B.S.I. Investigation - An Island Life

B.S.I. Investigation - An Island Life

To be honest, unless I went digging through the code of this one, I don't think I could find anything at all I could add.

The writer utilizes entertaining photos to keep the reader occupied.
The blog utilizes prime space for ads that compliment the overall blog.
The design is great, clean and well organized.
The writer utilizes tags - which I'm a big fan of.
There is a contact option in a very visible location.

The absolute single tip that I can offer this blogger for monetizing this blog would be to participate in Commission Junction, Shareasale or similar affiliate opportunities and integrate them into her postings.

As an example: She could utilize a travel affiliate to link her own travel links to Travelocity or Hotwire, etc.

Another linking tip would be to anchor keywords with outbound links such as television shows, etc.

By linking those to top ranking blogs designed around those shows would probably do wonders for the traffic. Anyone have anything else they'd add as a tip?

B.S.I. Investigation - Merry's Kitchen

B.S.I. Investigation - Merry's Kitchen



Tip One: One the Wordpress Platform, you'll get the most mileage out of creating keyword rich titles if you use what's called pretty permalinks.

Instead of having a link look like this:
http://merryskitchen.com/?p=43

Your link would look like this:
http://merryskitchen.com/Ben-an-Jerrys-New-Ice-Cream-Flavors

This is done by going to Options, Permalinks and selecting the name based option. Be sure to update your changes at the bottom before exiting that page.



Tip Two: You have incredible opportunity to take advantage of Amazon links. When you are doing product reviews or recommendations, link to an Amazon affiliate link. Since you are on Wordpress, you can utilize the Amazon plugin that allows you to drag and drop links and pictures too.



Tip Three: Build on your About Page. You are offering some great advice, reviews and information, but people will develop a stronger loyalty if they feel they know you. We're always more prone to buy from a friend then a stranger.



Tip Four: Tag your posts. Technorati tags are a great way to drive traffic for specific topics. In Wordpress you can either insert them with a plugin or you can use Qumana or BlogDesk blog editors (both are free downloads) and insert them easily that way.



Tip Five: If you're looking to monetize your blog or find ways of earning -- I highly recommend signing up for ReviewMe. You're already offering product reviews so it would be a nice fit right into your content. You can see how I have my MomGadget Request a Review Page set up and use whatever portions of it you like if you would like to set up a page similar.

Merry ~ Thanks so much for letting me critique your blog. I've enjoyed looking yours over and might even have gained a few pounds during the investigation. I hope these tips help you and I wish you continued success.

B.S.I. Investigation - My Fashion E-Mall Blog!

B.S.I. Investigation - My Fashion E-Mall Blog!

Tip One: Fashion blogs and eBay are both huge right now. It's a great niche to get into. The first thing I noticed that I would personally change is the template. You have a trendy niche and need a trendy snazzy template to go with it. Doesn't need to be anything fancy - perhaps just playing with the colors a bit would bring enough splash of color to the blog to make it "fashionable" to the eye.

Tip Two: Try moving your profile/about section down a bit and utilizing that top sidebar space for your profit generators. It's prime spacing for Google Ads or similar pay per click ads. A pay per sale ad might work if you have a hot item that you could get a solid click through rate on.

Tip Three: Every blogger that wishes to be taken seriously needs to have a way for readers to contact them. This shows your readers you're a real person and lets them know you value them enough to have them contact you any time they have questions or recommendations.

Tip Four: Labels or Tags - I'm a big believer in labels or tags. I have seen firsthand what a few quality labels can do for a blogs traffic. If you would rather not use the tags, perhaps highlighting key words within the text of your posts might be something to consider. It helps the search engines to zero in on those keywords.

Tip Five: Adbrite Ads - consider relocating your Adbrite Ads. If they were in a more prime spot and not hidden between other links, you would be able to generate more sales. You've got a great market for Adbrite Ads and should take full advantage of prime locations within your blog.

Sonia - Thanks so much for letting me critique your blog. I've enjoyed looking yours over and hope you'll find a tremendous amount of success.

B.S.I. Investigation - Coffee Shop Chatter

B.S.I. Investigation - Coffee Shop Chatter

Tip One: I love the title - it just exudes fun! In fact, I think your title is much too fun for your template. I like the browns but consider doing a little something to dress it up - perhaps a coffee shop or coffee cup background. Pictures do help increase readership and I think that would be a good start.

Tip Two: Blog Archives - Consider condensing those into the drop down format so it frees up valuable sidebar space. You have one sidebar so you'll have to make the most of every inch of it.

Tip Three: In your Gotta Get Goals post - Item number 2 - That's a very good goal to have and this blog is the perfect place to begin. I'm sure there would be lots of readers hanging on your every word if you could help put the romance back into their marriages. If you have a knack for romance, tap into it and share it!

Tip Four: Minimize your affiliate buttons in the sidebar - You'll likely do a much better business if you stick to "topic" products that are within your blogs topic. Having random ads for random products have statistically not done very well. It you'd like to mention the various products, try introducing them via a post specific to that product verses decorating your blog with them.

Tip Five: Make it easy for your visitors to contact you. Perhaps tap into that romance topic with this and invite reader question that can be featured once a week or so. This will help create content and prevent long periods of writers block.

Thanks MK for allowing me to critique your blog. Best of luck in your blogging!

B.S.I. Investigation - The Journey of a Mommy

B.S.I. Investigation - The Journey of a Mommy



Tip One: The first thing I noticed right off the bat was the site is very busy! Too busy in fact. I'd highly recommend cutting down on the number of scrolling text bars and the number of animated ads. To many distractions going on to prevent a person getting to the meat of your blog. The content.


Tip Two: Statistically, easy-to-read fonts will do much better then the funky more artistic ones. I'd recommend looking at a Times or Ariel font. Choosing a font that's more decorative gives the impression that you're not exactly blogging for an audience.


Tip Three: The email me button isn't overly easy to read. Perhaps making the button a clickable link would be beneficial. You always want to step outside your blog and try to view it as your readers would. Make navigation as easy as you can. Offer as many one click options as you can.


Tip Four: The Header here is absolutely adorable, but it's hard to read. Consider placing the header on a white background to make it stand out. Don't forget to make it clickable to the front of your blog too -- this is one of those easy navigation tips that some people tend to overlook.


Tip Five: Tagging - I think you may be missing the boat by not using Technorati tags. This is a great traffic generator and a great way to keep track of who is linking to you and your posts. Blogger has made it so much easier to tag with their labels option. It's there, it's free, give it a try.


I'd like to thank Jenni for allowing me to critique her blog. If any of my Work at Home Blog readers have any tips they'd like to add, please do.


After all, we are only as good as our readers tell us we are, right?

B.S.I. Investigation - Work at Home Mom Revolution

B.S.I. Investigation - Work at Home Mom Revolution

Tip One: Breath some life into your template. I'm not the biggest fan of default templates, but if you must use one show a little bit of character and originality. Blogger offers little widgets that allow you to play with various colors and placements. Use those. It will show you're not boring.

Tip Two: Ad some contact information. If you don't provide your readers with a way to contact you with questions or interview opportunities, you may be missing the boat a lot more then you realize. Furthermore, there's far too many splogs out there. Sometimes offering up your contact link is all it takes to make you stand out as more then a splog.

Tip Three: Condense your archives to a drop down menu. You can do this in your blogger settings. It will free up valuable advertising space.

Tip Four: Sign up for Sitemeter and/or Statcounter. I use both. With these two little tools you can learn so much about your visitors. You can expand your network, link back to whomever is linking to you and capture a niche by really focusing on the search terms and keywords that are bringing people to your site.

Tip Five: I would make the Job Bank in the sidebar a weekly featured post or even monthly, depending on how often you update. Unless the job ad posters are paying for that space, you could be freeing it up for pay per click ads or Adbrite ad space.


Additional tips anyone?

Thanks so much to Lisa for allowing me to critique her blog. I hope Pam and others take away a little something with this review.

Interested in having your blog reviewed?

B.S.I. Investigation - Pam's Daily Ponderings

B.S.I. Investigation - Pam's Daily Ponderings

Tip One: The first thing I notice that needs to go or be filtered is the Blogger Swap button in the left sidebar. At the time of my visit, Nympho Girl was gracing the space with her presence and well, that's not exactly the image you're looking for to be located just below the adorable photo of your daughter and the one of you and your daughter. If Blogger Swap doesn't allow for filtering, I'd remove them altogether.

Tip Two: I would ad a little splash of color here and there. I know there are a lot of people out there who like the darker more "natural" colors and that's fine. Just show your visitors your an exciting and entertaining blogger by featuring a splash of color now and again.

Tip Three: Give a little thought to your blog post titles. People who use blog readers and feeds will ONLY see the title of your post in most cases. Make sure you are naming them in a way that's going to make them want to open it up and read it. Titles like "frustration" don't exactly peak a curiosity. If you're not going to name them to appeal to the readers, appeal to the search engines with keyword rich posts - had you used something along the lines of Missouri DMV goes Postal and Back you would have made your blog keyword rich for the term Missouri DMV which produced 2396 searches alone in the month of February.

Tip Four: When you are recommending products, check those products out to see if they offer an affiliate program or perhaps see if the product is offered through Amazon. Always try to link up your positive reviews with an affiliate link. Some of my best sells come from my own positive product reviews with text links.

Tip Five: StatCounter and Sitemeter - two little tools that will help you analyze your traffic and ultimately help you dig your niche. Monitor where your traffic comes from, what key terms and words they use to get there and build on that. I can't sing those praises enough! They are a must!

Anyone have any tips they'd like to add?

Thanks so much to Pam for allowing me to critique her blog. I hope Pam and others take away a little something with this review.

Interested in having your blog reviewed?

B.S.I. Investigation - Adventures in Baby Fat

B.S.I. Investigation - Adventures in Baby Fat


Tip One: I would highly recommend showing at least five posts on the front page. Keeping your blog limited to one causes your visitors to have to click more to dig deeper for your content. I don’t believe putting all your posts on the front page is beneficial, but five is a nice number to go with.



Tip Two: Try a different template or play with the colors a bit. Dark colors tend to detour visitors unless of course your content is “dark” then dark is good.



Tip Three: Use the archive widgets. Get your content out there so that your readers can scan through to see if there’s something they want to check in on. Your blog is very limiting to the visitor who is there for a matter of seconds, there’s very little to lock them in and keep them there.



Tip Four: Use your Adsense Widgets to get your ads out there. If you want to make money with your blog, you can’t earn if the ads aren’t there. Play with the template and move the ads around. That’s the beauty of the new blogger. There is lots of room to play.



Tip Five: Get an email link in place so that visitors can contact you. Allowing them the option to contact you with questions over a post is key in letting people know you’re real.


As with all other reviews, if anyone else has anything to ad, please feel free.

B.S.I. - Improve Your Blog with 5 Points or Less

Are you trying to monetize your blog but nothing seems to work?

Would you like an honest critique of your blog?

Can you handle honest and constructive criticism?

Would you be willing to allow this critique to be displayed publicly here or on MomGadget?

I've been thinking about offering up advice via my Work at Home Mom and/or MomGadget Blogs and the meme I participated in yesterday provided that last nudge of inspiration I needed to get off my tail and do something about it.

If you would like to receive helpful advice while helping me provide valuable information to my readers, I'd be more then happy to take the time to 'investigate" your blog and provide 5 points or less on how to achieve your ultimate goal of being a successful blogger.

Either send me your link via Email or provide the link in the comments section of this post.