Does Really Simple Photography.com Suck?

I recently received this email from a regular reader:

“All hail Dean!
Okay, not everyone will hail you. Regardless, my name is Jehan, and I’m from Malaysia. I would like to test the ’suckness’ of my blog. Hey, I can put the button without having to test it, but I bet there’s no honor in it (no offense to all webmasters who did;).
Lookin’ forward to hear (note: read) from you soon!

Oh, in case you are wondering, my blog’s address is http://www.reallysimplephotography.com

Cheers!”

Ok, well he has got my attention already from being creative and interesting in his email. So I decided to review his website for the “doesn’t suck award”

The Company Message/Tagline: The first thing that I really liked about the site was the company message. I loved the spelling error joke in their banner, and their message is all based on the KISS theory of: Keep It Simple Stupid

Update: Since starting this review they have created a new header image. Yikes! I like them both, and I cannot be bothered re-doing my screenshot.

I know from experience with photographers that they tend to over complicate the art and science of taking a photo, so I can see the appeal in this angle.

DeanHunt Tip: Even in a competitive market you can find a way of being different. Look for an angle, but more importantly, look for an angle that matches people’s thoughts and opinions. There are people out there who just want photography advice without all the complications, this site is ideal for them.

Site Design: I also like the design. It is clean and simple, which fits perfectly with the message the site is trying to create.

I particularly liked this in their side menu:

DeanHunt Tip:  A bit of humour is always a good thing. It can be applied to almost any niche, so don’t be afraid of looking like an idiot, it will help you stand out from the crowd.

Mistakes:

There is no page title for the homepage. Your homepage is your most powerful page, and is often the page that gets the most search engine love, so ensure your title has your main keywords in it.

Content:  I haven’t read all the content, photography is not my favourite subject, however, it is clear that the writing style is similar in some ways to my writing style. So top marks for that!

It is educational, yet doesn’t take itself too seriously, so I really like the writing style.

Overall: I can see this site becoming a big site. The owner needs to start networking and building one-way links, perhaps write a few articles that would do well on sites like Digg.com and Del.icio.us

The future is bright for this site, and I can officially say….  drum roll…. ReallySimplePhotography DOESN’T Suck!!!