This post is a review of a Laila's Weblog - A Journey Through Life in order to either win Chips or gain BS$.

Laila's blog is, as she says, "...about her journey through life fulfilling unfinished business and promises, searching for the missing pieces that will soon complete her existence...". Laila's blog takes us through many of her life experiences (e.g. most recently the health of her brother) as well as provides us with some of the activities she gets up to online (e.g. BlogShares). Laila has used her skills on BlogShares to make real dollars in order to help fund medical treatment for her brother, Nasser.

As a user of FireFox, Laila's blog at time jiggles when using mouse over links (e.g. Monthly Archives to the right of her blog posts. This is most disconcerting whilst trying to read the blog but it doesn't - at least for me - when I power up IE (which I am loathe to do).

I find the static image (i.e. the flowers) to decrease the readability of the posts without having to scroll up and down for particular paragraphs. A lighter static image could help with this difficulty.

The boxes that appear on mouse-over are easy to read in FireFox but difficult in IE: a good example of the various implementations of CSS across platforms.

Whilst Laila's blog isn't one that I would read daily I'll certainly put it on my monthly list - just to follow Nasser's health.

A review of A Journey Through Life
(viewed with MS IE)

Laila,
I'll just cover the layout and mechanics, not the content; your spelling and grammar are quite readable and I wouldn't dream of telling you how to write about your life!

The first idea I got when I your page loaded: pretty colors and a delicate scheme. But as soon as I touched my scroll wheel I cringed! The flowers sit beneath the text, making it a little hard to read, and because my browser window is large, the text is allowed to flow vertically past the background image, which doesn't feel right. A quick fix for the static background would be to set up four nested divs, each with a different floral pattern in a different corner. This would give your page a nice floral vignette that resized for any window.

Blending your portrait with pink edges was a great idea. It makes a very soft image. I would like to see that picture hold a position on the page instead of scroll up with the main column. To make the picture even better, hang a white or pink or floral sheet behind yourself and take the picture again. While you're at it, put some flowers in your hair and smile, too!

You have one of the tallest sidebars I have ever seen. It is so tall that I initially didn't think I could navigate with it. I got distracted before I figured out what everything was and had to come back the next day to study it out! Here are some suggestions:

• You aren't utilizing the full width of your background. Add a second, non-scrolling sidebar for things you want always displayed, such as your pic, your ultra-compact contact links (very smart!), your syndication links, copyright and search box.
• I like that you have a lot of ways to navigate your site (Calendar, Archives, Categories) but they don't need to be visible all of the time. Collapse them so that the reader can expand them with a click. Feel free to yank code from my site. It's not perfect but it works in both IE and Firefox.
• I didn't know until my fourth visit that you had categorized posts! Change the sidebar title "Life's Journeys" to "Categories" or something descriptive to help your readers.
• Use 80x15 link images whenever they are available. They're cute and they lend uniformity to your blog where plain text cannot.

Blog Review

I'm going to start reviewing blogs that I come across in my daily networking activities. This is one I came across several weeks ago, when the owner gifted me a sum of money in an online internet stockmarket. It's fake money, of course, but the gesture was kind.

Site Name: Laila's Weblog - A Journey Through Life
Category: Personal/Journal
Syndication: Yes -- ATOM, XML, RSD XML, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0
Location: Philippines
Comments: Yes
Google Page Rank: 4/10
Alexa: 468,334

The site is one of the most connected I have ever seen, with syndication links and links to other sites stacked neatly on the right side. The site works for her, and seems to be a tidy reflection of her personality. The site is well organized and cleanly separated. It has a lot of the common bells and whistles seen on some blogs, but she has handled them most professionally which makes surfing her entries much more enjoyable. Many blogs are chaotic with toys and advertisements that scream "I'm legitimate...honest" when in fact they do nothing to enhance the users experience. Laila's site incorporates these intelligently, and they are not in your face.

The content of the site is personal, dealing mostly with family matters and daily on going activities. She posts frequently and on a variety of subjects which I wish were organized into topics. This is a mammoth task, however, and the bold subject headings at the top of each blog are enough to peak interest. The archives section is a little intense, and somewhat overwhelming. This could be alleviated by a topical index, instead of dates which are quite useless to the blog surfer. She appears to have a knowledge of programming, so I don't think that it's too much to ask.

The site does have advertisements, but they are topically related and not hosted at the top of the page. This is great as they fit in nicely to the overall look and feel of the site. Additionally, I applaud her for linking to sites that provide services that she uses on a regular basis.

I like this site, and I am interested in the growing interest in people publishing their personal lives and acquiring a readership. With a page rank 4, Laila is surely getting some great traffic. I wish it provided some news relevant to her location. Perhaps a news section that posted links to Philippine news stories for those of us that might be interested, but just need a little direction.

Liala's from Manila, Philippines, and this is my review of her wonderful blog.

" A Journey Through Life" her description :


A lifelog of a well-travelled single parent who had a life extension in 2000, blogs indiscriminately about her journey through life fulfilling unfinished business and promises, searching for the missing pieces that will soon complete her existence...

Very indeed, a interesting blog my friends.

I happened to come across this blog, and find it very interesting to read, she is from the Philippines, Manila. From what I read from the very beginning in 2003, she is a single parent, with three lovely kids. Of course, from what gather, she wedded at a young age of 18, and was a single parent at 24.

Now from what I read, she isn't 24 still, but a mother,single parent possibly still, and maybe in her late 30ies. I could be wrong on the age, but it doesn't matter, she still has children, and talks of them in her blog in her daily life living and the turmoils, the birthdays,the christmas's, and fun, laughter....Its a weblog, a diary, a nice read!~ :)
Very beautiful picture of her. A wonderful parent to her kids, and a wonderful journalist/reporter/writer of her work in her blog, plus the exploring the world and talking about it in her blog as she knows it from her blessed heart.

Besides gaining insight and wisdom from what she runs into each day, and learning from her mistakes,adventures,people, and new lessons of life. Being a single parent with three children is a master task achievement itself, and devotion of love and care is what she does, day by day, as Im still reviewing her stories, and overreading some articles Im in 2003,and 2004 years.

I am happily to add it to my blog roll in my Life & Health Blog.

Liala to me is a very fascinating person. Determined strength to care for her children and watch them grow in that country from what I know it as a Island in the far East , the Philippines. The smell of coconuts trees, is what I remember of the Philippines, I loved the place. As some of you know, I was in the service, and been there in Manila and Ologapo City< I think I spelled it wrong, anyways at least 15 times each back in the 1980's. Magel beer, fried pork on a stick that was barbeque tasty, and the food of ham and rice that this one resturant I went to, they cooked in in the ground was really enjoyable. I rode in them taxi's there on a motorcycle.

All this was very rememberable, and the taxi's as we call them here in the USA is a different name there of course, I could look it up, but it might come back to my mind. There's alot to read of her blog and stories to enjoy as she talks about her reviews as well on servers and messengers that she uses and points out her opinions as well.

I found her blog in blogshares. Its a fantasy market of buying,selling shares,ideas,bonds. Its very much fun, as I only been in it for a few months. People, its well worth to check out her blog, and her read,stories, of her life as a single parent. The layout of her blog is very nice, a nice rose color layout of her archives is growing, photo's are great, and she talks of the countries(philippines) soaps,and tv shows, to the news there of whats going on, and the world news and daily life there as she knows it,see's it, and hears about it in her opinion.
I really like her blog. I think its honest, warming, and full of life.
I wish her to keep writing, and send a god bless to her and her children.

Liala's Weblog

* a note- once you get to her blog, refresh the page, to see other photo's of Liala's picture, as I refreshed the main page, it changes to different views, very neat indeed. As you see this photo is different from the first...There's other great poses, and a smile I think is great too..Enjoy friends, and meet her!