Blog Review – Idiot's Guide to Blogging

Idiot’s Guide to Blogging is authored by Raivyn, a 22-year-old blogger and musician from New York. Raivyn had requested a free blog review of Idiot’s Guide to Blogging. So here’s my review of IGTB.

Design: Idiot’s Guide to Blogging is a typepad based blog and uses a clean 3 column template. Design is minimal but looks nice and easy on eyes with the only 2 colors that the blog uses: White and Reddish Brown. The header image spreads across the whole page over the content as well as the sidebars, and links back to the homepage so its easy to return to the homepage easily from anywhere on the site. Whole of the header area is hyper-linked so there is no need to precisely aim at any image or part of the header. (Like you should click on the graphic header logo Inspirit Blog and nowhere else to go home! from the top) Cool Stuff :- P

Layout: I personally love 3 column templates for their greater usability over 2 column templates as they make it easy to organize the widgets better and also make the page shorter in length over all. Both the sidebars lie to one side of the content container. Due to this, the content looks tightly packed while a lot of space lies empty to one side of the content beyond the end of sidebars. The feed count chicklet is at the right place on the top of the sidebar. Social Widgets, advertisements & categories, etc have been optimally placed. The layout is good but can be slightly tweaked to make it still better. Go through the recommendations made later in the post for some ideas.

Content: Idiot’s Guide to Blogging, true to its tag line, is a good blogging guide for new and advanced users alike. I enjoy reading this blog regularly and don’t miss a single post as all of them are quite informative and helpful; even when I myself blog in the same niche of meta-blogging and sometimes have almost similarly themed content. The blog entries are written well, properly punctuated and formatted and are easy to follow how-to’s. The content seems to be backed up by in-depth observation and a kind of expertise in the subject.

Recommendations:

• Change the color of the feed count chicklet similar to the color of the headings and links on your blog instead of white. Some contrast with the background makes it look nicer and easier to read.
• Bring the search feature above the categories. The search feature is a small widget and won’t make much difference if the categories go below it. It’ll just become more apparent and more usable to your visitors. Categories will still be quite in reach if a reader wants to navigate through the blog using these instead of searching for a specific post.
• If possible, add a navigation bar to the header or Pages in the sidebar (somewhere near the top) where on can find your About, Contact Info and/or Feedback page. The about section in the sidebar doesn’t look very nice with one or two words per line next to your photo.
• Consider widening the sidebars a little.The heading Communities above the BlogCatalog widget doesn’t show completely as its later part disappears into empty space. This may also help you keep the about section on the main-page.

Overall, Idiot’s Guide to Blogging makes a very good read with all the quality content it has to offer. I enjoyed reading IGTB and subscribed to IGTB’s feed the day I was introduced to this blog and I recommend everyone of you should go through the blog and do the same. You’ll enjoy every bit that IGTB has to offer. I rate IGTB as a 8.5/10 blog.