanks may have had on search engine results for some websites he's familiar with. I don't think they're related (yet). I was seeing better results with a lower PR earlier this month on one of my other blogs, Untwisted Vortex. My PR went back up from 3 to 5 and my search hits dropped in number at the same time.
• Lord Matt of The fantastic site of Lord Matt pointed out iCarousel when talking about a little help when making widgets. I read about this open source software and quickly realized that I don't have the time to learn how to use it. I appreciate him pointing it out, though, because someday I'll probably make time to play with it.
• As I was reading through the comments for "Who Sees Ads", I noticed some discussion which indicated that this WordPress plugin isn't compatible with WP-Cache. I sent Ozh a message to let him know that it worked on my blogs with WP-Cache installed and then the newer WP Super Cache. I haven't seen any problems with the plugin whatsoever.
• Lin of Telling It Like It Is wrote a message about the death of her father-in-law in loving memory. My own parents, as well as my mother-in-law, are at the ages where they could depart this world at any given time. I'm thankful I've been able to show them the love and respect they deserve while I still have the time. I appreciate Lin's message more than she can know.
• Lorna of webgrrrl.net joined the Entrecard bandwagon last month. Although I know what Entrecard is and how it works, I'll never participate in their service. I'm not much of a social person, even if it appears that way. I have a hard enough time commenting on other blogs.
• Here's an example of praise that's way over the top. Goldcoaster declared that Garry Conn is a god. While I can agree that Garry does a fine job of helping people make money, that kind of statement is kind of extreme, don't you think?
• Speaking of Garry Conn, I agree with his number one answer to the question of which type of programs make the most money online? Google AdSense is by far the easiest way to make money online as long as you know how to use it effectively. Do you want to make more than $100 per month? How about $10,000 per month? Yes, there are people (bloggers like you and I) who are doing exactly that.
• Erika Jean (a.k.a. Erika Swan, Airrika J. Swan, E of the Rika, and other name plays) informed us that she made the news again. If you watch the video, you'll hear and see her name on a weather broadcast. How cool is that? I don't know if she'll meet her goal of getting on broadcasts from all 49 states besides her own, but she should have fun trying.
• Okay, I have a new goal for this blog. I want an authority listing on Google, just like Nate Whitehill, who said a Google authority listing boosts search engine traffic. My name already has an authority listing, but unfortunately, it's for a different RT Cunningham.

Tradingurus isn't a traditional blog. In fact, the Tradingurus blog page is merely a Mamblog blog component for Joomla, the platform used for the site. This review is actually a blog review and non-blog review all wrapped into one.

This is the second review for Franklin, the other being Blog Review: The Politics of Debt at Untwisted Vortex.

What is "Tradingurus" all about?

Borrowing from the site's tag line, it's "The Social Site for Traders and Investors". It includes stock picks, market opinion, and much more. The "goal is to create a space where traders and investors can discuss their views on the markets and where they can rant about everything else, from the life on the trenches to their last trade. As in many other social networks, you will have the ability to create groups and build communities", taken directly from the front page.

Site Design

I'll be the first to admit that I don't know how Joomla works. Regardless, the appearance leaves a lot to be desired. When I moved from the main page to the blog page, the left sidebar narrowed, causing previously unwrapped items to wrap.

There's no whitespace surrounding the pages, which would make for better readability. Even with my widescreen display, the sections look almost like they're running together. In my opinion, there's too much going on, on each page. The site would be better served if there was LESS information per page.

The site isn't colorful, nor would I expect it to be. Subtle changes in the backgrounds for the header, footer, main content, and sidebars could do a world of wonder for readability, in my opinion. White for the main content and "off-white" shades or shades of gray for the other areas would work very well.

Article and Post Content

The Tradingurus opinion page is full of interesting articles and I can't even begin to describe the quality. The only problem I see with any of the content is the fact that most (if not all) are distributed reprints. I really don't have the time to look at all of them.

At least the short paragraphs of the Tradingurus news page look original, as well as the content on both blog pages (one being a community blog).

My Overall Opinion

If you're into trading and investment, this is a site that could help save you some money along the way. It's not my "bag", so to speak, but it could be yours.

Other than the design, I don't see any problems with the site as is. I know Franklin could do a lot better with it, but he'll have to put quite a bit of time and effort into making it aesthetically pleasing as well as useful.

Personally, I believe he'd be much better off using B2Evolution as a platform instead of Joomla. From what I've seen, B2Evolution can handle the CMS part of the site and then the blogging part would be easier and more attractive for both the author(s) and the readers.

Would you like a Review?

My reviews are not the best, and I won't pretend they're even close to being the best, but they're free! You can't beat that with a stick. Submit your blog on my Request A Blog Review page and I'll see if I can do your blog justice.

While this blog isn't quite ready for primetime yet (and I've blocked it from the search engines until it is), I want to wish you a quick and warm welcome. The blog is a spinoff from my first blog, Untwisted Vortex, which is quickly approaching 2 years in age. One of the reasons for doing this now is because I found myself with more reviews than I can handle for a blog that isn't really designed for them.

I hope to be able to be more in-depth with this blog, since it is specifically designed for reviews.