Blog Review: Pat B. Doyle
Pat sent me an email requesting a free review of her blog, so here it is…
What is PatBDoyle.com?
The site is the blog of Pat B. Doyle and her motto for it is “Straight talk about online moneymaking.” Her excellent About page cites her credentials of making money online and working as an Information Systems Consultant. On October 12th she took the plunge of quitting her day job to become an online entrepreneur. You have to respect the advice of someone who’s willing to make that kind of leap.
Site Design/Theme
The site uses a theme similar to the popular Misty Look theme but with enough differences so that it doesn’t look generic. The site logo features Pat’s picture and a nice outdoor scene which really personalizes it. The theme is optimized for 800×600. I’d recommend looking into either expanding this theme to 1024×768 fixed, making it fluid, or replacing it with a new, wide or fluid, design. This is, of course, dependant on what her visitor demographics are. Stats I’ve seen recently put 800×600 usage at less than 5% on average but individual sites can vary.
The site navigation is good but I still would recommend the dagondesign.com sitemap generator which would help new arrivals, like me, find older articles and perhaps provide some internal linking SEO benefits. The "Best Posts" section near the top of the sidebar is very helpful. I would like to see a "Recent Posts" section though, probably in place of the "What’s My Blog Worth?" badge. The "Latest Posts From My Blogroll" section is a nice touch and great for building relationships with other bloggers.
The monetization is light, with a few affiliate links and a Google Adsense Video at the bottom of each page kind of as a demo of it. This kind of low key strategy works well for a personal blog.
Content
Let’s look at those Best Posts I mentioned and see what they say.
This one, 23 Great Ideas For Blog Posts, is of particular interest to me since I’m always on the look out for ideas for this site. I think I’ve used them all though but it’s a great idea springboard if you encounter a writers block.
I had noticed that she used default WordPress permalinks and she explains why here: Why I Use the WordPress Default Permalinks. Make sure you read the link to Aaron Wall’s site though.
Do You Have a Vision For Your Blog? is another good article. A lot of blogs suffer from not having a vision of where the author wants to go.
It will be interesting to see if she uses this blog to chronicle her entrepreneurial ventures.
Get Your Site Reviewed
If you would like your site reviewed by me for free, just like Pat did, leave me a comment or use the Contact page to request one.
Frank, Thanks for the review! You make some good points. I will consider your suggestions. I appreciate it.
Thank you Pat,
I’m going to have to re-read the 23 Great Ideas post again since I’m having some writers block today.