2009 Planning Guide - My Gift To You!Best Things In Lyve Are Free
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Looking back on your life now, what have you done that makes you proud? Are you a parent? Do you have a husband or wife? Have you ever run a marathon? Have you got the coolest blog on the block? (scrap that last question, we all know who’s got the coolest blog, right kids?) Anyway, they always tell us that the best things in life are free and in this case, Andrew from Lyved.com won a free review with us, courtesy of the boys and girls over at jollyjo.com
Lyved.com is a blog. It runs on wordpress, so it has to be a blog! On first impressions, it could be a blog about anything. An image of a large plant greets you as the page first loads. Then there’s this quote:
“The greatest good we can do for others is not just to share our riches with them, but to reveal theirs.”
Zig Ziglar
We’re indifferent to a mention of Zig Ziglar. The tagline of Lyved is, “Lyved is about life and living it.” Right, we’re getting somewhere now. Navigation in the top menu is notably sparse. You’ll find “Home”, “About” and “Contact”. To the About page and there’s a lengthy biography of 19-year-old Andrew Galasetti, the author of the blog. Right at the bottom of his life story, Andrew writes:
But I want to use my thoughts and Lyved to help others to empower themselves and live the life they want. I hope to evolve Lyved from this site into a media company so that millions can be
madereached and taught to follow their dreams.
It’s all suitably vague — and so we move onto Andrew’s posts. Categories range from business, culture and people, to quotes, Internet and technology. The first post we see is “Life Lessons from Snowflakes”. Moving on, there are lots of inspirational quotes and then we come to “7 Tips to Harness the Power of Digg”. The tips aren’t particularly useful, but it’s refreshing to see that Andrew blogs a little bit about everything.
You may struggle to find anything you want to read on Lyved, unless, of course, you’re into motivational, personal-development websites. Andrew blogs regularly enough to make an RSS subscription worth the effort if this is your shebang.
On the blog, there are currently only three posts about the Internet, two of which are guest posts. While the likes of some bloggers write about how TV shows relate to blogging, so Andrew tells us what dogs can teach us about life. The problem with such posts is that they contain zero useful information and could be written about anything. Obviously Andrew should have gone with cows here, instead of dogs.
Andrew seems like a decent enough bloke and we’d like to see his blog take on a new lease of life and become more focused with information we can actually learn something from. The potential is there to tap into a niche that is yet to be overdeveloped. A new theme would also serve Andrew well, as would the removal of the large Adsense block to the top right of the template.
The About page doesn’t need all the personal info, either. What it does need is a definitive statement about what Andrew is aiming to achieve with Lyved.com. Then again, it’s his blog and who are we to criticize it? We’re only getting paid for it 
Lyved is pretty cool if you’re into the whole positive vibes, inspiring photos and self growth, but it doesn’t really appeal to us. Lots of posts are just pictures with someone’s quotes. It just doesn’t do it for us. We could go shopping and buy a “1001 quotes book” while browsing through someone’s Flickr photo albums. It looks like Lyved isn’t quite sure yet where it’s going, but it has potential as the blogger is a positive and upbeat person. We might have another look in a few months to see if the content becomes more informative and original. Until then, we’ll stick with making money.
Being cows and all, our greatest achievement so far has been the inventing of a keyboard with keys large enough for us to type blog posts like this with our hooves. We’re also proud of learning to swim and being able to sleep standing up. Can anyone top that?
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Yes, the Adsense block has to go. It’s really interesting how that just doesn’t look right on blogs any more.
hes got images in everypost brightens up the place and makes it look aLyve
Hello,
This is Andrew from Lyved. Thanks for the review and your criticism. I will take everything into consideration. But I just wanted to clarify one thing, you said “On the blog, there are currently only three posts about the Internet, two of which are guest posts.” Those aren’t guest posts, actually they’re sponsored posts. I’ve written all the posts except for the quotes, which aren’t really supposed to be content, just something to get people thinking.
Hope others enjoy Lyved!
Thanks again,
Andrew
Oh yeah. One more thing, the adsense ads are just a temporary thing. I’m working with another ad network that’s still young so they don’t have many advertisers and adsense is just a default.
-Andrew
Blogs need focus and need to add value. Although value depends on the reader, in this case the Cow has it right. Maybe the Cow’s audience is not the same as that Lyve is targetting.
I agree with Tom Beaton that they are two different types of blogs completely. Cow’s blog exists for the sake of profit, lyve.com is much deeper writing and presenting quotes. A site like lyve does not flow correctly when linked with a site like Cow’s. This doesn’t make either better or worse - just different.
Perhaps I was overly critical. I didn’t intend to give the blog a roasting, but hope that there is some food for thought in the review.
That’s okay Angel.
I’m used to people giving their real opinions on my writing and site. Most of the time it’s even worse than what you said. I appreciate you being very honest.
-Andrew
I would like to see it more focused
I will continue to work on making the content more focused. Lyved has only be around for about a month and a half, so I have much to learn and refine.
-Andrew
A little bit of focus and some site design and I think this will be a real winner. Personal development blogs are getting hot and could easily be the next big thing. Keep up the good work Andrew!
Good luck with it Andrew.
Yes Air, water and so many other necessary things are completely free. The good God given us all free. But not like some webmasters say everything free, but according to some terms and conditions. But here everything free without any conditions.Thank you
Wow…this is a perfect review of a nice blog. If Andrew from Lyved modified his Blog as per your suggestion, he will definitely succeeded.
Thanks for the words of encouragement everyone. I appreciate it!
-Andrew
Andrew, I must say that I disagree with Ty Brown and the others who want focus. As one of your readers, I like the sort-of unfocus it has to it. Also, your site design is perfect for your kind of website.
Andrew,
First off, congrats for taking part in the Jollyjo crossword puzzle contest and for winning this review.
I am really impressed with how you took the review and your involvement in the discussion throughout.
With your attitude, I am sure you will take the responses on board, make changes where you see fit and be the raging success I expect you to be.
Hey,
Thanks for picking me as the winner! It was a fun contest. I will definitely take many suggestions into consideration. I’m already tweaking my about page a little and working with a friend of mine who is going to help tweak my design.
Thanks everyone and please continue to visit Lyved.
-Andrew