I owe much of the evolution of my diary to my discovery of review sites. In anticipation for the first review request I had submitted on Sweetreviews, I did my research on diaries that had gotten good reviews and I tried to see what reviewers were looking for. Things like a good looking layout with easy navigation, extras and most importantly content that keeps readers glued to your diary. I pulled out all the stops, and threw in as many extras as I could find relevant including an extended bio with a 100 things entry, an about me section, my first guestbook and a slideshow of my artwork and photos.

Much to my surprise, in my first review I had one of the lowest scores I had ever seen on the Sweetreviews site. If they had a wall of shame I would surely be on it. I got high marks for my layout, navigation and all the extras, but I got huge points taken off on my content and emotional scores, something about my diary entries being overly sexual and offensive. I guess the review process is highly subjective and a diary like mine where I type whatever is on my mind minus the sugar coating is not going to necessarily appeal to everyone, even a fellow guy, one of the few male reviewers around I might add. I've since taken that review with a grain of salt and tried to take the reviewers comments constructively as possible despite the scathingly low score. Ironically, I seem to have caught the attention of a few people who admired my diary despite the negative review. Interesting business to say the least.

Anyway I'm still curious to see how well I would fare under the eye of different reviewers, especially ones whose writing and design styles I actually admire. I have my eye on a few review sites and even specific reviewers. Most if not all require a link to their review site in order to even be considered for review so I thought I would put all of the sites I'm considering or have a request pending in one place with a separate section listing my completed reviews. This will keep my navigation bar from getting ridiculously long.