WPR: Don't submit your site to the shame

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Do you like sending your website to be reviewed at a WPR site? Do you expect that the person in charge of that said site has at least some fairly good knowledge of the Internet and the various "ins and outs" of HTML/PHP/design, before they start reviewing your site?

My answer to both of those questions is, Yes.

Yes with a capital "Y".

I'm pretty sure you feel the same way too. Unless you have low standards and don't care about the quality of the review you receive; you're ok with that fact that some young 13 year old is churning out reviews, faster than you can click that "submit" button.

I love receiving reviews. They help me to improve my site, fix any errors or just generally give me some useful tips that I can take and learn from. Criticism is fine as long as its constructive and isn't just some person typing for the sake of it.

This is an example from a site that reviewed Georgina's site, Heartdrops (refer back to my blog on web design dos and don'ts). Georgina offers her own reviews on her site which are concise and well written. Why on earth she put her quality site in the hands of this inexperienced person I will never know.

This is the final summarising point that the "reviewer" gave about the site Heartdrops:

Overall, everything looks good, Im not as obbessed with oyur layout though, a celebrity or a design could be better for the next one maybe?

Ick. This whole review reeked of opinionated rubbish and spelling mistakes galore; similar to the example I gave above. There was nothing constructive with the above quote. I'm sure Georgina didn't want people to "obbessed" (I think you meant, obsessed) with her layout. She designed it to be aesthetically pleasing and to show her personality. This reviewer seems pretty close-mined.

This reviewer however did admit that their English wasn't that good, but celebrity layouts?! Doesn't this person realise that using and redistributing celebrity images is illegal; you don't need to be good at speaking English to know that. That is just plain ignorance.

The reviewer also complained about the layout at the beginning of her review, stating that one of her "scripts" should have been used. I then proceeded to click on the link to these so called scripts and to my surprise I found, wait for it, more stolen celebrity images!

I would have thought that "scripts" would have meant pre coded layouts but this above monstrosity just shows how stupidly hopeful I was being.

That site was just one example, but there are many other sites doing exactly the same thing.

When a reviewer like this shows that they are clearly not internet savvy (they didn't even declare a Doctype), would you honestly expect to receive a decent review from them. All you are doing is submitting your personal site to a lame WPR site that is going to stick your review on "coming soon" for about ten weeks, shove all peaceful reasoning in a blender and make a mockery of the English language.

Well, I'm sorry but I just can't do that to Kihugs and I hope you will be careful when picking who you want to review your site.

Ask yourself these questions:

How long has this said reviewer been "reviewing" sites: Are the experienced or have they just set up their ".co.nr" domain?

What is the quality of the reviews they give like: Are they clear and well spoken or would their spelling and grammar make your English teacher cry in the corner?

Are they nice: This is a pretty broad question but basically, are they stingy with the marks they give? Are they constantly giving out low scores without any justification? Do they stink of "I'm only doing these reviews to promote my site" BO?

If the answers to these questions were all negative then run away from that site. Fast.

Don't even think about clicking that button.


However not all reviews are bad and if you join sites such as Review me you will see how reviews can be done fairly based on a point system. Also there are many good sites that offer reviews as their owners invest time and effort into each review.

So don't let this article put you off reviews at all, just be more aware of what makes your site not worth "submitting" to the shame (pardon the pun) of a badly put together review site.

Remember: Your site deserves the best.


All opinions expressed in this article are my own. Thanks to Gerogina at Heartdrops for creating a great site. :)

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11:25 PM 3 comments






Webdesign: Do's and Don'ts

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Websites are easy to make. You just grab a previously made layout template, shove it down Freewebs throat (or worse you could get the thing hosted) and make it spew up a Teenybopper prodigy site right?

Wrong.

I've been browsing on the Internet long enough to know what makes a good website; an enjoyable one. After all isn't that the whole point of creating a visitor website. You want your visitors to enjoy the content and not run screaming from the monitor because they spot something like this:

Do people still like all this celebrity junk?

Stolen stock images of celebrities that have been mutilated beyond belief. Don't think that just because you've edited them in Photoshop and stuck little sparkles allover them that your going to get away with plagiarism.

However not all websites are like this and let's not just throw all teenagers together in one stereotype.

If you are seriously considering making a website, I've written this article in order to provide you with some "Do's and Don'ts".

1) Make your own layout. This is probably one of the best pieces of advice I can give. By this I mean, don't settle for all that pre-made rubbish. Actually use a graphic program (personally I use Photoshop but you could use a free one like Photofiltre or GIMP) and create your own identity on the Internet.

Alternatively, if you don't want to make the whole layout, you could start off by creating your own banner. Just make something that makes your website more personal to you.

Strawberry-Gashes.net is a great example of a personal layout. The way Stef has made the layout quite quirky but still keeping it structured is brilliant. Her layout shows you that you don't have to stick celebrities all over your site for it to look attractive and attention-grabbing. I also like the way she has put herself on the layout without being egotistical.

Another example of a well made personal layout would be Georgina's of Heartdrops.org. Her whole header image is a picture of her and her boyfriend edited beautifully with carefully placed brushes. Not only does it make her site more friendly but it also presents her as an open person and someone who fellow bloggers can relate too. How she co-ordinates the colour scheme is something you can note of too, the way the soft pinks contrast with the grey is really good.

2)Make your own content. It's not bad if you write tutorials for popular problems as long as you write them clearly and actually write them yourself! I have deleted many tutorials off my site that I have noticed to be irrelevant and over used. Some of my tutorials are still reminiscent of the 2005/2006 Iframes era.

If you spend time writing your own blogs and working on your writing then thats great. Likewise if your graphic skills are amazing. Work to your strengths and don't bother offering something that no-one would want (like glitters).

3)Learn basic html. Now I'm not saying that you should be the master of coding, just learn some basic techniques. There's no point wanting to set up a website if you don't understand what tags mean. I recommend Tutorialtastic.co.uk. Jem has written clear and helpful reviews on getting started from the very beginning of coding a web page.

4)Get involved with the Internet community. Now this step is purely optional but I highly recommend you join a web design forum, if you get stuck with anything there will be friendly people there to help and advise you. Codegrrl forums are worth checking out but I'm sure there are plenty of other help forums.

5) Easy on the advertising. For the love of chocolate please don't cram your website with adverts. It makes your site look desperate and tacky. It gives off the message that all you want to do is make money. A small amounts of adverts tucked away neatly are acceptable, but big-flashing, neon-green competition winner ads are an absolute eye sore.

6)Avoid adding music players. Now I don't know that many websites that have music players on them, well I should rephrase that to: I don't know that many good websites that have music players on them. Its best to avoid adding one all together, but if you must insist on having one make sure it has a stop button on it. I hate clicking on a website only to have their music player rape my ears with some Miley Cyrus song. People like to listen to their own music when browsing the internet and not everyone shares your musical taste (cough).

7)Update regularly. Now I know I don't always update but its called having responsibilities elsewhere. If you're going to be away from your web site for a while, post a blog explaining that you're going to be away due to family/work/school related matters etc. Don't suddenly vanish off the face of the Earth and then reappear 2 months later with an annoying post, like this:

I'm SOOOO soooorrryyy, i haven't like updated in ages. haha lol. I feel really bad, but like my goldfish died and I've been busy. I'm gonna make some new blendz now. Mwah xxx


(A bad example I know, but seriously I've seen sites that post like this!)

8)Don't use celebrity stock images. When you are using a celebrity image and claiming that it is your own creation you are violating copyright law. Taking credit and making profit out of some photographers work is wrong.

9)Always give credit where its due. Using free stock photos is fine, as long as it is legal to use them. If anyone knows of any legal stock photo sites then by all means leave a comment; I'm not sure because I don't use stock photos. Do not redistribute the resource and claim it as your own.

10)Enjoy your website. This isn't really a Do or a Don't, its more like a piece of advice. Have fun with your website because maintaining it shouldn't be a chore. Take pride in your work and have a laugh with your online friends.

This article was published as a guide to help you stay away from common mistakes. All opinions expressed here are my own.

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9:40 PM 11 comments






Grab life by the conkers

Thursday, August 28, 2008

I've been quite busy today. I woke up at 9, which is very early for me, due to the fact that the postman was ringing the doorbell repeatedly. I finally managed to drag myself out of bed to accept a parcel from him that was way to big to fit through the door. I bashed it against the banister on the stairs and nearly fell over the stupid thing. I'm not a morning person and going back to college is defiantly going to make things worse.

I can just see it now, being bogged down with work and revision. Oh, joy. The only person that manages to keep me from going completely insane there is Shola. Seriously, if it wasn't for my friend I think I'd become even more of a hermit then I am now. Actually I should withdraw that comment, I don't want people thinking I have no life. Trust me though, college eats all your time up. Or should I say, High school for all you American readers. I'm confused. :s

I've felt a bit of empowerment with Kihugs today. I've deleted all of the dead link affiliates! God knows what happened to the rule that affiliates are supposed to keep in touch. They must think that once you have linked them then that's it, they don't have to mention you or talk to you. Why on earth then should I even be advertising their lazy asses?!

I've decided that now I'm just going to have links on the side that I like visiting (blog roll) and who comment me regulary (Top affiliates). I will also still link swap and advertise with people but I'm sorry to those affiliates who got deleted. Well actually I'm not, you got deleted because basically you were nothing to Kihugs. I get better comments from people who aren't even affiliates!

Thanks to this article about Teen-bopperitis on Ubiquitous I have now seen where I have gone wrong in even wanting to be "affiliated" with sites like these. There are loads of these sites and I can see how annoying they can be for people to have to view. They are basically filled up with page fodder (like random facts *yawn*) and there is nothing worthwhile that I want to take back from a site like that.

Honestly, I don't care what your pets look like, whether they are dead or on holiday. People don't want to know 20 random facts about you, like the fact that you don't like broccoli.

I also agree that when people do this its just plain annoying:


The whole raping your eyes with underlining, italics and bolding is just aggravating. Saying random words to display interests is something these people love to do. I still can't really understand why.

You should head over to Crystals site and see what I mean about this.

The funny thing is, is that I used to look up to sites like these and want mine to be just like them, I soon changed my mind about that! When you get right down to it, all they offer is the same content. Stolen celebrity images seems to be their favourites. "Omgz I has liek these k0Ol blendz, no stealin!" Seriously?! X_x

xxxx

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9:44 PM 3 comments








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