Please review my blog directory

[bollitopet]

Hi all,
I made a blog directory. It is hosted at Powweb.
The special thing that makes it different to other directories is that the users can write comments about the other blogs, it have a karma system for a ranking, and takes snapshots of the pages in the directory.

The design could be much better, I now. But what do you thing about the idea and functionallity. By now, it's only in Spanish but even easy to use. If your critiques are good, I'll work in the English version.

http://www.thehouseofblogs.com

[YvetteKuhns]

The website color scheme is appropriate for the Hispanic audiences. I know they like those bright colors. I am tired of those overused striped backgrounds. I had a vision problem as a child and I wore plastic inserts in my glasses that had vertical lines to correct my vision. My eyes focus on those lines and away from the actual website contents. A soft, neutral, solid color in place of those lines would be better.

The thumbs up and thumbs down images are fun on the home page. Will they appear as icons in reviews? I noticed blue text on the green background at the bottom of the web page. I know I keep saying this on the forum, but there are people who are color blind and cannot distinguish blue from green or red/yellow/orange. My first client had the second type of color blindness and my vision is impaired, so I notice these things.

I clicked http://www.thehouseofblogs.com/Fotografia.php to see photography websites and clicked the first link. Did you see what was on that website?!! :eek: I am glad my son was in school when I saw it. That brings up another questions - how will you control contents or reviews? That one probably got higher ranking just for that.

In what order are you listing the blogs? They are not in order by ranking. They are not in alphabetical order. Are they in order by when they are submitted with the most recently submitted appearing first? Or last? Will there be a limit of 20 to 25 blogs listed per page? Will there be a blog of the day feature or new blog introduction? Or a NEW! icon next to those listed within the last month?

The listings would look nicer if the icons varied or had more color. Could someone list a blog and an icon of choice? That would be fun. A happy face, an animal, a camera, or another icon from your recommended list. If they want a custom icon, they could submit it to you for permission. You want to control your contents, since you are responsible for your contents. No unacceptable images or text.

For you to make money, you should have Google ads on each web page. Each category will have ads related to that category, so the ads will reach its target audience. But I don't recommend Google ads on the home page. That is tacky and most people click to the category of choice sooner than click ads from your home page for these kinds of websites.

Because more people read English than any other language, a website for a global audience should default in English. But if your main audience is Spanish, then the default could/should be Spanish. Or you can create another website entirely and simply list Spanish blogs on this website and others on another.

Links to other websites should open in a new browser window. Links to other pages on your website should open in the same window. You may want your logo to link to your home page, even though the directorio de blogs already does. I expected the ranking page to explain how the blogs are ranked, but instead, it shows the blogs with the highest ranking. Perhaps you can change the name of that link for clarification. I clicked the contact link to find a link to the blog that explains the karma. Try to make information quicker and easier to find.

I finally clicked the link to see how to add a blog. There is a form request which means the visitor cannot automatically submit a blog for instant viewing. That should reduce spam. But there are no rules as to what contents are inappropriate. You can get ideas from PowWeb's terms of service (ToS). I see that only registered users can rate other blogs. That should control duplicate ratings and reduce unfair ratings.

I just noticed that clicking the title of the blog goes to the web page and the icon before the listing is the link to read and submit comments about that blog. That may be unclear to some visitors like my husband who is not computer savvy. If there was a text link that said Read Comments, he would click that instead. Or you can include ALT descriptions with the icons that says Read Comments. And the thumbs up/thumbs down images appear together instead of having one or the other. But I guess that is okay.

Okay, I said enough. I have to leave room for other comments. Overall, the website is fairly easy to read and navigate and is an interesting directory of blogs. :)

[bollitopet]

Hello Yvette.
Thank you for your complete review.
I'll do some changes in the next days following your indications.