As per the Want Something For Nothing contest, I promised an advertisement in the sidebar for 2 months, a ReviewMe review, and a new banner/header redesign. As Richard, Shadowscope’s owner, has declined the design prize, I have added another contest to make sure someone gets it! I suggest you take a look at his blog, some of the writing is very interesting.

General Comments

Having no idea what the blog is going to be about, it was very interesting researching and writing this review about it. First off, the layout is unique, and a lot different than many sites I have been to. It almost seems as though Richard is trying to generate a few additional AdSense clicks with how the main page is laid out.

As you can see, he has placed an AdSense text block above his header. From what I have seen, that is innovative thinking, as many blogs have their navigation bar up there, and some people probably click the ads on accident. I wonder how those click through rates are?

Aside from that, the actual navigation toolbar and items are in the right column. In total, it takes 21 times of hitting the PageDn key (at 1280×1024 resolution) to reach the bottom of the page, and 10 times to reach the bottom of his right column navigation tools. Personally, I believe that is way too much to have on a single page, and it becomes very crowded.

On top of that, I am not a huge fan of the color scheme, but to each his own.

What Made Shadowscope?

Upon researching into his blog a little bit, you can easily find the About Richard page.

I am a 40 years old and am married to a wonderful lady and have three children ranging in ages from four to eighteen. My son (the oldest) has joined the U.S. Marine Corps and is leaving for boot camp on June 18th.

I am a full-time district manager of three 24 hour full service restaurant/diners and basically a full-time blogger as well.

Politically I am inclined to be a Libertarian although I belong to no party. True libertarians do not belong to a political party. Socially I am very liberal and believe in live and let live, while fiscally I am fairly conservative at least where the federal government is concerned.

If you find any of my views at all scary or offensive, please feel free to go somewhere else.

There is nothing like a blogger that comes out and is honest with who they are and what they feel. Of course some information should and will be kept confidential, but to learn a little about the person behind the writing definitely makes some people more inclined to enjoy the work, and some people will stop reading it. After all, you are targeting your writing towards a certain crowd.

About Shadowscope

I did not get a chance to ask Richard about this image, but it appears on his right navigation column on each page. I’m not sure if it is a cartoon depiction of what he looks like, or just an image that he thought adds some personality to his website. I think it adds a nice touch and breaks up the otherwise bland column.

Within the navigation column he writes about the blogs he visit frequently, the bloggers he has met, and the bloggers he wants to meet.

After the long list of that, he includes some traffic statistics. Nearly every blogger is interested in the Alexa ranking, and if you are not, you should be. A 78,000 Alexa ranking is pretty impressive for a blog that is not directly writing about a particular niche. Delving a little deeper into his traffic statistics, he averages 172 unique visitors each day. With some proper monetization techniques it would be very easy to turn some substantial revenues with these figures (unless of course that AdSense “trick” is working already).

It appears that a substantial amount of Richard’s posts are targeted towards his family and friends. This is obvious as he posts a variety of pictures of his children and wife.

What Else

While doing one of my 21 PgDn maneuvers, I noticed a very catching picture on his website.

Why did this picture catch my attention? Well not only is she very cute, but I have a picture of myself when I was little doing the exact same thing: bathing in the kitchen sink.

Shadowscope archives date back to January 1999. Not only is that a long time to have one blog, but the ability to still be blogging nearly 9 years later is amazing. Of course that seems like a super long time because I have only been blogging seriously since May 2007, but none-the-less, that is a great achievement.

That just goes to show you that if you are writing about something you truly care about and believe in, in Richard’s case it appears to be his family, then it is very easy to maintain your schedule and continue writing.

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