This is a paid review, but is completely of my own opinion. If you wish to purchase your own review please contact me.

Visual Scope is a firm that specializes in web design, search engine optimization (SEO) and e-commerce. Based in Seattle and founded in 1999 the firm seem to offer a highly valuable service in a very competitive industry. Their dedication and quality of service seems to have paid off, as they boast an extremely impressive 1000 previous clients, including big names such as Coca Cola, Windstar Cruises and Major League Soccer. This astonishing client list alone sets them apart from 99.9% of design firms out there, as does their working experience of close to a decade.

Their mission statement seems to focus on a ‘Return on Investment’ for their clients. This of course is something that every client dreams of, but rarely do design firms deliver… Visual Scope is clearly not one of those companies. One of their clients Steven Anderson boasts a 300% increase in service enquiries of his Hawaiian Vacation Rentals business as well as an amazing $280,000 increase in profit. Like any respectable design firm Visual Scope to not post restrictive public service prices, but work on a quote system (much like myself). I’m unaware of their costs, but I’m willing to bet that their work for Steven Anderson did not cost anywhere near $280,000!

Their web design portfolio shows reasonably impressive visual design skills, but what really impressed me was their spectrum of services and support offered. Highlighted in their portfolio clients alone are:

This impressive list seems to be down to their 5 person team of specialists. Again, this is something that sets them apart from your average Joe who started a web design business.

What impressed me the most was their seo services. I confess that whilst I have some experience in SEO myself it is not my forte. I was impressed by the information provided on their services, but what really swung it for me was their proven results table. As a rule, words are cheap, it is substance and hard fact that really matters. Their client rankings are just as impressive, but for them to rank number 13 on Google for ‘web design’ out of over 800 million competing sites really speaks for itself.

I’m afraid that I don’t have many suggestions. I would personally make your amazing casestudies and achievements a lot more visible (i.e.: by displaying some of them on your homepage). You can’t expect all of your visitors to dig through your subpages for such information as I’ve just done. In fact, after finding your table of impressive SEO results I was unable to go back and find the link again. If you make these achievements more obvious you’ll improve your already established reputation further and hopefully land some new clients!

This is a free review and is completely of my own opinion. To see my review prices check out my ‘New Reviews System’ post.

Connor Wilson was kind enough to review my blog. So I thought that I’d return the favor.

Connor’s blog is very well designed, and he produces great content. His skills as a designer definitely show through.

I’ll start by highlighting my favorite parts of the design.

The attention to styling is very impressive. I love how his posts use elegant typography and lots of padding. Rather than simply using a constant font/color Connor uses a variety of font sizes, colors and and stylings that make his content a pleasure to read. He uses bold text styling to great effect, as you can easily pick out key phrases in the article. I’m sure that consequently Connor’s average visitor view time is significantly higher than the average blog.

The RSS area is very obvious but doesn’t impose on the content. It’s refreshing to see a specific area for the RSS rather than a large icon slapped on the page where there’s a free space. Little details like this add a lot to the design. It seems as if Connor has taken just as much care with his inner pages as his homepage, which is great to see. The care taken with every icon, quote, and comments form is remarkable. The one thing that I don’t like about this is the comments icon (an exclamation mark in a circle). It doesn’t make me think ‘comments’ as I see it, and would suggest going with something more conventional - perhaps use your notepad image used above the comments form.

Connor’s content is fantastic. He regularly writes on a variety of topics suited for web designers. Often he will discuss how to produce great designs, and goes into considerable detail (building on some essential design basics). If he discusses code he will insert sections of code into his post to be used by his visitors. One of my favorite posts of his is ‘Write Pretty Content for a Simple Design’ where he discusses his preferred content styling and why it’s so effective.

The essential part of any review is looking at areas for improvement. Connor’s design may be very good, but I certainly see room for improvement.

His sidebar just seems wrongly ordered to me. He has his about blurb at the bottom of the sidebar, far below the fold and this isn’t helpful for new visitors who want to quickly see who runs the blog. Similarly his search form is right at the bottom of the sidebar, and this makes it difficult to see. The second highest area in his sidebar is his Top Commenters, but this isn’t really providing anything of use to his readers. His Blogroll section is above Blog Categories, and these should be switched around. Try to think what matters to readers. They will care more about browsing blog categories than a list of friend’s blogs. Connor has his blog’s navigation in his sidebar, and whilst it is at the top I would expect to see it at the top of his page (under his logo). Currently there is a twitter feed there, and whilst it’s a nice feature, I would prefer to see navigation there.

One thing that really bugs me about the header is how the logo doesn’t link to his homepage. This is a tried and tested method of easily returning to the main page, and it seems wrong not to utilize this. I would also consider a slogan under his logo to let visitors instantly know what the blog is about. Currently you have to begin reading his content to gauge what it’s all about, and many people won’t bother to look at his page’s title ‘Blogging about web design, seo and wordpress’. Page titles for me are simply used for search engines. Your visitors will be looking initially in your logo area and so this is the place to let them know what you blog about.

Finally, I tend to prefer blogs with a more graphical design. This clearly isn’t what Connor was going for, but I find that having a website that consists mostly of just text (no matter how nicely styled) isn’t the best way to set yourself apart from the competition and create a unique brand. This point may be contentious, and his blog is very quick loading etc… I guess it’s just a matter of personal preference.

Overall the design and content are great. I would fix the issues of the sidebar, work on creating a more obvious brand and let visitors instantly know what the blog is about.

Apologies for not posting tonight, but I’m incredibly busy. And when I say incredibly busy, I mean that I have yet to start an essay due in tomorrow morning! Lets hope that I work well under pressure…

I thought that this would be a good time to announce my latest offer concerning website reviews. I had quite a cool idea of pricing my reviews based on an increasing price scale. Basically I’ve taken the standard rules of price increasing with traffic and age of website, but made it somewhat more concrete. I will be offering full website reviews based on a rounds system, whereby I increase the price slightly each round. The great news for you is that I’m starting very low, in fact, the first review is totally FREE!

Here is my pricing scheme for each round:

So as you can see, I’ll be increasing my review price by $5 after each review. However, my prices will still be considerably cheaper than my competition for a long while to come. I’m really offering this service as I love helping people improve their websites, and I feel that it makes good reading for everyone to learn from real life casestudies.

In order to apply for your free review please comment on this post with ‘please review me!’ I’ll choose a site sometime next week and post a detailed review critiquing it. If you like this idea please feel free to blog about it

As we all know, sponsored reviews can be a great source of traffic, and drive a lot of new visitors to your blog. However, many people seem to only look at purchasing one based on two factors:

However, there is a lot more to think about. I’ve outlined a few extra factors that should help you to make the best decision in purchasing your sponsored review. I recommend Sponsored Reviews as a great source for quality reviews!

I hope that these tips are helpful, and I recommend always taking the time to THINK before you buy.

I would also just like to do a shout out to a couple of fellow bloggers to say thanks!