I must appologise for the delay, and without any further ado introduce you all to Diligent Design.

The first thing that strikes me is that the blog is very neat. The blue theme is professional looking, but I must say it’s wonderful to see colourful thumbnails next to the most recent posts. They lift the page and catch the eye, which is something most blogs need in this era of tiny attentionspans.

The content is presented on the homepage as short paragraphs with a “Continue Reading” link. Certain web users with hang-ups about page load times would complain that they have to click another link before reading the article and that full posts should be visible on the homepage, but I have no complaints in this case. The summaries work well and keep the page tidy.

The information is easy to understand and covers a good range of topics about general blogging and networking without a heavy focus on making money, or being more eficient. This makes it a light hearted but useful read and doesn’t put you under any pressure to optimise your blog or lower your bounce rate.

The monkey I don’t quite understand. (I assume it’s a monkey, it may be a particularly ugly child.) As a logo it could be well utilised as a trademark for the blog. It could be used as an entrecard card, a forum avatar or even as a favicon, but I only see it twice on the page. There’s some potential there.

Overall, a 6 out of 10.

You’ve got to try this.

Go to the Google homepage.

Type in “find Chuck Norris”.

Click the “I’m feeling lucky” button. (more…)

I happened across an uplifting article in the paper last week by Elissa Baxter: “Blogging makes you Happy- it’s official.”

It seems that Blogging has become so popular that it has prompted health officials to conduct a study into the effects of Blogging on the human mind. While we poor bloggers have long been characterised as “lonely desperate souls searching for validation in our meaningless lives” the study actually found that:

• Blogging encourages critical thinking
• Blogging encourages feelings of connection with other people
• Bloggers feel less lonely as a group
• Bloggers feel less isolated and more satisfied with their friendships
• Bloggers feel less anxious, less depressed and less stressed

The study concluded that this was because blogs are a medium rich in ideas that encourage them to exchange and critique information.

It would seem that some bloggers find that regularly posting in their blog is a constant that they can always return to, something that gives them a sense of regularity in life. It’s also a creative outlet, a means to improve writing and part of a larger network as a whole.

Honestly, who here couldn’t have told the researchers that themselves?

Get your smiling muscles ready for this next blog review, because it’s Time For A Smile!

I think this blog probably has the most unique concept I’ve seen so far. It’s essecntially a collection of photographs of people smiling. In a world where there’s nothing cheerful on the news anymore, this blog is a welcome relief.

There’s not much else to say about the content, other than to have a look for yourself. I’d have to say the RIb tickling smiles are my favourite.

The layout looks custom, and is well balanced all the way down the page. Having two RSS icons are a littel confusing, until you realise that one is actually for email subscriptions. The only think that really bothers me is that it might not be designed for viewing in my browser, because the header looks like this:

The RSS feed is covering up the catch phrase!

Overall a highly enjoyable site. earning it a 9 out of 10.

If cats could talk, they probably wouldn’t. At least, that’s what I’ve been told.

I tend to think that if they could talk, they would mostly be saying the following

• Food. Now.
• Let me sleep.
• Open the door
• I demand your full attention
• Fool. That’s what you are.
• I have changed my mind.

And yet, there are countless blogs out there that claim to be written by cats. And what’s more, these cats seem to have the ability to say more than the half a dozen things I listed above.

Yes, I realise they aren’t actually cats that are blogging, but doting owners who want to share their love for their kitty over the internet. And some of them are actually quite good reads if you’re only looking for a bit of fun. Even though it does seem a bit strange to be blogging as your cat rather than about your cat.

Theseblogs do seem to generate quite a big following. This just goes to show that the internet can never get enough of cute cat photos.

So if you’re languishing for comments on your blog, consider harassinf your cat with your camera and posting some photos. I’m willing to bet that cat photo posts always generate comments.