The Official 2013 Review of Select Blogs from Around the Web-o-Sphere

Many of you submitted blogs for review. I took the time out of my day to read them. This is what I think of them.

Rhino: The majority of you know Rhino, him being an interim tabbed blogger of mine, popular vote winner in the great blog elections of 2012. I have an inside track into the work habits of Rhino, since he writes for the site. Without a doubt, he has what it takes to be a successful blogger. There is frequent engagement on his blog, as his articles either evoke love or unparalleled hatred amongst his readers. Either way, he gets them to read and comment and that’s good. He posts at a minimum of 3 times per day, keeping content fresh and relevant. As for criticisms: I feel the grammar and spacing of paragraphs can be made to be easier on the reader. Also, from time to time, Rhino comes across as a guy who just got done sticking a rambo knife into someone’s abdomen. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. However, one must learn to balance the insane with the competent, in order to garner trust from the reader. Grade: B+

Trader Habits: He doesn’t post enough. He has a few recent posts, then it looks like he went on a cocaine binge for weeks at a time, spitting on his readers, leaving them to die of thirst in the desert. Because of that lack of fresh content and relevant material, the site is rendered to be useless–subsequently without traffic and reader participation. That’s too bad, especially since the content is pretty good, save the sales pitch stamped at the end of the post. I can tell you from first person experience, running a 7 figure premium service, it’s not smart business to talk business all the time–if you know what I mean. Grade: D

Following Price Action: I hate the name of the site. It reminds me of a dog site that might be named “Walk the Dog” or ‘Clean up Poop”. The layout is clean–but the content is MIA. Do you people really think success can be accomplished with zero effort? I understand that some of you do it as a hobby and that’s cool. But I am only interested in serious minded bloggers, men who want to share wisdom, frailties and personality. It appears this gent is quite active on Twitter, but ignore the site. That makes no sense. Twitter should be used to bolster web traffic, not the other way around. There isn’t any traffic or reader participation to speak of, due to lack of effort. On the bright side, the content is pleasant, light and decent enough to check in from time to time.  Grade: D

Ringer Capital: My guess he is a college kid, tooling around on the internets, throwing mashed potatoes at the screen after he’s done. This site isn’t updated enough. Moreover, the last post was a god damned thesis on a 20 cent penny stock. Look, kid, get your head from out of the gutter. You can write and have some talents. Keep your posts short, to the point, exciting, and often. Then get back to me. Grade: D

Greedy Picks: Sometimes I feel the blogosphere is to twitter what newspapers are to the internet. Then I look at iBankCoin’s revenue statements and remember that there is money to be made here. What the hell is wrong with you Twitter fiends? This blog isn’t updated. Content is decent, but too sparse. He does spend plenty of time chinwagging on Twitter, however. Grade: D

BCLund: I know this guy because he heckles me on Twitter. This site has a stupid car as a header. I’d like to see that car in a horrific accident and sent to the old car junkyard for good. This bozo has some personality, but prefers to defecate on himself while tweeting, instead of working a real man’s job on the blogosphere. Once again, the blog lacks content and honorable web design. Grade: D-

Cracked Market: Finally a decent blogger. This site is updated regularly, not enough to be called a top tier site, but enough to avoid being graded a D. Right away I enjoyed his post. The layout was clean to the point and logical. But then I thumbed down and was chagrined to find EVERY GOD DAMNED POST IN THE SAME FORMAT. Excuse me Sir, are you a robot? If I stabbed you with a knife, would you bleed red blood, or white android fluids? His free subscription suggestion is a little confusing. I was expecting something of the premium nature there. People don’t want stuff emailed anymore. Boxes are loaded with spam as it is. The last thing I want is an excerpt from some stock market creep, robotting his way into my lavish life. Nonetheless, I like the content. Grade: B

The Housing Time Bomb: Are you kidding me with this site name and the big stupid bear on the top of the page? This is like having a “KILL ALL VIETNAMESE” blog in 1980. It might’ve been cool in 1970; but dude, it’s 1980. You just look strange (danger!) and psycho. It’s a bear blog and the content should be placed elsewhere, on a new site, under a new name. Post often and bring hell. There are lots of like minded people out there who’d be happy to join your cult. Grade: F

Body Building Secrets Live: Marc has been a huge supporter of the site for many years. I know he’s a big fitness guy and loves to trade stocks. His site is purely fitness and is loaded with lots of great information. I’m not sure if the site needs to be updated more, since he has a “freemium”style going–a little free info for a lot of paid info. He might get tons of clicks through google for services. I just don’t know. If I was him, I’d buy lots of google adwords and take a more active approach on Twitter to get customers. Hell, this is one of those services that’s actually worth trying, considering it can save your life. My strongest suggestion is to post more content, written or video. Grade: A-

eWallStreeter: Ditch the pop up thingy right away. The cost/benefit isn’t there to piss off new readers with that thing. I’d click right off the site, if I wasn’t commissioned to review it.  Okay, I really hate this site. The design is dreadful and the ads piss me off. I click on an article and that stupid pop up thingy gets in my face again. I see he is boasting being the “favorite website of CNBCs Fast Money.” Really? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? The layout is an abomination–too busy and wasting good space with inane subjects. Stop it. Grade: F-

On the wine scale: I love wine, so find myself biased to like this site. The genre is under represented, so reading anything about wine is interesting to me. The content is good, but he’s ruining any chances of greatness by committing basic and avoidable blogging sins. First off, you need more content. Also, fix the layout. Just have it going top to bottom in one column. Thirdly, post PICTURES and videos. People who are serious about wine like to see the bottle or the glass and want more information. I want to know where the vineyard is, its history, other vineyards in the area who produce popular wines, and EVERYTHING about the taste. It’s not good enough to say “I liked this wine.” How about the tannins, alcohol content, drinkability? What does it pair well with, etc? Grade: C

Run By Beats: This rap site hasn’t been updated since June. Grade: F

The Buttonwood Tree: This site was designed by a crazy person. Free advice, if you do not have a web designer, just go with a free template that is simple. Having the big BUTTONWOOD people header is simply a waste of space. No one cares about that, just like no one cares about the drivel below the fold. I still don’t know what that is supposed to be. Plus, you don’t update the site, ever. Grade: D

Rick J’s Handicap Picks: Truth be told, I’ve never bet on a sporting event in my life, so this is foreign to me. I imagine if I was a degenerate OTB guy looking for some hot picks, a site like this might come in handy. But Rick, baby, you need more personality. I want you to tell me how awesome you are and how all of the horses fear your whip when you visit the track. If I am merely a degenerate OTB guy, then you should be a super degenerate, doing youtube vids, smoking cigars and counting all of the money from your handicapped winnings. Grade: C

Yahoo Finance: I love Marissa Mayer and would leave my wife and 3 kids to make sex to her, if I was some sort of base, primal, creature– whose sole focus was to procreate and do drugs. Grade: A

Independent Capitalist: I needed a magnifying glass to read this site. Fix the fonts pal. It’s possible that some old folk might stumble upon your site and would mistake it for a black hole, instead of a rather nice, well read and seasoned blogger. He has potential. He sounds like he’s in the business of money management, or is simply a seasoned investor. With a better layout and honorable web design, I might read this site on occasion. Grade: B

3ddHedgeInvestments: What is this nonsense? Who let this nutcase out from the asylum, with this lime green color and retarded donate button at the top of the site, captivating me into believing he is using donations to finance terrorism? Why is every single letter CAPS LOCKED and why is there a god damned 500 word disclaimer on every post? Are you an idiot, or just play one on the internets? Stop blogging at once. Grade: F-

The Trading Wife: Decent site with lots of content. She has lots of ideas and has a nice, clean, spreadsheet that tracks her successes and failures. Although I know who she is from iBC/PPT/12631 and feel she is capable of handling a premium service, I’m afraid as a new reader I’d be put off by it. Not because of the suggestion of subscribing to someone who knows stocks, but due to the newness of the site. Frankly, premium services are hard to maintain and even harder to build. You cannot start a blog and offer a service right away. You need to put in sweat equity. All that aside, I like the site, but would change the design slightly. Grade: B

Aleph Blog: This is a tier one site, run by someone who is extremely capable. But why is the comments section so dead? Clearly he knows his stuff and produces plenty of content. Maybe he’s more popular at Real Money? Either way, he needs to promote and engage better. Grade: A

iBergamot: This site is a god damned mess. Change the name of the site immediately. Why is there a moon widget on the side? I want to punch that thing in the face. Stay focused, clean up the site. Websites are not christmas trees. You don’t have to put a toy on every branch. This is a gentleman’s business and your website should reflect that. Your paragraph structure is screwy too. It’s too bad, since this site is updated frequently with decent content. Grade: C-

Slope of Hope: My so called arch nemesis, TIM Knight and his burlap’d blog. If I was a bear, I’d love this site. It has tons of content and plenty of crazy people in the comments section making fun of perma-bull sites, like iBankCoin. The only problem with this site is TIM isn’t very good, at least that’s what I am told. From what I gather, there is a lot of smoke and mirrors at play here. Granted, it’s been a tough slog being a bear these past 5 years. I do, however, commend him for keeping up his evil, sinister, plan to break the back of western finance, via blogging. My sole suggestion is to fire all of the other bloggers writing for the site. No one visits TIM’s cave for strawberries. They want the Knight in burlap’d armor. Grade: A+

Herd Mentality:  UPDATE your freakin’ blog pal. I really like the design and clean layout. This site would have potential if someone actually wrote on it. And don’t make me click for more articles after just 2 posts, you idiot. Stop whoring for page views and make it an enjoyable experience for your readers. There should be at least 8 fresh articles per page. Just so you know, aside from news, I post 5-8 times per day. ChessnWine posts 10 times per day. Work. Grade: D

SovaTrades: Interesting. This fine gent is an iBankCoin blogger network blogger and just posts links to his iBC post on his blog. A little confusing. If I might suggest, duplicate the iBC posts on your blog or ditch your blog altogether. Also, ditch the paypal donate button. No one ever donates and it makes you look homeless. You don’t need the donation, so don’t ask for it. On your iBC blog, you post plenty of charts, but hardly any written content. You’re one of those chart guys. Truth is, you can be a chart guy and annotate the charts with clues. Either way, you are incomplete, pal. Grade: C

Is this the top: Ha! Very clever. Grade: A+

Note: Here was my last blog review. I bet most of those bastards quit blogging and became sanitation workers.

 

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