Ask Salomon

Our Friends from the BevyHost Forum have launched a new website review contest.

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Written by the BevyHost Forum Administrator:

Welcome to Review a Website for $50, $30 or $20 Contest
1. How to Participate:
Write a review about one the websites posted to be reviewed in this section and post it in this Thread.
2. How to Win:
There will be 3 winners, which will be decided on June 7th, by the points earned during the contest.

The points will be rewarded as follows:

Add an avatar to your profile = 5 points

We will make a poll with all your reviews in this same thread starting on May 31st.
The poll will run from May 31st until June 7th.
The winners of the poll will receive the following points according to their position in the poll.

1st place in the Poll = 30 points
2nd place in the Poll = 20 points
3rd place in the Poll = 15 points

The Admin and Moderators will also vote in the poll for one of the reviews. Their votes will count as follows.

Admin = 10 points
Supermoderator = 8 points
Moderator = 6 points

You can also ask your friends, mates and coworkers to vote in the poll for you , as you can see the winner of the poll has a very good chance of winning the contest,
We are still in elections :) and You still Want to win

3. Dates:
Last day to submit Reviews: May 31st, 2008 (+1 GTM)
Start date Poll: June 1st 2008
End Date Poll: June 7th, 2008
Winners Announcement: June 8th, 2008
Payment Date: June 9th, 2008

4. Prize of the Contest
1st Place = $50
2nd Place = $30
3rd Place = $20

5. Important Notes
1. All reviews must be written as per the instructions (if any) provided by the users requesting a review of their sites.
2. All reviews must be unique.
3. You may review as many sites as you want. Increase your chances of winning the $$ by writing more than one review
4. Outsourcing is allowed: This means that you can hire or ask someone else to write the review for you (maybe invest a little bit of money  to have more chances of winning the $$ prize).
5. Payment by PayPal

Looking forward to reading your reviews,

Good Luck Everyone.
BevyHost Forum Team

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Adios for now 

Copyright © 2008 Ask Salomon

Do not forget to Subscribe to my Feeds to read more.

No Comments Yet »

Dear readers of AskSalomon,

This is the 9th update of the Review a Website for $50 Contest .

As you can see from previous updates, the contest is getting a lot of high quality reviews.

I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do.

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Review Writer: Llamalord
Writer Website: Another Day Wasted
Website to Review: www.jasonemry.com
Review Requested: here by Jason

After having a peak at your site I must say Im impressed. There were a few bits which I didnt like and alot I did like, break it down now!!!

Content:

The content itself made for a good read, I mainly stuck to the blog link on this as the other pages seem to hurt my eyes alittle (the pink page and the status page), after a while I tried out the other links ( hydrogenmafia etc ) shame they wernt part of your site… and that hydrogenmafia almost killed my pc. But over all good content

Layout:

Apart from the status page and the pink page (just for the colours not really doing my eyes any good), I did like the full use of the java menu at the top, rare to see a good little widget like that. Everything else about the site was good.

Ease of use:

I couldnt find a single problem with your site, nice and easily laid out, nothing at all went wrong (well aoart from hydrogenmafia locking my PC for a min or two lol). Nicely done

Over all:

Over all I liked your site, was a good read and it was well made, in the idea the colour choice is your own, and my review is the opinion of ONE person not the whole internet so I cant say “you would do better if you….”. All I can say is that if it is working then keep doing it. Well done on a good site.

5 out of 5 ’s

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No Comments Yet »

Dear readers of AskSalomon,

This is the 8th update of the Review a Website for $50 Contest .

As you can see from previous updates, the contest is getting a lot of high quality reviews.

I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do.

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Review Writer: Gema
Writer Website: N/A
Website to Review: Studentstyle
Review Requested: here by legendary11

A few comments on the style:
Nice clean layout with a good use of the white space. The blue text looks good on the white and the 3 cartoon characters used on the main header and home page are very cool. Good choice of font for the title and heading graphics gives it a modern feel suitable for a student’s site. The blue color carries throughout the site giving it a connected feel. Simple but relaxed, which gives the confident sensation that all you will read here will be only honest and truthful info. Nice little favicon too.

Comments on the usability and layout:
First: I find the navigability good and easy to use; the links on the left side bar speak for themselves and so do the navigation tabs on the top. At the time of this review there were some links on the left side bar that didn’t work but I imagine this had to do with the site being fairly new and expanding all the time with new content.
Having said that and after checking the site in IE, Firefox and Safari the difference in appearance between browsers (at the time) made it clear that Safari would show a nicer layout.
Firefox and IE:
-The left side bar displays links with a description for each link which makes you scroll all the way down before you find what you want; a bit annoying but, I guess this is the owners preference; perhaps this way they make sure you read the content all the way down at the same time that you search through the links.
-Updates column shows in the center of the screen.

Screenshot view in IE and Firefox:

Safari:
-The left side bar displayed links with no description
-Updates column displayed on the right side which I think is where it should be, so that the main text remains centered.
(The browsers compatibility has been fixed and the above view is how it currently looks like)

Screenshot view in Safari:

Content:
Although not all links were working at the time of this review, I can already say that there are some nice articles on several categories; to name a few: the roommate problems section, student budgeting, Students Should Know, safe sex section ( would be nice to mention the source of the articles posted on this one since they talk about pills and injections, some medical ref. would be nice ), etc.. The cooking tips are very useful; I would like to see some pictures there for inspiration…

To resume:
A nice site full of potential. I personally have great expectations for this site and especially for the idea behind it; it still needs some hours of work and more content, so perhaps it would help the users and the creators to have more interaction with visitors by allowing them to post comments and hints somewhere? (Just a suggestion.)
It also would be nice to make it a more international site to attract the interest of students from other countries. It is good the way it is anyway if the owner wants to target one or two countries.

If it was fully functional I would give it a 5 but since there are still a lot of changes going on I’ll rate it 4 out of 5 stars. Well done!

(A small note: this site is having so many changes lately that this review may be out dated when you read it)

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Adios for now 

Copyright © 2008 Ask Salomon

Do not forget to Subscribe to my Feeds to read more.

No Comments Yet »

Dear readers of AskSalomon,

This is the 7th update of the Review a Website for $50 Contest .

As you can see from previous updates, the contest is getting a lot of high quality reviews.

I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do.

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Review Writer: larnau
Writer Website: N/A
Website to Review: Fitness2k
Review Requested: here by pilseight

First impression:
When I first visited fitness2k’s home page I experienced a healthy and peaceful feeling, I guess brought up by its simple and clean design. Its relaxed ambiance made me want to read more, in search of the story behind the main page.

Look and Layout:
Colors and fonts are consistent in their look and feel, which make the site a subtle place to browse through.
Their choice of natural, soft colors make you feel like anything you get here will be only pure and beneficial for your health. The look and feel of each page is consistent throughout the site. The green colored leaves on the main heather and the pictures of people with white doctor’s coats work well together and help to bring out a message of credibility.

Content:
After reading their welcome message on the home page (Welcome to Your Source for Independent Information about Weight Loss!)
I expected to be in one of those sites where you could retrieve lots of information on different weight loss products and weight loss methods. It was only after being smartly directed to their (3) recommended products that I came to understand the real site’s purpose.
At fitness2k you can buy weight loss pills based on natural ingredients.

Navigation and Ease of Use:
Fitness2k is relatively small site. It has only a few pages which can be easily accessed through the links on the left site.
All information is nicely and smoothly presented and it is easily accessible.
The various links included to their recommended products’ home page, add extra credibility to the site’s information.

In Closing:
Neat, refreshing looking site, easy to navigate and easy to find your way around.
I would have liked to see more detailed information on nutrition and health food than just some superficial quotes on fast food and fat. But then this is just my personal taste.
I also would have liked to read more about the site’s owner/s on the ‘about us’ area; this space simply shows a picture of a group of doctors and tells nothing specific about the site’s owner/s.

My rating: 4 out of 5

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Adios for now 

No Comments Yet »

Dear readers of AskSalomon,

This is the 6th update of the Review a Website for $50 Contest .

At the time of writing this post, there are some reviews compeating for the $50 prize.
As mentioned in my previous posts, I am posting some of them for you to enjoy over here.

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Review Writer: Llamalord
Writer Website: Another Day Wasted
Website to Review: Grocery Price Books
Review Requested: here by holly

Review:

I have now been looking at this site for a few mins, I understand the concept behind the site and think its a very good one, but please dont take offence or in the wrong way when you read this review - Please read the full review.

Layout:

Very basic, this is really the only problem I have found with this site. I does look like a few tables have been put together. The only colours can be found in the menu buttons, some small pic’s on the menu and in some of the writing.

I personally think that, yes adverts are the main income for most sites, but sometimes they can be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Its going to sound evil but I honestly dont like looking for good deals on food etc whilst a oxfam ad flashes at me to help people poorer then me (long story why, will post in general).

- note: Just clicked the side menu and it turns out it was a banner -

The layout is the only thing which has let the site down

Content:

Impressive to say the least, it must have taken alot of time to amass this much information on differnt products then add them to a database alongside having the latest offers and the codes. Im suprised you can keep it so up to date. Well done

Ease of use:

When you get past the confusion I had (thinking that the pic’s to the side was a menu when it really was a banner lol) its very VERY easy to use, its the only time that the simple constant layout comes into play as a winner, yes I said some bad things about the layout but it does come in handy.

Overall:

Once you get past the look of the site you will be suprised how much information and good deals you can get from this site, I was very impressed by how much information is on the site. A good 4 out of 5 happy faces (only 4 because the layout is still to simple for my liking - sorry)

Raiting: 4/5

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Adios for now 

Copyright © 2008 Ask Salomon

Do not forget to Subscribe to my Feeds to read more.

No Comments Yet »