Cats opening doors?

As you may recall in my post here, I’ve recently begun doing paid reviews for different sites via ReviewMe.com. Usually these reviews are for a blog in it’s entirety, but in this case Architectural Classics Blog has paid me to review only one entry on their site which I find odd. Now that doesn’t mean I won’t do the review but it does mean the review will be somewhat limited in respect to scope and size due to the content restriction. That said, let’s get to the review:

Layout

The layout for this blog entry (and for the blog as a whole for that matter) is rather sparse and lackluster as you can see. It would appear that the blog is relatively new and this could explain why the design is so basic, i.e. they haven’t had the time or experience yet to really make it shine. On the plus side, it is easy on the eyes color-wise and well laid out making it easy to read. As for advertising, there is none at this point in the blog’s life which isn’t unusual for a newly created blog. Most people prefer to draw some traffic first before monetizing their site so as not to alienate new readers initially. Honestly though I don’t think this blog will ever contain advertising since it seems to be nothing more than a side project to draw traffic to their main site which sells doorknobs and handles (more on this later). Overall though, while the design may be bland, it is readable and that’s what really counts in the end.

Content

The content on this page is great if you’re a cat lover like myself. There are three videos of some very smart cats opening doors on their own which is followed by some great advice/information on how to keep your cats from not only scratching up your furniture but also your doors. As the story states:

Now, cats may not be as easy to train as dogs – but these videos of cats opening doors prove that this is not necessarily because they are less intelligent than dogs. It is only because they’ll only do things that benefit themselves, and don’t necessarily give a rat’s behind what you want them to do!

They go on to tell you about how to properly train your cat to use a scratching post to clean it’s nails instead of your furniture as well as how to properly punish/deter your cat should you find your little friend doing otherwise. Next they go into how to keep your cat from opening doors on their own and how to make them ask to go out properly. I may have to try some of these measures myself given my cats’ penchant for crying to go out and eat grass in the yard. Overall the advice given is solid and well put forth in a way that will make it easy to implement. While the information presented here is nothing groundbreaking per se, it is presented in a fun way given the videos of the clever cats to illustrate just how intelligent a cat can be.

All that aside, I found a story about cats opening doors to be rather off-topic for a blog that’s part of a doorknob and handle company. That is until I read further into the content and noticed how they mentioned that replacing your door handles with a certain type can reduce the chances of your cat opening the door on its own. They also mentioned the amount of damage a cat can do to the finish of the door (and it’s handle) while attempting to escape. I have to commend the folks at the Architectural Classics Blog for their turning of a seemingly off-topic story into a way to promote their product! What I don’t understand though is that, while they seemed to do a good job at product placement, they didn’t actually link back to any of their products in the posting. This would have been a great way to tie their blog back to their main site and benefit more from the traffic such a story (and reviews like this) will bring. That really makes no sense to me from a business perspective.

Final Thoughts

Even though I only have the one blog posting to work with on this review, I did find it interesting and fun to read. While the layout of the site does seem rather boring, it does make it easy to read and allows you focus more on the content. The content itself does seem somewhat odd at first but if you look more closely you’ll see it’s nothing more than a clever attempt at product placement… even though they don’t actually place any of their products in the story for some reason. While this isn’t a blog I’ll read on an on-going basis, it is worth a look if you’re into cats or just enjoy cute cat videos if nothing else.