According to the site, BrainLoops “is a blog where the author’s thoughts are in full control. The blog is mainly opinionated but nonetheless informative. It tackles anything under the sun. From worthless news to funny articles, personal stuff to reviews of anything, current events to the not so current ones, and more…”

Is it opinionated? yes and no. Is the author’s thoughts in full control? sometimes. Is it entertaining? somewhat. Is the layout great? could be better. Is it informative? yes.

We found BrainLoops a bit of an obscurity. There’s an opaqueness to some entries of the blog that despite explanations, the posts somehow doesn’t transmit much discussion to its readers. Don’t get us wrong, the ideas are juicy and in fact most opinions are original and really should spark readers to voice their own views. However, it is not often clearly expressed leaving the readers thoughts dangling as well. The views are valid yet the sentiments are not firmly positioned hence his strong point may also be his Achilles’ heel.

The good news is we believe that this author is active, resourceful and full of ideas. His command in English is adequate to carry on a full English blog. We think given time, the author will improve in his delivery.

Here are some suggestions which could really be useful and relevant to newbie bloggers as well:

1. White spaces are great for layouts. They are meant as breathers, that’s why Pro-bloggers often use it starting with a clear, white background. Nonetheless, too much of it doesn’t help a blog. We think there are too many “white” spaces on this blog leaving one with a heaviness overall feel. The gray and white combination on the sidebar header and search form doesn’t help either. (Just by adjusting all the gray colors in the blog into black and white combo [or other dark colors and white combo] will give off a huge difference-!)

2. The other heaviness that weights a blog down is pure texts. The author of BrainLoops is already writing the ideal 200 to 300 word per post count. That is easily read without wearing out a visitor. With that average word count, a visitor will most likely stay and read more entries.

But having successive short posts without any picture on it will also quickly tire a reader because the eyes are now fixed on texts and the white spaces. There are no visual colors to rest the eyes upon. Hence, the use of photos vastly covers this up plus it solves the “too many white spaces” issue!

Using a photo or two for each blog entry is recommended to enliven a page. While BrainLoops page looks lively when one post without photo is followed by a video post or a comic post, and then some random photos- the posts without photos still stick out especially when you’re browsing by archives (monthly posts).

3. Highlighted texts in the posts can work magic too in lieu of a photo! The use of bold, italics, strikeout and underline can do wonders in a page as well!

Not to mention

the use

of font size.

4. A search form is a HUGE help to your readers. BrainLoops has one.

5. What it lacks is “labels” or in WordPress it is called “tags” (We think Blogger also supports the use of tags in its theme now, we’re not sure). TAGS are like the contents page of a thick book or more appropriately an index page! We don’t know about you but everytime we read a reference book or encyclopedia or any textbooks, we look for the contents page or the index page at the back to find what we need first, same as when browsing a blog for the first time. Blog contains huge, huge data. The only way to find posts that are relevant to a reader is by looking at the tags.

For example, our interest is on funny videos- how do we find ALL the funny videos on your site? Sure we can type it on your search form but do you expect us to type every keyword we want just to find out what is on your blog? NO. Your reader’s time are precious, and your articles are even more important since you worked hard to write them! So, let your readers find your articles the fastest, quickest, most considerate and most helpful way- CREATE TAGS!

6. If you are selling something and you want us to “buy now,” place a tag price on what you’re selling. We are not interested in buying but was curious enough to click on an ad at BrainLoops. It just showed the products for sale. If we were in fact interested in buying, reading on a product for sale without a price on it just discouraged us to buy. How are you shipping your items. Do you ship Globally or just within the Philippines? We don’t have the time to go back and forth with you via email to ask: How much is this product? How about this item? How many items to buy to get a discount? How much to ship to the United States- only to find out you don’t ship to the US at all. That just wasted both our time. Since you already have an entire page dedicated to your small business, might as well put in valuable details to hasten the process of communication.

7. Remember you are read all around the world, not just the Philippines. You are read not only by Filipinos but other nationalities as well. Be aware of it when writing Filipino-specific articles, is it understandable to a non-Filipino reader? If it’s hard to explain, create the entire post in the vernacular- Tagalog or others, so you don’t need to translate anything.

8. Do you have a Privacy Policy and Disclosure or did we just miss that? Please add both to your “Navigate through my Pages” sidebar. If you don’t have it. Please go to disclosurepolicy.org and Blogs That Follow for guidance.

The author is already on the right track in blogging. His blog is constantly updated. The contents are rich and flowing. Traffic from all across the globe are coming and growing! Polishing is all it needs and it’s good to go in full speed!

Good Luck!