I’m always up for some good blogging tips. I have admit that I was caught a little off guard when PureBlogging.com ordered a sponsored review - I haven’t ever reviewed a site that is so similar to mine. At first, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to do it.

I ultimately decided that I was ok with reviewing other sites like mine because we can all learn from looking at the positives and negatives of people’s work.

About PureBlogging

The site is the creation of David Culpepper, who by trade is a chemist from Collins, Mississippi. David must have a pretty busy life because he still finds time to post almost every day.

The domain name was registered in February - about the same time as I started my blog. David has been able to generate traffic quickly, PureBlogging is already in the top 55,000 sites in the world, according to Alexa.

So far PureBlogging has a little over 100 posts, most of which are about either blogging, or the blogging industry.

What I Like About PureBlogging

The first thing I noticed when I got to the site was the design. The layout is very ‘web 2.0′d’ and the site has a unique logo, which is pretty rare in the blogging world. I wouldn’t change a thing with the design, I think you’ll agree that it looks awesome:

By looking through PureBlogging, I got several good ideas for my site. On the ‘About’ page, David included a section that invited readers to stay connected by subscribing through email. I thought that was a really good idea and will definitely implement it here.

I found some quite interesting posts that got me thinking. One thing I give a lot of thought to was brought up in one of David’s posts: How Often Do You Blog. It’s a very interesting concept to think about. How often can we post while maintaining the quality of our writing? How often do you guys post? Once a day? 5+ times per day?

Where PureBlogging Can Improve

It wouldn’t be a complete review without giving advice on where I think the site can improve. I would love to see a section at PureBlogging that shows David’s best work. There is a top posts section there, but the section is filled with over 50 posts. It looks like a plugin was used to show popular articles by category. I would love to see 10 or so posts that David thinks are his best. When I get to a blog, I really like to get a feel for what the blogger’s got without wasting too much time.

There is a separate section that shows popular articles, but it looks like a plugin was used to create that section as well. It appears that the plugin uses comment count to determine which posts are the most popular. Sometimes these posts aren’t the best. Again, I would like to see what posts David thinks are his best. The posts I thought were the most helpful were a little hard to find.

The other thing I would change is the price PureBlogging is asking for a review. $100 seems a little steep to me considering the the site’s PageRank is only 2. There are a lot of sites out there that are providing a lot more value in that area, I would drop the price to about $20. The site’s Technorati and Alexa ranks are in better shape, but I still don’t think very many reviews will be sold at that price.

Overall Thoughts On PureBlogging

I really liked the site, and will probably find myself checking it out everyday. Well done David!