On first view of baselinemag. com, it appears to be a well thought out, well written website.
One may register if they wish, but not registering does not seem to keep people from reading all the available content that “Baseline” offers. The content is good, informational, and varied. The structure of the website is very easy to follow and to understand. There are links on the left side of the page that will take you to a preferred section such as IT Management or Compliance.
There are also useful links that would be helpful to almost anyone, such as planners, tutorials, quizzes, and product guides.Free online newsletters are offered to anyone with an email address, and top news stories, along with “top ten” lists, are offered up as reading material. The center of the webpage is full of relevant articles, all written recently. The setup of this website seems to cater to younger executives. The colors, layout, and titles of the articles seem to be designed to appeal to someone who is used to getting their information on the internet.
There is even a blog that is updated regularly, and I feel that would also appeal to a younger crowd who is used to blogging and having something new to read each day.This particular website is full of advertising. Some of the ads I saw on my visit to the page were IBM, HP, BMC Software, and various small companies offering software and IT solutions, and even a “free” copy of Windows Vista. These ads are obviously well placed, for it would be for people who are interested in different types of data management, new software, and business management.
The indication is that if one would be taking time out of their day to read this website, they would need the products being advertised.For the most part, I would agree with this marketing technique. The ads are also young and hip looking, so again it is obvious that this website is catering to the younger set. The one thing that this site does not offer for free are the tools that I mentioned previously, such as the planners, calculators, and tutorials. These all cost at least fifty dollars, but one must either click on the link directly or read much further down the page to find that there is such a large cost associated with these offerings.This would probably be the greatest downfall of the site.
While it certainly leans towards younger people, the price of the tools would be prohibitive to most people just starting out. This is a shame, since they would be very useful to anyone. One other issue that is slightly annoying is the website’s tendency to reload itself occasionally in order to display a new advertisement. This is rather confusing for someone who has one page in an minimized window and clicks back to find that it has returned to the main page, not the page they left it on.The most helpful links on Baseline are probably the link to the top ten stories of the week and the link to the Career Center. The Career Center is very easy to use and gives good results to job queries.
The top ten stories link gets a reader right to what the most important issues of the week are, and it saves a lot of time if one simply wants to get caught up on only the most important news. Baselinemag. com is a great resource for all kinds of technical and business news. It is great to have all that information in one place, and the layout of the website makes it easy to find just what you are looking for.I would definitely bookmark this site, and maybe even become a member. I would also be sure to take advantage of the free newsletters offered, and keep up with the Career Center, as it seems it would be an invaluable resource.
The only problems I have with the site are the extremely high prices for some of their “tools,” and the reloading of the page to allow for new advertising. However, this site gives enough free, useful information that the occasional disruptions can easily be overlooked. Overall, this is a great resource.
