This post is a review of Top Forum Reviews. This review has not been paid for, I have chosen to review this website for free.
Top Forum Reviews is a new blog in which they will take a forum that either a user has submitted, or a forum of their choice and review it on the blog. The blog is in a relatively untouched niche, and has some great potential to succeeding in the future.
Getting a review
Getting a review from them is easy. Just read how to get a review, submit it, and the next day you should see your forum reviewed on their blog.
Regarding the review system, it’s pretty good for a free service. The reviews are of a decent size with plenty of information on the forum. They list pros and cons of the forum in an organized way, and at the end of the review they give the blog a letter grade. The letter system is A-F, with A being the best and F being the worst.
After reading a few reviews, I felt like I got a good understanding of the forum they reviewed. I couldn’t help but feel that some of the reviews just bounce all over the place. The writing style could use some improvement, and some of the formatting of the posts could be improved. Taken from the Xbox 360 Forum Review:
In addition, the controller status icons are a little bit large. The font is also too big. For the user’s entertainment, there is an Arcade.
I feel as if the writing kind of jumps off from one topic to another without really going into detail on the subject. While I don’t see this is happen in every post, it does have a few occurrences around the blog.
The design of the blog
The design used on the blog is a pre-made theme from WP Remix. A great free theme, I feel like it was greatly integrated into the blog. It shows all the content in a non obstructive way, and that makes the reviews easy to read. They used to use the “Smashing Theme” from Design Disease which I did like better. But they still have a pretty good sense in design.
One thing I don’t like about the post format is how the images are used. Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that an image is used in the post. However, I don’t like how all of the images are just a cut out of the forums logo.
For example, here are some of the images:
I know that the writer on the blog, Bradford Poole has some skill in Photoshop and I think he can do a much better job of making a more appealing image for his posts. I would suggest taking a screenshot of the website, make it smaller, and add some effects to it to make it look great. Even adding some formatting to them, and making the images align into the posts to either the left or right side.
Concluding Thoughts
All in all, I think what TopForumReviews offers is a great service, and any forum owner should take advantage of it. Your forum will look good posted on their blog, and the best part is that it’s a 100% free service.
Some things to check out
Going through the blog, I have found some really cool stuff you should check out.
- Christmas Contest – Win a paperback copy “How to be a Rockstar Freelancer” by Cyan + Collis Ta’eed and “Advanced Professional Web Design” by Clint Eccher.
- Article on how to effectively gain members through forum contests. It isn’t a review, but it makes some good points.
- My favorite review from TFR: EarnersTalk.com Review. This is a good example of a review by TopForum Reviews.
Thanks for reading my first review on here, and I hope you have enjoyed it!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Very nice review! The blog seems to be a very unique one like you have said. Definitely something some forum admins would love!
Thanks for the review. I agree on most points. The writer who reviewed the Xbox forum recently quit due to lack of writing requirements etc. Me and Eddy are in full control now and our writing style improves in every review. I will take the image idea in consideration, but some of the reviews I write are in school and I don’t have Photoshop there. As far as the design, we ordered 2 are there on the way and well open up a poll and see which one wins. We will also have a custom logo made along with some other small modifications. Right now were focused more on content. But all in all thanks for your review and I do agree with your points.
Glad you’re taking some of the points into consideration! Looking forward to seeing the changes to the blog.
It’s a cool site, I’ve submit my forum for a review. Don’t except it to be too great, comparing it to all of the big sites being reviewed, but it should still help me a lot
They are very serious and they do spend times to write a review of your forum there.
it’s a cool site, I think I reviewed this site 2 days ago at Digitalpoint forum.