This is probably the most unusual blog I've looked at lately. Jamar Turrell teaches barbers and stylists marketing tips in order to grow their client base.

What is the "Barber and Stylist Marketing Tips" all about?

This is a blog where the title and the tagline say what the blog is about. If you're attempting to market and advertise a barber shop or salon, Jamar is providing the tips and resources to get it done right.

Site Design

This is a 3-column split WordPress theme and it's attractive. I'm biased, of course, because my main blog is like that. The difference is that his is a fixed-width design whereas mine is a fluid-width design. If you don't know the difference, it doesn't matter as long as you realize that 1024×768 (which his design is optimized for) is the most common resolution being used.

The navigation bar has the contact and "about" pages showing, something I always look for and the sidebars aren't cluttered. I hope he keeps it that way.

Article and Post Content

Listen, I don't know diddle about hair styling, other than I get my hair cut once a month whether I want to or not. Being a fairly new blog (less than 3 months), Jamar doesn't have a large selection for me to read. I read, however, "What Is An Effective Marketing Strategy For A Barber or Stylist?" with the intent of learning something. I didn't, but then again, I don't know diddly.

My Overall Opinion

I like the blog but I probably won't visit very often, except maybe to check in on Jamar's progress. I do that with most of the blogs I've reviewed. I always want to see if suggestions or criticism has any effect. When it does, it's usually perceivable in some way.

Would you like a Review?

My reviews aren't the best. They aren't even close. They are one thing, though. They're free! No refunds and no exchanges. Make your blog the very best you can make it and then submit it on my Request A Blog Review page and I'll try to make my review the best I can make it.

I never thought I'd see a blog that was dedicated to talking about free website widgets, yet here it is. It's 99 percent widgets and 1 percent something else.

What is the "Best Widgets for free" all about?

The title almost says it all. Some of the best widgets out there are those that feature free services. John picks widgets he's obviously tested. Most, if not all, of them work regardless of what blogging platform you use.

Site Design

It's a Blogger blog, but it's only given away upon first arrival by the URL. John has removed the dashboard bar from the top and specific things that make it look like a Blogger blog. John also made it a point to hack the template so that all the in-post comments would be "dofollow".

I like the design because the sidebars aren't cluttered with all the widgets he writes about. If they were, it would be the slowest loading blog around.

Article and Post Content

I'm not going to pick an article to pick on, if you know what I mean. I'm going to pick a couple of articles that reference widgets I'm interested in.

The "Google Translate Widget" looks like something I could probably put to use. The plugins I've used that purport to do the same thing always seem to stop working correctly, causing more problems than they solve.

I'll have to investigate the "Job Search Box Widget" and widgets like it. I like the pay-per-click advertising model and anything that brings in extra revenue has to be a good thing, as long as it isn't obtrusive.

My Overall Opinion

If you've read my main blog or looked at any of my blogs, you'll know that I'm not fond of widgets that slow the website down. With some newer support plugins, however, that slowness can be made nonexistent.

I hope John keeps working on this blog and finds a lot more interesting widgets to write about. In particular, I want him to find widgets that serve purposes other than eye candy for the casual visitors.

Would you like a Review?

My reviews aren't the best. They aren't even close. They are one thing, though. They're free! No refunds and no exchanges. Make your blog the very best you can make it and then submit it on my Request A Blog Review page and I'll try to make my review the best I can make it.

Because I have a friend in Phoenix, Arizona who used to work in real estate, flipping houses, before the prices started falling (and the person who sold my house), the "Minnesota Investment Real Estate" blog is a blog that I can relate to.

What is the "Minnesota Investment Real Estate" all about?

In his own words, kind of, Scott's blog concentrates on investment real estate and he uses it to show his potential customers that he's the only real estate agent they should use. There's more here than meets the eye on first inspection, so this description is an understatement.

Site Design

The site uses a WordPress theme, as do most self-hosted WordPress blogs, but with a minor twist. This one has been optimized for search engines by Courtney Tuttle. Not only does the blog look good to people, it looks good to Google as well.

The top navigation bar has the pages I always look for and extra pages of importance. This guy knows what people are looking for.

Article and Post Content

To pick one article as standing out from the rest would be a difficult task. I liked "Once a Bad Tenant, Always a Bad Tenant" as well as "Stupid Property Repairs #5", both being his most recent articles.

My Overall Opinion

Under a year old, and from my perusal of his archives, I can say this blog has been getting better with age. As Scott sharpens his writing skills, it will probably get even better.

If you live in the state of Minnesota, or plan to live there, this is the guy I'd recommend you pay attention to. He knows what he's talking about and I can say that with complete confidence.

Would you like a Review?

My reviews aren't the best. They aren't even close. They are one thing, though. They're free! No refunds and no exchanges. Make your blog the very best you can make it and then submit it on my Request A Blog Review page and I'll try to make my review the best I can make it.

"MyTvTalk" is a very new website, less than a month old if I base my guess on when the forums were installed.

What is the "MyTvTalk" all about?

You would think it was all about television (or TV), based on the title. I found "Movie Reviews" in the sidebar and I suppose, technically, they could be included because the movies will eventually be broadcast on TV (over the air or via cable or satellite). I guess my expectation was to find things that were targeted to TV, but perhaps I was being a little narrow-minded.

Site Design

This is a static website, which appears to be a front end for the forums. The forums are where the interactivity takes place. The website is XHTML compliant, which is a good thing, but I think parts of the site would benefit from being turned into one or more blogs, like the "Movie Reviews" and "News" sections.

One thing that I haven't paid much attention to in the past, and it's missing here, is the favorite icon. I can't suggest anything, but it would help to brand the site.

Article and Post Content

I actually enjoyed Ricky's review of Iron Man. He went into much more detail than I would expect. It's almost like he's a contributor at IMDB. That was a subtle attempt at humor; please don't take it personally.

I didn't see any way to subscribe to RSS feeds or email updates and Ricky might want to consider something to indicate when he has new things to share, besides the forum chatter. There are a few free solutions available and he'd be wise to use one of them.

My Overall Opinion

I'm a sucker for entertainment-oriented websites and blogs. I may not be socially active on them, but I have a tendency to go back and visit often. This particular website can and probably will get a lot better over time. It's so new now that I can still smell the virtual paint drying.

I have it bookmarked until Ricky finds a suitable way to inform me about updates. The unfortunate side effect of bookmarks is that I'll naturally visit it less than the sites that offer feeds.

Would you like a Review?

My reviews aren't the best. They aren't even close. They are one thing, though. They're free! No refunds and no exchanges. Make your blog the very best you can make it and then submit it on my Request A Blog Review page and I'll try to make my review the best I can make it.

Sometimes the obvious is not so obvious. To me, an American living in the Philippines, "Hibs" means nothing. To someone from Scotland, however, it means the "Hibernian Football Club".

What is the "Hibs Blog" all about?

After finding out what "Hibs" meant, it's obvious to me that this blog is all about the Hibernian Football Club and news regarding the club. I'm not into sports, so I can't give you a lot of detail.

Site Design

The template design looks to be an older version of the WordPress Cutline theme, customized (as expected) specifically for this blog. There is absolutely no clutter anywhere that I could see.

The only annoyance in the design that I could find was that the theme is not centered, as you can see from the image above, and butts up against the left side of the screen. That's fine if you're serving people with 1024×768 resolutions and lower. At higher resolutions, however, there's a lot of empty white space on the right side.

There is one major problem. The contact page is completely missing. The link is dead.

Article and Post Content

Again, I'm not into sports. I couldn't tell a good news article from a bad one. I picked the latest article, "Hibs v’s Middlesboro’ and Wigan", to pick on (I mean examine) in order to see how Richard writes. His command of the English language is fine and I didn't see anything unusual.

My Overall Opinion

If you're into football and more specifically, Scottish football, then this blog would probably interest you. I can't say it interests me or I'd be lying. I'm simply not enthused by sports of any kind. I understand the mechanics of the games (or at least, most of them), but I just can't get hog wild about competition. My wife, on the other hand, screams bloody murder at all basketball games even when she's watching them on the television.

I think the blog's well done and can only improve as it gains in popularity. I think Richard needs to market it a little better, but I can't tell him how to do it since sports is not one of my areas of expertise.

Would you like a Review?

My reviews aren't the best. They aren't even close. They are one thing, though. They're free! No refunds and no exchanges. Make your blog the very best you can make it and then submit it on my Request A Blog Review page and I'll try to make my review the best I can make it.

When I included "…and my electric company continues to provide me with power…" in the last sentence of "I'm Way Behind", no words could have been more prophetic.

In that post, I said that I wasn't going to spend "15 minutes writing about the reasons", but I'll spend a few minutes this time. Since I wrote that, the local electric company has cut power several times. On the 15th of this month, it was for 9 hours. Yesterday, it was for 10 hours. Never mind the other outages that occurred at various times and for various lengths of an hour or more since the 11th.

It's still my intention to keep doing 2 or 3 or 4 reviews daily. I'm just letting you know that when you see gaps in dates, it's not because I'm not trying. All of my best intentions can't overcome the poor electrical service provided in Olongapo City, Philippines.

This is the second of two blogs that Manas Kabiraj asked me to review. "Blog For Money and Fun" isn't nearly as ad-laden as his other blog, but then he hasn't been putting as much work into this one.

What is "Blog For Money and Fun" all about?

Again, with the title of the blog and the tagline that follows it, you'll know exactly what the blog is about without me telling you.

Site Design

Again, the template design is fine. The redeeming feature of this blog is that it isn't overwhelmingly covered with ads and widgets.

Article and Post Content

There are only one or two non-paid posts that I saw. "I got my rank back from google" was one of them.

One thing I didn't mention on the previous review, but I'll mention here. Manas needs to use an English-based spell and grammar checker. While I'm sure he speaks English well enough as a second language, his writing is atrocious. I'm sorry, but an American 3rd-grader could do better.

My Overall Opinion

Again, I'll be as honest as possible. I don't like this blog because paid content is the majority of the content. I have nothing against making money online. Really, I don't. I make money online. Making money online is perfectly fine as long as you have valuable content available. I don't consider sponsored posts valuable. In my opinion, sponsored posts should be few and far between.

Would you like a Review?

My reviews aren't the best. They aren't even close. They are one thing, though. They're free! No refunds and no exchanges. Make your blog the very best you can make it and then submit it on my Request A Blog Review page and I'll try to make my review the best I can make it.

This is the first of two blogs that Manas Kabiraj asked me to review. "Generate FreeTraffic Online Money Paid to Review Blogging Tips Promotion & Marketing" must be the longest blog title I have ever seen. This should probably give you an idea which way this review is going to go.

What is "Generate FreeTraffic Online Money Paid to Review Blogging Tips Promotion & Marketing" all about?

It's pretty hard to tell you what the blog is about when it's all in the blog title. I would have preferred to figure it out, but the title took all the fun out of that part of the review.

Site Design

The template design is fine, but I must say that this can't be a social blog of any kind. There are more ads and widgets on his pages than I can shake a stick at. It's very obvious that Manas is into this blog for money and not much else.

Article and Post Content

Besides all the ads and sponsored posts, he actually does have some non-money making articles to read. His latest article, "Something Useful" doesn't appear to be paid for. It looks like a free plug for a website he likes.

My Overall Opinion

Being as honest as I possibly can be, I don't like this blog. It looks almost like a "Made for AdSense" blog, but without the AdSense. The PR is 2 and it's been around since July of 2007. I'm surprised it isn't sitting at 0 for the paid links I found all over the place. His Alexa badge shows 80,298 links in and that probably explains why it isn't sitting at 0. That's a lot of inbound links, which shows me he's spending quite a bit of time link-building. There's nothing wrong with that unless he's paying for the links somehow.

I would never visit this blog twice. Heck, I wouldn't visit it at all if I wasn't asked for a review. It's a complete turn off. I looked at his earnings update and added the amounts. I'm sorry, but I made more than that in 3 months and I wasn't trying very hard. If I put the effort into making money and building backlinks like he did, I would expect to be making more than that per month.

Would you like a Review?

My reviews aren't the best. They aren't even close. They are one thing, though. They're free! No refunds and no exchanges. Make your blog the very best you can make it and then submit it on my Request A Blog Review page and I'll try to make my review the best I can make it.

"Snowys" is a personal blog written by a Linda, who lives in a remote part of Australia.

What is "Snowys" all about?

As I said, this is a personal blog. Linda lives in a remote part of Australia, but still in a small town. I looked at the "About Me" block and I'm still trying to figure out what a "sahmum" is.

Her children go to a school with only 25 children total, with 12 in their class. You can't beat that for personalized teaching.

Site Design

When looking at a personal blog like this, I have to take off one hat and put on another. A personal blog should be visitor friendly but not necessarily optimized for search engines or anything other than people.

There are some things on this blog that I find annoying. The use of third-party services really bogs the page loading down. I don't know what she can do to alleviate that, but the first step would be to find out what third-party services she could do without. I'm talking about the services which do nothing for her or her blog and are nothing more than eye candy. She could use a different place for hosting her photos (not Flickr or Photobucket) or even host them herself if she has the web space. Using thumbnails that pull up larger images when clicked would improve the loading time tremendously.

I didn't see a contact page or an email contact anywhere, but then the pages wouldn't completely load for me. I don't like the top banner, even though the blog isn't self-hosted. The banner on Blogger blogs isn't as obtrusive as this.

Article and Post Content

Linda's blog is well over 2-years old, yet there are only 8 pages if you page through them all. I find the lack of an archives list makes it difficult to go back to the beginning due to the slow page loads.

I looked for things that were not recipes, memes of some kind, or photo essays. I found that "The White, Green, Black, and Herb of Tea" fit the bill, especially since I like all kinds of tea.

My Overall Opinion

If you're looking for a friendly, personal blog to visit, this is one of them. I really can't form an overall opinion of it yet. I'll have to follow along for a couple of months. It's interesting to see how people who've removed themselves and their families from the lifestyles of the urban city dwellers live on a day-to-day basis.

I would like to see more written about her, her family and life in general. Photos are nice, recipes are nice and memes can be fun, but they don't tell you about the person behind the blog as much as the written word and the stories that can be told.

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.

I admit up front that I'm biased. Tim and Ernie, the proprietors of the Redneck Bar & Grill, are frequent visitors over at Untwisted Vortex (one of my other blogs) and I frequently stop by and read theirs as well.

What is the "Redneck Bar & Grill"?

It's actually a fictional place that sells fictional beer. More than that, it's a humor blog! Tim and Ernie have been at it a while. Their first blog, Blue Beaver Beer was ported over to the bar and everything switched smooth as silk. I couldn't have done it better myself.

Don't tell Tim and Ernie it's fiction, okay? I don't think they could handle the truth.

Site Design

It's self-hosted blog running with the WordPress blogging software. The theme is "Cutline", which seems like it's been around forever. It looks nice enough, so why not?

Almost everything I expect to be available on a blog is there except… a contact page. I can't even find an email link. C'mon Tim & Ernie, get with the program!

I always know who the writer is when I read an article over there. Ernie writes better. I'm not picking on Tim, but Tim doesn't know how to put spaces between paragraphs and it's a dead giveaway. I knew it before they started putting the author names under the post titles. By the way, there should be at least one space between the year and the name.

Article and Post Content

I'm not going to get into any past articles. Some will make you laugh and some will bore you to tears. It comes with the territory on a blog that's designed with humor in mind. I will mention, though, that they keep up with the holidays. Their last post, as of right now, is "A Toast To All The Moms". Wouldn't you know it? They even figured out a way to squeeze Blue Beaver Beer into Mother's Day!

My Overall Opinion

I don't visit the Redneck Bar & Grill every day, but then again, they don't write every day. I usually visit once or twice a week, depending on how busy I am, but I rarely comment. I'm not antisocial. I'm usually just speechless.

Their blog is recommended for anyone who wants to kick back and read something on the lighter side of life once in a while.

Would you like a Review?

My reviews aren't the best. They aren't even close. They are one thing, though. They're free! No refunds and no exchanges. Make your blog the very best you can make it and then submit it on my Request A Blog Review page and I'll try to make my review the best I can make it.