One great way to earn some cash into the pot is to enter competitions. If you enter them anyway or like the Readers Digest Prize draw they select you to enter then the "rule" suggest this is just your money not the money for the pot. But each person has to interpret the rules for themselves.

Here is a competition I would not have otherwise entered. A review to get £50.

Well here we go.

Financial independence: My Review.

The site is a classic example of a blog run on drupal (a platform I personally think is too powerful and chunky for most uses and too flaky for others).

It's focus is on being independent money wise.

That means no debts and no credit card bills controlling you.

The site itself has recently had a makeover and now looks quite smooth although the content to advert ratio is not quite there yet. The side bars need to reach a better ratio of content to linkage. As this is drupal side bar parts like recent comments, recent posts and recent recentness are all good options should all be there and early on at least one side.

I think in adding adverts he has lost site of the reason the side bars are added to a site - to help users navigate. The loss of one advert to the gain of more internal linking is no loss at all.

Further content I would consider would be the listing of "land mark posts" nice and early.

Actually I think that is more the issue - both side bars push adverts high up quite quickly. What is needed is navigation and basic framework then advert one side and then a centre aligned advert the other side. Those tall adverts are good but small squares ad so forth allow more range for the same space.

Bigger is not always best.

If he is serious he would also consider using an adserver like OpenAds or if he would like stubsie 9the host) can cut a deal for free ad server hosting with me (private message at MyBlogLog for that one).

For all the work he has put in tot he site (and it has been very good work) the site still feels just a little disjointed to me. I can not put my finger on it.

No, I lie I think I do know where the issue is - the advert banner at the top. It looks crap and it spoils an otherwise great site. It might convert well but I think the site would retain better without it.

Also headlines should be easy to get to and the site feed should be pushed as hard as those adverts.

Ideally your advert spaces want to have self adverts in rotation to. This way people grow used to looking at the adverts to see what you have to say. Have fun with short run funny content and other playful fillers. (See me about those ad servers I mentioned).

When it comes to written style Stubsie has come a long way. I don't think he has that high an academic education (so what) which is suggested to me by his written style.

This is a massive shame as his niche is a bit funky about written style. But I'll give the guy this he is better than me when I started and he makes less mistakes less often than I still do.

My tips for greatness would be then:

- loose the top advert, it smells.
- link to flag ship content
- Get an adserver (see me...)
- Work like stink on written style. Read sites like copy blogger and just keep writing. Write write write alright. The more you write the better you get at it.

Good points

+ You can create an account and get a free blog there. If you wanted to have a go at doubling there are far worse places to open your account. (blogger for example being a bad choice).
+ It looks nice.
+ The main host is a nice guy
+ It has massive potential that in the next six months I think we will see a lot more clearly.
+ I've been a guest blogger there.