Blog Review: People You’ll See In Hell
J.D requested a Free Blog Review of his blog, People You’ll See In Hell
So here it is…
What is People You’ll See In Hell?
People You’ll See In Hell, or PYSIH.com, is a niche news blog about criminals and suspects who’ve committed various heinous acts. The about page indicates that the writer is a corrections officer so he’s probably seen the worst of the worst. The blog has been in operation since May 2007.
Site Design/Theme
People You’ll See In Hell uses a 3 column WordPress theme with dual right sidebars and a popular white/black/red/gray color scheme. I think this layout kind of crowds the content slightly on some posts and far too much on others depending on photo sizes and the like. The excerpt length on the main page seems a bit long and it creates kind of a mental interruption to switch from the front page to the full article. Maybe a shorter teaser would work better.
The site navigation is very good with most of the navigation confined to the middle sidebar. A sitemap might be a useful addition though given the quantity of the content.
Since the blog concentrates on a niche news area it apparently gets a considerable amount of search traffic. For those researching niche blogs this one is a good case study in how to bring in search traffic by following the headlines. Monetization of such an emotionally charged topic might be difficult though.
Monetization features Adsense, Amazon, affiliate links, private ad sales and, I would guess, paid reviews. While good monetization is an important part of a niche blog like this I noticed a few problems with Adsense. First, the targeting of some of the ads didn’t seem as relevant as you might expect and included those infamous, non-moneymaking, ‘public service’ ads. Secondly, the ad placement tends to throw things off on the page badly on some articles. I’d recommend looking at blending these ads in a different way or, if they aren’t significant money makers, dumping them in favor of more lucrative offers.
Content
The content of People You’ll See In Hell often rather disturbing but, like a car accident, it’s hard to look away. Here are some key articles:
The blog covers the recent Lori Drew/MySpace Suicide Case in detail. If you want info beyond what you may have seen on mainstream news sites, you’ll find several in-depth articles here.
Many of the stories are horrific stories of child abuse like this one, Heather Trujillo and Lamar Roberts , or this one, Chris Hawkins.
One thing I noted was that the site draws a lot of comments, probably because so much of the content provokes an emotional reaction and is controversial in nature.
Overall
If you’re a fan of TV shows like Snapped, True Crime Stories or other such real life criminal dramas this site will keep you occupied for some time. I found some of the aesthetics of the site to be a little clumsy at points but not terribly so. I’d recommend giving Adsense close scrutiny to make sure that it isn’t underperforming because I saw a number of low paying ads come up on it during this review.
Get Your Site Reviewed
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