Review of A Cowboy’s Wife
A Cowboy’s Wife, maintained by blogger Lori, is a really cute blog. The blog is fresh just like the author; her About Me page states:
I can change my own tires, cook from scratch, and will voice my opinions on whatever topics I feel like. I am usually a lady but can and will kick your ___ if you tick me off. I hate liars & rudeness so if you have either of these traits, then don’t come to my blog.
Well! Here’s a lady who speaks her mind, kind of like those anti-corsets women of the Wild Wild West of old! Yes, a very entertaining About Me page, lol!
Lori’s blog is very stylish, and everything matches. It must have been so much fun to attribute “comments” to “neighs and snorts,” “blogrolls” as “the posse” and “the watering hole.” Nice touches. These things give a blog a “finished” look and reveal the blogger’s joie de vivre.
As far as blog content, Lori is an adept communicator. Her feelings and opinions jump out like a calf let out of the barn in the springtime. Sometimes trying to rope around her point takes a little effort, at least for this cowpoke. Her writing style is very visual, with the use of ALL CAPS, emoticons, and loooooooong repeated letters. It is entertaining, to be sure. Sometimes the posts deviate from the “mom” narrative, and Lori takes on current events. I loved the post on the rig explosion. Great photos. I’d love to see more interesting content like that– about what happens way our there in the middle of nowhere. This blog could fill a niche like that, if Lori ever felt like expanding the scope of the blog. One thing I noticed is that oftentimes in the posts, a meaningful word is omitted in a sentence. This happens to me when I type too fast and don’t proofread my work carefully. For example:
If happen to be an Internet Marketer…
I just wanted to pop and say hello and give you the warning on the cake. It’s x-rated or anything, in fact, she’s covered up…
It’s a common mistake, but if it happens too frequently, it looks sloppy. A good thorough proofread is what usually cures it.
The design, like I’d stated, is tailored to the “cowboy” theme. It’s adorable. However, the content in the sidebars is a little messy. Blinking ads, differently-sized font at different alignments, and lines of text inconsistently squished too close was a distraction. I recommend cleaning up the sidebars. Lori’s style seems to be ad hoc as a general rule, so a too-tidy clean-up might make the content look too out of place. Just a little. May I be so bold as to recommend setting aside “blocks” of content in the sidebar– perhaps an area of banner/block ads in one area, then a few blogrolls, then another area of ads, etc. The consistency would help the reader concentrate on the blog posts, because right now, the haphazard sidebar organization is distracting.
Overall, A Cowboy’s Wife in an entertaining blog where the author’s personality really shines through– and for a blog, this is everything. Content is king! Messy sidebars and overuse of emoticons is secondary and easily remedied. Happy trails!
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
I plan on working on my sidebars soon:) I have some other things in store as well. Thank you again for the great review. Stay tuned for tomorrow if you want to see a fat girl dancing!