Name: Sarah
Site: In A Dream
Review completed on: 11/11/06
SPLASH PAGE
No splash
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Quite a straight-to-the-point looking layout, no clutter, with a pretty basic looking header image. Basic can work, and sometimes it can't. Basic certainly doesn't have to look like something made in five minutes with little to no effort applied at all.
LAYOUT
To be honest it looks like your layout was made in the space of five minutes in MS Paint. It's as if you've got your mouse and done a few wavey bits, slapped on a font, and that's it. A five year old could have done this, in fact it looks like a five year old could well have made this layout for you! Maybe a bit more detail could have been taken into consideration here. I'm not sure if this is only occuring on my computer, but there's a white line at the very top of your layout that looks like it shouldn't be there. What could this be from I wonder? Click here for a typical PSGR low quality screenshot. (The image will open in a pop up window.) I also suggest centering your layout so that it can be properly viewed in all resolutions.
I couldn't help but notice you last blogged on August the 26th. Does this mean you've abandoned your site? It's crucial to keep your site as up to date as possible - even if you've got nothing much to blog about, at least let your visitors know what the deal is. It is hard to believe that this site is your 'pride and joy' (as stated by you on the sidebar) when you've clearly applied minimal effort to your layout and have seemingly let your blog fall by the wayside. The mere fact that one of your comments is from that dyslexic pratt "JR" from Internetnewsdaily should be enough to send out sirens!
However amateur and rushed this layout may look, you haven't gone down the whole 'celebrity images path' so I've gotta give you kudos for that. Just allow more time with your next layout, put more effort into it and I can almost guarantee it will look better than your current one.
CONTENT
Dreamer
A suffient amount of links here I see...could be okay!
Basics - the name says it all, a very basic page here providing a few key facts about yourself. Hope you'll be elaborating on these later on? Where you've listed your favourite book titles, you could always link the titles up to an Amazon / Barnes and Noble page so that your readers can find out more about the title. It's all well and good rattling off titles but what are they about? Do you like them so much that you want to let people know what the plot entails?
Contact - not a lot to go on here, just a mailto link for your Yahoo! email and an AIM id. You say that this page has all the information one would need to contact you, which made me assume there'd be a lot of methods of contact listed here, when in reality there weren't. What about profile site IDs? Do you have a Myspace? Do you have MSN messenger? If you do, certainly add these. If not, no worries.
Goals - I loved reading these, you've got some really interesting goals. Hope you get to go to Georgia one day, is it quite far from your state? Under your goal of falling in love, you've got (Completed) next to it, but then you've gone on to say that you're starting to think it'll never happen. Having completed next to it gives me the impression that you've already fallen in love and this goal has been completed, but your comments say otherwise. I'm a bit confused here!
Opinions - excellent. This is what I like to see, or should I say read. I enjoy reading other peoples' opinions, especially when said opinions are expressed well like yours have been. Just a few spelling errors to go through here:
Rapists: posesses - possesses. Believe me I know, I lost a spelling bee to this word when I was eleven. It was just me and one other girl left, and I spelt it like you have. I reckon it looks completely wrong with four S's, but that's actually how it's spelt. English sucks anyway.
Rude people: satisfacation - satisfaction.
All in all, a great page. You're articulate and you know how to express yourself in an intelligent, mature manner.
Personality - I was very relieved that this page didn't consist of some copy and pasted bullshit from the Myers Briggs personality site. I definitely agree with you - you are a good writer. I'm with you when it comes to sports - I'm such a klutz that it was damn near impossible for me to be good at any sport requiring a bat or ball. I hated P.E. so much! On the first paragraph, change embarassment to embarrassment and embarassed to embarrassed. Like possess earlier, I personally think it looks funny with two R's, but thats how its spelt apparently. On the third paragraph, fix this typographical error - intellecutal = intellectual.
Random facts - under 2/ - sandwhich = sandwich, and 9/ - lightist = lightest. This page proved consistant with the others in terms of being interesting, I'm really enjoying your content so far. You're such an individual! You go on about being weird quite often, well it's better to be weird than be some normal boring person who is afraid to be themselves. I think your personality rocks.
Writings
Part of your introductory sentence on this page does not make any sense, it's as if two sentences are running on from each other without a full stop to mark the end of the first. I'd consider changing this: "I will be periodically putting up some of my work, ranging from songs to stories to poems for you plagarism if you take any of these, so don't because you don't want to break the law."
to
I will be periodically putting up some of my work, ranging from songs to stories to poems for you. It is plagiarism if you take any of these, so don't because you don't want to break the law. Sounds a bit easier to understand, yes?
As for the writings themselves, I'll not be checking for spelling errors or giving any negative criticism in any way. It's not my place to review your personal writing, I'm not going to intrude on something that is so personal to you. Instead, I'll just be reading your work and enjoying it. Sound good?
* * *
Oh my goodness. I'm aware that this is going to sound over-flattering or sugar coated, but I don't really care. I want to be honest with you and tell you that your poems and songs are the best I've ever read at a personal site. That's saying a lot, since I've reviewed many sites that contain samples of written work. You write with such an intense passion, such emotion...I'm pretty much speechless right now. All I can say is that you've got a great talent, and if you keep this up I have no doubt that you'll go far. I thoroughly enjoyed reading every single poem and song you had up in this section.
Photography
On your opening paragraph, change "I'm not photographer" to I'm not a photographer. While these pictures were of a decent size (kudos for stating they open in a new window by the way), they still only loaded in a matter of seconds - I'm on dialup and this was much appreciated. I can't get over how green your cat Pickles' eyes are! My favourite photo was the Bobblehead one - this would look fabulous as a header image. Hint hint? Actually, I think that all of these photographs would look great as layouts.
In A Dream
Future projects - cool that you want to start a review site. Wondering why you've got "in-a-dream.org" here, when your extension is .net...did your site used to be .org or something?
History - so, you're with Dreamhost too! They're great aren't they. Like you, I was also with Surpass Hosting (for my domain petshopgirlxxx.com) but unlike you, I experienced a lot of problems with their servers, in that my site was lucky to be up for a few hours every three days. On the very first line of this page, remember to include the full stop (period) at the end of the sentence. On the first main paragraph, there's a typo - webdesiging = webdesigning. Actually I think the two words are supposed to be separated, but what's a little togetherness between friends huh?
Hosting - well, people are certainly getting a good deal by getting hosted by you. It was nice to see that you're not giving out anal requirements, your criteria seems pretty fair and straightforward to me. On clause number 6 under Rules, accpet = accept, and bandwith has a D in between the T and the H. You've also got it like this under What you get, so be sure to change it to the correct spelling.
The name - on the sixth line of the second paragraph, change it's to its. In this context this word does not need the apostrophe.
Exits
Not a big page, but when are they ever? Good use of list tags next to the links. The link for Thundercake.com doesn't work, so next time you update this page be sure to remove it or insert the correct link instead.
SUMMARY
I'm glad I'm not the type to judge a book by its cover, or in this case a website by its layout. I'm not keen on your layout, but at the end of the day it is your choice in how you want to display your site. I'm not here to tell you what to do or try and change your mind about things, I'm just here to give you my own opinion. Please know that this isn't a matter of simple versus detailed or anything like that - both are great, if they have been pulled off well. I personally think that you have not pulled off this layout particularly well. You know I'm a big advocate for you using one of your photographs as a header image, but ultimately it's your choice with whatever design direction you wish to take with your site.
What I discovered inside your site was something great. I came across a girl with an interesting personality who has a gift for writing. This skill was certainly apparent in your poems and songs, which were a pleasure to read. I surprised myself by actually enjoying poetry, something I have never really enjoyed reading before.
I loved stopping by your site and I'll definitely be back - I just hope you haven't abandoned your site because that would be a real shame. You have a site that is worth working on, that is worth every ounce of effort you put into it. Just remember to reserve some of that effort for your layout too, as well as proof reading your pages before you put them up, checking for spelling and grammatical errors along the way. I'd recommend this site to anyone who appreciates original content and reading written works that are of a high standard.
