Jason Martin’s FinancialRebel.com is a financial investing blog offering investment news, tips, and insights. The personable writing style makes Financial Rebel an easy read, and I’d recommend it if investments factor into your income streams in any way or if, like me, you’re a financial investing novice interested in learning the ropes of how to buy stocks.

The Good

• Martin’s writing style is personal enough to give the blog character, and professional enough to lend some authority to his posts. I found myself reading any post I opened from start to finish, whether I intended to or not.
• While timeliness in the investment niche is a necessity, many bloggers covering aspects of business news (especially with relatively new blogs, such as Financial Rebel) tend to become lax in their coverage. Martin covers everything from seasonal stock issues (such as SixFlags predictions for the Summer season) to major product launches (like the Apple iPhone and how its release may impact AT&T stock prices) without missing a beat with his stock tips.

The Bad

• With something like a tip- and news-oriented financial blog, I’d like to see more background than is currently available. A simple “About” page would be a nice addition to the sidebar bio. If I didn’t know better, from reading the bio there, I would assume that Martin was fresh out of high school, and that maybe he’d earned a “few bucks” on the stock market. For those not familiar with Martin, reading that might be a credibility killer. My suggestion from a reader standpoint (and a beginner standpoint in the niche) would be to move the personal story to an “About” page, and expand on it, so it doesn’t cut off right after the high school story, and to then use the sidebar for a more general “About” paragraph about the blog itself, what Martin intends for it to cover, and how he intends to present the information from a usability perspective.

The “Ugly”

• The general site design and color scheme is simple and works well for the subject matter.
• Martin exercises an effective use of images on the blog, from the header to blog posts. The added touch of a graphic divider between posts is an excellent way to break up text more naturally, even where images aren’t utilized in the posts themselves.
• My one complaint as a reader regarding the visual elements of Financial Rebel is the body text of the posts. While the information is presented in a way that makes it easy-to-read, the font isn’t really suitable for text-heavy posts meant to be read on-screen. While the font is somewhat small to begin with, I think even that would be more manageable if the current font were replaced with a sans serif option, more fitting for screen reading.

Overall, Financial Rebel is a quality blog from a well-spoken writer knowledgeable in the subject matter of financial investments. I’ll certainly be returning from time to time, even if just for the business news value, and if you enjoy lively commentary with your business and financial news, I suggest you do the same.

Categories: Management / Finance
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