model

Site Name | Visit?
What's different about your site? Here I'll cover what separates your site from the others.

What are the most positive aspects? Here I'll talk about the best parts of your site. What do you excel at? What makes your site appealing to visitors?

What could use some work? Here, I'll tackle the negative aspects of your site. What could you improve on?

Your rating / 10

designer

Site Name | Visit?
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ This is my overall impression

At A Glance... This is what your site looks like as soon as I click on the link. So, I'll talk about aesthetics in this part.

When I look at the content, I'm... Impressed, hopefully. Here, I'll talk about the content of your site. Is it easy to read? Is it engaging? Do I want to keep looking?

If you were in the center of the media, your site would... Do well, hopefully. Here I'll talk about the structure of your site. Is it popular? Could it be popular? How would you do under pressure?

Now that I've seen more of your site, it looks... Here I'll talk about your layout. What do I like about it? What about it makes it hard to navigate the site? Does it suit your site? Is it professional enough? Is it casual enough?

Could your site use some work? I hope so! If it's perfect, than why did you request a review from me? (: Here, I'll tell you what you can do to help you, and your site, grow.

I would... Would I come back? Would I recommend your site? Would I be influenced by your site/use something (information, graphic, etc.) from your site? Here, I'll tell you what I'd do, regarding your site.

I'm pretty __________________ with your site.

critic

The most hardcore of reviews, this style puts your site under observation for a week. It was designed to see how your site handles pressure, how much customer traffic you have, and how efficiently you work.

Site Name | Visit?

Observation Start Date: M/D/2011
Observation End Date: M/D/2011

How well was pressure handled?

How often was the content updated?

Notes and observations:

connect (category: link directories (guild))

Connect | Visit? | Review Style: Designer
★ ★ ★ ★ 4 Stars

At A Glance... I'm getting mixed signals from your layout. Although the CSS is clean and organized, the banner is stretched, pixelated, and a low quality image. There are no textures or special effects on the banner. And as for the banner's text, the lack of effects (drop shadow, border, fill) adds to the banner's low quality experience. But I have high hopes for your site, because my first impression is that it is packed with information. :)

When I look at the content, I'm... Impressed!

Let's look at your content in sections, shall we?

When looking at your introduction page, the first thing I notice is the lack of text effects. Bold, italic, and other special text can give life to a paragraph. Visitors will look for something interesting and appealing when they first come to your site.

I like that the rules are right on your homepage. It makes it difficult for people to overlook them. Reading through your rules, they sound reasonable to me.

Your Guild of The Week section is a fun idea - presenting one note-worthy guild per week shows that you keep track of the activities of the guilds you list. There's only one thing I'd recommend - you put the link to the guild under it's little description. What about link the title of the guild, instead of a seperate link underneath? That would make simpler and more noticeable. Some people don't take the time to scroll all the way.

Moving on to your content, I'm very impressed. The idea of the Guild Finder is very neat - I think it's something that separates your site from the others. A little bit of creativity can go a long way.

I really like the way you have things listed! I think it's charming how you take the time to write some positive things about each guild that you list. My only concern is that you list the amount of members in each guild. Will you have time to go through each guild daily and check the member count? At 57 guilds listed, it would be very time consuming. And as your amount of guilds listed grows, it'll be even more difficult to upkeep.

I like the way that you've separated your categories - neo-related, roleplay, themed, themeless... and Harry Potter! It's funny how there are so many Harry Potter guilds that it needs its own category. Anyway, I think that when it comes to organization and efficiency, your site deserves an A+.

As for the amount of guilds you have list; I'd say you're at a decent amount. Guilds aren't as abundant as sites, so it is a little tougher to find guilds to list, however, I think you're doing a good job. Just one question - when did your site open? I find it a lot easier to judge the amount of content a site has if I know when it first opened. Let's say your site opened last month - the amount of content you have would be pretty great. But if it had opened around Christmas time, the amount of content you have would be less than ideal. Do you catch my drift?

If you were in the center of the media, your site could... Manage. I love how you take time to learn a bit about each guild, and what special features it has to offer. However, if you got a sudden rush of traffic (as in 20+ guilds getting listed per day), it would be difficult to keep up. However, I think your sight has a sturdy foundation, and you have a strong will. Looking at your updates, I see that you never slack - so I know that you spend a lot of time on your site.

Now that I've seen more of your site's layout, it looks... Not suiting for the site. Although I love the name, and find that it is totally fitting, I think that your layout doesn't live up to your great content.

First of all, the banner is not very good quality, as I mentioned at the beginning of this review. Have you considered requestion a banner from a custom graphics site? You can find loads of them listed here. I think it would do your site some good.

Secondly, I don't see how the wooden background relates to your beach-themed banner. It seems random and out of place. Lastly, I think that your CSS is professional, organized, and well-suited for a link directory.

Could your site use some work? Yes, I think so.

First of all, work on that layout. You have such great content, and you need a layout that lives up to that.

Work on the members issue. The more guilds you list, the more difficult it's going to be to keep up with their ever-changing statistics.

Get listed at some more sites! There are loads of link directories out there. The more places you're listed at, the more popular your site will be.

Keep up the excellent work!

I would...

Revisit your site.

Recommend it to a friend.

I'm very impressed by all the effort you have put into your site.
Keep up the good work!

beanie's guild directory (category: link directories)

Beanie's Guild Directory | Visit? | Review Style: Designer
★ ★ 2 Stars

At A Glance... Everything about your layout confuses me. First off, the layout is a unicorn pooping out lucky charms. It's a cute piece of art, but for a serious link directory, it comes off as unprofessional and a little immature. Secondly, I don't understand the name. Your name is Alexus, and your pet's name is Markty, so where did the Beanie come from? You don't mention it anywhere in your introduction paragraph. But I'm waiting to see if the content makes up for the layout.

When I look at the content, I'm... Feeling pretty mediocre. Let's take this in sections, shall we? Starting with your introduction paragraph.

The very first thing I notice is a grammar mistake. Your walking down a beautiful path in the woods. Your should be you're, as in you are. Your walking would imply that walking belongs to you.
The more I read of your introduction, the more spelling mistakes I see. Mainly, the your/you're mistake. But also improper capitalization and unecessary or too little punctuation. I won't fix all of your mistakes for you, so I recommend you use an online spell check program to fix what you have missed, and re-read it to check any grammar mistakes you may have made.

And lastly, I notice that you give credit to Jamboree for making your layout. However, you don't give a link to their site! It's essential that you give credit to someone who's made something for you. But if they're site is closed down, it's also important that you let people know. If Jamboree is still up and running, please give a link to their site, so people don't think you're stealing. And if it's closed down, include that in your credits section.

When it comes to the rules section, everything looks fine here. I think you have a decent amount of rules, and they're very specific as to what you ask from a guild. The only rule I don't understand is:

Please don't steal any buttons or other graphics. People worked hard to make those for me. Not you.

The only graphics I see on your site are your link back buttons and your layout, which are impossible to steal, seeing as they have your site's name all over them. And I don't see how this rule is essential when a guild is requesting to get listed. I would move that little tid bit in to the credits section, or just delete it all together.

And finally, on to the content!
I see that you have 41 guilds listed. For a site that is over a month old, I'd think that you'd have more than that. 41 guilds is just about 1 guilds per day, when I've seen guild directories that get at least 15 guilds listed every day. In these first few weeks, it's essential that you advertise as much as possible. For now, you'll have to ask the guilds, but once your site has really kicked off, the guilds will come to you.

I recommend 2 things that could help you amp up the amounts of guilds you list.

1. Create an advertising board on the Guild Boards. It's simple - for the title, but the name of your site and what you have to offer at the moment. For example: Beanie's Guild Directory | ~ Listing all types of guilds! ~ Looking for affies! ~
   In your opening post, provide a link to your site, how long you'll be around, and information that guilds needs to know about getting listed.
2. Ask around. When you see a guild advertising on the guild boards, don't be afraid to ask if they'd like to be listed. Something simple like:
   Hello, I'm Alexus from Beanie's Guild Directory (http://www.neopets.com/~Markty). Would you like to have your guild listed?
   Most guilds will happily accept.
   

They key to success is having patience and endurance - if you're willing to spend some time looking for guilds to list, it'll pay off in the long term. Once your site becomes more popular, you'll have to look less and less, because guilds will be finding you, not the other way around.

I think you have a balanced amount of guilds in each section. You don't have 3 in role play and then 25 in Neo-related. In that sense, I think you're doing well. The only thing that could use some work the format of the links. This is what each guild's section looks like now:

Guild Name
Guild
Webbie

You'd think it would be the other way around, with the guild's name bolded, and the links in regular text. Overall, I find it a little confusing, because the guild's name doesn't pop out at me.
Also, have you considered adding a little tidbit about each guild? A simple statement would make it easier for a fewer to decide on a guild. Just one sentence can give a lot more detail. Consider changing the format to something like this:

Guild Name | Guild ▪ Link
A Neo-related guild devoted to raising neopoints.

If you were in the center of the media, your site would... Have a little trouble. Looking through your updates, I notice that one day, you just abruptly stopped. This leads me to think that either, a) You have nothing to update about, b) You're ignoring your site or c) You have left abruptly. Looking at your userlookup, I see that you haven't been on your account for three days. If you were under a lot of pressure and were getting a lot of attention, you need to be able to check on your site everyday. If you can't do that, keeping up with traffic is going to be difficult for you.

Now that I've seen more of your site's layout, it looks... A little unprofessional. First of all, in my browser, your background of your layout's image doesn't match the background of your site. The blues don't match up. And secondly, there's the ugly neopets bar at the top of the page. Although getting rid of it is a hassle, you can change the color of it (instead of that green-y yellow). Simply put this code between your style tags:

table {background-color:#B7CFE5;}

And lastly, I find the layout itself to be a little immature. Unicorns are lovely stuff, but for a serious guild directory, it doesn't bode well with me. If you want some of the more established, esteemed guilds to be listed at your directory, they're going to want it to be professional and high-quality. And I'm sorry to say that your layout doesn't give off those vibes.

Could your site use some work? Yes, it can - and all of the advice I have for you has been given above. But to some everything up, here are the four main things you should work on:

1. Advertise, advertise, advertise. The more you advertise, the more recognized your site will become.
2. Consider a new layout. Something more professional will really help your site.
3. Check your spelling and grammar. Literacy is something that most people demand when looking for a high-quality site.
4. Update frequently. It's important to update every day, or at least give an explanation if you've been gone for a while.

But most important of all is to keep up the good work, and have faith in yourself! If you believe that your site can improve, then it can. Patience and will-power are what make a site great.

I would...

Not Bookmark your site.

Not recommend to a friend.

Revisit in the future.

I believe your site has potential.