The header design (“giant banner”, “surrealist design” according to some comments) is engrossing (see the snapshot below). Among other things, it has a saxophone. Matt, for the uninitiated, was a student at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (Houston) where he studied Jazz and saxophone. The header image is a very doodled one and makes you think for some time. ‘Unlucky in cards’ was also Matt’s tagline on his previous blog design. You can also leave a comment on the intriguing header.

The footer of the blog also has some humour. The copyright years are dated 1984-2010!  Matt’s date of birth is 11 January 1984, hence 1984 to 2010! Among other things the blog is powered by ‘ramen noodles and love’! See the snapshot below.

Matt’s childhood photo on the about page (see pic below) in the about page is also eye-catching.

It is a personal blog indeed as Matt himself admits and Matt is not very worried about the loading time, widescreen suitability or for that matter the hyperlinks and text being in the same color. The blog runs on WordPress 3.0-alpha (a version usually tested by the developers).

The Contact page will also succeed in making you smile. The contact details on this page are very interesting. You can contact Matt by land (email), by sea (AIM) or by air (cell phone). Matt also says, “Other forms of communication, including psychic signals and carrier pigeons seem to be less reliable, so stick to the above methods just to be safe.”

The unconventional domain name ma.tt is a domain hack (tt is Trinidad and Tobago registry)! Read more about domain hack on Wikipedia.

By the way, Matt has another personal blog Matt on Not-WordPress on WordPress.com where he posts things from his iPhone, “ruminates” on some WordPress topics and plays with WordPress.com features. You can also see mullenweg.com (Mullenweg-related genealogical information).

Here is a concluding snapshot. This is Google query suggestions on Matt Mullenweg captured on February 13, 2010! People  are searching ‘Matt Mullenweg girlfriend’, ‘Matt Mullenweg net worth’, ‘Matt Mullenweg net worth’ and ‘Matt Mullenweg bank’ among other things.

Here are a few issues the owner Lax would like to ask you all :

• What do you like first about TechZoomIn?
• What areas can it improve?
• Anything about positives and negatives at this blog?
• How about the content quality?

The most helpful and constructive commenter will get $10. Alternatively, if you prefer, I can register a domain for you at eNom and push it to your account Lax will decide who the best commenter was.

As usual, I remind everyone that positive or negative, all feedback should be constructive.

If you have any questions about any of this please let me know in this thread

Blog to be Reviewed : TechZoomIn

Here are a few issues the owner Steven thinks he needs to address :

• Sidebar is not actually helping in terms of navigating and finding more interesting content.
• Lots of readers but they don’t seem to be subscribing.
• How do you get readers to promote or vote for us on social media sites?

The most helpful and constructive commenter will get $10. Alternatively, if you prefer, I can register a domain for you at eNom and push it to your account Steven will decide who the best commenter was.

As usual, I remind everyone that positive or negative, all feedback should be constructive.

If you have any questions about any of this please let me know in this thread

Blog to be Reviewed : Crenk

This weeks review is on BradBlogging, a blogging tips and advice blog which has been online for around a year.

Here are a few questions the owner Brad would like to ask you all :

• If you loaded this blog in your browser right this second, would you remember the design or logo compared to other people’s blogs?
• The liquid layout (the blog fills your screen upon loading) – Love it? Hate it?
• Is there anything that should be taken away? (Too distracting, unnecessary, etc)
• Is there anything that should be added?
• Anything to recommend about the content quality?

The most helpful and constructive commenter will get $10. Alternatively, if you prefer, I can register a domain for you at eNom and push it to your account Brad will decide who the best commenter was.

As usual, I remind everyone that positive or negative, all feedback should be constructive.

If you have any questions about any of this please let me know in this thread

Blog to be Reviewed : BradBlogging

This weeks review is on JobMob, a blog which aims to bring together job seekers and jobfinders to find jobs in Israel and all over the world.

Here is what the owner Jacob thinks needs to be addressed :

• Subscribers don’t have enough incentive to come back to the site
  regularly and I’m not willing to annoy my users with partial RSS feeds.
• Although there’s good traffic and readership, most comments are from
  non-subscribers.

The most helpful and constructive commenter will get $10. Alternatively, if you prefer, I can register a domain for you at eNom and push it to your account Jacob will decide who the best commenter was.

As usual, I remind everyone that positive or negative, all feedback should be constructive.

If you have any questions about any of this please let me know in this thread

Blog to be Reviewed : JobMob

This weeks review is on Techie Buzz, a blog which covers technology, software and more. Here are the questions the owner Keith would like to ask you all about the blog :

• What are your thoughts of the design on the blog?
• Do you think there are too many advertisements on the blog?
• What are your thoughts about the quality of the content?
• Are there adequate and sufficient options for readers to share the content with their friends?
• Any suggestions on other areas the blog would require to improve on?

The most helpful and constructive commenter will get $10. Alternatively, if you prefer, I can register a domain for you at eNom and push it to your account Keith will decide who the best commenter was.

As usual, I remind everyone that positive or negative, all feedback should be constructive.

If you have any questions about any of this please let me know in this thread

Blog to be Reviewed : Techie Buzz

This weeks review is on ToMuse, a blog which covers new technology, business start-ups, Web 2.0, websites, gadgets, web tools, open source software, computers, electronics, and various other random things. .

Here are the questions the owner Kevin would like to ask you all about the blog :

• What do you like and dislike about the site?
• What do you think can be done to improve it?
• Do post/pages load quickly for you?
• Does the navigation and categories make sense?
• How do you feel about the number and placement of ads?

The most helpful and constructive commenter will get $10. Alternatively, if you prefer, I can register a domain for you at eNom and push it to your account Kevin will decide who the best commenter was.

As usual, I remind everyone that positive or negative, all feedback should be constructive.

If you have any questions about any of this please let me know in this thread

Blog to be Reviewed : ToMuse

This weeks review is on Linkers Blog, a blog which helps you build links, traffic and PageRank.

Here are the questions the owner Danny would like to ask you all about the blog :

• What is your favourite and least favourite part of the design?
• Is the text easy to read?
• How many ads should there be on the left hand side?
• Is there any widgets you would like to see on the right hand side?
• Is there anything blairingly obvious missing or anything you think is horribly wrong with the blog?

The most helpful and constructive commenter will get $10. Alternatively, if you prefer, I can register a domain for you at eNom and push it to your account Danny will decide who the best commenter was.

As usual, I remind everyone that positive or negative, all feedback should be constructive.

If you have any questions about any of this please let me know in this thread

Blog to be Reviewed : Linkers Blog

This weeks review is on TechZilo, a software and technology blog which was moved to it’s current domain in April 2007.

Here are the questions the owner Sumesh would like to ask you all about the blog :

• What do you like and hate about the design?
• How many ads would be too many? (Currently, I have AdSense shown only to search traffic and a CPM-based banner ad)
• Is typography and whitespace adequate enough such that reading is comfortable?
• Ideas to increase subscriber count?
• If I write content suited social media (typically resources and large tutorials) to attract a larger readership, would readers hate it? How often would content aimed at social media “not be too often”?

The most helpful and constructive commenter will get $10. Alternatively, if you prefer, I can register a domain for you at eNom and push it to your account Sumesh will decide who the best commenter was.

As usual, I remind everyone that positive or negative, all feedback should be constructive.

If you have any questions about any of this please let me know in this thread

Blog to be Reviewed : TechZilo

The following was wrote by Andrey Savchenko aka Rarst (subscribe via RSS Feed). He is currently taking part in Blogging Idol 2 so is offering guest posts and ad exchanges for free. Please contact him directly if this interests you.

Hope you Enjoy the post

Taking Blog Apart – Critique Checklist

According to numerous studies forming an opinion about a website takes seconds ie. opinion is as shallow as it is fast. If you are related to web publishing in any way then it’s very important to complement first impression with a methodical study.

Why bother

A lot of publishers, especially in the blogosphere, have plenty of internet browsing experience. A lot of that influences their habits and preferences online. It may be hard for a blogger to distance themselves from their creation and evaluate its strong and weak points so it is handy to have an evaluation routine.

Right before start

All blog critiques can be separated in two types:

1. You have previously visited the blog (this means you already have an opinion formed). In this case it’s important to take a second look at everything and note things that have changed since you first viewed the site.
2. You are seeing the blog for first time. This means you can properly notice and evaluate your first impression. It also means you have to look harder for subtle elements that take time to figure out.

Unseen Elements

There are some elements often missed in blog critiques simply because it’s difficult or impossible to see them.

It might be blog internal workings:

• Validate (X)HTML source code.
• Validate CSS source code.
• Check set and size of page elements, their load time.
• Check if XML sitemap for search engines present.
• Check if RSS feed auto-discovery works.

Or something you do not see or notice often:

• Check 404 error page (shown on invalid URLs).
• Check page with search results (if blog has the internal search).
• Check for favicon and its relevance to blog branding.
• Take a look in different browsers.

Header area

Top of blog sets the tone. It determines:

• General color scheme;
• Page proportions and what screen space is left for content;
• Brand (logo mostly, but not limited to);
• Navigation elements – links to static pages and other areas of interest.

Headers may serve different purposes. They can be aimed at anything ie sending visitors through to content as fast as possible. It’s important to determine if header design and content matches its purpose.

Static pages

Information that is not tied to blogging timeline is usually put on static pages. Common experience is that they are linked from navigation menu in header and few same ones are on every blog:

• Link to home page. Also commonly linked by logo but that is not a reason to skip it in navigation.
• About and contact pages (separate or combined). Brief or not they should serve purpose and common mistake is mixing them having contact info on about page and off-topic text on contact one.
• Archives page that organizes past posts in a way of blogger’s choice. Chronological and topical schemes are most common.

There are two important things to check with static pages:

• They work and not just sit there;
• Around five pages linked is usual, more may be too much.

Index area

Post presentation can be done in different ways:

• Classic with latest post on top and previous lower. It can be full posts shown or just excerpts.
• Magazine with highlighted featured post and grid of others

While classic looks are common it becomes easier to encounter magazine theme. Important thing here is that magazine themes are highly specialized. They serve best for blogs that need to highlight high amount of daily posts or variety of topics. Usage of magazine theme without purpose is a mistake to note.

If full posts are shown then it is important to check that vertical size and load time of page remains reasonable.

There is also different ways to handle post excerpts. They can be custom written, show beginning of post up to manual break point or be automatically generated. Usually anything is good as long as it’s not auto-generated.

Single page content area

Post pages are mostly associated with actual content but that is not the only important area here. Actually there are three:

• Post itself;
• Area after post with subscription options and related links;
• Comments area;

Title and post are usually fine as long as they look nice and remain readable. But area after post is critically important and often overlooked. It is one of the best possible places for RSS link and exactly where reader starts looking for more when done with reading post. Some themes also show block of totally useless info here (trackback links and such).

Comments are fine as long as they are readable but blogs with high number of comments require more work here. Plenty of visitors look for blog author’s comments so it’s good practice when they are highlighted.

Sidebar area

There are few rules here so sidebars are case by case. Widget overload is generally bad, rest can be very different. Some blogs have dynamic sidebar with contents different for different places (home page/post page/static page) so it’s worth to check for that.

Footer area

Footer is another one overlooked area. It can be:

• Plain with some info and navigation;
• Widgetized with 2-4 areas similar to sidebar in usage.

Same as sidebar – not much rules here. But there are often plenty of useless links here like "Log in" that should not be displayed and most common mistake ever – "©Copyright" which equals saying copyright twice. One must die.

Uncommon elements

Some blogs really like to stand out. They integrate dynamic services, make some elements appear only in specific conditions, use tools of bad fame (like pop-ups). In the end such uncommon elements are either:

• Good;
• Bad;
• Useless.

It’s important to determine correctly which case it is.

Summing up

Full round of critique is lots of time and lots of work. But in the end it all boils down to single summary:

• How good design looks are;
• Does it fulfill intended purpose;
• What parts that need fixing first.

I guess I’ve exhausted my list. Have something to add? More places you are looking into while performing blog critique? Tell me.

* This post was wrote by Andrey Savchenko of Rarst.

This weeks review is on Thou Shall Blog, a blogging tips site for beginners which covers WordPress, Search Engine Optimization, CSS Design and more.

Here are the questions the owner Yan would like to ask you all about the blog :

• What is your first impression of the blog?
• What do you dislike about the design?
• Is the layout appeared too cluttered?
• What do you think of the blog content?
• If you took over ownership of the blog now, what’s would be your first change?

The most helpful and constructive commenter will get $10. Alternatively, if you prefer, I can register a domain for you at eNom and push it to your account Yan will decide who the best commenter was.

As usual, I remind everyone that positive or negative, all feedback should be constructive.

If you have any questions about any of this please let me know in this thread

Blog to be Reviewed : Thou Shall Blog

This weeks review is on Home Design Find, a magazine style blog which focuses on home design products and ideas.

Here are the questions the owner Yaw would like to ask you all about the blog :

• What do you like and dislike about the design or layout of the site?
• Content promotion ideas?
• What do you like and dislike about the content?
• Any ideas for social media success?

In addition I welcome commenters to talk about the blogs content and design and any suggestions you have for promoting the blog.

The most helpful and constructive commenter will get $10. Alternatively, if you prefer, I can register a domain for you at eNom and push it to your account Yaw will decide who the best commenter was.

As usual, I remind everyone that positive or negative, all feedback should be constructive.

If you have any questions about any of this please let me know in this thread

Blog to be Reviewed : Home Design Find

This weeks review is on Carl Ocabs blog, a making money online blog which covers many aspects of making money on the web.

I spoke to Carl about his blog and he wanted to ask you all the following questions :

• Is there a room for user’s feedback?
• Are the fonts and color combination pleasing to the eyes?
• Is the layout neat and clutter minimal?
• Does it give lasting first impression?
• Is the information structured orderly?

In addition I welcome commenters to talk about the blogs content and design and any suggestions you have for promoting the blog.

3 Copies of ‘The Ultimate Blogging Theme’ up for grabs

This week there is a little more incentive for leaving some feedback on Carls blog. Carl is offering a copy of his brand new Ultimate Blogging Theme to the top 3 commenters. This great looking theme is a ready to go WordPress theme that is Google friendly, advertisement ready and available in 3 funky colours : Quirky Pink, Spit Fire Red and Earth Green.

The theme is based on Carls current design and is very easy to customise. There is a theme options page which allows you change the advertisement areas and feedburner details easily too. You can check out a demo of the Spit Fire Red version here.

Each winner will have an unlimited license (worth $97) which means that the theme can be used on as many blogs as you want. Carl will decide who the best commenters are.

As usual, I remind everyone that positive or negative, all feedback should be constructive.

If you have any questions about any of this please let me know in this thread

Blog to be Reviewed : Carl Ocab

This weeks review is on The World Wide Web Blog, a technology blog which looks at many aspects of the internet and electronics.

Here are the questions the owner Chetan Bhawani would like to ask you all about the blog :

• Is the content easy to read and blog easy to navigate?
• The present design has been good but i also bought a developer pack of Arthemia theme which can be seen here – http://colorlabsproject.com/arthemia/ Do you suggest me to redesign to this premium one or stick to the present one on my blog?
• Some suggestions on the ad placement in the single post pages would be great
• What do you suggest about the categories? Are they good enough to call it a tech blog?
• Any more suggestions on the design would be good.

In addition I welcome commenters to talk about the blogs content and design and any suggestions you have for promoting the blog.

The most helpful and constructive commenter will get $10. Alternatively, if you prefer, I can register a domain for you at eNom and push it to your account Chetan will decide who the best commenter was.

As usual, I remind everyone that positive or negative, all feedback should be constructive.

If you have any questions about any of this please let me know in this thread

Blog to be Reviewed : The World Wide Web Blog

This weeks review is of People You’ll See In Hell, an interesting blog which looks at the weird, crazy and downright evil people in the world today.

I asked the owner J.D. his thoughts about the blog. Here is his reply

Monetization Ideas

I recently decided to take out the majority of the advertisements on the blog. I felt that I was becoming too engrossed with the income the site was making (or the lack thereof) and that it was hurting the focus of the site.

Unfortunately, this also means that the income for the site has dropped, much like a rock that was already very close to the ground. This prevents PYSIH.com from expanding by hiring good writers, or paying the good writers that write for us out of the goodness of their own heart. 95 percent of the content is from one person, which is tiring when that one person has websites that do make money and demand attention, along with a full-time job.

Monetization is difficult for the site. I have tried virtually everything I can think of. The only thing that converted well (for a while) was a background check service. Those conversions started going south a few months ago. Banners get clicked often, but there are very, very few conversions – even with freebie offers.

I’d be open to monetization ideas that were not intrusive.

Promotion ideas.

Ideas related to the general usability of the site. PYSIH.com was recently hacked and some files were deleted. They were recovered, but restored from a variety of backups, so things aren’t quite the way they were before the incident. Now would be a good time to get opinions on how things are presented visually and how easy it is for the users to get around.

Any ideas, really.

I love the site, but hate it. It’s my baby, but it takes up a lot of time. Last month was our best yet, with over 70k uniques and 300k+ pageviews, so even with our frequent “CPU overage suspensions” from Bluehost, it’s still nice to see that people like to come and read what we have to say. Keeps us going.

In addition I welcome commenters to talk about the blogs content and design and any suggestions you have for promoting the blog.

People You'll See In Hell

The most helpful and constructive commenter will get $10. Alternatively, if you prefer, I can register a domain for you at eNom and push it to your account J.D. will decide who the best commenter was.

As usual, I remind everyone that positive or negative, all feedback should be constructive.

If you have any questions about any of this please let me know in this thread

Blog to be Reviewed : People You’ll See In Hell