Blog Review: Semidoppel's Reports by John Philip Mamaril

Blog Title: Semidoppel's Reports (http://semidoppel.com)
Owner: John Philip Mamaril
Genre: Personal / General Info
Platform: Wordpress
Description: "Welcome to my Online Journal… I Search, I Observe, I Share!" - Opinions, Socialism, Experiences, Lifestyle, Reviews, Social Networking, Blogging, Blogosphere,People, Editorials

Cross Browser Test

✓Mozilla Firefox 11
✓Chrome 17
✓Safari
✗ Internet Explorer 8 (issue with image border for the logo)
✗ Internet Explorer 7 (issue with image border for the logo, another on ad display)
✓ Opera Mini (no template for mobile devices)

Things Worth Mentioning

• Tricky ad placement and theme, mixes well on the page
• Headers (h1, h2, et.al.) are used properly
• Being on Wordpress, CSS files are expected to be an external rather than an inline code

Things that Need Attention

• Flash is already obsolete - I suggest removing or replacing it with something different (See tips section)
• Spacing Issue - I'm seeing too much wasted spaces as if the elements hate each other on the homepage

Tips from BTT

1. Since we are in the era of mobile technology, every site must know that using Flash based sites or widgets is a major "NO-NO" in designing. For more details on this you may want to read this article.
   
   One thing that I can praise though with your flash widget is that it has a solution for this mobile browser issue by providing a list, but the problem now is that there is something wrong with your design, see the picture below.
   
   

   Category as seen on Mini-Opera

   
   
   It produces a very long list that takes too much space on your layout.
   
   
2. Creating too much "Category" creates a dirty flash cloud (for desktop browsers) and a very-very-very long list on mobile browsers. I'm not sure how this plugin works but maybe you can control the amount of category you place on your posts.
   
   Why did I say that? Well try looking for "Naruto" on your cloud category in 15 seconds (this is the amount of time you need to catch the user's attention). I bet some might have a hard time looking for the said category.
   
   
   
   
   
3. The ad and the menu
   
   Though I'm not a fan of abstract designing for sites, I know how to appreciate somehow the beauty on such designs. Abstract designs shows irregular shapes and unequal elements sizes. Why am I telling these things? see your ad and menu just below the header. The size of both menus are different. You may want to check your code on the menu part
   
   
   
   
   
4. Do you hate pictures? I just noticed that the home page looks so dull, I think that is lacking of colors. How about placing images for your post summaries?
   
   
5. The "Posted by Semidoppel", being placed in a different shade of purple catches too much attention. My suggestion is to replace it with a different text or try mixing the color with using the same shade as the background.
   
   
6. What's with the Contact Me page? Honestly, I do not recommend posting your email (and especially your cellphone number) online. But if you prefer to place them, I suggest to write them properly. Your email was written in this format username@domain, this form of email is email harvester friendly and it's NOT good at all. I wonder how many spams are actually enjoying that email address by now.
   
   
   
   
   Suggestions:
   
   
   • use script or code generated forms that will submit messages directly to your mail. This way, you can avoid displaying your email address
   • use HTML special characters such as @ to replace @ sign
   • use HTML to hide it <A HREF="mailto:you@yourdomain.com">My Email&lt;/A>
   
   Other than the ones listed above, Google can suggest more techniques on this. By the way, regarding your mobile number, do you really need to place it? I actually tried texting you to see if it still works. I don't get the idea why you should place this, unless you are offering a service or selling something.
   

BTT's Opinion on Semidoppel's Reports

Design 3/5 ★★★★★
A little bit cleaner as to what I saw a few days ago. But this time it is too clean yet a little messy on the sidebar. I'm seeing a lot of whitespaces on both sides. I have nothing against the purple, but the way it was presented makes a dull design. It's as if "hey, I have a white background, I'll place a purple boxes and that's it". There is nothing exciting with the design itself. It was too ordinary and leaves no 'WOW' factor.

Content 4/5 ★★★★★
I am a regular visitor of Semidoppel, so this may sound a little bias. Take in consideration too that this is a personal blog so I would expect that most of the articles written in here are the author's opinion and insights. Other than that, can you be a little playful with the post? as a reader, I find it boring sometimes if all I can see are huge blocks of texts.

Branding 3/5 ★★★★★
I'm giving my points to the logo and the banner, though you may want to remove the logo on the sidebar. I think it is redundant to do that -- logo on the banner, logo on the sidebar, and then underneath is another logo. That's three logos already in the "above the fold" section

LRTA Purple Line (Line 2) in Metro Manila -- white and purple. Not to mention that the purple shade somehow reminds me of Yahoo!'s plum color for the classic mail.

Audience Impact 3/5 ★★★★★
Audience impact is basically the impression your blog gave me, simply, would I return again? As much as I want to give a higher point on this one, I decided to give a score of three. Reason is, some of your posts didn't catch my attention. I think it is because Personal and General Information niches are designed in a way that you welcome all kinds of information that most of the time people won't bother to read some of them. Get my point?

Guest Judge Opinion for Semidoppel's Reports

As per the Semidoppel's request, The Undertaker returns to give her opinion on John's Blog. For those who don't know her, she is a web developer and a site quality checker specially WordPress websites.

DISCLAIMER

The views expressed in comments by the guest judge published on this blog site are those of the comment writers alone. They do not represent the views or opinions of Beneath the Tree, nor do they represent the views or opinions of www.ajibanda.com, or any entity of, or affiliated with www.ajibanda.com

Design 2.5/5 ★★☆★★
Love purple, made me assume that the author is a girl, guess I was wrong (*wink).

White text and background then purple shades for boxes, hover, heading and the rest of the elements make it a very simple and very clean design. Note that the color combination is not dull, however, it looks too "flat" which tends to get boring and unattractive especially for by passers not really into purple. Try combining and playing with colors.

The block (ad) under the menu nav has a shorter size which is very obvious and can be easily fixed. Also, there is an extra "<" in the sidebar "ADD & FOLLOW ME" and it's weird that "social buttons" are not placed together, one above the ad, the others below it. Before the ads (now in footer) camouflaged in the sidebar as part of your posts which could have made a lot of click which is equal to earnings, I thought it was a very good strategy. Now it’s in the footer, looking as an obvious ad and readers might not even reach the end of the page to see it. Important note, you may want to attach thumbnail image/s on post glimpses (homepage). Remember the TITLE is to get the reader to read the first line and the first line is to get the reader read the whole article and an INTERESTING IMAGE with it gives your headline a big boost. "A picture is worth a thousand words", on the other hand, plain teeeextssss are boooring. What's Inside My Blog: Yeah, it looks cool but who clicks on it? I honestly just played it with my mouse pointer. Too many texts. I don't even know what I'm going to look for and if ever I, for example, want to see articles about "Gadgets", it would take me ages to find the text there. Yes it's visually fun but it's actually useless in that case. Control your categories, don't be too specific. Make it easy to navigate, make it efficient. Additional note, WordPress is a very powerful platform. I will always recommend to take advantage of its usability.

Content 3/5 ★★★★★
Topics are fun and honest. It's entertaining with your informal style of writing. It's not very informative but can be a fun read on spare time.

Branding 3/5 ★★★★★
Logo is good. I like it. Except that I think I'm having too much of it (banner and sidebar – big one, and the little one), not to mention the highlighted "Posted by Semidoppel", of course it's posted by Semidoppel (more or less), it is his blog (LoL). Putting label/categories there instead will be much useful this will let the reader easily explore your blog. Make use of spaces wisely.

P.S. Hmmm… where is "About the blog"? I think that what is in the "About the Author" doesn't really say enough of what the blog is.

Audience Impact 3/5 ★★★★★
Though not much of the posts captured my interest, I will probably remember the blog and drop by some time. Not much to say.

Summary

I think there is nothing much to say. Regarding the ad and the menu, I actually tried to fix this via CSS but it doesn't seem to work with just plain styling and may require more coding. Anyway, if you have any other questions or reactions, don't hesitate to contact us. Good luck and happy blogging! :)

---

So that's it, again this is just a friendly review from BTT. We aim for a better site and not to insult the owners and administrators. Whether you follow our tips and suggestions depend on your decision. Ciao!

To submit your own blog simply fill-up the form on this page or read this post. Thank you, we'll be happy to review your sites for FREE!