Author: Steven Aitchison
The owner of this blog. Proud father, doting husband, blogger, hire me as freelance writer, and addiction worker
This is a paid review from www.thoughts.com
Thoughts.com is something different altogether. It is a community of bloggers all with free blogs provided by thoughts.com. All the blogs are visible within the main window, which means easier navigation for the readers.
The blogs are not traditional blogs from a design viewpoint rather posts which other community members can comment on.
The design
The design of the blog is clean, simple, and very appealing to the eye as you can see from the screenshot above.
The navigation of the site is very user friendly and easy to navigate even for the most computer illiterate person. The navigation links are clear and are not too crowded as to confuse the reader; there are less than 30 links on the main page. This might sound a lot but compared with other sites, which can have 70-100 links on the main page it is not a lot.
Sky blue and white are the predominant colours of the site, which again is very appealing.
The Concept
The thoughts behind the site is to involve the community from the word go. There is a user rating system so each user can rate everyone else’s blog posts, photos, videos and podcasts. If a particular blogger has an overall user rating of 4 they will then be rewarded and allowed to post on the community blogs section of the site, which are the most read section on the site.
It is a good thing to be able to post in the community section of the site however, thoughts.com do not stop there. They are planning to reward their top bloggers with an all expenses paid trip every year, this year it is Las Vegas. I don’t know of any other community site that does this. Read more about it here
Signing up
Signing up is a very easy affair and it can be done within a minute or two. There are various features to let other bloggers to get to know you better. The usual photo and bio.
Videos, podcasts and more
The cool thing about the site, and indeed one of its main features, is the easy way you can add a podcast, a video, a photo and indeed a post.
There is no need for HTML knowledge; it’s a case of browsing for the file on your computer and saving it on the site, easy!
Possible downsides
I have spent an hour or two on the site over the last few days and it seems to me that the site is for a specific age group from the 20 – 40’s age group. This is my initial thoughts and I do not know the demographics. However, if this is the case it seems that there are two vital age groups that are not catered for, one being the 15-20 age group and the other being the over 40’s. From a marketing point of view it might be a good idea to have a sister site for these age groups.
Conclusion
My overall impression of the site is a professional, clean, easy to navigate site. It is very much community focused and I can see it growing into a big community of bloggers. The fact that you can very easily add videos, podcasts, photos and posts will ensure that the site will get a lot of exposure over the coming months.
I expect you will be hearing a lot more of thoughts.com
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
While I agree that a site geared to older users might work I think my space has the younger demographic covered.
Hi Karen
You are right that MySpace ha the younger domgraphic covered but there’s always room for another blogging platform to get some of the share of the younger crowd. I believe, this would expand the reach of this platform.
Somebody actually PAID for that “review?” You basically just summarized the site with a couple of comments, one of which (under ‘possible downsides’) was ridiculous (see above comment from other poster). Steve, your writing can be improved as well. Maybe professional blogging – and especially taking money for reviewing OTHER blogs – is not your strong-suit. Sorry to be so harsh, but your writing AND your content has been very poor as of late.
Hi Alicia
I notice you hide behind your anonymity when making comments. If you have something to say please do not be afraid own your comment and identify your credentials as a critic.
As a professional I am always willing to learn. Also as a professional I would never consider leaving a comment such as yours, it is highly unprofessional and offensive. Obviously your comments are bourne from some acedemic knowledge or experience unbeknown to me.
To make it clear I take direction from my clients when reviewing their sites and as long as they are happy then I have met the aims identified by my client. If you have examples of your writing that you think I can learn from, please post them here.
Please feel free to unsubscribe from the blog if you feel the quality of the content is poor.
Steven, I think your writing was well done and professional. I also agree with you entirely about thoughts.com. I don’t know who Alicia is, but I do think her statement sounded a bit personal.
Hi, It seems that thoughts.com is another site that is using visitors participation to build their content.
Good move as it fulfills some of the search engine requirements for ranking which are unique content and frequently updated content
I wonder how the site is monetized?
I have a little question:
How come you can write: ” a paid review” from…
Isn’t that what big Google had said that is a big nono???
If I did this on my blog, I would be sandboxed in just a matter of hours, lol.
I’d say they are something different Steve. Drop by my blog and check out the screen caps. I was the victim of abuse from the mod and all the admin did was keep telling him to behave. The other day the moderator offered to pay for my air fair to Vegas where his wife would kick my butt.
It was also reported on their site that the site has spyware. A member dug a little deeper into the add revenue for thoughts.com and found that they have the keyloggers and adware. Some of the paying advertisers include porno sites. Before he drew a conclusion as to this, he cleared his comp of all possible adwares and keyloggers and then entered the Thoughts.com site and only thoughts.com. Before browsing for about 20 minutes, he again cleaned up his comp and found 121 new adwares or keyloggers.
The admin denies this.
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