Heartless Wind Review


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Site Name - 9/10

I'm quite fond of the name "Heartless Wind". It's very original and easy to remember, and since your url has nothing in it like a dash or an extra period somewhere, it's extremely easy for visitors to type in and not get it wrong. I can see that you considered using Starkissed as your site name, and I'm very glad you didn't. That wouldn't have been as original. Heartless Wind is from a Linkin Park song, so I'm sure you'll find something similar to it elsewhere, but not this name exactly, so good job on using something original and personal.

Layout - 18/20

With layouts, I can be pleased with either complicated or simple, and in your case, it's very simple and I like it a lot! It's obviously easy to find everything; you've put navigation right at the top, and when a visitor selects one of these, it's very easy to find the subnavigation if there is any. The colors work surprisingly well together and it's obvious you've pulled your colors straight from your layout. Kudos. On the sidebar, links seem a bit cluttered, but you have so many, I suppose I understand. My suggestion would either be to not make links bigger than regular text, or at least, on your "Loved Ones" part, capitalize or somehow make the link Apply different from your loved ones itself.

Content - 16/30

MISSASHLAY
You give quite a lot of information about yourself! Some of it isn't necessary, but I'm not going to tell you to take off any of it. Instead I'm going to address some grammar issues.

Paragraph 2 - "I was born and raised her" should be here. "This town doesn't have much to offer anyway, we do not even have a shopping mall, I have to drive an hour away to find just about anything" is a run-on sentence, and could be better organized like this: This town doesn't have much to offer anyway. We don't even have a shopping mall! I have to drive an hour away to find just about anything.

Paragraph 3 - I'm going to reorganize this whole paragraph, because, I'm sorry, but it's horrible. I found it difficult to read, and I'm sure you wouldn't have put your family if you didn't want to share it. You can reinclude your links. Okay. Ready? I have a huge family. I live with my mom, my stepdad David, my younger sister Candice (who is 17) and my pets. My mother has an adopted daughter named Yolanda, who is over thirty now. I haven't seen her since I was eight. She also has a son, Kevin, who is 24. My father and stepmother have a seven-year-old daughter named Hannah. She means more to me than anyone, and is also the reason I am still in contact with my father. My next closest family members are my mom's mother, Nana, my Aunt Sonya and my Uncles Daryl and John. I have many cousins, all of which are married, and number too many to list! On my dad's side I also have three uncles: Vernon, Alton, and Darrell. Quite the family, eh?

Paragraph 4 - You don't need the "when" in the first sentence. The rest of this paragraph is fine, and you give me a good look into your life.

Paragraph 5 - Break down the first sentence into something like Besides reading and writing, I'm always carrying a camera to take photos. Although I wouldn't consider myself professional, I like to think I take okay photos. Maybe one day I'll look into photography as a career. Do the same with the last sentence.

Paragraph 6 - Do the same with the first and second sentences of this paragraph.

You also have quite a lot of links on this page. On the pets page, I'm not going to bother with the grammar because it's such an obscure page, but I must say, five dogs and five cats is a ton! However, they're all adorable and look like you take great care of them. It's cool that you have a lot of information about your friends; however, I don't think a lot of people will read all this. Kudos on liking Harry Potter! You just gained points with me. :) I agree with a lot of your music favorites and movie favorites, and your favorite actors! It's spelled "Shia LaBeouf" by the way. That's what comes from hardcore fandom. You do seem to take good photos, by the way; they're very clear.

In "Reflection", I like your hair in "Ashley 2/7" and "Ashley 1/8". I'm going to be honest and tell you I'm not interested at all in reading your timeline. Cool butterfly under artwork. I really don't need to know what your handwriting looks like.

I must warn you, with the amount of information you've given, you're almost asking somebody to stalk you. It definitely helps someone to get to know you, and I appreciate seeing all of it, just be careful.

PORTFOLIO
Whoa. Is this some kind of subsite? Well, first of all, putting "I would appreciate if you don't steal..." is not threatening. That's saying, "Please don't steal...but if you do, I guess I can't do anything about it." But since this is a subsite, I'm not going into too much detail in this review. It is cool, however, that you have a place to put all of your writings. One day I'll read all of these and tell you what I think.

VISITOR CONTENT
You have a good selection of graphics for a blog site. That's always a good way to get people to visit. If you build it, they will come. I already looked at your photography, so moving on. Layouts. While it's loading, I'm expecting them to be good--I definitely liked the ones on Heartless Wind and on your Inkspots subsite. But to be honest, I don't like the first one at all. Is this like a layout header? You should specify whether they are layouts or headers to build your own layout around. Orchids, I'm not really liking either. Not "Searching" either. Okay, I've noticed that in the url for these images, the photobucket layout is labeled "Old Layouts". Hopefully that means the new one I clicked on will be as good as your current layout! Mmm, "Run Wild" is closer. I think your problem is you just don't take as much time on these as you could. I understand that graphicking is a side project for your site, but that doesn't mean you should take any less time on them. However, with the newer ones, I think they're worth something, except the text doesn't match very well.

On to your icons. Ahh, this is slightly better. Good job on the first and third one. However, these are very plain, without effects or anything. What photo editing program do you use? I like "Sweet Love" the best, I think, that one looks very nice.

The button bases are good. You seem to have taken a little more time on these.

Affiliate buttons. Wait, what? That's what the last part was. Oh, I see now. I believe these are called "Affiliate Blocks". These are good! I like how you've made several colors so people can come back and pick one to correspond if they, say, change their layout.

Color schemes. I'm expecting these to be good because your current layout is so well matched. And I'm not precisely disappointed, but I do find that these are fairly basic. I definitely like the blue, grey, and yellow and the one below that. You have quite a few, so I'm sure a quester for a color scheme won't be disappointed here. On your pixels page, you say "Please credit me." Don't you want credit for everything you've made? Maybe this should go at the top of your content page. These are cute. Great job making these - I couldn't even begin to hope. I love the iPods. On the same note the downloadable smiley sets are adorable and very well made.

Wow! So many tutorials! Let's click a random one and see how you did. I selected your "Getting Started" under SmartFTP, because I need to learn FTP. Hmm. This is...confusing. Okay, so you...no, I don't get it. Let me try the next link and see what I get. This is "Editing A Page". Ahh...Lovely visuals. This always helps in a tutorial. Kudos! This is a slightly better tutorial, but still I'm at a loss to understand what I am uploading, and what to do with it. Of course, that's what the next tutorial is for. Adding a Page. Wouldn't that occur before editing? I think the links to these are messed up. I think now I'm looking at how to edit a page. Step one is not a step. Step one is a note. Hmm. I think this tutorial and "Adding" can maybe go together, unless you expand on this and maybe give a few tips on how to edit. I'm assuming that "Uploading" a page is not the same as "Adding" one. Ah, nope. But this one is more useful. I think maybe that this can all be one big tutorial. I'm also going to assume that what you mean by "step four" is that if you named it "owner", you can't capitalize it and put "Owner". It has to be exactly the same.

Giving up on tutorials for now. Having seen your FTP ones, I think I can safely assume that your tutorials need some work. Feel free to email me if you think I'm wrong.

Ooh! I love competitions. Let's see what you've got here. I'm going to check out the closed "Layout 3 and 5" to see how many people participated and how they did. Hmm. It says "Page Not Found". Check that out and quickly .Did you delete it because it's over? Then why is it still linked? Yes, the same thing happens for the Layout 4. Icon Competition 1 is very simple. I like the idea of the second competition as well. I hope somebody else enters soon. Who knows, maybe I will! The third one's good too. It helps to get to know your visitors. I very much like the idea of creative writing challenges, and it seems your visitors do too! Great job. I like that in the poem competition you gave them a prompt. That makes it harder. The opinion piece is great. I definitely think you should expand on your competition section! It's very interactive and seems to be one of the best parts of your site.

It's also great that you let people request. You've got the jump on other sites with this, because your visitors will flock to be able to get exactly what they want.

HEARTLESSWIND
Whoa. Okay, in your "How I Got Started" part, what was the problem that led to you getting rid of your hosting? And what is with all these run-on sentences? Please, please break at least some of these down. I have seen these everywhere.

I already addressed "Behind the Name" so I'm going to Past Layouts. I love looking at these so I want to see what you have. I have to allow myself a scream: "AAAAH!" Don't worry, that was a good scream. I love Pokemon. You didn't do it too badly, either! You did a great job on your Ellen Page layout. I'm astonished. You should put more of this quality up for your visitors.

These awards are adorable. You should say who they're from. They took the time to make your award, so maybe they get a tiny bit of advertising, just on this one little page? That's only my opinion however.

Ah, reviews. I notice you have Superawr on here, and Dez reviewed my site as well, so I'm going to check that one out. I'm very proud of your responses to Dez's review. You didn't snap at her for anything. That's what is expected out of a good reviewee, and it's also great that you get a lot of reviews done, which means you care what your visitors think of your site. I didn't see any bad responses out of you, and I'm glad of it. Don't be rude to your reviewers because they took time out of their day to do it. (I've spent an hour on yours already. ^^)

Out of your linkbacks, I love the one that makes your layout. Maybe because I love the font Joyful Julianna. (If that's what it's called...) Good. Credits. Everyone needs credits. I'm glad to see you have what they're on here for.

Final Rating - 43/60

Despite all my criticism, you did get a fairly good score. It was mostly brought up by your site name and a fantastic layout. It was brought down by your content, and I don't just mean what you offer your visitors, though if you do have visitor content, you should make it up to par. You have a ton of grammar mistakes that need to be corrected, though I will concede that they are mostly run on sentences. Don't let this bring you down. Do a sweep through your site, correct the grammar, and touch up your graphics and tutorials. Remember that 43 is not even a low score!

Read Ashley's scathing opinion here.