What would you rate my blog so far in both writing style and appearance?
Might want to add decorations on the left and right sides, so the site does not feel empty.
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The first giveaway is now up! Enter to win Ark: Survival Evolved!
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bump, I registeres awesome website, not clustered and very easy to navigate through! Already have the game but I'm recommending your blog to my friends ^^
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Bump. Site looks nice and clean. I don't trust reviews when the reviewer/site can profit from selling the game they are reviewing (G2A referral links).
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Thanks, The main reason I have those links is so there is still a potential for revenue without having ads on the site as I refuse to have ads.
I'll also review games I did not enjoy, potential profit will in no way influence any reviews.
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Improvements come with experience and this early on it's going to be hard to put a lot of changes into place, outside of general layout concerns. People like pictures, so that definitely helps, but they'll only stick around if they actually want to hear (or read, rather) what you have to say.
I'd suggest just cranking out more writing and work on finding your voice. If you're serious about improving, everything else can come later. Your enthusiasm is obvious, but the first thing I noticed is that you overuse exclamations quite a bit. This, combined with a lot of short and/or run-on sentences will lead most of your audience to assume they're reading the work of an overly excited kid. Granted, we all start there but it leads to habits that you want to break as soon as possible. Look at writing like a monologue or a conversation. Even in a review context, that can help the words flow better as you write them.
Best of luck, man. I'm doing the blog thing too and I know it can be hard to stick with and get noticed.
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Thanks for your detailed response, much appreciated.
I get what you mean with the exclamation marks, its always something I've had a bad habit of using a lot of, its probably a reflection of my bouncy and excitable nature honestly haha.
I'm trying my best to find the time to crank out articles at the moment, it's tough trying to do it while working a full time job at the same time but we all have to start somewhere eh.
Thanks for the good wishes and advice, good luck with yours too, it's tough but if you're doing something you love it's always worth it. :)
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Decided to put up a little something about my current monitor because why not, its an awesome monitor hah.
Working on a review for The Evil Within at the moment, recently finished it and it was an awesome game.
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orcywoo is not responsible for any bear related accidents.
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Very nice, it looks good and its not squashed together :)
Also, what did you use to create it?
I like your reviews and i hope you continue with it :D
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Thank you very much for your support, I used Wordpress to build the website, it's really one of the best systems out there. :)
I'll definitely be continuing, work commitments slow me down right now but I'll get there!
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No problem :D
Also, what theme did you use, it looks very nice, and i wanted to start a blog myself a while back, but none of the themes suited me :)
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The theme is called Point. I'd grab the link for you but I'm currently not at home, sorry!
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An off-topic question and you might not able to answer it: Does Wordpress allow for custom HTML / CSS input? Wordpress looks like a very good site, but the problem I bhave is that the basic styles don't really work for me.
Your blog looks very good though! As someone else already said, putting pictures in will really help. In your strategy list for example, you put up pictures of the game box, but not from the game itself.
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It certainly does, basically everything about it can be customised in the code, the theme is only really an overall base most of the time.
Yeah I was considering adding galleries to each one, I'll certainly do it then.
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Ah thanks for the info. Then I might just look into setting up a blog myself as well.
Having pictures of the actual game will really help a lot, since the first pictures you see of a game, will most of the time decide wether you'll be getting an interest in the game or not.
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Good writing overall and the touch of personality you add to some of your writing keeps readers interested. Maybe include some headings in your reviews where you're talking about specific things, most of the time visitors will just scroll down a page and read what pops out at them, which is mostly just pictures but occasionally words too. I feel like there should be a way to search through the reviews, unless I missed that. It works fine to scroll through a list of only a few reviews, but once you get a lot more it's definitely needed. I think your ratings only have 1 star increments, but 4 stars to 5 stars is like going from 80% to 100%, you should try making it 0.1 or 0.5 star increments to better assess which games deserve the higher rating. Great work so far, keep it up!
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Thank you very much for your analysis and kind words!
Since I switched the theme I lost my search bar, I did have one for the exact reasons you said, I'll re enable it tonight, I agree with you, it's definitely something that is needed.
The ratings do enable me to give 0.1 increments on star ratings, I just haven't actually done it yet, I'll make sure I'm less lenient with scores in future to make sure only the best things sit in the top rated section. Thanks again!
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I like that you chose a responsive design (webdesigner here and these days that's one of the first things I check, we can't get away without it nowadays), I like that it's simple and not cluttered, it is a comon type of layout but it works so you're good.
I'm not a big fan of carousels but you could try one where the monitor article is now (the big one on top) and rotate maybe 3 articles, it could work and it would showcase your 3 big articles of the moment.
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Haha thank you very much, I've only dabbled with design in the past but definitely nothing at an advanced level, glad the layout looks good to you!
Hmm, I considered trying one at one point, I guess I can trial one and see how it looks, thanks :)
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I would say it's a pretty good start, though it needs some polish when it comes to the visuals.
Your writing is quite good and easy to follow, you give relevant information while adding your personal opinion. I would definitely enjoy such a review.
When it comes to where to buy the games... I would recommend to at least add one link to steam. Even if you want to direct your audience to the better deals, steam offers some useful information and some of your readers just might not want to buy from resellers. (Personally, I consider a site more reliable when it directs me to steam instead of a key selling site.)
It's a good thing that your site is neat, but a background would be nice (a subtle one, instead of the plain black colour) and the right side looks a bit empty. This might change when you've written more reviews, but right now it's just an empty white space, which is not so appealing.
But really, it's a nice start and I wish you the best of luck ^^
(Sorry for the bad english, it's not my first language)
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Thank you very much for your kindness!
Visual polish will definitely come further down the line once I've settled in to the website, when it comes to linking to the games, linking to steam is something I considered along with the deal links, the main reason I have those links is a source of revenue as well as providing a better deal but I'll definitely consider it.
I'm wanting to keep things neat and I'm completely opposed to having ads which is why I need at least one source such as ref links, I hate to say it but the site won't pay for itself :/
I'm in the process of getting something made up to put as a background, probably going to go with a subtle pattern that's easy on the eyes yeah :) I can certainly add more things to the sidebar where appropriate, not too sure what else to put yet!
Thank you again, your English is fine to me so no worries! :)
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I absolutely understand your reasons for the links and I would anytime choose them over ads :) In fact, it's great that I could disable my ad blocker + allow all scripts (yes, I tried that~) and still, nothing annoying popped up.
One of the reasons I would like a steam link are the system requirements that steam displays, supported languages as well as DLCs and sometimes franchise bundles. (And also the possibility to add games to my wishlist in case I plan to buy them later.)
But well, that's just me and it's actually not a big hassle to find the steam page on my own if I need these informations.
Btw. I'm looking forward to your Stardew Valley review ^.^ I'm playing it myself right now, and though I always sucked at Harvest Moon it's just so much fun! You can see how much love has been put into the game~
Again ^^ good luck with your blog. I'm sure it will be successful because your writing is really entertaining and in the end, that's far more important than the layout.
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Thank you, I'm glad you understand my point of view on ads and etc, seems like a more user friendly way to do it!
Ah I see what you mean, I don't see why I cant just include both in that case.
Yeah I'm loving stardew valley right now, I'm obsessed with it!
Thank you so much for your kind words, they are extremely motivating.
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I'm never putting ads on my site. :)
That's a decent idea, I'll consider it!
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They jam the website up, nobody likes them, most people use Adblock these days, etc etc. I know I don't like them so I don't want to stuff them in anyone else's face either.
Maybe just maybe I'll consider independent ads if anyone approached me but otherwise that's my stance.
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That's the primary purpose of having the affiliate links, if I ever get desperate for revenue I may have to resort to ads if they don't work.
I'm still figuring out the best way to do it, I don't want to do anything I wouldn't like if I went to a website.
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nobody likes them
I can asure you, that most people view referrals as something much worse than subtle, non-intrusive ads.
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The basic layout is very nice and clean, but it feels kinda empty without any kind of background contrast.
I also don't quite like the blue on blue stars for reviewed games on the start page.
On the about page the website title is missing a space and thus written as one word.
Maybe make the "buy here" links more like buttons? And I'd also add Steam and GOG as basic options.
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Your site won't load.
Edit: A few tries later it did.
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My review for The Evil Within is now up, the next one will be Stardew Valley!
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I personally find the site really nice and clean to look at. Gives it a bit of a professional feel. Your reviews are of good quality as well, I enjoyed reading them. Keep up the good work! You've got something good going on :) Bump!
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Thank you very much for your kind words and motivation!
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Just shy of 12 hours remaining on the Ark giveaway, if you haven't already entered, you should!
Stay tuned for the next one, coming shortly afterwards!
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After a little break due to unfortunate work commitments, my latest review is stardew valley, I hate the delay there has been but unfortunately I work full time!
Here's another giveaway for your time, this time it is public, thanks guys! (and girls)
http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/F5Bko/just-cause-collection
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Hello there! I've recently taken upon myself to try and start writing my own blog about games I like and things like that.
I'm looking to see how people find it to see if there are any adjustments I can make to give people the best experience possible when reading.
I'm trying to also design it around involving users as much as possible, allowing them to give their own ratings and leave comments about games I've written about. I may try and also implement a forum.
I do not plan on putting any ads on it.
Anyway I'm keen to know what people thinks so far.
PLEASE BEAR IN MIND: I've only recently put it together so there's not a lot of posts or anything yet, I'm trying to work on it in my spare time as a hobby! :)
For those of you kind enough to take a look, I'll be hosting some secret giveaways so keep your eyes peeled!
You can find my blog at: http://www.orcywooreviews.com
Thank you so much in advance!
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