Patrick M.'s Blog Evaluation

Echoes and Shadows

The music blogosphere is a formidable force, so much so that the RIAA, is frightened to death of it. It allows them to circumvent the traditional channels of releasing music and put it all out in the open. This particular music blog, Echoes and Shadows, may not be much an eye pleaser as far as its layout, but it is brimming with information about all the latest music news. I have to say that it's masthead picture of a double-necked guitar is pretty sweet and the widgets on the side are very useful. The writing quality is on par with any major music magazine and they always incorporate other blog posts into theirs, hence their impressive blog roll. Probably the coolest widget of all is the HardRadio application which allows you to listen to whatever album they're playing while you're reading.

Kings of A&R

This blog is much more professional than Echoes and Shadows, mainly because it is now a critical outlet for signing talent off the Internet. Every day they post interviews, singles and music videos of undiscovered artists and have successfully signed dozens of them to huge labels like Atlantic and Virgin. I believe that blogs like this will supplant the Billboard system of tracking hot songs, since one of their widgets already tracks the top 20 songs in all the major genres. I'm not sure which A&R reps actually run this site, but it seems that it's paying dividends.

Indie Rock Cafe

This is probably my favorite blog because it not only offers a wealth of information on bands that no one has profiled, but it allows you to stream free mp3s from new bands every single day. Their layout is a little overwhelming at first, and could definitely be cleaned up a bit, but once you sift through it all, it's more than worth it. One of their coolest features is the In Dee Mail Service which emails you a round-up of five under-the-radar bands and two of their most downloaded singles.

Better my Blogging!

My 3 Blog Evals:

1. Absolutely Unsure: My Oxymoronic Life by Grady Grad Student Andrea Davis. - I like this blog because of its style. Andrea keeps an honest voice throughout her writing and is purely relaying to her readers what her graduate school experience is like - encompassing slide shows, YouTube videos, and any other forms of multimedia that help to convey her experience. Also, the blog is consistently updated and the reader is kept informed.
2. SMORE: Single Moms Overjoyed, Rejuvenated, & Empowered - This blog is extremely useful for single mothers such as myself. It's like a conglomerate of resources and useful content - links to other blogs, websites, and a list of resources right on the front page. Through this blog I found my way to my third blog which is also useful for single mothers. Overall, this blog's design and navigation is extremely beneficial for single mothers or any form of parents!
3. Single Mom's Care Package by author Cherise Bopape - Although this blog's editorial content was not kept entirely up to date, I once again found that the organization and utility of this site was extremely great. It allows the author to use this blog for a variety of reasons, including as a PR tool for her career and as a resource portal for her readers. I appreciated how the blog's content was neatly organized into a list that allowed you to click on topics and view all the available titles within that category. She, too, had useful web links and resources as well.

Chelsey W.'s blog evaluation

Foolocracy

This blog's biggest strength is its sheer amount of information and immediacy--there are several updates every day. The type of information is also a strength since it reports on stories that are underreported or ignored--all with a touch of the absurd. It is not a humor site, but it reports on information that is inherently funny. They are not stories that one would see on any other news site which makes it unique. It plays to its strength through the use of visual aid--lots of pictures and video to back up its stories. It's also very easy to navigate with recent topics links, past archives and everything is categorized. It builds community through comments and links to other blogs as well as other news sites. It also has a tip suggestion box for viewers to give tips on certain stories the blogger might not know about so he can look into them. As a result, the viewers play a key role in the site's success since the amount of information reported is nearly impossible for one person to do alone several times a day. He also has several links to follow him and the site on various social media sites including twitter, facebook, google buzz, etc.

The Flying Pinto

I know the name is weird, but this is a blog of a fellow flight attendant...I don't know if her last name is Pinto or what. She provides a humorous, although insightful look into the life of a flight attendant. Her layout is very simple and easy to navigate which is a strength. She has everything categorized so browsing for a topic is easy. Although, the topic of the blog is very narrow, she finds ways to discuss other things travel related-like tips for traveling with children, or where to go and what to do on layovers which brings in other people to her site than just employees in the airline industry. She incorporates pictures and videos in her posts to give it some style and to help relay a point in her posts. She doesn't post everyday, but she does post every few days which is pretty good, I think. As far as community, she actively responds to reader comments or letters in her posts with, sometimes, very in-depth answers. She also has links to other FA blogs, travel blogs, and pilot blogs and they have links back to her site which continously builds her community. In addition, her blog is the first option to pop up on google if you search for FA blogs and she has links to follow her on twitter and facebook.



The Broadway Pulse

a broadway/musical theater news blog with VERY in-depth posts with links to various sources. However, this hurts it also in that it often reads as a news feed rather than a personal blog. There is very little personality and very little commentary. This is probably because the blog is run from a commercial site-broadwayworld.com so it must be very professional. The writer works for the site, he is not a freelancer. Because it is a commercial site, it is very clean with many links and just looks very professional. However, the colors and layout are a little busy to me which sometimes distract me. It does have links to past blogs, but nothing is categorized so you just have to go slumming through all the archives to find a certain post. Although the posts are very news professional, the information is not limited in diversity at all: broadway, off-broadway, interviews, reviews, behind-the-scenes, musical theater around the world--it's all on there. I personally think it is lacking in the community area. Although it has a message board and links to follow it on twitter and facebook or RSS, there is no where to leave comments that I can find. It also only has links to other blogs within the broadwayworld website--no outside blogs are listed.

Chelsea Toledo Blog Evaluation

These are blogs that I follow:

Pamie.com

This is the personal blog of author and roller girl Pamela Ribon, whom I interviewed for my enterprise story. Its strength stems from its humor. Pamie often quotes entire conversations with and videos of her mother, who is essentially a supporting character on the blog. She also posts the chronicles of "Little Pam" by way of diary entries and love letters she wrote when she was 16. She plays to her strengths with clever titles and a simple, cheerful template. Her blog has actually created a community. When she was here in Athens, she stayed with two of her readers, who actually met via her blog.

Fitness Hotspots

...also a blog with a roller girl author (among other contributors.) This blog provides helpful information for those of us who play sports and/or exercise regularly. The template makes it look hard core, and even though the video presentations are a little cheesy, they're extremely helpful. The blog plays up its strengths with its organization. Readers can access exactly the information they want from the categories in the sidebar. The community is cemented by way of the blogroll (also in the sidebar.) This trainer invites roller girl traffic to her site by calling attention to theirs.

The Well-Timed Period

I have to admit I was drawn to this one because the title is hilarious. This blog provides myriad links to women's health in the news. It also provides a lot of opinions even I would call overly P.C. but I suppose it's important that we stay abreast (get it?) of the current terms for contraceptives and such. As for strengths, the sidebar gives resources to help women deal with (you guessed it) their periods. This obviously applies to a community (about 50% of the population). I think the blog would be more appealing to said community if the template were a bit more professional-looking and if the author didn't put out such attitude.

Blog Evaluation_Xiaokui

http://graybs.wordpress.com/
http://thecornercritc.wordpress.com/
http://www.oconeecountyobservations.blogspot.com/

Those three blogs are written by people we know. They are all great blogs because they are updated, well written, and nice to read. They all have stable readers and followers. Especially Daniel’s the Corner Critique and Doctor Becker’s Oconee County Observations, those two have very clear concentration and have in-depth analysis on their topics. I like the Corner Critique with all that videos and pictures on it. However, all three blogs neglect to build a readers’ community since they do not reply to their comments.

When I invited my friends to visit my new blog on wordpress, I found out they cannot open wordpress in China, which I do not know why. Apparently, famous people in China have blogs followed by millions on Sohu or Yahoo, not wordpress or blogger. I don’t think Wordpress and Bloggers can estime themselves as a global phenomenon unless they have people writing Chinese on them.

Blog Evaluation-Daniel Suddes

The Film Experience Blog

The blog's strengths are two fold. First is it's frequent updates. There are multiple posts per day, each detailing different ideas. The second is its diversity. The author has decided to take a specific medium and, rather than focus on a specific aspect, appears to try as much as possible to include every single portion. This means a discussion of foreign films (which only a select percentage of the population knows about) and blockbusters. Now, the blog has been active since 2004, and they have multiple writers working on it. It would be very difficult for a single author to do this, if not downright impossible. This is something to strive toward, certainly, but not something to emulate with a first blog.

The Monkey Cage

This blog is not updated as frequently and seems to take the role of an RSS feed at times rather than a full fledged blog, linking to several articles and not commenting as much as they could. Still, the articles are insightful and the data they present is not as well known as it should be. At the very least, the blog is meticulously researched and is graphically pleasing. The blog shows how helpful visual flair can be.

Journalistopia

This blog is very similar to The Monkey Cage in its form. The blog has also not been updated in quite some time - since July. Still, the blog's strength comes from the information that it provides. This is an examination of blogging and the technological driven world that we as a society currently inhabit. They promote certain innovations and certain websites that are vital to journalism and the increasing migration to blogging.

Blog Evaluation Emily Parker

Frumpzilla


Frumpzilla.com is a sports, entertainment, and social commentary blog. The biggest strength is the diversity of college sports covered. The teams covered can make this blog usable to any college sports fan because if you keep checking back, something about your team is bound to show up. This creates repeat traffic. It plays to this strength by posting scores, highlights, but also funny videos about teams that you may not find on a more professional site. Frumpzilla uses the Facebook fan page and Twitter to market themselves. Although it covers a lot on the front page, other sports stories can be found on the sidebar with links for readers.

FPRA blog

The Florida Public Relations Association blog has the most strength in professional design. This blog is designed to where it doesn't even look like a blog. Sometimes, blogs turn me off because they look very unprofessional, even if they have a meaningful goal. Having a professional and organized blog allows for many links and subheads, without them looking sloppy. Everything is organized and easy to find. It builds a community by giving links to events, and also teaching how to run a professional blog.

Athensworld

Athensworld.com is a blog aboutl life in Athens, GA. It's biggest strength is that it's frequently updated. I would say the biggest strength of this blog is that when I googled "athens georgia blogs" it was the first thing that came up. So, it has enough tags to get it up high on the search engine list. It plays on this strength by then having a variety of stories, about politics and nightlife, so it will attract a diverse (and large) group of viewers. It has links to the stories it uses for sourcing - for example the AJC article on Chambliss.