Analyizing: "Hooking Up Smart"

The blog that I choose to analyze was one entitled "Hooking Up Smart" by Susan Walsh. The blog was advertised as a blog for dating advice, particularly geared towards women trying to find the right man. The blog is supposed to be used as a forum for women, and men, to discuss relationship problems.

The Writer was hard for me to understand due to the fact that it appeared to be a woman writing all of this, judging from the posts and the name of the author, but then at the bottom of the first page there was a series of posts by the author pointing out different people around the city where she lived that she found attractive. This was a slue of both women and men. Immediately after this, however, she began talking about relationships strictly with men. I actually had to go back and make sure all of the posts were by the same author, that one in particular. Sure enough they were all by Susan, which leads me to believe she is bisexual. This did not bother me in any way, I just wish she would have left that post out because it didn't really pretain to the rest of the blog and seemed more for her personal gain than trying to help others. Other than this black mark at the bottom of the page, I found the advice to be very up-to-date and useful. Susan used everything from cute videos to newspaper articles to back up her advice, showing that she wasn't the only one who thought this way. She made the blog more personal by including movie/book reviews of her own, using books and movies that pretained to dating and dating advice.

The intended reader is most obviously women, making me part of the intended audience. More specifically the audience is probably single women or women in bad relationships, which excludes me from the intended audience. Really, this blog is for anyone who wants to be in a good relationship or wants to offer up advice for others so they can be in a good relationship. The Susan Walsh included all of these groups by not only responding to comments positively from all groups, but also by posting videos and newspaper articles by all of these groups of people. She included everything from a video by a girl about childhood heartbreak to a newspaper article by a guy that was offering up advice about dating in college. The writer included not only men and women, single or in a relationship, but also all age groups, all while presenting the information in a pleasing manner and giving personal connections. All in all Susan Walsh has created a blog that is not only worth reading, but worth posting comments on to help others and to help further the blog.