Review of Mom Reviews
I started reading Mom Reviews last year. Elizabeth asked me a while back if I’d take a look at her blog, so here we are. Elizabeth changed the theme of her blog this past week, so I think this a great time to do this review.
When Mom Reviews first loads you can’t help but notice the header. It contains family photos and it immediately brings color to the page and welcomes the visitor. The two column gray and white theme loaded quickly. The text the content appears in is a good size and color but it might be appear just a little sharper if a different font was used.
I am a big fan of navigation placed at the top of a blog rather than on the side. The sidebars on Mom Reviews are neat, but I would recommend a couple of minor changes. I’d suggest moving the tags and categories widgets up higher in the sidebar, above the blogroll. There’s a pretty big blogroll over there (that I’m not on, LOL) that I’m guessing she wants there because it isn’t on her blogrolls page. If the length gets too much she could put this into a scrollbox. 3 Boys Toys stands out a bit right now, if Elizabeth doesn’t have a button for it she could center it above the other buttons so it doesn’t stand out so much like it does when aligned to the left.
Elizabeth updates her blog daily, sometimes more than once. She often includes pictures, which will work well with this new white theme. The blog has an about page, and it actually tells the reader a lot about her. The writing style is personal and invites the visitor to read more. Elizabeth writes on a number of topics on Mom Reviews, the main ones being reviews, contests, saving money, family and home. Readers are invited to interact and share their thoughts through the comments section. Commenting requires no registration or login and Elizabeth often replies to comments that are left.
I highly recommend Mom Reviews. Yes, she frequently holds fantastic contests that I enter. But she also writes from a personal point of view that invites readers into her home and family, all while sharing her thoughts and opinions and interacting with her readers. One of the reasons she wanted a review was to be sure that her blog was appealing to readers, and I think it is. When you visit Mom Reviews, please tell her that valmg sent you.
May 4th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Val!! Thank you for reviewing my blog! Gee, this theme you are using looks familiar
lol
Thanks for the suggestions about the sidebar. When I switched themes I automatically dragged over the Links widget but it would make more sense to just put those on the Blogrolls page. I wasn’t sure how important the tags and categories are but I’ll take your suggestion on that.
Hey, you got rated on blogged! I did too but I didn’t put the rating badge on my sidebar because my rating isn’t that great
If I click your “rate this blog” link, will you please come back to MomReviews and click mine? Thanks so much my friend!
Elizabeth’s last blog post..Barnes and Noble gift card giveaway
May 4th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Elizabeth - Sure, I voted for you on Blogged. The way I look at it is you want your viewers to stay on your blog as long as possible so navigation within your blog and ease of use come before most other things. Blogrolls have their uses but I myself don’t consider them as important as giving the reader the easiest experience possible on my blog. Thank goodness you don’t use that click to read more button, I hate those.