Site Description

As web applications and social networks continue to grow and become mainstream, more and more employers are using them and Google to scan candidates. It’s easy to have questionable content posted either on one of your accounts or one belonging to your friends. Often that questionable content is enough to remove you from consideration for a job.

Luckily, the fellas over at Brand-Yourself.com have come up with a service to combat that problem. Their website takes an aggressive approach towards improving your online presence by helping you create content that reflects a better side than that Facebook photo of you doing a twelve foot beer bong in college. How exactly that’s done is pretty impressive. Equally impressive is how well they explain their service. They have a video that shows the process in detail and it’s so good I decided to save myself some time and post it below.

About Brand-Yourself.com

The Brand-Yourself team, led by Pete Kistler, is compiled of Syracuse University students and recent graduates. They joined together with the intention of designing “tools to establish, track, manage and improve our web presence.” The result is a web service that is effective and simple to use. They have already garnered numerous awards and acknowledgements including a nomination as one of five finalists for Entrepreneur Magazines 2009 College Entrepreneur of the Year.

What I Liked

This website will only continue to gain momentum as it becomes evident that your internet footprint can be a critical factor in whether or not you get a job. I like that Pete and company have found an untapped need and are well on their way toward servicing it. When the rest of the world catches up they’ll have a great jump on the competition.

The part that I’m most impressed with is the ease of use. Not everyone has the technical skills necessary to start a webpage on their own. With Brand-Yourself you don’t need to do so. Anyone with the basic skills to write an email or create a Word document can excel using the tools offered at Brand-Yourself. The interface is a clone of WordPress without the need for servers and hosting plans. The result is a well-crafted webpage that reflects the user in a professional light.

A number of high quality tools are available for your use once you sign up for an account. The Web Presence Breakdown organizes your online appearance by finding your social networking accounts and linking them together. This allows you to easily monitor how they look to a potential employer from one simple location. The Breadcrumb Tracker collects all the digital snippets that are associated with you online. If someone’s left a comment about you somewhere, the Breadcrumb Tracker will find it and you can monitor how it affects your professional appearance.

The site is continuing to grow as new tools are developed. The Recommendation Engine is a yet to be released tool that uses your skills and expertise to determine the next step toward developing a noteworthy web presence. Brand-Yourself likens it to your own personal career coach.

Another tool that is coming soon is the Hireability Monitor. This tool notifies you immediately in the event of a change in web presence. By doing so you’re able to make the necessary adjustments to be sure you’re image is not damaged too badly.

Because you can only do so much to control how others portray you online, the best way to combat negative content is to overwhelm it with positive stuff. By creating a website at your personal domain you’re able to direct people to it, showing them the side of you you want them to see. When you give them a place to go to find good information it limits the likelihood they’ll look around long enough to find the bad stuff.

What I Didn’t Like

There’s not too much to dislike from a concept perspective. The idea is right on track with addressing the most common internet problem currently experienced by young people – a damaged image due to negative web content. Using Brand-Yourself will definitely help you get that image better under control.

There is a small cost associated with this service (3 months/$34.95 $24.95), which I think is both fair and affordable. The hangup for me comes with my being conditioned to receiving many online services for free. I don’t think they’re wrong for charging for a service that most cannot replicate on their own, however I can see the costs to be a small barrier to entry for some people. The alternative option is them putting adds on your personal website, which undoubtedly will take away from your site’s professionalism.

My suggestion, in case they’re listening (and care what I think), is to have both a free and paid version. Currently, you can register for a trial account, which of course they hope will lead you to purchasing a paid account. The free plan I propose is the same as the current trial plan, only with sponsored ads on the personal webpages and limited use of tools. I wouldn’t change the paid version. Eventually many users would see the value and seriously consider an upgrade. Even those that didn’t would still bring in ad revenue. The end result would be a larger user base and mailing list to solicit future sales.

Of course that’s my outsider’s opinion. I’m sure they wouldn’t be getting the attention they have from Entrepreneur Magazine if they hadn’t done their research and carefully thought things out. Despite my ramble on their pricing strategy, I still think they’re onto something and can find no real fault with what they’re doing.

The Final Word

For both the Brand-Yourself.com crew and young professionals concerned about their image, this website is a winner. If you’re someone who is concerned what potential employers might think if they Googled your name, this is definitely a site you need to look into.

Brand-Yourself.com

Site Description

I wasted a lot of time in college. In fact, I probably wasted the equivalent of a full-time job just hanging out. That’s 40 plus hours of watching TV and playing drinking games every week. Not something I’m proud of. But definitely something that happens to many students. Thankfully, there’s a site out there that aims to help you become more productive in your down time.

College-Startup.com is a blog about how anyone can run a successful business from their dorm room. Regular posts discuss topics that are motivational, helpful, and original. The site is laid out like a typical blog, with content along the left side and a navigational sidebar along the right. There is very little flash, which highlights the content. This is good, since the content is usually very, very good.

College-Startup is not your typical entrepreneurial blog. Instead much of the information is directed at how a college student can or should handle situations that come up when starting and running a business. For many reasons this is different than someone running their business full-time. Availability of resources, time management, start-up capital and more is extremely different under the circumstances faced by someone in college. This blog stays focused to that niche, while also addressing situations all entrepreneurs are familiar with.

About College-Startup.com

College-Startup was started by a student from Ohio State named Ben Bleikamp. It doesn’t say what year he began the site, but the archives go all the way back to November 2005, so we’ll go with that. Originally Ben began College-Startup as a way to help and encourage college students to confidently start businesses while still in school. That goal has been more than met. In fact, the reigns have since been handed over to a couple individuals who’ve made it their goal to continue reaching college students and also to help all who would like to be entrepreneurs but need a small nudge to get started.

What I Liked

Over the past couple years I’ve been stopping in periodically to read College-Startup.com and have always left more knowledgeable than when I arrived. If you’ve never visited this site before you’ll find hours worth of archived content, most of which is still very relevant.

If you come back to the site after lengthy absences like I do, you’ll quickly realize how reader-friendly their diverse categories are. You can find the topics that interest you quickly and easily. Most blogs are like this by design, but College-Startup has drilled down the categories into very specific niches.

From a design standpoint, the color scheme is easy on the eyes, making the articles easy to read. There is a distinct separation between the content section and the sidebars, which have red backgrounds and white font.

I really like that College-Startup doesn’t try to be anything that it’s not. It’s a blog that puts out excellent content related to entrepreneurial ventures and that’s where 100% of the focus goes.

What I Didn’t Like

I’ve praised College-Startup for its simplicity and my thoughts on that haven’t changed. Accessibility to archived content is good, but I’d like to see a page that lists post titles for each month. Currently, the archives list about five posts per page, with an excerpt from each.

This isn’t bad, only a bit clunky. If there was a month with 30 posts you’d have to click through five or six pages to see them all. Again, not the most devastating issue, but a site that has such solid archived content should make it as easy as possible for readers to wade through it.

The Final Word

I rarely leave College-Startup.com without some sort of inspiration. If you’re an entrepreneur of any age or a college student looking for some flexible ways to earn some cash, this site is an awesome reference point. The advice extends to both online and offline business and is generic enough to fit into any industry, making College-Startup.com a priceless resource for budding business people.

www.College-Startup.com

Site Description

There will always be those moments when you realize something and can’t help but think “I wish I knew that years ago”. For me HackCollege.com is the perfect example. On this website you’ll learn tricks and shortcuts for making everything about college life easier. There is no topic overlooked and nothing is off limits.

Topics range from help planning and executing the perfect party to how to construct a loft bed to maximize space. Content is presented in traditional blog form (i.e. the written word) as well as through entertaining videos.

The site layout is very basic with content on the left and the navigation in the right sidebar. Nothing more is really necessary for the site to get its information across so the contributors wisely keep things simple. Because of this, it’s rather easy to find your way through all the archived content allowing the reader to read more and search less.

About HackCollege.com

HackCollege.com was founded in 2006 by Loyola Marymount University student Kelly Sutton. The about page describes his reason for doing so as an “unprecedented curmudgeonliness” (It’s OK, I had to look it up, too.)

Gradually, over the last few years, HackCollege has grown by adding new contributors and content. Most recently, the addition of HackCollege.co.uk has brought helpful college tips across the pond to our friends in England. Plenty of the content on both sites is useful interchangeably, so really the .uk version is just some more bonus HackCollege goodies.

What I Liked

The thing I like the most about HackCollege.com is the content never really extends into the “need to know” phase of college life. In fact, you’ll get along just fine if you never read a single thing the site puts out there. It didn’t quite exist when I was in school, so I’m the perfect example. I made it through OK. However, the great part is the things you’ll learn on the site just makes college better.

For instance, it’s not essential that you know how to build the perfect $100 bar, but man, life is so much better when you do. It’s the simple things in life that matter.

Another part of what they’re doing over at HackCollege that I really enjoy is providing a little variety while still sticking closely to their niche. An example is a recent post about how to handle a ticket. Now that information can pretty much apply to anyone, but when they put the old college spin on it, it suddenly applies to their blog and others find it useful as well.

I think the most important thing about HackCollege, that really helps with their success is the likeability of their contributors. Through the ‘About’ page you can find information and links to social networking profiles for each of them. After some quick browsing there and the reading through the blog, I’ve really come to appreciate their style and outlook. They’re serious (about their business) without taking themselves too seriously (they goof off quite a bit).

I don’t know about you, but I like learning through entertainment. If I can be entertained, and still be smarter when it’s over, then I’m happy. The guys and gals over at HackCollege have that formula perfected.

What I Didn’t Like

I’m being picky here, because in my opinion there really isn’t much wrong with this site. There are a couple of things I’d do to improve it, though. For starters, from a design standpoint, I’d like to see some sort of color contrast or another form of separation between the content and the sidebar. It’s not mandatory, but I think it would make things look a little cleaner.

Also, with site navigation in mind, I would prefer to have easier access to the different HackCollege pages. They are currently listed about halfway down the sidebar. There’s a lot of good stuff on them and I think they’d get more attention if they were available in the header or higher up the sidebar. Again, not really the worst thing in the world, but I needed to pick something, that’s what I’d change.

The Final Word

It’s not often when a website is so good at being entertaining and useful. I try it here, and realize it’s not always easy. The crew at HackCollege is very, very good at it. Every college student should have its resources as part of their college survival arsenal. I wish I did.

www.HackCollege.com

Site Description

For kids and parents alike, leaving home for college is an adjustment. There is plenty of growing up and maturing to do on the child’s part and some letting go has to happen on the parents’ end. It can be difficult. But thanks to DormMom.com parents can rest easy knowing that the essentials are taken care of for their child.

Dorm Mom is a website that provides services like grocery delivery, laundry, apartment cleaning and shipping and storage to busy college students. With a professional design and clear, concise copy, it’s simple to obtain all the information you need to decide which services you’re interested in. And just in case you still have questions a thorough FAQ is available.

Users can purchase services by registering an account on the site and picking the appropriate package. If you happen to have an issue a customer service phone number is available.

About Dorm Mom

Dorm Mom was founded in June 2006 in Buffalo, NY by a former Resident Assistant (RA) who had first-hand experience with some of the obstacles busy college students are face with. It has since grown into a business that services over 1,800 colleges nationwide.

What I Liked

I think the concept of offering such services to college students is brilliant for a couple reasons. First, many kids would rather not do these things and their parents know this. They also understand they need to be done and rather than be hundreds of miles away and worry, they’re willing to hire someone. Second, with the cost of college on the rise, the prices Dorm Mom charges is really a drop in the hat.

Which brings me to my next point. Weekly laundry costs around $300 per semester at the time of this writing, depending on which plan you’re on. What’s an extra couple grand tacked on to your already overwhelming student loans anyway? I look at it this way: Use the time you save to study, get better grades, land a high paying job, and pay the service off in no time.

The prices are easy to find on Dorm Mom, which you might think is no big deal. But for anyone that’s ever tried to budget for something like web design or another similar service, you know that not having a cost in front of you can be pretty frustrating. Having them right there saves you time looking around and helps you quickly get past the decision of whether something they offer is at a price you can afford.

As I mentioned above, things are very easy to find on this site, and each service has its own description and FAQ, so it’s unlikely you’ll have any questions after reading through the content.

Some other cool aspects that may go unnoticed are the little things like free shipping on grocery orders over $25 (if they qualify for Amazon Super Saver), and the ability to select your preferred detergent for the laundry services. Also, the “cancel anytime” feature is huge for those that buy the semester-long plan and have a change of heart midway through. The remaining portion of the fee is even refunded in the event of a cancellation. How’s that for customer service?

What I Didn’t Like

Despite the ease of site navigation and the excellent availability of key information, Dorm Mom still kind of leaves something to be desired from a design standpoint. For instance, the logo is a bit cheesy, like some kind of cleaning product on an infomercial. I’d also like to see them clean up the links on the ‘About Us’ page. Many of them are broken or don’t have existing pages with that information. Either way it’s confusing and frustrating when they don’t work.

From a moral standpoint, I have some reservations about the nature of the business. I think it’s an excellent concept and I’m not surprised people are willing to pay for the services. But as someone hoping that humans continue to evolve and grow, I have a certain reservation about the idea of letting college students off the hook. This is the time in their life when they are supposed to learn responsibility and hiring Dorm Mom is the exact opposite. Rather than figuring out real-life things like time management and taking care of themselves, Dorm Mom’s services bail them out.

With that said, I still think Dorm Mom is an excellent service, with a brilliant concept, which in simple terms is to take advantage of the desire parents have to forever take care of their babies. Even if the baby is twenty years old.

The Final Word

I really like the idea of filling a need like helping college students. I think it’s easy for a person to get overwhelmed when so much of their life changes at once, so I’m not opposed to Dorm Mom. If you can enjoy Dorm Mom in moderation, without taking it for granted, then by all means, sign up today. However, I think that you haven’t really experienced college until you’ve studied in a laundry mat until 3:30 in the morning for a test the next day. That’s where the true learning and growing comes from, not physics lab.

www.DormMom.com

SITE DESCRIPTION

Gyminee.com is a web based health and fitness tracking tool. Users create a profile in which they list their personal goals in a variety of health-related areas. These goals, in categories such as weight, waist size, and body fat, are then reviewable within their profile alongside charts and graphs of their progress.

Daily workout and nutrition logs are provide as well, allowing users to keep detailed records of what they’ve eaten and what they’ve done to burn it off. Workout logs can be as specific as you’d like, right down to the number of reps per set. Each workout can be saved and used again as required by your workout plan.

For those that are serious about staying fit and healthy, the nutrition logs are extremely helpful. For those that aren’t, they can be depressing. Calories, fat grams, carbohydrates and more are tracked based on what you submit in your nutrition logs. They are detailed so users can see where they stand in regard to their daily allowances. If you go over, you’re greeted with a bright yellow exclamation point, and you’re shamed for eternity.

ABOUT GYMINEE.COM

Founded in 2007, Gyminee is a newer site aiming to help change peoples lives by filling a need in the health and fitness market. Gyminee is based out of Huntsville, Alabama but their impact stretches much, much further as the total calories burned collectively by all Gyminee users is over 19 million at the time of this writing.

WHAT WE LIKED

The first site of its kind that we’ve come across, Gyminee is a wonderful concept combined with an extremely user-friendly interface that gives its members the organization and motivation necessary to stay (or get) fit.

Combining physical exercise and workout plans with nutritional logs all in the same place is a feature that may seem like not such a big deal, but it makes reaching your physical fitness goals so much easier. With Gyminee you can bounce the calories you’ve consumed off the estimated calories you’ve burned to see how well you’re sticking with your plan.

One of our favorite features was the exercise library, which lists and describes common movements. Once you’ve signed up, you can create customized workouts and see video examples of how to perform each lift. The demonstrators have perfect form and the videos are of good quality.

Even if you don’t exercise regularly, or don’t want to keep such detailed records of your workouts, Gyminee provides another awesome tool. By registering you are able to create a personalized food journal that tracks all that you eat for a period of time. The site’s food database contains over 30,000 items so there’s a pretty good chance you’ll find the exact product you ate, right down to the brand name.

Perhaps the part we like best is that users are able to do everything that we’ve talked about above absolutely free. Of course there is an upgraded version that you can pay for, which enhances the available features and offers a few new ones. The total cost for Gyminee Pro is $15 for a three month membership. Actually a very reasonable price.

WHAT WE DIDN’T LIKE

The thought of entering all this information on a daily basis is a little bit overwhelming. Consider the irony. Gyminee is a website designed at motivating and monitoring you on your fitness goals. Essentially we are admitting that we are in need of guidance and a little push when taking care of our bodies. This is because we as humans are inherently (gasp)…lazy. That’s fine. We’re OK with that.

With that being said, Gyminee comes out and offers a service (a free one, mind you) that asks you to actually do MORE work. Granted for those that are looking to log all their nutritional and exercise information, or who do so already, Gyminee is a great, wonderful, helpful application. But for someone just starting out on the healthy path, Gyminee could be so tedious and so time consuming that the newbies quit exercising all together, just so they don’t have to enter that bag of Cheetos they scarfed down at 10pm the night before.

THE FINAL WORD

Despite our skepticism, we do find value in Gyminee and think that for the more disciplined and dedicated people this site can provide a useful service. Don’t go PRO, but do give the free version a shot for a month or two. You may find it helpful.

www.Gyminee.com

SITE DESCRIPTION

For anyone who attends college or lives near one, Campusfood.com is your saving grace. Listing hundreds of colleges nationwide, Campusfood provides a directory of restaurants and bars in each school’s surrounding area.

Not only does the site give each restaurant’s address and phone number, but it offers menus, maps, whether it’s currently opened or closed, payment options, hours of operation, and pretty much anything else you’ll want to know about the restaurant you’re doing business with.

Most importantly, Campusfood has eliminated the food-ordering middleman, adding ease to the process. When you’ve decided where you’d like to order from, click on the restaurant name and then select ‘View Menu’. From the menu page simply click on the price of whatever menu item you’d like to order and, if necessary, Campusfood will prompt you to choose how you’d like your food cooked. Adding or subtracting extras on your sandwich or pizza is a breeze.

Once you’ve got your order selected, proceed to checkout, choose whether you’d like it for pickup or delivery, and that’s that. You can choose to pay either online or when your food is picked up or delivered.

The navigation menu at the top of the page is extremely comprehensive. Visitors are able to search restaurants based on whether or not they deliver, have a waitstaff, and if they’re offering any specials or coupons. There is also a listing of local bars/nightclubs available, which includes all the same information the restaurants present, including any drink specials they may offer.

Sub-menus include details of the style of restaurant or bar and different amenities available. For instance if you would like to know the Friday night specials for a local sports bar, Campusfood can provide that for you with only three clicks of the mouse. 

Because Campusfood is free for the user, and they have to eat too (no pun intended), they take a 6% commission from the subtotal of each order. According to Julie Shimshack, director of marketing for Campusfood.com, using Campusfood.com has increased order sizes by 10-15% because “the customer is not put on hold, and aren’t rushed off the phone because there are other calls coming and can therefore spend time browsing the menu and adding to their order.”

Sounds like a win-win-win to us.

ABOUT CAMPUSFOOD.COM

Campusfood was started in 1997, by University of Penn student Michael Saunders, in an effort to ease the take-out process. Eleven years later the site brings the menus of more than 1,500 restaurants right to your computer screen. More than 300 campuses are catalogued and more are added all the time.

WHAT WE LIKED

 The entire concept is a winner. Students these days don’t want to be bothered with making a phone call (though every single one of them has a cell phone). And who can blame them. If they can log onto Campusfood and have their order placed within minutes, without having to find a phone, phone number and menu, why wouldn’t they?

Orders are processed quickly and with little difficulty. The menus are fully interactive and categorized. It’s as though you’re standing in the restaurant reading their menu board, except it’s easier to place an order. And you no longer have to speak to the crabby phone person who could rattle off 150 places they’d rather be on a Friday night than sitting there listening to what you feel like eating.

Even if you’d rather call and place your order by phone, you can still reference menus for all the restaurants Campusfood lists. This way you can have your order ready and know the prices before you call.

The site navigation and ease of use is top-notch, and the design is functional. Campusfood does a great job of knowing itself and sticking to what it does best, without trying to be too much.

For a cool look at how expansive Campusfood is, check out the chains page. This list doesn’t include the mom and pop shops, just the franchises.

WHAT WE DIDN’T LIKE

 Campusfood only lists restaurants that are in close proximity to the colleges. For someone who lives in the suburbs, or away from any schools, finding your local pizza joint listed may not be possible. We understand that the site is called CAMPUSfood for a reason, but expanding on the listing radius would probably increase their revenue.

Also, we’d like to see Campusfood increase the number of colleges they list, which, of course, means they have to actively recruit restaurants in those areas. For us, the only real issue with the site is although they already do represent a large number of schools and restaurants, there is still much left uncovered.

THE FINAL WORD

At the very least an account in Campusfood should be in your food-ordering repertoire. If the eatery you’re looking for isn’t there, then you can resort to the stone age and reach for the yellow pages.

www.Campusfood.com

SITE DESCRIPTION

Ebates.com is an online rebate store that has partnerships with more than 800 popular websites. Not only do they offer rebates in the form of cash back, they also provide coupons, deals and discounts. Using the site is very easy. When you’re ready to shop online, simply stop at Ebates.com first, sign up or login, find the store you’d like to shop at, and shop away! Ebates takes care of the rest. The deals vary by store, but most offer cash back ranging from 1% to as high as 19%.

The site is extremely user-friendly and navigation is a breeze. If you know what store you’re looking for, there’s a dropdown menu in the upper right hand corner that will link you directly. Or, if you’re simply window shopping, you can browse the stores by category. Links to popular deals of the week, the top coupons and the top stores round out the homepage.

Ebates is able to afford to give shoppers refunds because the sites they’ve partnered with pay Ebates as an affiliate. Ebates then pays the shopper a rebate of less than what they’re getting from the store and everyone’s happy. For instance, let’s say you’re looking for a pair of jeans from Gap. Ebates pays you 3% cash back on purchases from Gap. Gap on the other hand is probably paying Ebates something like 6% for your business. (Gap offers a direct affiliate plan for 4%, but it’s presumable that Ebates has struck a better deal).

ABOUT EBATES.COM

The footer on the website says Ebates has been in business since 1998. You can find more information on how the site works on their about page. Since they don’t sell the products themselves, they can and do promise that there are no price markups. They also guarantee no sign-up fees and no forms to fill out (0nce you’ve registered, of course). Ever. What that means in a nutshell is there’s no catch, contracts or committments to using Ebates, yet you can still save a healthy chunk of cash through their site. Not a bad deal.

WHAT WE LIKED

The concept in general is terrific. Overall the site is so easy to use, and the benefits are pretty darn good. So altogether the site is a good one. There are a few individual features that the site offers that we found to be helpful as well.

The shopping guides page helps narrow down your search by giving ideas and suggestions based on what you’re shopping for. For example, if you’re looking for computers, but don’t know where to start, you can click on their computers and electronics shopping guide and see a list of all the relevant stores and their rebates. The same can be done for clearance items, jewelry, and other products.

The referal program is another bonus feature of Ebates. If you refer a friend to sign up, your account receives a $5 bonus and theirs does also. The bonus takes effect immediately after their first qualifying purchase through Ebates. Just another easy way to make a few bucks using their service.

There are many great things about this site, but one of the more overlooked but important parts is the ease of navigation and the cleanliness of the design. Links are placed logically, the graphics are sharp, the site is colorful, but not too flashy and each page is functional. It is a very well thought out website, and is extremely user-friendly.

WHAT WE DIDN’T LIKE

The only gripe we have with Ebates is the fact that anyone with a website of their own can sign up for affiliate memberships at most if not all of these sites and earn more cash back or a larger discount clicking through their site than what Ebates pays out. For most users this entails more work than desired or than they are capable of, but many web savvy users might find it more beneficial to open their own affiliate accounts at sites they are frequent shoppers of. The difference may only be a percentage point or two, but over time it can add up.

THE FINAL WORD

Abosolutely 100% worth checking out and signing up. It costs nothing, but may save thousands.

Ebates.com

SITE DESCRIPTION

AskMen.com is, as it’s tag line states, a free men’s online magazine. Amazingly, the site has attempted to, and has been pretty much successful at placing all the information found in a full, print magazine right on its homepage. Of course you’ll have to link through to get to many of the articles, but for the most part the magazine’s table of contents is available at all times in the left sidebar.

The site is very colorful and filled with photos making it appealing to the eye. And, being a site for men, knows exactly how to get their attention. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a photo that’s not of either a beautiful woman, a car, or a famous athlete or musician. This, of course, keeps the men coming back, and AskMen does a great job of refreshing the content on a daily basis.

The sidebar is split into about 13 different channels, ranging from dating and love to health and sports, to power and money. Each channel has its own homepage and on the homepage is an archive of helpful articles in that topic. The archive goes back months, maybe years, so there is no shortage of information available.

In addition to the regularly added articles are daily features such as gossip of the day, joke of the day, and gadget of the day.

ABOUT ASKMEN.COM

On their about page AskMen provides a history of milestones the site has reached. According to their summary, the original concept for the site was created in April of 1999. Less than ten years later, the site’s header boasts 5 million readers a month (though at the time of this review, their actual statistics were more than 6 million per month). They’ve been able to build such a faithful following by sticking closely to their mission to “offer men candid advice, that is useful practical and entertaining”.

Some of the statistics available (at the time of review) on the about page are amazing:

• Visitors average 4.5 minutes on the site per visit
• 13 million readers have bookmarked AskMen.com
• AskMen.com has 34.58% of the market share for those interested in content related to men’s lifestyle, ahead of Maxim Online (17.09%), FHM (6.85%), and Men’s Health (5.62%).

WHAT WE LIKED

AskMen offers fresh content, interesting thoughts and ideas, accurate facts and research, and plenty of high quality pictures of beautiful women. From the onset this site seems to be a man’s dream. And after further review, we weren’t disappointed.

The topics are right on for what men like, and the articles are interesting enough to peel a guy’s eyes away from the famous Top 99 Women lists long enough for him to actually read them and get something out of it.

A favorite feature of ours is the best of the week listing on the right sidebar of the home page. This widget has the week’s most popular articles listed for easy access. More links to recent articles can also be found at the bottom of the home page, under the heading sections and recent articles.

Most importantly, AskMen has daily updates, which is typically uncommon for magazine sites. They benefit with continued traffic, and users benefit with enormous amounts of quality content.

WHAT WE DIDN’T LIKE

In order for AskMen to include as much as they have on the homepage, they had to sacrifice somewhere.  Unfortunately, they chose to make the content column relatively small. When you’re reading an article, the content is bordered by ads that are nearly as wide as the white space where the article is. It’s not way too small, and actually reading is sometimes easier if the column is smaller, but the ads along the right hand side can be a bit distracting.

This problem is nicely offset by the dark background on the navigation bar (left side) and the dark ads (right side), making the content column stand out a little bit more with its white background.

THE FINAL WORD

If you like the popular newsstand men’s magazines and/or you’re a male, you should definitely make visiting AskMen a habit.

www.AskMen.com

SITE DESCRIPTION

Dogster.com is both a very weird site and a very clever site. With all the recent interest in social networking sites for humans, why is it so bizarre to think that there wouldn’t be one for dogs, too? Well, for one thing, dogs don’t type. For that matter, when was the last time you heard a dog speak? In fact, until computers become scratch and sniff and keyboards start smelling like collie urine, we doubt you’ll find a dog who cares all that much about Dogster.

Luckily for Dogster, it’s the dog owners, or humans, who have taken an interest in improving their dog’s social lives. What we’ve got as a result is the Facebook of the K-9 Kingdom. Users are able to upload photos, list their likes and dislikes, and express their pet’s personalities. Once your profile is complete, you’re then able to search other dog’s profiles. When you find a dog you like, you have the ability to save the dog to your corral, making it easy to find him or her again later.

While we were entertained surfing Dogster, the most glaring fact we discovered is that people are insanely obsessive when it comes to their dogs. They spend outrageous amounts of money on doggie hotels, dog carrying cases, and clothes. Should we really be that surprised that they’re willing to spend the time to make their pup some doggie buddies on the Internet?

ABOUT DOGSTER.COM

Dogster.com launched in January 2004 and has blossomed into an extremely popular and successful website. They claim their goal is to “allow for the purest online reflection of people’s love and enjoyment of their dogs and cats”, and it’s obvious that many people are eager to take advantage of the opportunity. At the time of this writing there are more than 360,000 dogs registered on Dogster.

WHAT WE LIKED

The entire concept of Dogster is really pretty cool. Who doesn’t want their dogs to be popular? The whole idea of building a profile for your dog is one thing, but where Dogster really impresses is with all their additional features. There are so many, from big to small, that we’d be spending so much time listing them, we’d have no time to use ‘em. Here are some of our favorites, though:

Ask a Question: This feature allows dog owners to write in their most pressing questions and have them answered by the Dogster community. Questions are categorized into one of more than a dozen different topics ranging from Laws & Legislation to Behavior & Training. From there the categories are divided even further into subcategories. At the time of this review, our quick math tells us there are more than 2,500 questions already posted on Dogster.

Adoption Center: It’s heartbreaking to think about all the mistreated/homeless/unloved dogs there are. Dogster has taken a giant step towards limiting that with their Dog Adoption Center. More than 2,000 dogs are looking for homes on Dogster, and you can search their listings based on the dog’s breed, size, age, gender and compatibility levels. Once you’re on a dog’s profile you can see even more about them, including whether they’re neutered or not, and how long they’ve been listed on Dogster as adoptable. We think this feature is the best thing to happen to homeless dogs since Bob Barker started his spayed and neutered campaign at the end of each Price is Right episode.

Breed Info: Listing what seems to be all the dog breeds known to man, Dogster offers a description of each breed as well as a doggie dynamics chart that is based on the tendencies of all the dogs listed on Dogster that belong to that breed. The dynamics that are measured are energy, intelligence, friendliness, playfulness, and disposition. Also on the page for each breed is a link to Wikipedia, where you can find even more info on that type of dog.

 Additional Features: Forums, Doglover’s Blog, Store, Diary Central

WHAT WE DIDN’T LIKE

Why should this service be offered only to Dogs and Cats? We’re claiming discrimination until we get a Hamster.com and Lobster.com. Other than that, we approve.

THE FINAL WORD

Don’t, absolutely DO NOT, go to Dogster unless you have a few hours to spare. And unless you’ve got nothing planned for the next week, don’t even think about opening an account for your dog. It’s that much fun.

 www.dogster.com

More helpful pet sites:
Increase your dog’s life span!
Top notch dog training
Homemade dog food recipes

SITE DESCRIPTION

Snopes.com is a website that takes rumors and urban legends, researches their validity, and reports whether there is any truth to them.  The list of rumors consists of those that are current and some that are passed on through the generations, and explains their origins, their purpose and details how much of them are fact, if anything.

Snopes has urban legends broken down into 40+ categories, with each having a number of additional subcategories. Though some are topical, others are very specific. For instance, there are the normal categories such as movies, music, and sports, but then there are also categories for disney, coke and titanic. Many of the popular email circulations are also listed, many of which are said to be false, or at least fabricated.

On the info page, there is a Snopes FAQ which addresses many of the accuracy concerns you may have. From what we gathered, the site’s owners Barbara and David Mikkelson take caution in posting inaccurate information. Their content appears to be researched and then reresearched.

ABOUT SNOPES.COM

As mentioned above, Snopes is owned and operated by Barbara and David Mikkelson, and their copyright on the site’s footer suggests that Snopes has been around since 1995. In that time the Mikkelson’s have compiled and researched hundreds, if not thousands, of urban legends. Although they don’t claim to be the ultimate authority on any of the listed subjects, they do provide a bibliography of where they did their research at the end of each listing. Anyone wishing to dispute their claims is encouraged to check the sources for themselves.

WHAT WE LIKED

What’s not to like? Surfing around on Snopes.com for just a little while will make any visitor feel foolish for believing that crazy rumor they heard in high school, especially when they’ve continued to believe it years later. That’s what makes the site so much fun.

The layout on Snopes is very clean and concise. There is an adequate amount of white space, and though ads are present, they stay out of the way of the content. The navigation makes sense, and the category icons add a nice touch to what would be an otherwise plain, text-filled site.

As far as the content goes, some of our favorite legends are the salted treat, eight glasses, and tastes like chicken. There are dozens others that will surprise/amuse you as well.

One of the most interesting features of Snopes is the 25 Hottest Urban Legends, where users have easy access to the day’s most popular myths. Though they are listed daily, the top 25 doesn’t change much from day to day. Chances are you’ve received an email about at least a few of the daily 25.

In addition to offering an RSS feed, Snopes allows visitors to quickly access the newest listings and updates directly from the website. This way frequent visitors can easily see the most recent information.

Perhaps the best compliment we can pay to Snopes is their ability to stay within themselves. They serve a very specific and particular niche, but they do it very well and without confusion. They have stuck to who they are and why they’re there for a very long time, and it appears to be paying off.

WHAT WE DIDN’T LIKE

We have no complaints. Seriously. Snopes.com is a very interesting, very well-researched website. The layout is fine, the content is excellent, and the guarantee of new myths and rumors originating means Snopes will be ok for a very long time.

THE FINAL WORD

This site is an excellent way to pass the time. Fun, interesting and entertaining, Snopes is definitely worth a look.

www.snopes.com

SITE DESCRIPTION

The Internet Movie Database, or IMDB, is one of the premiere websites for news and information on movies and television. Unlike some of it’s competitors, IMDB doesn’t fall into the celebrity gossip trap, though it does offer links to entertainment news websites. Instead, IMDB focuses primarily on news and facts specifically related to movies and TV shows.

The depth of information for each movie is stunning, as each film, both old and new, has a plot synopsis, trailer links, and numerous photos. In addition, the cast list, award summary and release information provides everything you’d want to know about all your favorite movies.

For advanced or industry users, there is a service called IMDBPro that offers inside information on behind the cameras industry news and available work. The membership costs $12.95 per month and offers members contact listings for over 65,000 people, company directories for more than 10,000 industry businesses, production charts for upcoming and in-process projects on film and TV, and many other benefits. SiteRoast isn’t a member of IMDBPro, but at only $12.95 per month it may not be a bad thing for those who work or are hoping to work in the entertainment industry. It should also be noted that IMDBPro offers a free 14-day trial so you can have a look commitment-free.

ABOUT IMDB.COM

The IMDB refers to itself as a “HUGE collection of movie information”. Started as a hobby project, IMDB became so good, and so big, that it couldn’t refuse its own status as a superb film and TV resource. Once it became obvious that IMDB was of use to others, the founding group of movie lovers decided to continue to improve and enhance the site, leading to a wealth of content as well as revenue.

The IMDB staff is spread throughout the U.S. and Europe, many of whom add information from their homes, working around their full-time jobs. The community atmosphere helps users feel welcome when searching such a vast site.

WHAT WE LIKED

The best way to surf, we found, is to click on the browse button just below the navigation bar at the top of the home page. From this page, you can really begin to understand the huge amount of content available on IMDB.com. The facts and trivia page is fun for learning some interesting info on your favorite movies, and the goofs search page provides a collection of continuity and factual errors made when filming.

Additionally, though probably quite obvious by now, we are most impressed with the amount of information presented on popular movies, cult movies, independent films, discontinued television shows, and many other categories that your favorite movie or TV show might fall into. Anything and everything that you’d like to know can probably be found on this site. So, for the most part, if you go to IMDB looking for information on movies and TV, chances are you won’t have to go anywhere else.

WHAT WE DIDN’T LIKE

We’ll let you decide whether this is a negative thing or not, but the biggest issue we had with IMDB is it’s got so much information on it, that it’s tough to sort through it all. The challenge of knowing what information is available, and where to find it can be a bit overwhelming, but if that’s the worst thing we could say about IMDB then it’s probably not so bad.

THE FINAL WORD

Although best used to settle bets, IMDB can also be fun just looking around. Once you visit the first time it will probably become your default movie trivia resource.

www.imdb.com

SITE DESCRIPTION

AsktheBuilder.com offers hundreds of informational articles, videos, and e-books all created to help homeowners take on their own home improvement projects. On the site, nationally syndicated newspaper columnist Tim Carter breaks down numerous common problems that occur around the house, presenting them in a do-it-yourself fashion. Some of the topics discussed involve brick work, painting, and countertops. Carter also takes reader questions and answers them regularly.

Not only does Carter’s site provide lessons on how to make home repairs, the AsktheBuilder General Store sells a variety of supplies, guides and tools to use when performing them. The store makes it easy for viewers to find specific products that are mentioned in the articles and videos, a helpful feature.

WHAT WE LIKED

The content provided on AsktheBuilder.com is so dense and thorough there really is very little to dislike about the site. Although we didn’t perform any of the jobs described on the site, we did find the topics to be widespread, and from reading/watching the content it appeared to be solid advice for completing the desired job.

According to the website, Carter has been writing these articles since 1993, so one would think were he a fraud he most certainly would have been discovered by now. What we think instead is that he is a home improvement genius. Judging from Tim’s advertising rates, it’s safe to assume many others agree.

WHAT WE DIDN’T LIKE

Though the content is excellent, the layout of the site seemed to be a little bit clustered. The navigation is good, but the content layout isn’t the site’s best feature. Fortunately, the content is so good, the layout becomes only a minor detail.

The only other gripe we could come up with is, at the time of this review being written, there are no terms listed on the glossary page, which we thought would be an extremely helpful resource.

THE FINAL WORD

An excellent resource site, but probably not worth going to until you had a specific problem you needed fixed. Otherwise, you may find it to be an information overload.

www.AsktheBuilder.com

 
More Home Improvement Websites:
The easy way to lay tile
Kitchen remodeling secrets
Do it yourself handyman guide

SITE DESCRIPTION

Boasting a content-rich site of thousands of professionally produced how-to videos, VideoJug.com is a great place to look whenever you’d like to know more about almost anything.

VideoJug is broken down into a variety of categories, and then presents a number of videos addressing questions and concerns within these categories. With topics ranging from How to Tie a Tie to How to Keep Your Children Safe on the Internet, to How to Eat Sushi, VideoJug has answers for just about all your questions.

In addition to the video, which is capable of being downloaded to your IPod, PSP, or cell phone, each listing has the process written out step by step, which can come in handy if you’re at work or need the volume turned down for another reason.

Not to be confused with web giant YouTube, VideoJug is much more educationally geared and the video quality is top-notch. Although the niches are a bit different, VideoJug appears to have what it takes to hold its own with the big boys.

VideoJug survives on advertising revenues, which has its positives and negatives. Users are otherwise provided use of the website free of charge, and even have the chance to win money if their user-submitted video is chosen for use on the site.

ABOUT VIDEOJUG.COM

Well represented worldwide, VideoJug has offices in London, Los Angeles, and Spain. Its home office is England, though they’ve developed tailored pages or editions for their different markets. Each edition offers videos tailored to that particular audience.

VideoJug strives to be “the definitive source for credible answers and wisdom for every conceivable aspect of human life.” More information regarding the business side of VideoJug can be found on their about page.

WHAT WE LIKED

Pretty much everything. It’s no secret that the web seems to be moving towards video based content at a very fast speed. With that in mind, VideoJug has set themselves up with a very strong information medium. Essentially what they’ve done is combine the best parts of About.com and YouTube.com into one website. A very smart move in our opinion.

The vast number of videos offered on the site, combined with the accuracy of the content (from our limited experience with the site) as well as the excellent production quality equals very little to criticize about VideoJug.

If there’s something specific you’d like to know more about, chances are you’ll find it, broken down with complete accuracy and sound advice.

To be clear, all this talk about how professional the site’s content is, doesn’t mean they don’t have a sense of humor as well. We found some very funny videos under some very funny topics. Want proof? Check out this video.

WHAT WE DIDN’T LIKE

There was very little to dislike about VideoJug. However, no website is ever perfect, so we found a couple things to be knit-picky about.

First, many of the videos professionally produced by VideoJug have voice overs done by people with British accents. Although there is nothing wrong with that, there are times when American listeners may have a hard time hearing or understanding parts. When you change editions, the content topics change, but not the production.

Second, they have so much content and information on the site, it can be a bit confusing. Everything is neatly organized, but the site feels a bit cramped to us. A bit more white space and spacing may make VideoJug easier on the eyes.

FINAL WORD

You definitely need to check this one out.

www.VideoJug.com