Day 4's task is all about spending time on a successful blog in your niche and analyzing what strategies are being used on that blog.
ProBlogger, DPS & TwiTip
I took a look at Smashing Magazine, the biggest design blog.
I learned from them that people seem to never get tired of lists, since they seem to overuse it. I also learned about the importance of article formatting.
After analyzing their site, it made me want to redesign my blog (which I'm in the process to do), and to organize the editorial part of my blogging better (what do I post & when).
I actually looked at 2: http://www.dungeonmastering.com/ and http://www.roleplayingtips.com/index.php
Even though lower tech, the 2nd one is actually more popular. Why? Content! Lots of juicy, juicy content! And age, he's been around FOREVER.
I analysed Geniushackers.com
First thing i learned from it is that I needed a logo for my site (I'm in the process of making it)..Then came the theme...changed my theme to a professional looking theme...and learned the importance of the ART of WRITING ARTICLES...
Also learned how Geniushackers.com had used the Rapidshare Account Giveaways to increase their Mail Subscriptions:)
I had trouble finding one because I am not quite in a niche. Many people think I am Make Money Online, I am not... been there and im not going back! I suppose I am more motivational, but not doing a good job at it. Any ideas?
The biggest things I learned were:
Write great and original content
Be ruthlessly honest in your content
Do this one post at a time
(As can be read in my post The three essentials of an uphill struggle)
It was the blog "Illuminated mind" that made me realize what the strengths are of the blogs I like.
And one other thing: Make it all look nice.... don't clutter your blog. Add a few picures here and there. In just a few days I totally transformed the layout of my blog to something that looks rather professional if I do say so myself. I foudn Flickr to be a great resource on pictures you can legally use as long as you linkback to the one who made the picture.
Mind the beginner A blog on beginning, it sounds so simple but it’s quite complex
I analysed Yoast.com, the site of WordPress guru Joost de Valk. I'd been to his site many times before but never analysed it the way you guided us to Darren. Now I've got a *massive* list of improvements I can look at for my own blog, everything from design, layout, subscription options, monetization, content types, plugins (found by inspecting his page source) and the best thing is I think I can do all that and not come across as just copying or ripping him off.
Being a Social Media enthusiast, it's hard not to be attentive to Mashable. What I'm amazed is their posting frequency (more than 1 writer, of course), and fast in obtaining the latest news, up to date. Their catchy headlines are a big plus in driving in massive traffics, considering they are already famous in their niche. What prompts me to be better, is to provide more in depth writings, also to be as informative as I could.
A small note to Shane,
I had a visit to your site, and I think you're doing alright so far. But one thing though: you mentioned earlier that most people thought your blog is about money-making only. I wonder if it would be better if you add a little description (short pitch) about your blog at the header, maybe that'll help us to get an idea (what we can expect from your blog) before we're getting random ideas from other phrases at your sidebar like marketing, financial etc. Just a little opinion.
I looked at Data Quality Pro, which is the leading data quality online magazine and free independent community resource dedicated to helping data quality professionals take their career or business to the next level.
I was impressed with the variety of different content offered by this blog.
Just did the Google Blog Search and found my own blog at the top of the "related blogs" section!
Using this tip, I've found a bunch of great blogs to look at and analyze.
Alison Moore Smith
Build Your Custom Dream
I took a look at TechCrunch. I can completely understand why Darren warns agains getting too caugh up in this. It can take a long time if you're not careful. TechCrunch has a lot of info and from all over the spectrum. Made me realise that there are much more things in my niche that I can blog about that what I thought.
Also realised that people doesn't seem to care if a blog has adds at the top, side and center. I'm not quite at the placeing adds part yet, but I guess everyone has to experiment with some things as each blogs attracks different kinds of people so they might not like so much adds. I guess we'll see.
I regularly follow GetElastic and GrokDotCom, with their biggest differentiators being frequency of posting and more focused approach to their topics. I have a tendency to be a bit more broad, which makes it tougher for me to elevator pitch my blog. Something to think about, for sure.
Whitney Doherty
I looked at two blogs Highlight Health because it states that its primary mission is to increase health literacy (this is also a core mission of my blog) and Six Until Me, a successful patient blog because I also want to capture the personal aspect of the health care system. I must say that after this task, I felt very overwhelmed an discuraged because it seems like Walter at Highlight Health was already doing (extremely well) the things that I was most excited about doing with my own blog. By created a directory and hosting a blog carnival, he's devised two successful methods for earning links into his website. Although becoming part of the directory used to be free he now charges different annual rates from $5-$20 USD offering different levels of exposure. From Kerri at Six Until Me, I learned that authentic writing is the strong foundation upon which everything else on your blog must be built. So for now, I'll focus on finding my writing voice while I try to figure out just what my subniche in healthcare blogging will be. Since I'm an African American, I also spent some time looking at a successful blog in that category. There is a tight core of blogs that put their race/ethnicity first (reflected in names like AverageBro and Afronerd) that blog generally about politics and pop culture and a smattering of niches: celebrity/fashion, familiy, women's issues ect. I'm looking for ways to make inroads with bloggers in that communigy as well but I don't want to just limit myself as a 'black blogger.'
Alisa
I had a look at joystiq.com for my assigbment. I've got a pretty good idea of how things are structured there. Our site is very similar based on content and what we would like to present to readers.
I must admit though, I'm finding it very difficult to bad new readers and I've found that when we do get a wave of reader coming in, many of them dont seem to return for regular updates.
tcanani
Member
I have looked at Technorati.com
Well, actually i have learned a different way to work with lots os contents. The blog is just like a link database to what is relevant to the blog and well, it works really fine!
It gave me new perspectives on how to work out my blog. In fact, just for the beginning, i have two more ideas about what and how to post.
For the ones who understando portuguese, please take a look at http://tlcreview.blogspot.com.
I found this a very useful exercise. It was hard to pick a site that is directly competing, as mine covers several different sub-fields. In the end I picked The Good Human - this site has an environmental focus (which is part of what we do) and I got a lot out of it. key learnings that I will be employing when move to a different blog platform and make major changes:
I also looked at another smaller blog Sage McGreen - and picked these points
So thanks to The Good Human and to Sage McGreen
The other benefit of this exercise was it helped me do some more on yesterday's - I posted a comment on one of The Good Human's posts and then tweeted it. Hope this works for him as well as me! I'm enjoying this!
Thanks Darren. Clare
P.S. For some reason the hyperlink button is greyed out so I can't make the links to these blogs live (and don't know how to do in html)
Make it and mend it because life's too good to throw away
What blog did you look at? I looked at fmylife.com, which is a site where you submit embarrassing stories. Not exactly synonomous with mine, since mine is all about submitting stories of ppl getting hit on, but the whole submitting part is the same.
What did you learn? I learned that it should be kept simple and that my site should let ppl interact with it as much as possible, since it is geared by the audience.
How has the exercise shaped what you want to do on your blog? It has made me want to model my blog similar to theirs, but not a carbon copy. We do have the same concept going, but they are obviously doing something right and I'm not. This has given me an opportunity to improve my blog and hopefully be as successful as they are.
For Evania...I'd say it's the background. I've been to your site and I actually like it it's interesting. Just something about that bright pink. Maybe just play around with background colors and font sizes. Also see if you can get comments on the funny stuff page. I saw some things on there that I would have liked to comment on but couldn't. Maybe I just couldn't find it. Great blog though.
Thedialecticeclectic.blogspot.com
TheDialecticEclectic.blogspot.com - The daily ramblings of a sociopathic thought junkie.
I actually started my blog because the top five sites/blogs were just not what I was looking for in a site/blog about my subject. I figured there was a need to supply and be different.
The first is a super organized and focused website/blog that updated with new content daily. The second was to write in a different voice that would draw in readers by being savvy and not going so far as to be offensive.
By the way is there a way to contact google and tell them there related blogs/sites are way way off? I mean one hasn't updated since Nov of 08 and the other scared me to look at it it was soooo all over the place - not navigatable at all!
I know what you're saying about the 'most closely related' blogs- I started my site because the other music blogs I saw around weren't structured in the way that I wanted to see (too newsy, too downloads-oriented, etc.)- even though there are an abundance of blogs in the genre I'm writing on (currently crawling through Hype Machine and the MOG Music Network to find a good pick for this task), it's going to be tricky finding one that has a similar (but more polished+popular!) vibe as A Future in Noise. I've looked into getting ahold of Google for the similar sites-not-being-similar bit, but no luck, so far.
Yeah 3 of the 5 are completely wrong. I can think of 2 that need to be there and should be there based on Google PR alone.
I'm having trouble finding a comparable blog. My niche is obscure and I don't really see any others quite like it. I could use a little help here.
-Hakim
Hakim Callier
Blogging Music for Media Productions
Um... Acoutistic Musical Instruments ??? It's more middle niche I think. What's your blog about? You can anaylze small blogs too and do the opposite or "steal/borrow" their good ideas.
Hakim- Looks like you've carved out something a bit different than the usual music blog, since it is industry and production-oriented; this is a good thing, because you are filling a void! The closest I could find that I'd highly recommend is this one: New Music Strategies.
Analysed a few different music blogs today through browsing the Hype listings, mainly- these two stood out most: Aurgasm (I like how they have color-coded genre tags sorted out on the side bar, and also a separate member bios page- which I need to do for mine!) and Largehearted Boy (crosses into litereature and a bit into other pop-culture areas as well- and I'm certainly a fan of the 3-column design). So many music blogs are downloads-centric, and I think the difference with A Future in Noise is that yes, we do have downloads (new promo tracks and out-of-print stuff), but they accompany the articles themselves- we delve deeper than just mp3s- these two stood out to me because of the specific artist features (in the case of Aurgasm) and the magazine-style articles (in the case of Largehearted Boy- they've also had contests/giveaways, the most recent of which garnered the most comments- this is something I'd like to do at some point as well). Even with these more popular blogs, it really is a shame that only a handful comment from time to time. I'm glad to say followers and comments have been going up at AFIN! I mean, it is nice to know you have readers out there, as I've found when I started using Google Analytics just recently- there are loads more than I expected out there!Aurgasm's prominent feature of artist images (always the same rectangular shape and size) is a bonus.
Marilyn Roxie - New Music Strategies. Thats dubber's blog. He is a brilliant guy and on my blogroll.
Ha, I didn't noticed your blogroll, there- I was going to recommend the Coolfer archives too, and there it is! :P I think you've got it sorted based on your blogroll alone.
Wonder if anyone else doing the day 4 exercise has come away feeling that there's no need for their blog and they are just wasting their time?? I found this exercise very depressing.
Of course, it might be that I haven't found a blog that's really comparable to mine. There are some absolutely fabulous blogs in my niche (loosely, expatriation), but they are huge with a large staff. Then there are some single-person blogs which mainly exist as part of or to promote books or consulting services.
I guess what I'm saying is that this exercise, instead of helping, has left me floundering.
HELP!!!! I'm going under for the thirdddd gluggggg
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