Karlana’s Blog is about, not surprisingly, a young lady named Karlana! The blog is simple, organized, and freshly open, just like the author seems to be. Karlana has a lot on her plate– she’s a mother, a student, a working person, and a blogger! How she ever finds time to blog is beyond me! But she updates her blog regularly, and the posts, although short, are enjoyable reading. She is an aspiring teacher (and an aspiring college professor). This is evident by her style. Her spelling, grammar, and punctuation are precise. Her blog content is highly organized (she even has categorized LISTS on a separate page for her blogrolls).
I will suggest that there is a risk to being too organized and too simple. If there is not enough interest, most surfers will pass you by. I suggest that Karlana throws in some surprises here and there, like photographs, human interest stories, etc. Also, the About Me page was candid, but did not reveal Karlana’s location! The header photo suggests someplace tropical. I would like to see a few more details and some color.
About the blog design: it’s the well-known WordPress Cutline theme. It’s a good one, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. However, Karlana might want to consider opening her options and going with something a little bit more colorful. Because her content is so precise and organized, the blog needs a little fleshing out, to give it some stylish interest. But of course, the blog theme itself is just fine as it is; this is merely a suggestion.
Another thing I noticed is that there is only one post that shows on the homepage. I’m not a click-happy surfer and I don’t think too many are, either. The blog looks too sparse with just that one post on the homepage, and few people will take the effort to click every post title to surf previous posts. Loading time isn’t an issue here, as there is not much sidebar content, and I didn’t see many photos in previous posts. My suggestion is to have a few posts showing on the homepage. It would greatly benefit the readership aspect.
Overall, the content is crisp, clean, and organized. I suggest sprinkling in some color and details for interest. There is not much here that jumped out and grabbed my attention, beyond the organization of the blog, but this is easily remedied. Karlana’s Blog has a lot to offer, and with such a busy life, I’m sure Karlana has a lot to say! I’d like to see and read more of it!
1. March 2008 at 12:29 am
Thanks for the review! I love how you nicely put that I come across as anal with the organization. Guilty as charged! I will try to put your suggestions to use!
1. March 2008 at 12:33 am
Hey Karlana! Oh don’t get me wrong– there is NOTHING wrong with being organized. I think over-organization is far better than under-organization.
1. March 2008 at 6:47 am
Thanks! I will definitely work on the other things. I don’t know about the blog theme, though. Nothing seems to jump out at me right now. I do need to work on my bio page. Thanks again!