James Bond Would Have Subscribed To This Blog

Spy Review is a weblog with a difference. Boasting over 285 subscribers Spy Review is in a unique niche, which im sure will appeal to the kids at heart.

The Site Itself

Spy Review has a very simple yet unique design and once you head over to the site it is instantly recognisable that it is a spy related site due to the target logo in the top left corner. The navigational panels within the site are also easy to use and there are some good resources in the top header bar, such as suppliers and related books. I would also like to see a shop link a bit more predominant on the site and instead of having a link in the header bar why not take the Shoemoney approach and place an image in your site bar promoting the fact that you have a shop and you sell some really good products.

Advertising

I really do like seeing sites that aren’t flooded in Google ads and Spy Review is one of them. There is a basic link section at the top of the page that is not too obtrusive, but then im not too sure about the Google ads in between the posts. What most people don’t realise is that the more Google Ads you have on your site the lower your CPC rate, so few ads means higher returns per click. If I was Spy Review I would definitely place a Google ad after the section post on the page, but not after the first 3 posts.

I really like the second side bar section that allows Spy Review to place third party ads above the fold. At present there is a basic Ciao ad section and then some internal advertising. I suggest that they keep this section to possibly sell 125 x 125 ad sections, Amazon Affiliates or Chitika ads. Spy Review is the type of site that might be a very good affiliate spinner.

Posts

I really like sites with fresh content and Spy Review has this, updated nearly every day. The posts themselves are only about 100 words in length, but great to see some cool new toys in the spy game. The fact that you can see some cool DIY spy gadgets, motion detecting phones, spy robots and phone jammers, just makes me feel like a kid again and I just want to go and play spy.

Overall

Spy Review is a weblog with some great potential. It has the same basic potential as sites like Engadget, in which readers only go there too see what cool at the moment and Spy Review has the same type of market, it just needs to be put in the right places so it can be promoted as a useful resource. This is definitely going into my RSS reader.