Reality Wired is one of the blogs that ordered up a review via ReviewMe as I mentioned here. I’m really glad James, who runs the site, did this since not only do I get paid to do this review, but in the process I’ve found yet another great site to add to my daily blog readings. His site basically covers a number of topics ranging from how to make money online to gadgets to Photoshop tips. Some people may think his varied interests make the blog too “cluttered” but personally that’s a plus for me. I get tired of every other blog out there focusing on just one subject all the time so it’s a nice change to see another blog like mine that covers a little bit of everything.
Layout
As you can see in the picture above, the site is well laid out and easy to navigate. The color scheme is a little bland in my opinion but most people seem to like that in a blog. I’d recommend a more colorful background personally than the matte gray that he uses now. Other than that though, I find it rather pleasing to the eye overall. You may also notice that he’s chosen to monetize the blog with Google AdSense as well as offering to do ReviewMe posts. He’s also using Chitika eMiniMalls and IntelliTXT but you can’t see them in the screenshot unfortunately. The ads are all well placed but the link color in his Google and IntelliTXT ads don’t match the rest of his site’s links. While this is considered a bad thing by most bloggers (including James himself as you can read here), he may be doing this to make them stand out more since the normal link color he has chosen is rather soft and blends with the background color a little too much. I recommend that he choose a better link color and convert all of them to it. This would make the appearance more uniform and probably increase his click-through rate.
Content
As I mentioned earlier, the content of the site is highly varied… although lately James has been focusing more on how to make money on the internet with stories such as this:
- IntelliTXT Shows Some Money Making Promise
- Make Money With ReviewMe Campaigns
- Google Bought Me A 2007 Toyota Tundra
He also covers things such as how to get more traffic to your site:
- Get On The Technorati Fav Train And Make Some Money
- Feed My Feed
- MySpace News - Bloggers Be Sure To Submit Your Sites
Overall, the content is well written and useful. While some of it my be a little more personal (such as his Playing Golf With Tiger Woods And Michael Jordan post), that’s a welcome change as it helps break up the topics with some fun things now and then. I’ve always thought that a blog should be more personal than say a pure news and info site, so those kind of postings are a good thing in my opinion.
Final Thoughts
Reality Wired is good site to read if you’re interested in making money online as long as you don’t mind the occasional off-topic story here and there. James definitely takes on blogging as it should be done: topic-centric yet with a personal touch to give it some personality. I know I’ve enjoyed reading it for the review and I’m sure I’ll continue to do so going forward. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it as well!