10 things I hate about your site

I will apologize in advance. (I’m doing a lot of apologizing lately it seems.) This is going to be the quickest, easiest review thus far for 10 things. If memory serves me correctly (which it sometimes does not), Scratch Bags’ Donkey GMAT blog had a much different look originally. If that is the case, he didn’t need me to review his site—someone figured out the 4-1-1 a while ago.

Scratch Bags must be an avid reader of 10 things, because after my thorough review, I can only find four things I hate about his blog. He’s been paying attention!

So, Donkey Gmat, here’s

10 4 things I hate about your site:

1. Tease me! Save the heavy stuff for later.
2. Where am I? Lost in GMAT hell.
3. Where am I—take 2.
4. Archives. Tease me some more.

Here this is my sincere thank you to the bloggers who have found this blog a good read.

The requests, while not pouring in, have definitely come in as a steady stream. Of course, the timing has not been great—I do have a life (of which I blog about somewhere else) and to quote yet another cliché, “shit happens.” That, however, probably doesn’t concern the bloggers who have asked for my services. Even though I don’t charge for my reviews, I still feel an obligation to those who have requested one. This leads me to another dilemma. I completely underestimated how much time my reviews would take. See, I actually take quite a bit of time to go through a site/blog and make notes, look up resources, and provide feedback. it’s a time-consuming process, and one I take seriously.

I hope those of you who have been waiting patiently for your review will be forgiving now that you have a small glimpse into my thought process. I also hope you think my reviews (remember, they’re free!) are worth waiting for. I also want to give a little link-love to those of you who have been waiting. Below is my review queue, with a link to the latest post. Enjoy!

While pouring through the posts and pages of the next blog up for review, I got sidetracked and ended up starting my own “pay-per-post” blog (look for another shameless self-promotion post). Armed with additional knowledge of the limitations placed on the blogger, I understand that a few of the things on the list below are out of the blogger’s control. While that may not be the blogger’s problem, there are still some things I hate about the blog.

Personally, I find the design of this blog to be a little under whelming. Considering the topics and content, however, understated is probably the way to go. Of course, there’s always something that can be improved upon.

Politics 2000

10 8 things I hate about your site:

1. The web is a visual medium—give me something to look at!
2. Where was I? I keep losing my place.
3. Google ads. Are they a gift from above or are they sent from Hell?
4. Tags: why are they there?
5. Your tags are invading my space.
6. So much to read, so little real estate.
7. What’s important: proper use of the <strong> tag.
8. Typo…

Yes, it’s a shameless cross promotion! But I’m really happy with the new design of my website (not blog, site). Web-Betty is where it all started for me, 10 years ago. Scary to think I’ve had the same email address for over 10 years!

So for all of you requesting reviews, remember that I’m a designer, and would be more than happy to fix all the things I hate about your site.

It was bound to happen sooner or later. A request to review a “standard template” blog, where the blogger has not made any changes to the template (for better or for worse). Not every blogger wants (or needs) to rework a standard blog template. I even have 2 blogs hosted by Blogger, where I have done nothing more than add some widgets and change some colors.

There’s nothing wrong with using a template, and there is no law that states you MUST change it. If you’re not inclined to fiddle with design elements and all you want to do is blog, go for it! It will, however, make for a very boring review.