Credibility Assignment

Mensfitness.com

I like to read and stay up-to-date on health and fitness issues so I initially wanted to evaluate Menshealth.com but I decided to examine its affiliate Mensfitness.com which I know little about. The page offers a variety of content from workouts and healthy recipes to dating tips.

I evaluated the Mensfitness website, which was created by American Media Inc., and last updated some time this year. The page is complete but is always being updated with various types of content. This site is obviously intended to reach men who workout and who are interested in leading a healthy lifestyle. the majority of the links is internal and lead to other articles, recipes or workouts. There are external links such as its affiliates' websites and American Media's page. the articles do not have references to outside sources and the credibility of the content can be questionable. At first glance, it might seem is there just to push ad revenue. There could be a better way to separate the content from the advertisements. There are so many spaces it looks busy. Maybe they could give each page exclusive rights to advertisers.

There is no email for the author but you can submit any questions or comments to them. the site does have a blog link, but from it looks like they are not very successful. There are no comments on any posted articles or blogs. On the bottom of the page it says, "mensfitness.com is part of the American Media Inc. Fitness &Health Network," and it is a subsidiary of American Media Inc. Other online publications include: Fit Pregnancy, Flex, iShape and Muscle and Fitness among others. There are various "experts" for the site and they each cover different topics ranging from "training" to "career counseling," but there are no credentials listed for any of these experts. Mensfitness is also available in print. You can find it anywhere you would purchase a Men's Health issue or Muscle and Fitness magazine. The print version looks and feels more professional and makes multiple references in their articles thus, making it seem more credible.

The website is very easy to navigate and is ascetically pleasing. There are no gsp errors that I noticed and I really like the writing style. The articles are short and concise which helps because the pages are so busy with multiple advertisements and pictures that it is hard to read long paragraphs or stories without being distracted. It is hard to distinguish content from advertisements, and the layout of the homepage sort of bombards the reader and you don't know where to start.

Overall this website is pretty good. It has some good content but lacks overall creativity. Most of the content is present to fuel advertising which is common with health and fitness sites.