Website Review: Blogger

One of the largest parts of my career as a freelance writer are my many blogs. Although I am unbelievably bad at keeping up with them, they are still very important for referring others to my work on Expertscolumn. Blogger is a simple blogging service that is currently run by Google, and in my opinion, it is one of the easiest and best ways to make money on the Internet today.

To obtain a Blogger account, you must first have a Google account to connect to. However, many people have Google accounts to obtain news alerts, email, and the many other functions that Google contains. Blogger is one of the best functions because it is a free service and makes blogging extremely easy for anyone.

Blogger provides the server, webspace, name for your blog's website, and unbelievable widgets, known as gadgets, that can revolutionize and spice up any blog. Some of these gadgets include adding a "Subscribe" button, a "+1" button so others can share on Google+, pictures, posts, polls, a newsreel provided by Google News, and much more. These gadgets are extremely easy to add, and there is no limit to how many you can put on (at least, I've never tried to find a limit).

It is quite simple to alter the page's layout, control comments, and find out the stats for your blog. The statistics are extremely in depth, to the point that the analysis contains how many users clicked on your blog from a specific country or specific operating system.

Overall, I would give Blogger a 9/10. Blogger provides a user-friendly yet productive interface for any blog that suits the user's fancy. The only complaint about Blogger I have is the cost of a specific .com domain name, which is just a meager $10. Blogs will also sometimes go down if Google is having issues, but that happens very rarely. For a simple yet satisfying blogging experience, Blogger is certainly the safest bet.

Written by R. Turk
http://expertscolumn.com/content/website-review-blogger
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Website Review: CD Baby

If you are an independent music artist looking for your big break, then look no further than CD Baby, a service that will distribute your music to sales services, such as iTunes, Spotify, Facebook, Amazon, and Google. The services that CD Baby offers are very simple to use and will help kickstart any music career. Though it seems to be one of the best options for underground and unknown artists, what does this website truly offer?

As a former electronic music artist myself (Mixman86), I know that the music industry is a "make it or break it" type of world. The hardest part is having the patience to get started the right way, something that I did not have. I released my music before I had a fan base whatsoever, and therefore, I sold very little. I used CD Baby as my distributor, and they will take just about anyone. That was lucky for me, but before you release your music, promote yourself the right way first to get the best results.

CD Baby does not work miracles, but they can help you immensely. They provide an easy upload center, in which you can put up your songs and they will distribute them with the appropriate album cover and everything. You can order hard copies of your albums to hand out or sell, download cards to hand out, and even sell licensing royalties to other companies that want to use the song you created. Some record labels do check CD Baby for amazing, underground work, so if you do decide to add your music to your collection, make sure it is mastered correctly and sounds the way you want it to.

CD Baby provides many tools for aspiring artists. However, it can get quite expensive after awhile if you are not making money. Download cards, CDs, credit card swipers, and distribution costs do tend to add up. CD Baby provides decent prices for all of this helpful merchandise, but if you are not making money as an artist, you will be in the hole quickly. Then, you will have to rely on writing to pay off your debts, as I did (just teasing).

Therefore, I give CD Baby an 8/10. They do provide the services they advertise and they distribute your music in a pretty good amount of time. CD Baby is trying to help, and you, as an artist, have to do the rest of the hard work to make your dreams happen. Sure, my music is on iTunes, but no one buys it; barely anyone knows I exist. CD Baby did their job; I did not do mine correctly. Good luck.

Written by R. Turk
http://expertscolumn.com/content/website-review-cd-baby
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Website Review: Bleacher Report

Where NFL.com and other sports websites lack, Bleacher Report makes up for it. One of these things is the comment boards, which on Bleacher Report and ESPN are filled with people desiring to get their opinion in. Bleacher Report covers all sports like ESPN, from NFL football to NBA basketball, from UFC fighting to WWE, and from professional soccer to professional poker. This website has it all, but does it have any weaknesses?

Every website has its weaknesses, and Bleacher Report's flaw is its layout. The front page contains a bunch of stories that seem to be thrown on the page. Columns and rows are different sizes, different stories are different sizes, and it is sometimes difficult to keep track of them all. The front page of Bleacher Report is especially hard on the eyes and certainly, hard to sort out. However, this is truly one of the few minor weaknesses of this website, and the strengths certainly outweigh any of them.

The information on Bleacher Report, provided to audiences of interested readers, is relevant and timely in every sport they report on. There are up to the minute stories regarding golf, baseball, and even professional fishing. The information usually has decently credible sources, and their visual style of reporting the facts is very simple and quite readable.

Probably the most helpful part of their website is how their news and opinions are split up. For the NFL, NCAA, NBA, MLB, NHL, professional soccer, and UFC fighting, the stories and articles are all split up by team or player. It is quite helpful when you just want the specific news and opinions from your own favorite team and not everything. Bleacher Report also creates ranked lists and presents a good amount of their information in a simple slide show format.

Overall, I give Bleacher Report an 8/10. Though the layout may pose as a problem for some audiences, it is not a huge deal and most can overlook it. The website is well established, gives more viewing options, and presents their reliable information in a simple yet helpful way. That is all you can ask for.

Written by R. Turk
http://expertscolumn.com/content/website-review-bleacher-report
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Website Review: NFL.com

As a devoted fan of the National Football League and professional football in general, NFL.com is an important website in my daily activities. NFL.com brings current information to the public regarding players and teams, as well as provides fantasy football during the season, video interviews from the NFL Network, and analysis on the NFL Draft and Scouting Combine. This is the bread and butter website for any fan of professional football, but it certainly has its faults.

One of the largest faults NFL.com has is its quality of writing. I am not going to make claims that I am a better writer than any of them, but sadly, that should not be a conversation. These are professional sports writers, and I am just a amateur online columnist. However, in some ways, I provide better information to my readers than they do. The NFL.com writers, Gregg Rosenthal in particular, will make headlines about anything. They will base an entire 500 word article on a tweet a player made. I don't know about you, but I do not consider a tweet from Twitter as hard evidence.

The writers on the NFL's official website make many grammar and spelling errors that are usually caught by fans reading the article, and after the fact, they are changed. I rarely make spelling and grammar errors in my articles, but it is more understandable if I make a couple mistakes because I do not have an editor whose job is to correct the mistakes for me. However, the NFL.com writers do have editors, and they rarely catch their own mistakes.

Despite complaints about pedestrian reporting, NFL.com provides a lot of great information as well. The videos, usually provided by NFL Network, are very well-done and convey some important information to audiences. Their reports are always up to date, and they never fall behind on any story (that is half their problem - fact checking). NFL.com has a decent Fantasy Football league, but I feel that it is no comparison to ESPN's.

Overall, I give NFL.com a 5/10. NFL.com does perform its main function: to provide current information to fans with in-depth analysis. However, the NFL.com writers have turned the website into a gossip column, which is not appreciated. That being said, I hope that NFL.com will fact check a bit better as well as make their editors actually catch mistakes in their work. I have written more factual pieces for my college newspaper than I have seen on NFL.com in the past five months.

Written by R. Turk
http://expertscolumn.com/content/website-review-nflcom
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Advertising Will Begin on This Blog

Hey guys,

I apologize that you will have to see advertising on this blog from now on, but my website I have been writing for is shutting down, and frankly, I need to pay the bills. So don't mind the advertisement posts.

R.

a quaff swims like a trash can

Website Review: E*TRADE FINANCIAL

Online stockbroking has become a popular financial option in recent years. There are many websites that provide online stockbroking options, including TD Ameritrade, Yahoo! Finance, and of coure, E*TRADE FINANCIAL. E*TRADE is best well-known for its commercials featuring the talking baby. This is supposed to represent how simple it is to trade stocks on E*TRADE's website. This review will give an in depth analysis of E*TRADE and its many functions.

To get started, you first must fill out the application. The company will make you mail them a copy of your Driver's License and social security card, which can be a bit scary for most people. However, this is a part of their policy, and I personally had no problem with it. Once they receive all of your information and you deposit money into your account, you can get started buying and selling shares. Buying and selling is extremely simple on this website; just select the stock you desire to purchase, plug in the number of shares you are willing to buy, and it is done.

However, there is one minor issue with this process. There is a $10 processing fee associated with each purchase and each sale. Therefore, you must get started with a large sum of cash or there is no chance to make money. I only invested $200 throughout the year and broke even despite the fact I made about $50. That extra $50 was eaten up buying one of the stocks ($10), buying the other stock ($10), selling one of the stocks ($10), buying another one ($10), and then selling them both ($10). One year later, I came out with $202.30, a $2.30 gain total. This will not happen if one invests around $1000 into E*TRADE, but anything lower and there will be no money to gain unless you hit the jackpot.

E*TRADE also provides very helpful analysis for all stocks available on their website. They provide hard data through line graphs that display the change in the stocks overtime and news stories regarding the company that the stock belongs to. These assist investors in making an informed decision on which stock they want to buy. E*TRADE also provides retirement plans, courses, and advanced banking options for users who desire them.

Overall, I give E*TRADE FINANCIAL an 8/10. Don't get me wrong; E*TRADE is a very thorough and helpful tool for investors. However, to truly make money on this website, you must be a hardcore investor and serious about making big money or going broke. That is the game of the stock market, and E*TRADE brings the real meaning to high risk/high reward.

Written by R. Turk
http://expertscolumn.com/content/website-review-etrade-financial
And remember to follow me on Twitter @rturkarticles

New Blog

Hey everybody,

This is R. Turk, online columnist and article writer. I am beginning to write website reviews, and I hope that you will help me by reading them. Take a look and see if the website you are looking at is truly great or truly a bust. I will post as often as possible.

R.