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

You’ve probably heard of the website PostSecret. It’s been around for a while now and has developed almost a cult-like following which has spawned books, events and media attention. A regular little business empire.

What’s not always immediately noticed is the business model it follows, which is right in line with social giants Facebook and Myspace. Basically it follows a simple principle that lets it grow exponentially:

Let the users create the content.

Think about this simple math for a minute. Let’s say the average person can create one page of content per day. Theoretically, working every single day one person can create 365 pages in a year. Now, using that same estimate of one page per day think about how many pages can be created if 10 people are generating content. How about 1,000? One million?

You get the point. Even though there are other contributing factors, this one principle is what’s allowed Facebook and Myspace to blow up. Facillitate more, create less. It’s brilliant, really. So brilliant, in fact, that many others are starting to follow the model. Some on the scale of the social networking kings and others narrowing their niche a la PostSecret. Those are the sites I’m focusing on today.

*Today’s collection of links are sites that have found focused niches on the humor surrounding the English language. There are loads of them, in fact (which is surprising and not at the same time), but this edition of Friday Fun Links is only going to list a few of my favorites. I encourage you to comment on some of your favorites I may have missed.

The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks

If you appreciate tongue-in-cheek type humor, you’ll love this site. The Blog of Unnecessary Quotation Marks is a collection of reader submitted photos and images where quotes were completely misused and/or unnecessary.

The commentary by Brittany, the webmaster, is terrific and the submissions seem to be neverending, which is great news for Brittany and not-so-great news for the future of mankind. There’s something about misguided attempts at intelligence that is both funny and extremely sad at the same time. I can talk about it all day, but until you actually see for your self the site can not be done justice.

On the sidebar you’ll see a list of links to other similar sites, some of which made my list, and others that are really good too, but didn’t fit my theme. They’re all worth a look.

Engrish.com

The next site is Engrish.com. This blog has “politically incorrect” written all over it, especially in its title. And even though part of me does think it’s racially insensitive, it’s so humorous it’s hard not to laugh. I don’t get the impression that it’s intended to be mean spirited, so I gave myself the okay to enjoy it.

The concept is simple: take a sign or package that is written in an Asian language and then translated to English and laugh about how the intended message gets twisted. Going a step further (and this is where it toes the PC line) a moderate amount of fun is poked at the way those with an Asian accent speak English. There are a variety of puns and wisecracks that present themselves during this process and the site does an excellent job of delivering the content.

Passive Aggressive Notes

PassiveAggressiveNotes.com showcases notes from people who have perfected the ability to yell at you without you even realizing you’re being yelled at. If you don’t think that’s a talent, you’re wrong. Covering things from moms leaving letters in their child’s apartment “nicely” telling them they live in filth and to clean it up to calling out the Hot Pocket thief, this site is absolutely hilarious…and scary.

Literally, A Web Log

I’ve subconsciously been terribly annoyed with the rising use and subsequent misuse of the word “literally” (quotes OK there Brittany?). It’s like, um, like totally the new Valley girl term and now that I’ve found this site I’m completely aware of how much I hate it. The site I’m talking about is called Literally, A Web Log.

I included it on my list even though I can’t decide whether I like it or love to punish myself. Either way, I get lost reading through some of the ridiculousness and before I know it an hour has passed…literally. I’ve got more important things that I should be doing like organizing my desktop recycling bin into folders before I empty it and other fun stuff, so I shouldn’t spend so much time agonizing over how other people’s attempts at smart end up making them look stupid, but I just can’t help myself sometimes.

That’s Punny!

I’m a sucker for puns. I appreciate the wit involved in coming up with them and think it’s proof that humans have evolved, despite some of the content on Literally, A Web Log. It gives me hope, I think. Over at That’s Punny! you’ll find a great collection of puns found on signs, storefronts and products. The titles are equally punny and enjoyable as well.

One of the most refreshing parts of this blog, and many others of this sort do the same thing, is the blogroll on the right sidebar that lists “Other Geeky Blogs We Love”. Links to a couple other pun blogs can be found in that list, too. A nice gesture by the site owners to share some link love.

Acronyms Sometimes Suck

The sister site of That’s Punny, Acronyms Sometimes Suck is a collection of unfortunate marketing situations faced by a number of non-profits and specialty organizations. The common scenario, I’m assuming, is the association comes up with a name that sounds really good and covers their main objectives, has the legal paperwork filed making them official, and brings the concept to a marketing firm for logo design. Probably sometime around then they realize that the four letter acronym formed by their official name would make Andrew Dice Clay blush.

Oops.

Rather than spend the money and effort to rebrand their club they decide to tough it out, hoping it won’t be made into a huge issue. Sometimes they may even fly under the radar of most people, but not A.S.S. (that’s an acronym, too!). They find it, and post it on their site for the enjoyment of everyone but the poor company and a bunch of old people. Good stuff.

lowercase L

One of the world’s great mysteries, yet it happens all the time. People love to capitalize all the letters in a word or sentence, but for some bizarre reason, the ‘L’ stays small. Of course the lowercase ‘L’ can easily be confused with an uppercase ‘I’, especially when all the other letters are capitalized. Despite the confusion this causes, people still continue to do it. I’m not sure why, but it fascinates me. And apparently others are intrigued as well because there is a steady flow of content to the lowercase l blog.

That’s all I have for today, but those should keep you pretty busy. There are plenty of laughs in the archives of those sites, too, so be sure to dig around a bit. Oh yeah, don’t forget to add some of your favorite links in the comments below. I know there are other great ones I missed.

I’m proud to say today’s post is the latter. Sports Blog Nation is a collection of the best tongue-in-cheek sports blogs in the world. And the best part is they’re all run by fans. Covering nearly all teams in nearly all professional leagues and the NCAA, this blog network is impressive. They boast approximately 200 blogs (and growing) and they’ve done an excellent job of scouting the best blogs out there. In fact, there’s a good chance that one of your team’s more popular blogs is part of SB Nation.

The best part of the SB Nation is the across the board attitude of all the blogs to not take sports or themselves too seriously. There is an abundance of wit and sarcasm that is rarely accepted in mainstream sports. It’s a great thing, really, because that style is exactly what’s missing in sports today. It’s a breath of fresh air to read the two cents of a no-name blogger who doesn’t need to worry about making anyone happy. Give them a blog and let them stir the sh*t. Then tune in to watch what happens. Who said there wasn’t such a thing as free entertainment.

Don’t take my word for it, though. Check out SB Nation.