Written on April 9th, 2009 at 08:04 pm by Darren Rowse
Analyze a Top Blog in Your Niche [Day 4: 31DBBB]
You task today in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge is to spend some time on a successful blog in your niche.
The purpose of this task is not to promote yourself on the blog – but rather to spend time watching, listening and observing how the blog operates with the goal of letting what you learn help shape your own blogging strategy.
There is a lot that a blogger can learn about spending time on other blogs (particularly those who are doing well). You can pick up all manner of ideas, strategies and tips both things that they do well that you might like to emulate but also things that they’re missing that could help you to differentiate yourself.
Here’s how I suggest you go about today’s task:
1. Identify a successful blog in your niche
You might already know of these sorts of blogs or you might need to do a little research.
If you’re not sure which one to choose head to Technorati’s top 100 blogs or Google Blog search and attempt to find a blog that is doing well on your topic. If you can’t find one that is exactly on your topic don’t stress too much – choosing a blog on a related topic will work too.
2. Take 15 minutes to do some analysis of the blog in some of the following areas
Content:
- What topics are they covering?
- What topics are they ignoring?
- What voice/style do they post in?
- How often are they posting?
- What level are they pitching their posts at (beginners, advanced etc)
Reader Engagement:
- What topics generate most conversation?
- What styles of posts seem to connect with readers best?
- What questions are readers asking in comments?
- What complaints do you see readers making in comments?
- What tools/mediums is the site using (eg: are they using Twitter, forums etc)
Design:
- What first impression does their design give?
- What have they done well? What have they done poorly?
- What Options do they give readers to subscribe?
Monetization:
if you’re attempting to make money from your blog this will be relevant as it will give you hints as to how you might make money:
- what advertisers are targeting this blog?
- what type of affiliate programs are they promoting?
Traffic:
You might also like to head to a site like Alexa or Compete to do some analysis of the blogs traffic levels. Is it growing, plateauing or shrinking. Alexa also gives some stats (not always accurate) on page views, time on site, sites linking in, bounce rate, where the audience is from (geographically), where people go on the site etc.
SEO:
If you have some competence in SEO you might like to check out how they’re doing in some of these areas:
- Who is linking to this blog? (use the link:www.blogurl.com command in Google to find out)
- What does their source code reveal about how they’ve set up their site
- If they have an open or unlocked stats package what can you learn from their stats? What pages are popular? Where does their incoming traffic come from?
Really the numbers of questions you could be asking is limitless but what you’re attempting to do with this exercise is to identify what is working well on the other site and what opportunities there might be to position your blog in ‘gaps’ that the blog is leaving.
When you do this type of analysis with a number of blogs in your niche you should begin to see some patterns emerging. Things that consistently work on blogs in your niche and things that perhaps you could do that nobody else is doing.
Two quick words of warning:
1. Don’t become Obsessed with what other Bloggers are Doing
A trap some bloggers fall into is spending so much time watching their ‘competitors’ that they spend less time actually building something of value of their own. This analysis is useful to do every now and again – but don’t let it become something that you do at the expense of other core activities on your own blog.
2. Don’t Copy – Be Unique
Another trap I see some bloggers doing is virtually replicating every aspect of another blog. While there’s a lot we can learn from others and lessons we can take from what others are doing – if you simply copy everything another blog does you don’t differentiate yourself and give potential readers no real reason to read you instead of others.
How did you go with your Analysis?
As usual – feel free to share what you learned from this task in comments below.
Join the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge
It’s never too late to join the 31 Day challenge. New people are joining and starting the process every day. To learn more about what it is and how to join check out our 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Information Page.
Update – You can also share, discuss, and explore this Daily Task over at the forum: Day 4 – Analyze a Top Blog in your Niche
Want More?This task is a sample of one of the tasks in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook – a downloadable resource designed to reinvigorate and revitalize blogs. Join over 14,000 other bloggers and Get your Copy Today. |
297 Responses to “Analyze a Top Blog in Your Niche [Day 4: 31DBBB]” - Add Yours
Roy Schwartz
April 9th, 2009 8:42 pm
For the life of me I just can’t find popular blogs in my niche. Does anyone visit a blog related to health or diseases frequently?
What The Pros Do
April 9th, 2009 8:43 pm
This is an excellent task! If somthing stands out to me on another blog even if its not in my niche I often try and find a way to apply the idea to my own blog whilst still putting my own spin on it.
Most off these ideas are still in my note book so perhaps now is the time to put them into action! :)
Barry Wright, III
April 9th, 2009 8:44 pm
This is a great task. It’s just like any other creative discipline:
The best writers usually read a lot of books. The best musicians are usually compulsive listeners. You can’t expect to think of everything alone.
Several suggestions:
1. Try to do this with several “top blogs,” as different techniques are successful for different people. One perspective is rarely enough.
2. Try to look beyond just raw traffic. If you have access to stats packages, look for a blog which has grown quickly, not necessarily one of the largest size (which may be largest simply by virtue of being the oldest).
3. Stay within yourself. I blog about fashion, but I’m never going to be The Sartorialist (whose blog is almost entirely pictures).
4. On the other hand, you can learn from all of these people; if they do video and you don’t, how do they drive video watchers to the blog (or vice versa). That same process could be useful if you release an eBook, for example.
5. As always, don’t be afraid to ask questions. At the largest sites, you might not get an answer, but it’s worth finding out (this is information too, does the blogger have a system for dealing with a large influx of questions?).
-Barry
Bradford Shimp
April 9th, 2009 8:45 pm
One thing I always run into when viewing other popular blogs is that their design is so much better then mine. Then I have to remind myself, great content is what is important for now, I can have the blog redesigned later.
I like this challenge. It is going to force me to up my game when I see what others are doing and learn from them. I do not read enough blogs in my niche, which is small business advice. Looking forward to this!
Mr. I
April 9th, 2009 8:46 pm
My niche is “Blogging Tips and resources”. I will go for Daily Blog Tips and inform back here.
thom singer
April 9th, 2009 8:47 pm
This is an area that people must walk the fine line. Not just in blogging. Some get too focused on the competition. Many industries are full of “Me Too Marketers”. They see someone else do something successful (or they assume it is successful), and then they do the same thing.
On the flip side, you need not re-invent the wheel everytime… so paying attention to others is smart
I try to observe, learn, and still just be myself.
That being said, my blog is a plain template and in need of a style re-do. That is what I learned from this exercise — although I already knew that!.
http://www.thomsinger.blogspot.com
ChristiaanH
April 9th, 2009 8:48 pm
As a matter of fact I’ve just been looking into one of my favorite blogs when you tweeted about the new assignment. It almost seems that things have a natural flow from one thing to the other.
I got wondering what exactly makes a blog tick.. how does it roll uphill so to speak.
Came to the conclusion that there are three essentials in the blogposts:
1. Write great and original content
2. Be ruthlessly honest in your content
3. Do this one post at a time
Well, that was the result of looking into a few blogs actually. Design is next n my list to tackle in my own blog. I’m not entirely happy with the current looks.
Thanks again for a few great ideas, could you by any chance work some assignments on SEO into the challenge? Would be great to get the hang of that bit.
Hning
April 9th, 2009 8:52 pm
There will always a Triple T in each blog – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly – and in a simple ways, we should digg it to make a good improvement to our blog.
How they works, plans, strategy, etc, should be well cover in our mind as a good resources.
I totally agree with this one Darren. And sometimes, i make them too as a rival – virtual rival, to motivate my self.
Darren Rowse
April 9th, 2009 8:52 pm
“I try to observe, learn, and still just be myself.” – nice one Thom! I think that that is a great balance.
Thomas
April 9th, 2009 8:53 pm
This is a great tip and one that was offered to me last year by a friend. Now that my infant blog has a reasonable amount of posts I’ve decided to implement this strategy. 3 months of SEO spying has resulted in my traffic going from 80 uniques per day to roughly 400. I’d also like to add that article marketing was also used and now the young blog sits at a healthy PR(2) only after 6 months. Am I happy, I’m ecstatic.
What your doing here Darren is a great thing, an outstanding thing and may the laws of reciprocity pay you back ten-.fold. Long time reader and follower, first time commenting.
Leo Dirr
April 9th, 2009 8:54 pm
Hello all,
I’m a firm believer in the idea that if you don’t ask, you don’t get. So, today I’m going to ask for your help.
Yesterday Darren challenged us to try several different methods for promoting our blog posts. And I didn’t do it. Because I knew that I was going to do it today instead.
Today, the webmaster of a small independent news site in Utah is going to post a story I wrote about the Mormon blogosphere. I put some real thought and effort into the piece. It’s important to me that it does well on pageviews.
So, I’m asking for your help. I have created a post on my personal blog detailing my promotion plan for this story. I encourage anyone who’s interested to read my blog post and see if there’s some way you might be able to help.
My philosophy in life is that I always remember my friends. My philosophy on the Web is that I remember those who are relevant, useful and friendly to me.
If you pitch in on this, please don’t be shy about letting me know. And I’ll be sure to remember you when the time is right.
This includes you, Darren. I’d love for you to contribute to this effort, if you can.
Please read my blog post here:
http://utahnewsblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/help-blogger-out.html
Thank you,
Leo Dirr
Twitter: UtahNewsGuy
Jake
April 9th, 2009 8:56 pm
Good task. For me, this task is already a regular part of my strategy, especially now because I’ve started two new blogs which I am taking in a completely different direction from what I’ve done before. My biggest problem as a blogger has always been staying in the same place for more than a few years. I blog like I live; as a nomad. And it’s time I settled down at least blog-wise. Hopefully, 31DBBB will assist me with this. As to monetising; I left corporate writing in 2005 to go on sabbatical. Now, I am mostly unemployed, except for a few odd assignments here and there. I could go full-time into ghostwriting for online marketing; but I have issues with quantity over quality offerings. Anyway, my ramble (I tend to do that) is meant to say that I would love to make money from my blog or from my writing again full stop. But I need to find out if I’ve (still) got something to offer and, if so, in what niche’ I truly belong.
Darren Rowse
April 9th, 2009 8:57 pm
Hi Roy – I just googled ‘health blogs’ and ‘health bloggers’ and there seems to be quite a few. Which are the most popular – not sure about that – but I’d suspect a bit of surfing through the search results and you’ll find some. Also Technorati has a section in their directory for health and fitness blogs – should be some in there.
Luke - Confusion Management
April 9th, 2009 9:03 pm
My niche is Generation Y blogs. I have being doing some research over the last few weeks.
I need to concentrate on:
1 – Write good content, engage the readership
2 – Tidy up my design
3 – Engage in some monetization
Time to get back to it!
Joel
April 9th, 2009 9:03 pm
Wow. This is something I’ve done a little bit of from time to time, but never in really concentrated amounts. I do get emails from people who tell me they have just spent hours on my site and are excited about the information and the positive way that I present the info. I’ve just never really thought of spending an hour on another site and taking notes.
How exciting! I know what I’ll be doing this evening…
John Felkins
April 9th, 2009 9:04 pm
Does anyone know of blogs regarding Management Consulting to the Construction and Engineering world?
How about Business in Argentina?
Thanks!
Barry Wright, III
April 9th, 2009 9:06 pm
Doing this type of “external audit” has been suggested by people before, but I’ve never done it. I think a lot of people find such a thing intimidating (since there is so much to look for).
Ramit Sethi (of I Will Teach You To Be Rich) reminds us; “doing something 85% right is much better than not doing it all”
Thus, don’t worry about getting every detail, come up with a list of things to check, and then go check them.
I wrote up a basic list based on Darren’s post, and created a simple Excel spreadsheet which you can use as a checklist when completing this task. If you want to write by hand, you might wanted to put some space between the categories.
http://www.3stylelife.com/Problogger/basicbloganalysis.xls
-Barry
Rehuel
April 9th, 2009 9:13 pm
I think the type of audience you’re after and your approach are also important.
John Chow is also considered a “Top blog” in the Make money online niche, but it’s in a totally different league than Problogger. JC talks a lot more about himself, where DR writes more in a teaching style. Their styles attract different major audiences: JC -> Young Get rich quick’ers, DR -> more mature entrepreneurs.
Keeping points like this in mind when doing this task can help you avoid going in a direction you don’t want (or need) to be going, and realize whose is really the top blog in your niche.
HazardousPaste
April 9th, 2009 9:14 pm
Good tips, thanks.
Ten
April 9th, 2009 9:15 pm
Great! I know some sites in Spain regarding manga and anime and i analyzed some time ago but now i want to give my own vision to my blog because, as you said, we must not become obsessed with other blogs, we must be unique.
Mr. I
April 9th, 2009 9:19 pm
I am back with my observations! Here they are:
Content
1. Daily Blog Tips is covering topics related to blogging mainly Content, SEO and Design. However, these days, Daniel is writing a lot about Internet Tools.
2. Tutorials are missing. Not much “How To” posts!
3. Casual style. Maybe because I am habitual!
4. Posting daily on weekdays.
5. Most of the posts are targetted on beginners.
Reader Engagement
Most conversation generating posts are Reader Question and Answers. Many people add advice to these posts. Readers don’t ask much questions in comments. Mostly, questions are of basic level. Daniel uses Twitter for Daily Blog Tips.
Design
Design is simplistic. Not much pomp and show. Best thing about it is that its easy on eye without much distractions. There’s nothing poor(according to me!)
Readers get E-Mail and RSS as subscription options. Additionally, Daniel also has a newsletter.
Monetization
Ad networks, content and design related advertisers are there. I have not noticed any affiliate links(I have been a reader since September 08)! (Either I am blind or Daniel does a good job with them!) :-)
SEO
Traffic comes mainly from blogging related websites. These are linking a lot to DBT. The popular posts are mainly list posts ( + a Blogger Face-Off Post featuring Shoemoney and Darren)
So here are my lessons:
1. Simple designs do work. No need to get a costly design.
2. Engaging Readers and asking them questions brings in more comments.
3. Lot of ads are not necessary to earn good income. Less ads can be more effective.
4. Go straight to the point, no need to write big intros for posts!
Rehuel
April 9th, 2009 9:19 pm
@Leo Dirr: You didn’t do yesterday’s pitch yesterday, you’re doing it now! And I know it got my attention.
Krishna Srinivasan
April 9th, 2009 9:28 pm
HI Darren,
I am running the Finanace blog and this tips might be more useful. I will be looking to the top blogs and learn how they have implemented. Like Thomos said, I will stick to myself. These I am learning many new stuffs related to blogging, one great advantage I added with my blog is I changed writing style after started reading your blogs. Thank you for the tips.
Thanks,
Krishna
Andrea Swiedler
April 9th, 2009 9:35 pm
I know which bloggers in the real estate market I like. Blogs I like are usually written with humor, no matter what they are about.
I was looking for local people to comment on my blog so that I would know they are there. Then I just realized (an aha moment as I was writing this) I just need rankings on goggle, etc, so that when locals are searching for a reatlor, they find ME. When they find me, they will see interesting content that grabs them. Because I blog on Activerain, a large real estate community, many of my comments are from other realtors. But that really is ok, they are comments!
I may have strayed here, but I really did just “get it” for myself! Very important to write well about a subject, with humor and in a natural voice.
Kevin
April 9th, 2009 9:36 pm
Just a quickie before I get stuck in, how do we do SEO with Wordpress apart from logging relevant tags. As we get further into this it appears to me that integrating Wordpress into a main web site where I have more control over key words, descriptions etc is the way to go.
Any views anyone?
http://www.kevincumbria.wordpress.com
Fred @ Very Personal Finance
April 9th, 2009 9:40 pm
This is really excellent advice. I have been blogging for 2 years, but don’t believe that I have ever seriously sat down and done this. I think you found a way to really learn from someone already having success.
Thanks,
Fred
Rachel
April 9th, 2009 9:41 pm
The best blogs in my niche (food/cooking) all have fabulous pictures. Big beautiful glossy ones. Drool-inducing loveliness.
I am NOT a photographer. I did post my very own pic at http://beyondbeeton.com/weight/speedy-mini-post-vietnamese-prawn-salad and even my sister (who reads my blog) told me it was rubbish.
Earlier today I was chatting with some of the popular bloggers in my niche and they were encouraging me to keep practising and learn (yep, Digital Photography School is where it is at) if I want to do that.
I realised that I just don’t have the energy for it. My blog is also about balancing life in the kitchen and life in the office and I just don’t love the idea of photography enough to devote any more time to it.
So I’m going to pay my clever brother-in-law with food (read: bribe) to take some photos for me. Problem solved!
Elja Trum
April 9th, 2009 9:42 pm
Guess I’ll be analysing your Photography blog today, Darren. ;)
Useful tip. Most bloggers will follow blogs in their niche already, but it won’t hurt to really think about how they do it..
Dan Alderson
April 9th, 2009 9:44 pm
As I am constantly reading blogs in my niche this was quite easy. My latest post is all about related blogs which are a lot bigger then mine and have several writers but that’s because they have attracted some big names in SEO to write for them.
One thing I have noticed (and is the reason for my blog) is most are for people who are in the SEO industry and have been for a while, sure there are some posts which are “basic seo” etc but there is a lack of beginners guides to SEO for those who are starting out in the industry or for other bloggers who want to learn the basics so they can apply it to their own sites.
It’s great to see so many people actively engaging with one another for these tasks and taking time to view one another’s blogs to see how we are all progressing. Thanks to all who have visited and especially those who have left comments!
Dan
Lara Kulpa
April 9th, 2009 9:45 pm
Hi Kevin – You absolutely have more control over your blog by using self-hosted WordPress rather than WordPress.com. ESPECIALLY with SEO and in terms of making the power of WP work for you and you alone. In my opinion? WP.com (free WordPress) blogs are great for keeping up with friends and family, but if you’re serious about making a business out of (or because of, or with) your blog, then you need to go the self-hosted route.
(Side note: I’m a WP expert and SEO specialist, have been for many years. I’m really speaking from experience here… ;) )
David (Marketing Integrity)
April 9th, 2009 9:46 pm
I think we can certainly learn from observing and implementing the best-practices of others. With the wealth of blogs that are crying out for attention, the biggest challenge is being unique in your niche. If you can find a way to stand out and add value, then you gain credibility for being a valuable voice in a noisy online world.
The Producer
April 9th, 2009 9:47 pm
This is a good idea, but I do not know of any other sites doing the same or similar thing as us.
Michael Godawski
April 9th, 2009 9:50 pm
I am really inspired by the blogs dumb little man and zenhabits.
They have clear, simple and effective designs and their content is straight to the point.
I personally tried to go another way design-wise. There are so many magazine style blogs that it becomes more and more difficult to differentiate from them. Even if your blog is a niche the visitor is just used to the common design and bounces off ( just my two cents)
Lee Ka Hoong
April 9th, 2009 9:50 pm
I’m building a MMO blog, I know this is very competitive keyword and there are tonnes of established MMO blog out there, I think they have built their blog for many years and have very good readership since long time ago. I’ve found, observed, learned, applied, and just blog as myself. Copying content will be just sending you to the end of the road.
Regards,
Lee
Asif
April 9th, 2009 9:50 pm
I wast just going to write this thing on my blog,
you really are a problogger, You Steal Ideas from Pople’s Mind!!!
Michael Hoppal
April 9th, 2009 9:52 pm
Well, I’ve been looking, and haven’t found what I would consider a popular blog which also covers web design, marketing, and PR all at once (feels good to be relatively unique, by the way).
I’ve been looking over some random finds, though, and asking myself these questions, now.
Just looking at the assignment, it didn’t seem like it would help that much without directly copying everything, but now that I think about it, I can compare their blogs with mine, and see what I should change and what I should keep.
So thank you. It really opened the door to exploration.
Louise
April 9th, 2009 9:53 pm
This is a great idea, but unfortunately there are no successful blogs in my niche – or at least, not any I’ve been able to find. Maybe I can cast my net a little wider and look for somewhat related niches.
Harsh Agrawal
April 9th, 2009 9:56 pm
This is a great idea Darren. I try to analyze there design first because this will help readers to stay there for long.
Leo Dirr
April 9th, 2009 9:58 pm
@Lara,
I’m sure you’re an expert on much more than just WP. Your wisdom is a bright, shining light.
Thanks for taking the time to share your advice.
Sharon Hurley Hall
April 9th, 2009 9:58 pm
This is a useful exercise. I’ve looked at Men with Pens, which I’ve followed from the start. It’s got a no-nonsense, tell it like it is approach that seems to resonate with readers and everything gets comments and discussion. Great titles seem to be the difference between what attracts a little attention and what attracts a lot, but I also think the personalities of the people posting have a lot to do with it. I think when you are being yourself, people respond to that.
titan
April 9th, 2009 10:01 pm
i know some of my site was great and successful. But many of blog still need progress. I will do my best soon.
Chakresh Mishra
April 9th, 2009 10:04 pm
Darran, A question though,
I have a problem that main competitor in my niche (Politics of India) are posting too many links and mostly links, whereas I am trying to be voice of my own.
This approach lead to those blog becoming like aggregater for niche and people prefer to subscribe to those blogs instead of mine.
So, what to do?
Mike CJ
April 9th, 2009 10:05 pm
That was hard work Darren, but very interesting, and I plan to do one of those each week. The topics with the most comments was fascinating and very consistent, so that gives me a brilliant pointer to content.
Don’t understand the locked or open stats part though. Does anybody have open stats? Does that simply mean you can see how many reads a post has had?
Enjoying this – thanks!
delicate flower
April 9th, 2009 10:05 pm
Great idea.. Since I write a blog that is, in part, focused on mid-life, single women issues.. I find the Technorati site to be a little more testosterone loaded than I might want. So, I will search some of the women blog sites. Though it may serve me as well to see how the more popular male bloggers are doing. I just found this blog and will persue it later in the day. http://www.blogtrepreneur.com/2009/02/05/100-must-read-blogs%E2%80%A6by-women/
As a newbie to blogging some of the more technical info you’re sharing goes right over my head! And, for now I think that is ok.
Baker @ ManVsDebt
April 9th, 2009 10:07 pm
I think this is a great idea to set some goals. I looked at several of the top personal finance blogs to analyze exactly why they are successful.
For me, most of the personally connect with the readers in a profound way. They’ve gone through a personal journey out of debt and posted intimate details along the way. Therefore, the reader’s feel very attached to the blogger and even to the blog as a whole.
Lisa
April 9th, 2009 10:09 pm
I’m really looking forward to doing this assignment today. For the most part, I do visit other blogs in my niche but I’ve never analyzed any in depth. I didn’t want to fall into the trap of losing my personal inspiration and vision for my blog and get caught up in the trap of copying. Since I’ve pretty much established my voice now and set the tone for my blog, this would be a great time to do some analysis.
The one thing that I know that my blog is missing right now is SEO. I feel that if I could get this aspect down and drive some traffic to my site, my blog has the “potential” to attract a good readership. My blog is still young (3 months) and there is lots of room for me to grow as a blogger, but I am very optimistic at this point.
I have already found one way to set myself apart from other bloggers in my niche based on an observation I made whilst visiting other blogs. I’ve been working on it for a few weeks and I will be ready to go live with it within a week I hope.
I’ll be back with my report later.
Girish
April 9th, 2009 10:10 pm
WOW , this is exactly what i does :)
but compete.com was new to me ..
thanks Darren.
Lisa
April 9th, 2009 10:11 pm
@Kevin, forgot to say thanks for the Excel spreadsheet. Great idea and saved me some time. :)
Thandelike
April 9th, 2009 10:13 pm
huge task for one day…but good to recognize the need for competitive research.
for this task i considered author blogs at redroom, where i also have a blog. many of the features are standard so i focussed on which ones have the most comments and why. they are posts by somewhat well-known writers of personal nature and timely topics, asking questions and not going on too long. (writers like to go on too long).
Dominique
April 9th, 2009 10:18 pm
Interesting plan. What I have seen under parenting is either very personal blog style or magazines with various topics and contributors. I also realised that my niche is highly competitive and I need to be very outstanding to make my mark.
Karenne Sylvester
April 9th, 2009 10:21 pm
Hi ya Darren,
Was reading through the posts and saw a lot of people having trouble finding others doing same in their niche so that we can do this analysis.
I did something kind of interesting along these lines recently (in the last 2 weeks) as an option which I’d like to share.
I created a private NING community specifically dedicated to my niche and set a few rules down: have to be blogging about ELT; have to be/have been English Language Teachers, blogging on topic, for min 3months etc. Then I moved 10 pages in deep in google and hunted some of them down.
Already have a nice group of 25 global bloggers and will stop at 100. We help each other out as well as being able to see (and they can see on mine) what our mutual strengths and weaknesses are. Together we’re stronger ;-).
Karenne
Vicki@collegeparentcentral
April 9th, 2009 10:21 pm
Once again, Darren, excellent suggestions.
Before I started my blog (now one full week old!) I tried to look at as many as I could, but I didn’t have the focus of what to look for that your posts suggests. Thanks for the thorough “checklist” of things to consider.
And thanks, too, for those good words of warning. It is easy to become obsessed with watching everyone else. One thing that I am trying to do is keep an informal log of how I spend my blogging time. I’m trying to keep track of how much time I actually spend writing, watching others, researching, or promoting. It will be interesting to see where the balance is.
This series is great for those who have been at this for a while and also for those of us who are newbies. Thanks!
Jason Sandeman
April 9th, 2009 10:21 pm
Again, excellent advice Darren. When I started up my two blogs, this is exactly what I did. Thing is, I blog about food and recipes… so you can imagine the IMMENSE competition. I try to focus the one blog on commentary and the occasional GOOD recipe, (Mac and Cheese does not cut it for me, unless there is something special about it,) the other is at a niche. (Game night recipes and planning.)
The part that gets me Darren… if a person is just starting up, pro themes like Thesis are not in the budget. What would you recommend for a free template for monetization?
Robert Bravery
April 9th, 2009 10:23 pm
Great post Darren.
Good advice. We can all learn from those who have been in the blogging business for a while. As well as those who are clued up in a particular niche.
I enjoy your blog, and often browse through your blog to pick up ideas, get advice etc. So analysing your blog has been one of my habits.
I am in the technical, programming, web development arena. I do frequent a few blogs in this regard, but perhaps we could get a list going here.
I thought that perhaps those involved in web development and programming can muster together a blog list to analyse. We could all benefit from the help.
What do you guys think?
Bud Hennekes
April 9th, 2009 10:26 pm
Roy, I suggest http://www.naturalbias.com :)
Lisis | Quest for Balance
April 9th, 2009 10:27 pm
I keep trying to figure out what is the X factor that makes some blogs stick in this ever-increasing sea of bloggers. I start from the assumption that excellent content is a MUST… but a good number of bloggers have that.
So what makes one “great content” blog succeed, when most of them fail?
I guess today’s analysis of the pros is a good way to find out.
Thanks, Darren!
Anette
April 9th, 2009 10:29 pm
What is “an affiliate program”?
Leo Dirr
April 9th, 2009 10:29 pm
Analysis of ReadWriteWeb
This is where I confess that I don’t really have a niche yet. But one of my favorite blogs is ReadWriteWeb.
I plan to do a more in-depth study on this blog later. But here are some initial gut-level findings (remember, folks, your gut is right 88% of the time, unless you’re Jobba the Hut):
ReadWriteWeb does a masterful job of keeping their design simple and using design to get readers to do desirable things.
Desirable things ReadWriteWEb gets readers to do:
Subscribe: This blog makes it super easy to subscribe through a variety of channels: RSS, Twitter, Friend Feed, E-mail. And they pretty much shove those subscription options in your face. Take a look at their homepage, you’ll see what I mean: http://www.readwriteweb.com/. Brilliantly designed!
Read: One of the most prominent features on their homepage is Popular Posts. That’s an easy gimmick to use to promote your best stuff. And ReadWriteWeb does it as effectively as anyone I’ve seen.
For these two reasons, I hope to emulate ReadWriteWeb.
Let’s keep it simple, folks. I’d love to hear what you think.
Sunil Pathak
April 9th, 2009 10:40 pm
What does their source code reveal about how they’ve set up their site
I do that every time i find a blog with nice triting style and formating. this has helped me to decorate my blog and make it more reader friednly.
venkat
April 9th, 2009 10:43 pm
One thing easy to understand from niche blogs is understand how they are posting articles,on what topics they are concentrating and how they gettign traffic from various sites.Analyzing them and do posts in your own way.
Michael Harvey
April 9th, 2009 10:45 pm
I’ve learned a lot more than I can digest. I will have to ponder these things all day. This was a helpful exercise. It is a good thing to have a coach to steer you through the common sense things that we know to do, but fail to do. Thanks for accepting me into this challenge.
Roseli A. Bakar
April 9th, 2009 10:45 pm
I love doing analytics on other related blogs and see how they performed.
By doing this, I’ll get motivated to achieve what they have achieved and I will try to replicate what they are doing…
Great task Darren !
Book Marketing Buzz
April 9th, 2009 11:09 pm
This was interesting…I went to Google Blog Search and put in my key search words “book promotion” to find another blog in my niche and one of my own blogs popped up number one. This particular blog doesn’t get the hits most of my other blogs gets. So in conclusion, if this blog is coming in at # 1 for the same set of search words I use for my other blogs that get many more hits, what’s the point of this one being number one? Sure, I’ve learned how to use my search words wisely enough to get a blog that doesn’t get as many hits as other blogs in the # 1 position (that’s what I do for my business anyway…build on those key search words so they will rank higher in google…guess it’s been working, lol) but yet wouldn’t that be misleading to anyone stopping off at Google blog search looking for the # 1 blog for “book promotion”? Crazy.
Jacob Duchaine
April 9th, 2009 11:12 pm
I’m not sure if there are really any successful blogs in my niche. In fact, I’m not even sure there are any other blogs in my niche.
I’ll keep an eye open, but I think I’m just going to analyze some of the top blogs in general.
Book Marketing Buzz
April 9th, 2009 11:12 pm
And another thing…and this is one thing I try to tell my authors don’t worry about is niche blogs (see my comment above). Niche blogs can be deceiving. Say someone wanted to promote their book at the blog that came up at # 1 in google blog search (again see my comment above) for the simple reason that it did come up as # 1 and surely must be getting hits out the yooza, but yet the blog doesn’t get nearly half the hits my other blogs who aren’t ending up at # 1 in google blog search for the same key search words, wouldn’t that be deceiving them?
Fred
April 9th, 2009 11:13 pm
Great idea Darren!
Can someone recommend a great blog about: Thoughts to change humanity’s “rendez-vous” with destiny?
or a great blog about: Making the world work for 100% of humanity, Livingry (as opposed to weaponry) & Bucky Fuller?
(you can leave a comment here addressed to Fred, or post it @fredinchina on twitter, whichever is most convenience to you)
Thanks a million!
Faryal Humayun
April 9th, 2009 11:13 pm
I’m already doing that in my daily routine but now I’ll look at that more closely keeping all the above points in mind. Still finding it difficult to find a close competitor for a jobs and employment blog. Can anyone suggest any blog other than About.com
Book Marketing Buzz
April 9th, 2009 11:14 pm
Blogging Guy (Jacob) above, take the words that are in your categories and see if that comes up with something.
Maggie Bishop
April 9th, 2009 11:18 pm
Three of us are together on the Dames of Dialogue blog. One problem, we have not yet generated any sales of our novels from the blog. I’ve looked at other mystery writer blogs for ideas but haven’t been able to pinpoint what we are doing wrong. Any suggestions?
Eve @Arewethere
April 9th, 2009 11:23 pm
I guess I was reading your mind Darren because this was my task last night. While I always spend time observing other blogs, I took the time last night to dig deep while analyzing my favorite blogs.
My niche is Women’s Issues. I blog about the issues that many women face while trying to balance marriage, motherhood, careers, and social lives. The biggest difference between my blog and others that are more successful is the design. I have a standard Blogger design, whereas the other ladies have custom designed blogs (not an option for me at the moment due to financial constraints).
The downfall that I have found in these blogs is too many personal posts. While all of my posts are written from a personal perspective, I find it important to base my posts on something that I’m sure others can relate to.
Jonathan Thomas
April 9th, 2009 11:25 pm
Good Advice – but what if YOU ARE the top blog in your niche… I’ve already learned as much as I can from my fellow blogs in my niche.
I think I’ll poke around and see if I can find blogs that may be slightly related to my niche. Worth a shot.
Kevin
April 9th, 2009 11:26 pm
The one thing this exercise has taught me is that I am going to have to refocus my Web 2 blog. There are some blogs like Dion Hinchcliffe’s that read like an existential analysis of Web 2 concepts for the enterprise and are great for the theory and heavy, in depth prognosis for IT chiefs in the large blue chips. Another, Adam Moss’s is targeting the same audience but is rarely updated.
So, lesson’s learnt include refocus to SMEs and self-employed who just want quick tips and pointers to useful tools and just get on with it, update at least two or three times a week minimum to keep momentum going and, thanks Lara, look at hosting my blog on my own website for greater control and possibvle monetisation.
http://kevincumbria.wordpress.com
Adrian
April 9th, 2009 11:27 pm
I also have difficulties in finding blogs related to privacy and anonymity. Do you know any?
Heather Allard
April 9th, 2009 11:30 pm
Darren,
Good exercise and a very important one. I have two main competitors in my niche, but we seem to have very different audiences who want/like very different things when it comes to a blog for mom entrepreneurs. I’m sure we have some subscriber overlap but for the most part, we’re different.
Thanks again for a great post! This is really fun!
Heather
Andrea Smith
April 9th, 2009 11:30 pm
WebMD and the Wall Street Journals have health and disease related blogs…I’m guessing with some pretty major readership.
Here are the links:
http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/
http://www.webmd.com/community/
All the best…
Mrs Green
April 9th, 2009 11:30 pm
Wow, this is huge! In technorati’s top 100, I’m seeing Treehugger as the site that is covering the nearest topics to mine and I have no idea how to begin ‘competing’ with a huge corporation like that!
I feel quite defeated, to be honest – They have a TEAM of writers and on my two sites, it’s just me!
As I don’t pull in any income I cannot put any more time into my sites.
Ho hum. I shall keep looking around though and seeing what winning tips I might be able to incorporate easily :)
Thanks for another thought provoking post, Darren
Hannah
April 9th, 2009 11:32 pm
Like Dan Alderson and Lisa, I too have a handle on blogs in/near my niche and have never analysed them. I have kind of admired from afar as a pleb through the beaded curtain.
Today I looked deep into one of my favourites – http://ideasinfood.com – and recognised that I don’t want to emulate Aki & Alex’s incredible creation. Don’t get me wrong; that doesn’t stop it from being an epiphanic inspiration. There is a place for my blog, and it’s not the ‘slapdash effort’ that one commentator labelled it. It’s just me, just different.
I am improving incrementally and happy with where I am at today. Tomorrow is another step up the learning curve.
Thanks for yet another eye-opening learning experience, Darren.
H :)
Andrea Smith
April 9th, 2009 11:32 pm
If it’s not too late to submit my list, here’s mine:
Top Ten Business Podcasts
http://www.talenttraders.com/
Rakesh Kumar
April 9th, 2009 11:35 pm
This post happens to be just in time for me as I had just setup my site few days and now I can learn how to take it to the right direction with Darren’s fantastic guidance.
Charlene @ A Virtuous Woman
April 9th, 2009 11:36 pm
One of the issues I’ve realized lately is that I’m following too many clone-blogs–different styles, but same content–and as a result I’ve unconciously narrowed my focus in a direction I didn’t intend. Time to step back, take a deep breath, and refocus.
Berni
April 9th, 2009 11:41 pm
I’m spend a lot of my “blogging” time interacting, observing and learning from other blogs in my niche. I think it’s all part of being a member of the community which makes blogging so rewarding. Us weight loss/health/fitness bloggers sure love a community!
Great guidelines Darren, thanks yet again.
Alison
April 9th, 2009 11:45 pm
My niche is the transition from bride to wife. The trick is finding the blogs that talk to the same thing. I’ve been following a great blog who has a fab following (she was a Bee (wedding bee blogger) as a bride so her past followers stayed loyal). She’s the perfect model for me. This whole SEO thing is very new to me so I look forward to improving in this area.
I also have a wedding planning blog, and the major players are HUGE but not local!! Finding local blogs that are interesting is pretty much non-existent, so I will continue to analyze my international blogs while making sure to Canadianize mine.
Thanks Darren!!
CaraCent
April 9th, 2009 11:49 pm
I’ve been perusing other bloggers’ sites for a while. The main thing I notice is that they have fun, colorful buttons/ads on the side bars, which always relate to saving money/bargains. Where do people get these from?
I am using a blogger template. Do I need to pay for a template to allow me to manipulate where the text is? Right now, I cant get text on both sides of my posts.
Forgive me if I’m using the terms here, I’m not that well versed in this stuff, BUT – I’m learning!!!
Tim
April 9th, 2009 11:52 pm
Not the most difficult task (does anyone NOT read other blogs in their niche with regularity?), but it was interesting to give a more analytic look at other blogs within the niche.
This is a good thing to do every so often, and can help inspire creative idea of your own.
Dee Wilcox
April 10th, 2009 12:02 am
Congrats to Thomas with the Soccer blog – 400 unique hits a day is a goal that seems out of sight for me, but it’s a good one to shoot for. Right now I average around 20 for daily posts. Favorite posts get between 40 and 100. Obviously, I have some work to do!
My niche is creativity and innovation, so I checked out four blogs from Technorati and the top five or six blogs on Google Blog Search. I noticed that most of them focus on news and technology, and they have a lot of advertising. I found the advertising distracting, but there was one blog in particular that I liked called Creativity Machine. The content is thoughtful, well-researched, and relevant. The layout and images are also appealing. However, I was surprised to see that they post very inconsistently and have few comments, which are counterintuitive to the standards for a successful blog. I’m not sure how to use analytics on someone else’s blog, so I can’t say for sure how much traffic they are getting. Still, I’m confused. The creativity/innovation blogs with a lot of comments are news-based. I don’t feel that I have the resources to keep up in that arena, but I will do some research today to see how I can improve that feature on my blog.
Leo Dirr
April 10th, 2009 12:06 am
Hey guys,
I’m on TwiTip today!
Anatomy of a Successful Tweet
Check it out:
http://tinyurl.com/clcpxj
Teacher Joe
April 10th, 2009 12:17 am
My niche (learning English as a second language) is another one where there are no truly successful blogs, at least that I know of, and I have spent a lot of time looking. I am an ESL teacher with a fairly successful website at http://www.teacherjoe.us and a potentially much more successful site just starting at http://www.laughandlearnenglish.com. My attempts at blogging have gone nowhere though, as students of English simply never comment, other than a few hardy souls who usually don’t need what I have to offer.
I just checked out an ESL blog that claims to have over 1500 subscribers. The typical post of that blog gets zero comments though some rare “popular” posts get 5 to 10 comments. About half of the total comments I saw were by the author of the blog, an ESL teacher from Canada. Most of the other comments were from three very prolific students. In other words, there is no engagement at all with the majority of subscribers.
I doubt the author makes much money from his blog. There were five adsense ads along the right side of the page. He seems to be targetting adult learners from South America. Two of the five ads were in Chinese, one was aimed at children. The author may make money from other sources, but nothing that is obvious to me.
These lessons have been useful for me so far, especially lesson 1 on developing and elevator pitch. However, I am seeing mostly a lot of confirmation that blogging will never be more than a hobby in the ESL world and that I am better off sticking with building static websites.
rebbieg
April 10th, 2009 12:19 am
I’ve looked at a couple blogs, but am not sure what I’m looking for…could anyone give me some ideas? I think it’s hard because I’m using a free blogging service and the blogs I’m finding are definitely not!!
http://wintheweddinggame.wordpress.com
– for this one I looked at junebugweddings.com
http://justcallmemsfrizzle.wordpress.com
– I checked out Steve Spangler’s blog
Evelyn
April 10th, 2009 12:23 am
Great information! I’ve been checking out other blogs in my niche to see what others are doing and I want to take a different spin on things.
I have a second blog, http://www.evelynpather.com in the same niche (raw foods, living naturally) and want to take a whole new spin on that blog. I’ve been slack in posting, but you have pumped me up to go for what is on my mind with the other blog.
My first blog is about my journey to raw foods and I try to do things differently (eves-journey.blogspot.com) and I am always checking out other blogs too. I posted an inspirational quote on yesterday and received some good feedback. I’m taking it all in as to what readers are looking for in my niche.
The content as well as the design captures my attention. If the posts are too long, I will not read unless they grab my attention.
Again, good assignment! You’re keeping us on our toes!
Thanks,
Evelyn
Steven Hanks
April 10th, 2009 12:31 am
Hi Darren,
before launching my blog I have investigated and read a lot of articles on problogger.net. I’d like to learn from the absolute #1!
Keep up the fantastic work.
Yours sincerely,
Steven Hanks
Robert Owen
April 10th, 2009 12:32 am
I follow several bloggers in my area but, none in the same “niche”. I tend to blog about random topics… Some PC support issues (hardware, viruses etc) and I post things that I find funny or interesting.
That may be the problem, I don’t have a solid focus. So finding another site as messed up as mine is hard. Boy this series is turning out to be harder than I thought. Any suggestions would be appreciated. http://www.owenwebs.com
Susan Petracco
April 10th, 2009 12:42 am
Well, I can mark this off without actually doing anything today. I have a list of about 5 fave blogs in my niche, but one clearly stands out and I watch them often. Fortunately we’re not really competitors, so I can gain a lot without feeling the need to compete with them. They have a good community of readers and commenters too, which is something I haven’t yet achieved, so it’s great to keep an eye on that while I build readership.
Barry Wright, III
April 10th, 2009 12:48 am
Don’t forget that one of the most common characteristics of successful blogs is that they have existed for a long time. It’s hard to be the best blog after a month. Problogger has been around for many years.
People don’t realize how hard it is to keep going that long. Something like 99% of all blogs don’t last beyond 6 months.
Every post you make is another drop in the bucket, individually they might not be a lot, but over time they become significant.
Nikhil
April 10th, 2009 12:49 am
Perfect Guide for me.
My favorite blog is Jacab Cass’s http://justcreativedesign.com I am so much inspired by his blog, his achievements, hi work.
Whenever I feel depressed I just go to Jacab’s Blog and read out the About page.
I always try be like him like to build portfolio like him, post the articles like him and much more….
Of course This article will help me to this in proper and desired way….
Barry Wright, III
April 10th, 2009 12:54 am
Teacher Joe – It looks like you have a great opportunity on your hands! If you can find a way to engage people (either teachers of ESL or learners) and have conversations with each other, you’ll dominate your part of the internet.
Have you considered putting a Google translate box on your page, for people who need help with a word or two? Maybe a dictionary java applet as well?
Of course, a blog doesn’t have to be the answer, but it can serve as a starting point for conversations.
lm
April 10th, 2009 1:03 am
Hi Darren,
I am at Day#4 task, i.e. to analyse top listed blog with similar niche.
My niche keyword is “swot analsyis”, when I made a search with blogsearch.google.com, many of fellow blogger’s blog appreared. But I could not find my blog. I can’t even find my own url i.e. “perform-swot.analysis.blogspot.com”
Is it because my blog is new (only 2 days )?
Hello Veggie
April 10th, 2009 1:04 am
Great challenge for the day, Darren. I regularly analyze other top blogs in my niche and I’ve found a lot of areas where the top blogs have ‘wholes’ that I would love to ‘fill’ in my blog. I’ve got a lot of plans for my progress, but I have a hard time knowing how to manage the additions to my blog that I want to make.
My blog is still relatively new, so I don’t want to make too many changes and content additions too fast. I feel like I need to establish my online presence first at a steady pace. Am I thinking on the wrong page?
Jenn
http://helloveggie.org
@helloveggie
Allen of Eating Out Loud
April 10th, 2009 1:06 am
I’m noticing on Compete that many of the sites I’m reviewing in my niche are listed as ‘trusted sites’ while I am ‘unknown’. Compete seems to use 3rd party data from GeoTrust and CastleCops.
How do I make my site ‘trusted’? Does this help with getting better indexing in search engines?
Thanks!
Allen
Smart Boy
April 10th, 2009 1:09 am
Excellent thoughts Darren. Learning from other blogs in your niche is surely sound advice, as it inspires creativity and fresh ideas for your own blog.
As you say though – use the blogs for inspiration, not copying. It’s important not to blur the lines.
Thank you,
Christian
Mark Lewis
April 10th, 2009 1:10 am
I learned a lot about blogging recently by checking out other blogs in my subject. I have also made some great connections that I otherwise would have missed.
imran
April 10th, 2009 1:22 am
Great advices. And these are the basic one step on should follow if he/she wants to get in to pro blogging.
by the way i call you pro-fessor blogger isn’t that right term for you :-}
Wayne John
April 10th, 2009 1:35 am
I routinely do this with every site I visit. Sometimes you’ll find unique items in off-niche blogs that can be incorporated too.
I have no clue who blog similarly to myself. I focus on helping bloggers with technical stuff, and mostly those on the Blogger system, since WordPress users are pretty well covered. Blogger users are ignored, even by Google (the help is horrible is what I mean there…).
I’m going to have to spend some time on this….
As always Darren, thank you very much for this.
Mary
April 10th, 2009 1:38 am
After doing the elevator pitch assignment, I’ve started to think of my site as “literary magazine meets blog,” so I’m observing other literary blogs, writers’ blogs and the like. Unfortunately, I think most established writers are not that tech savvy, so there aren’t that many truly good lit. blogs. The ones that are good in my opinion have minimalistic designs, lots of white space, judicious use of photos (not just clip art), and provide thought-provoking content. They don’t do as good a job of self-promotion as I think they could, considering that even the best have relatively low readerships. Another part of the challenge is that lit mags typically come out quarterly, but quarterly web sites have a hard time attracting repeat readers (I know because for the longest time, I would forget to visit those sites b/b it took so long for them to update). So, I think a strong site requires pretty regular updates, if not every day then at least on a somewhat predictable schedule.
Other sites I adore are what I’d call lifestyle blogs, like galadarling.com. What makes her so successful? Well, I think she tailors her image. She doesn’t expect her readers to slog through long sad posts about job hunting, money woes or dating issues. I think she plays a role on her blog that people are very attracted to and she seems to choose not to expose people to her more personal issues. So, while she has a really conversational, relaxed tone, it’s still not just a journal because she definitely edits to maintain a tone and an image. It’s subtle, but quite effective.
Tamikka
April 10th, 2009 1:41 am
Funny, I just did a post last night about why I like to follow a particular blogger in my niche (weight loss). I wrote about it here:
http://tamikkarochelle.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/99-is-a-bitch-100-is-a-breeze/
The thing that I noticed about him is that he stays within only a few topics. (Reading older posts confirms this.) He consistently blogs about 3-4 times a week which I enjoy. (The challenge is assiting me in writing daily even if I don’t post daily.)
A thing of note: he doesn’t give real particulars of his diet. He has presented it in different posts, but it’s not a daily log of food. He even calls it “extreme”. That is where I would differ. I’d share particulars so that others can duplicate and I have a log of my actions.
The thing that sets him apart is that he has done something that few people have done or are willing to do. He fills the “dream” for many people in our niche: rapid weight loss.
He doesn’t whine either. I love that. I’ve found with many weight loss bloggers, there is a lot of pity partying. I know a lifestyle change is hard, so I work to write about my solution rather than my problem. We all know the problems already.
se7en
April 10th, 2009 1:43 am
Task 1 to 3 done: http://www.se7en.org.za/2009/04/09/se7en-and-probloggers-31-dbbb but task 4 presents a bit of a challenge… I see all the best blogs in my niche have great design and easy access to past posts… I know that’s what I need… some way to make my archives quick and easy to get to… as for monetizing – I have no idea how to draw lovely sponsors to my blog!!! I approached two and the one said “we don’t advertise on the internet” and the second wanted to own my blog!!! So that’s what I am here to learn about!!!
Michael Grills
April 10th, 2009 1:44 am
I looked around and in my niche there are 2 types of top blogs.
The first is what people spend all day looking around the net and posting cool images and artworks that they find.
I don’t love the idea because I am doing my own work for myself and clients and don’t have time to search the internet for other peoples work. I don’t want to be another design magazine.
The second is that there is a group of bloggers working on the same subject. This seems to keep the blog fresh with images and inspiration.
To me this would be a great way to keep the blog fresh and exciting. But how do I go about getting people to join my blog?
Pat
April 10th, 2009 1:50 am
Great article Darren.
This is something I really must do as I know other blogs are getting more comments and better conversions than mine.
Al Mansur
April 10th, 2009 2:03 am
Thnx darren for the inspiration and knowledge that u share to us, hm..after i read this article, i am very interest to join this cool program.
Regards
Mario
April 10th, 2009 2:05 am
I couldn’t find a blog in my niche. At least nothing comparable.
What is actually great because I don’t get tempted to think about competition.
Thinking to much about your competition can withhold you from being creative for yourself. Look at the values you can create for yourself and so now and then take a look how other blogs are doing.
By looking around in the blogosphere in it’s whole, I recognize that I have to do a lot more with multimedia than I already do, like video and so on.
Teresa A George
April 10th, 2009 2:07 am
I found a successful blog (Technorati Top 100) in my niche and what I learned most from it was mainly concerning design.
The layout is clean, clear and simple – and looks ‘professional’. My blog looks messy and amateur in comparison.
Along with my posts I wanted to offer other fun/interesting/educational things on my blog to entertain readers.
But now I’m thinking I need to seriously overhaul how my blog looks.
Can anyone suggest a good-looking WP Theme that has parent/child page capability? (I had to change themes before because my previous theme didn’t have this – what a pain… I’m using Disciple now)
I’m really enjoying this challenge though – it’s really making me think about my blog and it’s… well… challenging!
Thanks Darren!
Jenna
April 10th, 2009 2:08 am
There are a lot of blogs in my niche, and there’s been some debate among them recently about what’s the best way to actually use an author’s blog.
My thoughts on the subject; namely that the best-beloved blogs are the ones that read like a journal rather than a selling tool; but the selling tool aspect doesn’t hurt, either. There probably is no “best way”, though there are several ways to do it wrong.
Bob
April 10th, 2009 2:14 am
Great thoughts, again!
I also use Google Alerts to see what the competition is doing!
Valerie
April 10th, 2009 2:19 am
This is a great exercise, and something that I sort-of do regularly in that I’m always reading blogs in my niche (fashion, crafty businesses). I’ve noticed the best ones have tons of gorgeous pictures and offer the reader something – advice, where to buy cool stuff, or tutorials. I’ve been wanting to add tutorials to my blog forever so now I know I’ve really got to do it! I do have a slight advantage in that not many fashion bloggers care about the craft or indie business world, and vice versa. I’m sure there are opportunities for me to exploit the fact that I love both and try to blog about both “scenes”. Thanks Darren, I am learning a lot from this process!
Baker @ Man Vs. Debt
April 10th, 2009 2:26 am
I was surprised when I actually went about the process of contacting some of the leading bloggers in my field. They not only responded, but were very helpful and encouraging!
They provided me with information about their sites that frankly I’m shocked me.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Most big time bloggers love giving back to small and medium size blogs!
Shantanu
April 10th, 2009 2:29 am
Hi Darren,
Well, this is one task that I have done multiple times over. My niche being technology and tips there are hundreds of better blogs to look at.
And learning from them I did make a few changes like add a RSS subscription button on the first page, add follow me on twitter links and much more.
I think a blogger must do this activity once in a while because for the ultimate success you need to aim at the top and see beyond it even.
Nice tip.
Best.
Shantanu.
http://www.threetipsaday.com
@threetips(twitter)
Matthew
April 10th, 2009 2:30 am
I have also a bit of trouble finding blogs in my niche “daily adventure” but I did find some adventure blogs, so I compared those.
It seems like I have a good start on my subscription options, but I need more ways to connect (Twitter, facebook, etc).
I like my theme, but had a few changes that I wanted to implement to make it a bit more user friendly… almost finished with my redesign, should be up over the weekend.
I need to spend some time focusing on getting more links. It seems as if every blog I review is better-linked than mine.
Take a moment and check out my blog… what are your impressions? I want to make it as good as possible and some feedback would be most beneficial.
http://adventure-some.com
darya
April 10th, 2009 2:40 am
Does anyone have any recommendations for healthy eating blogs by foodies that also happen to be scientists or have a science background?
I find that I don’t like many of the blogs because they talk about scientific studies without really knowing what they are talking about, which I think is really irresponsible.
I know of a few good ones, but would love to know if you have any favorites.
Vaughn
April 10th, 2009 2:42 am
All I can say is wow. This bog is really getting my juices going. I must admit to being intimidated by the thought of a blog but as of day 4, i find that i’m coming around and even getting excited. (thanks to all of you.)
I made some good headway in the twitter area (vsberkeley) but I’ve still so much to learn.
I’ll be doing my day 4 assignment and submitting the result later tonight. So look for it.
Cheers,
BTW, anyone know of good blogs that speak against poverty and homelessness (and I’m not talking about the get rich quick schemes)?
Thanks again to all of you.
Laura
April 10th, 2009 2:43 am
Interesting task. I’ve been reading lots of blogs in the arts and jewellery area recently as my blog is still fairly new, hence why I’m here! Interesting cross overs between the two areas when I analysed two top blogs which I might be able to incorporate into mine to bring a bit more cohesion. It’s quite clear I need to be brave and start showing my paintings in progress now. Thanks for this challenge, I’m enjoying it!
Kayla
April 10th, 2009 3:07 am
I have a lot more to analyze, but I’ve already found a lot of information.
Among them are a few things I already new I needed to improve upon (once I find the time) – more notable social networking/feed icons at the bottom of my post, logo and branding, and a better slot for the advertising space.
I have been doing some analyzing like this on my own, even before this post and have been working on improving my writing style mostly. Like I said, I have a lot more to look over and consider– basically the possibilities are endless with this extensive list you gave of examples and areas where I could improve.
I’m really enjoying this series–I do feel its really helping even by day 4!
Bruce > The Hockey Writers
April 10th, 2009 3:10 am
A quick tip for all that have notice very nice designs of the top blogs. They probably didn’t start that way. Other than corporate blogs many start small – with simple designs and if they become popular and make a few bucks then they hire a designer to freshen up the look and make it Pop.
You can take a peak at your competitors start by using The Way Back Machine. It might show you where they came from, and where yours can go with some patience and hard work.
Vladan
April 10th, 2009 3:11 am
My number of readers grows daily. I don’t really follow any strategies, but I’m trying to stick for 1 post a day. What ever happens. This is for me a must. And I can see this in resulting steady growing traffic.
Vladan
April 10th, 2009 3:12 am
Even that my domain is French. I’m blogging in English… -:)
Kathryn
April 10th, 2009 3:20 am
Hey Darren, from what I can tell, most of the sites that would be considered my competition in the Christian women’s genre are not getting very high page ranks. Does this mean my opportunity is greater in this area or that google doesn’t rank well in this area?
jams
April 10th, 2009 3:32 am
This is something that must be done more often! To actually see how those list posts are crowd magnets and so on. I’m planning to do this to several other sites too and hopefully learn something.
Honza
April 10th, 2009 3:35 am
If you don’t know where to turn, http://www.alltop.com is a good resource for good blogs.
Another thing that struck me when it came to successful blogs was their locality – many of them cater to the audience from the same country or state the blogger is located in. Do all successful blogs have to start this way?
Ryan Bickett
April 10th, 2009 3:46 am
This is excellent advice! I especially like your point, “Don’t become Obsessed with what other Bloggers are Doing.”
I often find myself falling into this trap. I see myself doing more research than actual work on my own blog and I need to balance out the two.
I am just starting out and so I think focusing on the research at this point is good to help me shape my site(s), but I also need to begin focusing on building my own site(s) and understand that it will always be a work in progress and that I can’t plan every aspect out up front.
Claudia Gonella
April 10th, 2009 3:48 am
My field: Real estate in Central America
The top blogggers: http://www.revealrealestate.com/blog/5-real-estate-bloggers-in-central-america-you-should-follow
Why they are the best: They have a distinctive voice, they have credibility from direct experience in the field, they don’t just push out positive news but cover the ground objectively, they find a different angle to the news and they are timely – responding to what is new.
Rose from FineCraftGuild dot com
April 10th, 2009 3:54 am
Darren,
I love the way you have set up this challenge.
It is all ready ‘doable’ albeit challenging
given my current other workload
and Easter coming up.
I so appreciate your love and care in this.
It truly speaks of a good heart!
Nik
April 10th, 2009 4:02 am
Two of my three favorite bloggers combine exciting design, good writing, and a tasteful selection of affiliate links.
The third has all of the above except good design. His website leaves a devastating visual impression. Yet his writing gives me a rush of excitement & enthusiasm the articles of the other two haven’t matched. His words have touched my life in a special way.
Statistics & learning from external factors have their place but good writing inspired by joy & passion is what will really make a difference for us and our audience.
If your writing is a deliciously uplifting experience for you, everything else will take care of itself.
One step at a time.
Gently.
With dignity & self-respect.
Mary H.
April 10th, 2009 4:13 am
Interesting idea.
I find that most of the really successful blogs are successful because they are able to not just write a blog, but also build a community. Readers not only read the blog, but read the comments and get to know other readers. They use the blog as a means to discuss, comment and argue over all sorts of issues.
One of the really successful horse blogs is fuglyhorseoftheday. She tends to write about controversial and heated subjects and ends up with a lot of lively discussion in her comments section!
Mary H.
http://stalecheerios.com/blog — a serial for positive animal training
ria
April 10th, 2009 4:16 am
i study my competition all the time. It looks like I can go toe to toe with any of them, but they’ve got several years on me whereas my blog isn’t even three months old yet. But I must be doing something right since My pr rank (5) means that even with my young blog I can and will succeed.
GloombergNews
April 10th, 2009 4:18 am
My niche: Economic/Financial Satire
My blog: http://www.gloombergnews.com
“top” blog I frequent: http://thereformedbroker.com
I think that in this entertainment niche, the reformed broker integrates pop culture with finance more than I do…
I need to work on this more and continue to spin the “real” economic news articles as I’ve been doing.
Nadia Payan
April 10th, 2009 4:24 am
Question 31 DBBB participants (and Darren too):
What sorts of sites should I look at as far as personal/point of view/anecdotal blogs go… The main one I can think of is http://dooce.com/ but I’d love to check out other leaders in this “niche”.
Thanks!
Nadia P
Matt Cheuvront
April 10th, 2009 4:30 am
Always good advice to monitor what other folks are doing to learn and grow, but be careful not to measure your success in relation to those around you. Be yourself, be unique, and the people will come. There are some SEO things you can do to get things flowing better – but once you have the groundwork laid out, you should be able to focus heavily on just putting out good, interesting, and relevant posts.
http://www.lifewithoutpants.com
Max Trescott
April 10th, 2009 4:30 am
My blog is on general aviation and I’ve been analyzing competive blogs and their traffic for over a month. Since my blog is meant to highlight my books and products–rather than to sell ads for other companies–I’m realizing that I need to change my focus from generating traffic to generating “the right traffic,” e.g., people who are most likely to buy my products. Time to redesign the site and change the focus on the posts.
Kelly
April 10th, 2009 4:37 am
I read other blogs in my niche and some that are similar daily. I know what I need to work on, as I have a critical eye for their work and mine!
That said I think I have a unique perspective and while I sometimes write posts inspired by other bloggers thoughts, I usually come up with what I want to talk about and use my own voice.
I know I’ll never copy anyone’s success, I just have to do what I feel is right and work hard on monetizing and producing good content and if I end up with a fraction of some of the big site’s readers I would be thrilled.
Jason
April 10th, 2009 4:37 am
Again thank you for lesson number 4. Will give your insight more thought if I have already used those steps in my blogs. Sometimes with all the pointers, we miss on the most important ones. Thank you for the clarity.
Jason
http://www.internetmarketing.com-seemore.info/
Rebeca
April 10th, 2009 5:29 am
i find myself trying to visit as many of the bloggers doing this challenge as possible, especially those who may be in my niche that are posting here. that’s been a little more difficult, but i’m finding some amazing people otherwise!
right now i’m scanning through alltop to find other blogs in my niche – it’s a great tool, if not mentioned already
Miss Cal.Q.L8
April 10th, 2009 5:32 am
Things I noticed about other blogs:
1. REALLY good content
2. A lot of inner linking
3. Contact Me form
4. Related Article Links
5. Post Titles that make you curious
6. A lot of list posts
7. Posting every 2-3 days
8. Guest posts
9. Giveaways
10. Series
11. Tags/Labels
12. Membership to other organizations/directories
13. Color
14. ReTweet/Digg Links
15. Humor
16. Headings- bold and color
Things I can do differently:
1. Writing from a Christian perspective as opposed to secular
2. List posts that aren’t just reasons but a step-by-step process
3. More humor!
4. Ask people to write guest posts
5. More series
6. Just keep going- I’m new but I’m doing well
Glenn Roberts
April 10th, 2009 5:37 am
I thought I had a real estate blog and after 3 months, discovered today that it is a neighborhood blog written by a real estate agent. What will I learn next?
Thanks, Darren, for the exercise to discover where I am and where I am headed.
Bridget Casas
April 10th, 2009 5:39 am
My progress so far:
I re-wrote my “elevator” pitch and I think it tells alot now. This also helped me organize my links to other sites I enjoy looking at. I created a list post but I don’t know how successful that was or if I even did it right. Having a photography site where I post a photo a day and tell a little about it and myself, is not very condusive to a list. I sent a few links out to friends to a specific post and commented on a few other sites I have been looking at. I look at other photo blogs often to see what they are like and to compare other’s to mine. I am not quite sure how to find the top photography blogs. I am not having much luck with that. I have been noticing more views on my site but I think it is from these comments here! I will take them any way I can!
Thank you for all of your helpful tips and ideas.
I noticed yesterday in your comments, “the squeaky wheel does get the grease!”
I would like it if you could look at my site and let me know how I am doing, but I realize you are way too busy to do soand that is not possible.
Thank you!
Kevin Oke
April 10th, 2009 5:50 am
I have been doing this for a few months now and believe it’s the best advice that can be given. The only stumbling block that I see is that we have to act on what we learn.
Time to get back to work on my photography blog!
This course is giving me the inspiration I need to take my blog to the next level.
Kevin’s Eclectic Photography Blog
ria
April 10th, 2009 5:53 am
One of the things that I’ve learned from studying the competition is that community is so important. Successful blogs in my niche always comment on other blogs and participate in forums in the same niche. I had a moderately successful blog last year, but I think it could have been more successful if I did these two things. Since I’ve started a new blog, I’ve incorporated these practices, and I have seen better results even though it’s still too early to tell since my blog is still new.
KB
April 10th, 2009 6:05 am
This is a great task. I’ve realised my blog is not really one of those avant garde fashion blogs, I’m just trying to keep it true to myself and my style. I will try and build something that is my own, it’s just taking a while to develop.
http://iwantyoutoknowit.blogspot.com/
Alison -- surefoodsliving.com
April 10th, 2009 6:13 am
Roy,
I am a health blogger too, writing about living with celiac disease, gluten intolerance and food allergies. Mine is such a niche that most blogs like mine are not in Alexa or top rankings.
It’s hard not to get caught up in what others are doing and get insecure! I try to just forge ahead and do what I do…
Jon Reid
April 10th, 2009 6:15 am
One thing I did when I started blogging (6 years ago) was to add a small image related to the post, in order to keep it from being all text. But when I say small, I mean 100×100 pixels, usually kept around 5KB so as not to burden people using dial-up modems.
Times have changed. This post here is an excellent example of a big, eye-catching, customized image.
ptc4you
April 10th, 2009 6:18 am
it’s great post and very good ideas
thank you daren
Kimberly Sena Moore
April 10th, 2009 6:26 am
My niche is music therapy. There are a few blogs out there (I have only found 5 so far) and all of us already have different specialities. But no one, yet, has “made it big”, so to speak. Maybe I can be first first? Hmmm…
Glen
April 10th, 2009 6:30 am
When I started today’s assignment I thought that it would be pretty easy finding blogs in my niche of distance education. Most of the blogs that I came across were pretty spammy.
I wrote a post about it and will continue looking to see if I can find others in my niche that are doing similar things to what I am doing.
http://distancetips.com/2009/04/09/are-most-distance-education-blogs-nothing-more-than-splogs/
Tobias
April 10th, 2009 6:32 am
Done.
http://development.tobiasopdenbrouw.nl/post/2009/04/09/5-blogs-every-ASPNET-programmer-should-know-analyzed-(31-DBBB-4-method).aspx
I gave some love to codeclimber.net.nz cause I ran into it from BlogEngine.NET searches and on the 31-DBBB. And it’s valid.
4/4 for the challenges so far, thanks!
Susan
April 10th, 2009 6:37 am
Nothing around exactly, but I did find one with a lot of similar themes
this person has been doing this stuff a very long time. But I picked up a couple of ideas. The whole process of not finding similar stuff actually galvanised me into learning a bit more about some “how to -” topics, adding a couple of gadgets to my site , and posting a prepared piece on Slovenia. I really must do something about links, and try not to worry too much about the shrouded mysteries of the many technical things others talk about.lol
Jeff
April 10th, 2009 6:38 am
I found one blog with in my niche, ( I’m not sure if thats good or bad) I also learned that my blog ranks 18,573,897 (the blog the question is out of how many). They rank 179,465. did see that they get very few comments (so I’m guessing that comments are not very important).
Andy Petranek
April 10th, 2009 6:39 am
I just completed my list from Tuesday’s task and I wasn’t sure where to post it… here, or on Tuesday’s post, so I’m just wingin’ in and posting it here.
I’ve never created a list before. Takes a bit more thinking and time in order to be creative and unique, but I’ve had 9 comments thus far, which is definitely better than average.
http://www.crossfitla.com/cms/index.php/home/comments/gluten_free_-_the_results_after_almost_a_month/
Peter Konz
April 10th, 2009 7:09 am
As a person new to the blogger world with a blog in its infancy I have been doing much of what you have suggested. The questions that you shared were helpul, but the encouragement to be yourself and unique was the best admonition.
Dominique
April 10th, 2009 7:38 am
I’ve always said it’s a little tough to find someone covering exactly the same niche I do (Midwest US travel), so I took a look at a couple of blogs for analysis.
The first is a major travel blog that just won a prestigious NatGeo award.
This blogger is very active, posting daily photos, one or more blog posts most days, running frequent contests (with token prizes mostly). I see him a lot out on Twitter. He posts stats on a separate page for potential advertisers’ benefit (and his # of Twitter followers and feed subscribers is posted prominently on his blog’s home page).
He seems to regularly check his comments and interact with commenters.
Of course, the blog is one of the major ways he publicizes his full-time traveling. He’s online far more than I can be at this point.
Great photography, though, and he gets a ton of responses when he has a giveaway for some token gift he’s picked up in his extensive travels (few seem to resist his “win my cheap crap” pitch :lol:)
He’s quite explicit about wanting to develop sponsorships that may hinge on more than simple page impressions (like adventure gear companies looking for road testing and review of products, lodging in exchange for honest review). Don’t know how successful he’s been with that.
The other blog I looked at is by a mother with several children living in, and traveling mostly in the Midwest. She’s a couple of states away, and a her travel is kid-friendly (if not kid-centric) for the most part. But it is my region and she shares the same interest in the types of museums, historical sites and roadside oddities I like to cover in my own blog.
She’s also active on Twitter and is a regular poster on another travel blog, as well as a travel/parenting blog. Occasional guest posters help her expand her coverage beyond her home state and the few neighboring states she visits regularly.
One of the posts she drew the most comments on was a post about a less-than-peak experience she and her children had at a well-known candy factory attraction and amusement park. She also participates in the same blog carnival I do (and these posts look like they draw a good number of comments for both of us each week).
She does have some ads along the right hand side of her pages (mostly from an advertising network).
She does posts linking to other blogs fairly regularly (a collection of family-friendly posts).
I like the fact that she has a nice header with photos from her family’s personal travels in the background. But, as someone else pointed out here, fancy design will have to wait…I’m concentrating on content and building traffic first.
Both of the blogs I looked at have prominent subscribe buttons at the top of their home page. The sites both also have multiple pages devoted to special topics (travel gear, frugal travel tips, etc), in addition to the blogs’ main page.
If I emulate nothing else from these two blogs, at least in the short term, I think figuring out how to get a more prominent “subscribe” button on my blog and thinking how I might add additional resource pages (plus developing a better bio on my “About” page) might help give my readers a little more reason to stick around my site and an easier way to get back to it.
How To Blog
April 10th, 2009 7:38 am
This is really good advice and is something that I have been trying to do ever since I started my blog.
It can be very useful to look at what your competitors are doing and see what you can do better. This has prompted me to make some functional changes to my blog and it has also given me some really valuable insights into how I can plug the gaps that my competitors are missing.
The downside is that you get totally absorbed into reading other blogs and spend a lot of time browsing that you should be spending blogging :-(
Sarah
Mattb4rd
April 10th, 2009 7:53 am
I found a blog like mine quite by accident months ago, and by “like mine” I mean that the niche is that it doesn’t fit into one, and was quite surprised when I discovered that it was a “top blog”.
One thing that struck my right away was that the main page displayed far more posts and links to internal content than mine did. So I changed that. There are now no fewer than 20 links to my content on my home page with 5 of those being featured posts.
I even added an archive tab so that visitors so inclined could view all of my content in one place. The archive page hasn’t gotten much traffic itself, but overall traffic has improved steadily since I started paying attention to such things.
Enjoying the 31DBBB!
Elena
April 10th, 2009 8:57 am
Believe it or not, since dogs weren’t one of Technorati’s 100 top topics, I found reading other comments just as informative. Great post! I plan on finding more similar dog-related blogs for research.
Chas
April 10th, 2009 9:06 am
Very worthwhile exercise. I took the time to look at quite a few two wheeled blogs: I have a lot of work to do. Thanks for the push.
Coop
April 10th, 2009 9:11 am
I’ve gotten some of the best ideas for my blog by checking in on the competitors. It can also drive you crazy trying to figure out how they did something you like, especially when you’re a noobie.
Movie blogs seem to thrive on comments so I’ve been focusing on generating that the last week or so. That plus pillar articles and SEO.
Monetization has got me weirded out though. I had bad experiences with Adsense in the past and I hope I can find something better that works for my type of site. Wish there was more I could peddle than just Amazon affiliate wares and ads that generate mere peanuts.
Seth
April 10th, 2009 9:14 am
This sounds like a great Idea! Dose anyone know any blogs like mine?
http://sethsblogonnothing.blogspot.com/
This could be very helpful. I wish I would have thought it up myself.
Holly Page
April 10th, 2009 9:15 am
This was a useful exercise. Most of the blogs that do well in my niche (sex and relationships advice) are magazine-style with many writers, so it gives perspective to look at more direct competition (smaller blog, with 1-2 writers) and see what they are doing.
One of the takeaways that I got is that it’s OK to write short posts if it means posting more frequently. I always wait until I have a developed idea before I write and post, but the blogs I read that post 2-3 times a day are able to do so because they have shorter posts.
Liz Hover
April 10th, 2009 9:19 am
I am a reading and information machine. I read posts/visit blogs on a spectacular scale. So I’ve seen a lot. And envied many. I like to think that my interest has been put to good use and displayed on my own blog in design and content. But there’s always enormous room for improvement.
I looked at the top 100 blogs (by number of fans) on Technorati and picked several to take a gander at. I noticed these things:
1. Popular bloggers write with personality – posts are chatty.
2. There is no accounting for taste – why some blogs are popular I’ll never know.
3. Things which work for some will not work for others.
My conclusion – always keep an eye on what others are doing and if you think something of theirs will work on your blog, adapt it. Above all, be yourself.
Ryan McLean
April 10th, 2009 9:46 am
Wow,
This is a really interesting. Because the majority of A-List blogs in my niche are actually personal blogs.
John Chow, Shoemoney etc. So many Internet Marketing blogs are actually based around people’s name
Internet Business With Purpose
April 10th, 2009 9:47 am
Completed Day 4 of the challenge and posted a review of http://www.TerryDean.org on my website.
It’s quite extensive and even has a few snapshots for anyone who would like an example of How To Analyze another blog in their nitch.
Here’s the link to the post:
http://www.reallifepurpose.com/analyzing-terry-deans-blog/
Thanks,
Greg
sarah mae
April 10th, 2009 9:51 am
I want to know who’s blog YOU look at to learn from!
sarah mae
April 10th, 2009 9:52 am
I want to know whose blog YOU look at to learn from!
amanda lee
April 10th, 2009 9:56 am
This is really great advice. I think when I was first blogging I tried way too hard to copy directly from bloggers in my niche (fashion/design), but I’m getting a little better at adapting and being original. :-)
Sean O'Connor
April 10th, 2009 10:35 am
Thank you for that, great explanation on how to look at sites to see what to do and what not to do.
I’ve found it hard, in fact next to impossible to find any other blogs on my market. I’m pretty much the only one! Gah.
Daryl Urig
April 10th, 2009 10:51 am
Could not spend 15 minutes, had to spend much more and review lots of blogs.
Looks like the longer your one column is with widgets, links, advertisments and tons of other stuff, the better your listing in google.
There are many submit your blog sites and blogs are these good.
How many widgets are too many?
Daryl
Andi
April 10th, 2009 11:21 am
Another interesting assignment: http://budurl.com/2rqp
P.S. Holding a giveaway tomorrow on my site if anyone is interested in blogging books, and gadgets, come check it out.
Really enjoying the project. I have met some really great people so far thru this endeavor.
La Mccoy
April 10th, 2009 11:29 am
Darren,
Thanks for all the great ideas. i have been learning a lot today reading your recommendations and looking at the blogs and comments in the comment section. This project reflects a lot of hard work and talent in our world.
I noticed many comments referred to websites but did not see a link to them. Does the link have to be put a second time in the comment section? Like this? http://germanedel.blogspot.com/
i am working a light-hearted fun blog to focus on learning the daily lessons.
I tried to send a comment yesterday but may not have submitted correctly.
Still learning here. LMc
Palma | Buddha Trance
April 10th, 2009 11:32 am
Hi Darren,
I have been looking at blogs within my niche for quite a while, but I never went to analyze in terms of traffic, ranking, and popularity. My judgment was (and still is) based on my personal impression of the site, due to design, original idea, and content. Often times, that does not translate automatically into high traffic and success.
In general, many “successful” sites with a lot of traffic, are very sales pitch oriented, with good SEO and cookie-cutter layout, but these are sites that as a reader I am not interested in. I don’t care how popular they are.
This is an exciting task, which I will have to do in the morning, due to a very busy and long day…
La Mccoy
April 10th, 2009 11:39 am
a
Frank
April 10th, 2009 11:47 am
This information gave me a chance to take a step back and look at how I run my own blog. I can say I am very pleased with how I run my blog because I feel its my own. Nobody else writes like I do and I have created my own identity behind my posts. My writing style interests people and this post I just read gave me the confidence to continue doing what I have been doing.
laidoffguy
April 10th, 2009 11:57 am
Good lesson Darren! I have researched other “laid off” blogs in the past, but found a couple that are almost totally opposite. One began covering the how/what/why of being laid off from a personal experience. Another just rambles on as a single dad with a purpose and mission in life and makes some neat observations of himself and others. Nothing is said about his state of affairs.
The list of things to look for were very helpful and I did write down the answers (for my own sense of organization). It’s nice to know what is important and what to look for when you look at others’ blogs.
Jim
http://iwaslaidoff.info/ten-things-to-do-wrong-if-you-are-self-employed/
Glam Gals
April 10th, 2009 12:01 pm
We were very inspired by this. We took a look at the Satorialist.
He is not using any advertising and does not sell anything?hmmmm???
However his topic and photos are awe inspiring!
Callisto
April 10th, 2009 12:02 pm
Hmm I couldn’t really find any blogs that do exactly what mine does, so I looked at top gaming blogs and I looked at top snark blogs and combined my data.
Here’s what I gathered, and maybe some of you will find this useful:
* A relevant image per post. If a relevant image cannot be found, one is photoshopped or doodled. Every post has something to look at, they all have eye candy. They are usually humorous. Adding at least one eye-catching image to your post makes it more memorable. For instance, I remember reading a post about how video games cause people to breast-feed their children very clearly because they posted a photoshop image of Laura Croft with a baby in the post with it.
* Being active in communities dealing with the topic. I need to hang out more on forums for gaming and all around snarkiness instead of just lurking all the time. This is hard for me because I’m really shy. But if I can say insightful things in forums, people are more likely to want to know what I say on my blog.
* I noticed the blogs with a simple design and flowing color scheme worked a lot better for me than the ones with cluttered interfaces. People want their content NOW and not all that other stuff. They also want to “feel” a difference between your blog an another, so you need a consistent color scheme.
* Post every day. This is something I tried to do but I had trouble coming up with deep content every single day. I’ve noticed that the other blogs will do series of posts on one topic, or a small post every day with one big one each week.
Erica
April 10th, 2009 12:14 pm
It’s funny because I was looking through my google reader this morning trying to find another blog that fits into my niche, and I think that part of the reason why I started writing was because I initially could not find one. All of the female based techie sites were all about gadgets and pink electronics. I wanted a different focus. So far all i have been able to find are links to organizations and foundations for women in IT and Technology related fields. If anyone out there wants to swap links, please let me know.
Hollie
April 10th, 2009 12:28 pm
I was able this week actually when I made my list of Canadian Money Saving Blogs to actually get a real look into some of the blogs that are in a niche I want to look at more.
I am learning fast as the new blogger on the block I need a cleaner looking blog, and offer unique to my space input, so I am thinking,
D. Travis North
April 10th, 2009 12:31 pm
Not trying to kiss-up, Darren, but I would have to say you pretty much have one of the best blogs in the world of Photography Education that I’ve seen. Aside from the obvious fact that you are able to push more content out on DPS with multiple writers and you can appeal to a wider audience (all skill levels) because of the skill sets of each of your writers, there are some things that I certainly have learned from in the past. First and foremost, I’ve been analyzing the design of your DPS. It’s not unlike a magazine, in a way. While that isn’t the direct I’d like to take my blog, I think the design certainly teaches a lot. The biggest thing I noticed that already was a cause to alter my own design was that your front page is a nice summary of pretty much everything that’s happened in the last week. I have slowly been experimenting with finding a happy medium between a magazine style site like yours and a traditional blog.
Avil Beckford
April 10th, 2009 12:31 pm
Darren,
I am very grateful for this exercise, which I found extremely useful. I have to spend more anlyzing websites. Because of what my blog offers I had to look at two different types of blogs and I got some ideas. But more importantly, going through the process got my creative juices flowing and I thought of unique things to add to my blog. For example, many of the book review websites have an Amazon search function, but most of the books I review are over 50 years old so I have to figure out how to have a Gutenberg search.
Thanks again!
Meredith
April 10th, 2009 12:45 pm
Not really sure what my niche is, yet. Is it possible that I’m niche-less?
http://meredithelaine.wordpress.com/2009/04/09/niche-y-gitchy-ya-ya-da-da/
Tommy
April 10th, 2009 1:01 pm
Just stopping by today I did this assignment and posted about it on the blog at 31DBBB Day 4: Analyze a Top Blog I will elaborate more later, I am pretty burnt out tonight :)
Eric Miltsch
April 10th, 2009 1:01 pm
Darren,
I enjoy doing this – yet, never really took the time to write about it though…I chose to do a quick review on a new blog that should get some instant attention simply because of its brand and affiliation…
http://www.whybuyusedcars.com/2009/04/09/usa-today-gets-smart-about-cars/
Also – after these first few days, I’ve already had more comments than the entire previous month.
Thanks!
lizriz
April 10th, 2009 1:07 pm
I do this a lot, actually, in an ongoing way. Ideas I saw today on some awesome personal life blogs that I love and admire:
1. Putting my blog rolls on a separate page for a cleaner home page.
2. There’s always the option to go self-hosted, but I rather like Typepad.
3. Improving my photography would be huge.
4. Create a list of my favorite posts.
The thing I’ve most been observing on other personal blogs is how they work their comments. Haven’t quite figured out why some blogs get so so many, while others don’t.
Lori Leavitt Evans
April 10th, 2009 1:33 pm
I have trouble finding leadership and performance management blogs in Technorati…
For this lesson I’ve selected blogs.harvardbusiness.org. I’m a bit lost regarding how to check their traffic and how that traffic finds them. Help is welcome!
FYI, my blog (collaborative-action.com) is fairly new and I’m not sure if anyone would find it, if I was not also on Twitter.
No one has commented yet on checking out how a blog uses other social tools to attract readers, so I just thought I’d point it out!
Happy to be here.
-Lori
BuzzNova
April 10th, 2009 1:41 pm
I’m using a wordpress blog too. Darren, do you have a list somewhere of all the plugins you use on your site?
elizof
April 10th, 2009 1:55 pm
Day 4 of a great challenge and I can feel the familiar burn of embarrassed recognition that I am truly a novice on this site. My timing couldn’t be better because I will learn as I grow both my blogs and my knowledge of what it takes to be a better blogger.
What I have observed from the few blogs I subscribe to and read is that content is key. Some of them have rich, varied topics covered, some great photos, links, ads, guest writers and so on… but I read because they teach me something new.
I also noticed that they have been around for several years and have a rich database of material to look at … so there is hope for those of us who are new to this.
I don’t spend a lot of time shopping blogs or even looking for new ones as I want to focus on developing my unique style and not copying others. However, I definitely understand the value of linking to others and adding comments and will do more of that.
Honestly, I do not spend a lot of time wondering about finding/creating a niche because I want to get into the flow of blogging without boxing myself and my thoughts in…
I want to keep writing what triggers an opinion in my head and as time goes by, I am completely confident a pattern will emerge.
For now, I need more content and the renewed discipline of adding new blogs to my two sites. I also need to learn all the technical stuff to do to make my site better… or hire someone to help me.
I have lots of ideas on how I want my sites to be and will have to seriously consider using a more technically savvy person for that.
Thanks Darren for claiming not to be so technologically inclined…. or maybe I think that was said years back when you first started blogging.
Anyhow, I am so happy I signed up for this challenge. What I do have is patience and I believe it will serve me well in the long run. I will grow and get better. I have no other choice.
Thanks all!
CGabriel
April 10th, 2009 2:00 pm
I tried to get my list post on from the other day. Better late than never. Here it is:
The Three Minnesota Driving Styles Direct from Hades
Aidil TipsGoda
April 10th, 2009 2:01 pm
thanks Darren ,if you want to be the best, you have to follow the best but with your own originality.
For my blog on tips on dating and relationship, im focusing more on fixing my design and choosing the best topics that people are more keen to respond.
desiree fawn
April 10th, 2009 2:23 pm
I definitely read blogs in my (somewhat widened niche) everyday. It’s really great to check out what they are doing in terms of:
- layout
- content
- style of writing
Since I write a more personal blog, one of my challenges is to stick out of all of the other personal/mom/design/life blogs.
So far, so good! My traffic has been increasing each day :)
Lydia
April 10th, 2009 2:44 pm
My conclusions: For my homeschooling blog (http://www.littleblueschool.com), I need an ethos. An axe to grind. A position that’s political/religious/pedagogical or in some way adversarial to some other position. All the top homeschooling blogs are either hyper-religious, political, or… they’re in some way evangelizing. I did that, somewhat, during the election, and my hits went way up because as a homeschooler for Obama, I was controversial.
For my other blog (http://www.theharpoonist.com), I need focus. It can’t be today I critique American Idol and tomorrow I critique Pynchon. Unless, somehow, it can.
Michelle
April 10th, 2009 2:47 pm
I hate to admit it, but doing a task like this makes me feel a bit like I did when I was in high school – insecure and a little left out!
I have to remember that even though my blog is about cooking, it isn’t really a “foodie” blog. It isn’t about sophisticated recipes and food-porn quality photographs. Those are fun for me to read, but they are not what I am trying to emulate. If I compare my blog to theirs, I feel like the outcast from a clique. But in all honesty, it is like comparing apples to oranges.
I need to keep MY focus – cooking with kids for a healthier body and planet, and a better community. It isn’t about cute recipes for kids. Or cookies and candy. It is about fresh and seasonal ingredients that keep our bodies and planet healthy. It is also about cooking with kids as a way of helping the needy.
This activity helped me to review the other blogs out there that connect kids and food…but also helped me to remember that I have to focus on what makes my blog mine: Spending time with kids: cooking, eating and helping others.
http://whatscookingblog.com
Lesa
April 10th, 2009 2:47 pm
I found a couple that will be very helpful to study. One uses a language style that is very different from my target market, but the information is great! I’ll be browsing through for a while.
Maria Keckler
April 10th, 2009 3:36 pm
Great tips. Like many here, I’m also in the process of finding similar blogs that privide writing essentials & connections for “Servant Writers.”
Of course, I found the writing blogs, the publishing blogs, and also the writer forum blogs. But nothing quite close to the focus of writingtoserve.net.
But with the observation tips you offered, I am able to observe and learn from what they are doing,
Great lesson that I will continue to apply. By the way, Thanks to this community of learners, I’ve been able to connect to some great blogs and writers!
Thanks for the community.
Maria
panks
April 10th, 2009 3:44 pm
It seems funny, there is no health blog that is really great. I mean WebMD is there, but then I don’t think that is much relevant to Prospective Medical and Dental Professionals.
Its ironic, the first comment talked about the similar problem we face, nothing to compare. The topics we guys choose can never be viral as i see. How many people might be interested in Multiple Sclerosis?
There should be a Darren for our field in Medical, Dentistry and Health. Can you teach me more Darren? I actually try to talk about all these fields.
There is no free service for students and I aim to provide that. Ambitious?? May be ;)
http://www.MedAbroad.info
picky cook
April 10th, 2009 4:20 pm
Another great exercise – I frequent blogs in my space but this exercise had me really looking at what they are doing. Lots of good ideas sparked in my head!
Susan
April 10th, 2009 5:57 pm
Just another thing I would like to ask now while I am being really proactive – I ve found some great info around looking at sites and wandering off – understand in principle what RSS, ATOM, SEO is even looked at some of Darren’s stuff on ADSENSE and google analytics. But living where I do I have no regular phone number, so would you believe it I cant use ADSENSE even if I want to….?
So for bonus points anyone know where I find a simple gadget for counting if anyone goes near my blog? Any help appreciated…
Kate Foy
April 10th, 2009 6:06 pm
I’m working on developing a new look and feel to my blog and Day 4’s task has helped crystallise what I want from a new blend of two old blogs.
Here’s the post: Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Bloggery: http://katefoy.com/?p=1055
Ed Coffin
April 10th, 2009 8:02 pm
Whenever I look at the top blogs in my niche, it makes me realize that I need a better look and feel to my blog. I use blogger, so I am not sure how to get away from using the templates. I have limited knowledge on how to alter it myself and have done so to the best of my abilities. It looks much better than most of the lesser blogs in my niche, but I would still like something a bit more eye-catching. After reading this post, I will start keeping a better lookout for things such as topics driving traffic, advertising, etc when I read the top blogs in my niche!
Keith Jenkins
April 10th, 2009 9:12 pm
“I try to observe, learn, and still just be myself.” – nice one Thom! I think that that is a great balance. – Darren Rowse
That is great advice and I try to do that every day. I’ve been observing several blogs for the past few weeks and I performed an interesting experiment with one of my fellow bloggers in the past week. He wrote a ‘negative’ article (most disappointing tourist attractions) and I took that idea and gave it a positive twist (most impressive tourist attractions), and we linked up our two articles. Guess it’s human nature to be more interested in ‘bad news’. No guessing which article received the most responses! :-) We discussed it and another fellow blogger sent me a fascinating graph to prove that ‘bad news’ does indeed sell better! Check out the graph: http://bit.ly/1v6E5d
Great experiment and the result was crystal clear. I’m still not going to change my positive focus though. :-)
ChristiaanH
April 10th, 2009 9:13 pm
Okay, I’m HAPPY!!!!
The number of subscribers to my RSS feed raised with 400% overnight!
What a nice way to begin the day! Thank you!
karan
April 10th, 2009 9:37 pm
Hi Darren. Somewhere there is a unwritten rule try to stick to one area when you blog. dont write about too many stuff… well i really dont follow the rules pretty much.. i dont have a niche. i comment on anything and everything.. sports,politics,movies,bookst.t.v shows my gym days, my heartbreaks… I like to believe i am unique but i may be wrong…so no Top blog in “my niche”. atleast till now
iCan't Internet
April 10th, 2009 9:37 pm
A good way of thinking when looking at other blogs: be glad with what you’ve created, but look at what’s better at others, and try to improve yourself.
Always keep on learning!!!
Michael Layer
April 10th, 2009 10:35 pm
Hello Darren,
thanks for all your very helpful ideas, tips and exersises. I really enjoy this challenge and also follow your tweets on twitter.
I’m right now in the process of building a corporate blog for my company BWK Dachzubehoer GmbH. We are a German producer of roofing equipment. I’m also writing my final diploma thesis about the risks and chances of corporate blogging for small and medium-sized businesses.
Unfortunately I couln’t find any other German blogs in our niche. I guess we’ll have the first corporate blog in this business field, at least in Germany.
Did by any chance see somebody any other blogs dealing with similar topics and products?
Thanks for your help and inspiration Darren, I’m looking forward to the next task.
amanda lee
April 10th, 2009 10:44 pm
As I was falling asleep last night, I found a way to paraphrase what I said earlier in a much more eloquent way:
When I was newer at blogging, I used to look at other bloggers and try to copy the types of things they do. Now I look at other bloggers and try to have similar kinds of effects that they have on their readers but while doing things my own way–the ones that I look up to are all super-successful at getting people excited, letting them participate, presenting new ideas, and being original. And I’m much happier with it.
Dawnaurora
April 10th, 2009 11:02 pm
Sometimes with my blog I can hit the mark and have my readers interact and some posts I do not get anything. This analyzing post may help me hit the mark a bit more.
Thanks
Chris Somers
April 10th, 2009 11:22 pm
What a great exercise ! One can learn a ton just from reading, watching and learning from other top bloggers !
I did the task and wrote a blog post about it:
http://activerain.com/blogsview/1027860/Learning-from-Other-Successful-Bloggers-Watch-Listen-and-Observe
Nicole Hernandez
April 10th, 2009 11:40 pm
@Bradford Shimp
Since your brought up your blog design, I’d agree that it’s an issue on your blog. I took a look and it just feels very tight at the top of the page. You might try a search for minimal wordpress themes and see what you come up with :) Something with good spacing that feels more open would be a good fit. Once I was able to focus on the articles though… you do have good content.
@Ed Coffin
You also mentioned blog design, and actually I don’t really think there’s much wrong with your core design.. you just have an awful lot of stuff the page ;) It’s an easy thing to get caught in, the ever-growing sidebar syndrome. Example, do you really need 2 other (and different) ways to follow you on Twitter in your sidebar when you have a link to follow you on twitter at the bottom of each post? There are blog templates for blogger too that you can find on a google search – in fact, a lot of WP templates have been ported over to it.
kosmo @ The Casual Observer
April 11th, 2009 12:02 am
Ah, if I only had a niche :) My niche is the fact that I write about a lot of different things. Probably not the most profitable type of blog, but I enjoy writing it.
Still, this is a great tip. I have actually been paying a lot of attention to what some other blogs doing, and determining how certain things might or might not work for me.
http://www.observingcasually.com/
أطياف مصر
April 11th, 2009 12:21 am
I have posted a new one which talk about ” the red lines ” but my post in Arabic .. you can translate and give me your Advise that will great price from you >> thanks
http://atyafmsr.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-post_6630.html
Dana
April 11th, 2009 12:34 am
I’m not sure if this is encouraging or discouraging, but the big thing I noticed in the most successful blogs I looked at was that the authors were known for something other than blogging. They have been writing and speaking for years and the blog is an extension of that.
Either that or they’ve been online since the internet began.
manikandan
April 11th, 2009 12:37 am
wow! this exercise was so nice to test my self from other bloggers.i had learned lots of things from this.
thanks to Darren.
my blog : http://www.readycashforu.blogspot.com
Lorraine Ball
April 11th, 2009 1:05 am
Looking at the competition was interesting. Few people approach it the way I do, and after reading your post I am ok with that.
Most people writing for small biz, lead with their blog, promoting their expertise, and hoping to sell add space. For me, the goal is to build my marketing business, so I lead with the biz site, and have blog posts on the home page. I don’t sell ads, but am trying to promote my products.
The popular sites seem to have lots and lots of lists, but not necessarily the best posts. While I will do lists, I think I want to carve out a niche as a great content source.
Also, the best ranked blogs, seem to be the most focused ( back to day one activitty – elevator pitch! )
Thanks for this assignment, it is something I am going to do again and again.
Quest
April 11th, 2009 1:59 am
Darren,
Thanks for this exercise because it is helping me to further define my niche and I have determined there is a underserve market from my competition and I want to see if I can capture that niche over the next 31 days. Thanks again for all of your wisdom and expertise.
Ben Mapp
April 11th, 2009 2:05 am
Didn’t spend as much time on this as I would have liked.
Observations:
I need to focus more on what differentiates my blog. Layout, organization, and voice are some of the elements that do.
I need to focus more on
- generating unique content, especially video.
- link backs from other sites/directories, etc.
- adding a compelling portrait
Again, thanks for another thought-provoking challenge and one that I’ll keep re-visiting.
-Ben
Heathen Mom
April 11th, 2009 2:35 am
My niche is secular homeschooling. I have found that the majority of successful homeschooling blogs to be religious in nature.
This was a useful exercise for me to complete. It was interesting to visit a variety of blogs about homeschooling.
fazreen
April 11th, 2009 3:26 am
great exersice..give me some idea how to find unique post when observe my competitors. thanks Darren so much
musicalthought
April 11th, 2009 3:46 am
It appears that the academic-type blogs have the most traffic when they dovetail with pop culture? I looked at musicalperceptions.blogspot.com His post regarding bracketology/musicology/graduate programs and his post regarding music in movies had the highest number of comments.
Also, he seems to get much traffic via a very large number of links he provides to other blogs/sites.
musicalthought.wordpress.com
Make Money Online
April 11th, 2009 4:23 am
This needs to be done any which way. One should actually subscribe to all competitors to keep a track of them.
Bill
April 11th, 2009 4:42 am
The hardest part of this challenge has been finding any decent blogs to analyse. I write a personal blog which I am now using to share my experience in learning Mandarin Chinese. I’ve taken time out to analyse blogs before and have a template ready, but the most important thing is part one of today’s challenge: Identifying a top blog in your niche.
The search is still on.
Erin
April 11th, 2009 4:52 am
When I first started blogging I would adopt every single cool thing I found on other bloggers’ sites for my own, even if I didn’t quite understand how it all worked. It didn’t take long at all for my blog to look like a poorly decorated high school locker door. What Darren says is important: just because it worked for someone else does not necessarily mean that it will work for you. Before you start copying or “adopting” make sure that you do your research!
Stephanie
April 11th, 2009 5:03 am
Darren,
I wanted to thank you for having us do this lesson about analyzing other peoples blogs. It helped me uncover a problem with my own site. After comparing it to others I noticed my outbound and inbound links are not showing up in the tools you suggested. But I do have some, so now I’m trying to uncover the problem if anyone has an idea I would love to know what could be causing this.
Thanks,
Stephanie
Laura Simmons
April 11th, 2009 5:16 am
Technorati sucks if you are looking for health or investing information.
Good thing my boyfriend has some favorite blogs that he goes to, hopefully some of them are popular and successful.
Not A Niche
April 11th, 2009 5:27 am
I think I fail in this task :)
Since the motto and name of my website is not to be a niche! I don’t want to pigeonhole me. There are too many interesting things I like to write about it. :)
If you want to be successful and making money with your blog, that’s not the right way to go, but I do it for fun and passion!
But great task anyway!
Sen
April 11th, 2009 5:28 am
Hi Darren,
I have found a couple of useful things and I have added the m too …
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http://www.catdumps.blogspot.com
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Tobias
April 11th, 2009 6:54 am
Just gotta mention: my analysis post (which used all tips so far, list, social bookmarking, etc.) is getting the best rate of comments so far of any blog post of mine ever (including the aborted blogs). Getting agreement and thanks as well, which means the post was useful, which is even cooler.
For reference: http://development.tobiasopdenbrouw.nl/post/2009/04/09/5-blogs-every-ASPNET-programmer-should-know-analyzed-(31-DBBB-4-method).aspx
Thanks everyone!
Jason Sandeman
April 11th, 2009 8:24 am
I am not sure that I can match what my competitors are doing. The top ones have their dSLR cameras, and they take photos of everything. For me, I am like, wow. Mac and Cheese. I do NOT want to be a part of that, rather, I want to get people to think about what they are eating, and give them tips on how to go about that.
For me, I am not sure about the moneytization part. I think I need to get a base of followers, then try and sell the books and videos out of the store that I set up. Would that be a viable alternative?
http://www.welldonechef.com
A very good lesson for all!
Tony
April 11th, 2009 8:46 am
One of the top sites in my niche also happens to be in Phoenix. He does a great job with informing people about events along the light rail and also makes it a point to REPORT on meetings as opposed to regurgitating what was in the local paper. I see this as a benefit not only to his readers but also to him since people are able to put a face with the blog.
maggie madison
April 11th, 2009 10:37 am
although I personally like to think I am my own niche, I have found various blogs that are similar to yournontoxiclife.com
I also “follow” many blogs,some for fun, some because they are similar to me. The problem is I can get sucked into reading all the blogs I follow and have no time for own.
Good assignment!
Miguel Wickert
April 11th, 2009 1:40 pm
Listen up, this step might not seem attractive but it’s worth completing. It takes asking all of these questions before one realizes the many gaps out there in the blogosphere. This is part of the process. Learning to do proper research. Don’t skip it, now is not the time to become lazy. :)
-Mig
Alison Kerr, Earthonaut
April 11th, 2009 1:50 pm
I have to say that somehow this has proven to be both the most challenging and the most helpful task so far. One day later and I’ve still not completed the homework, but I already feel I’ve learned more than I expected.
After some agonizing over a suitable blog to examine, I decided to go the whole hog and look at a big, commercially backed blog in my niche. What I discovered was quite surprising. I found that this very highly rated blog really receives very few comments – actually not many more than I do with my pretty new and pretty much undiscovered blog.
This really got me thinking. While it seems like it’s very hard to keep up with a multi-author, very authoritative blog, the smaller personal blog run by just one blogger, who is often tearing her hair out about how to manage everything, has some obvious advantages.
Great assignment Darren! I just have the SEO analysis to complete, which I will get done soon. Since SEO is something I am absolutely struggling with, using a, hacked by me, Blogger template, I’m really hoping to turn up something instrumental to getting my blogging to the next level.
Thanks :-)
Wendy
April 11th, 2009 3:54 pm
Great post! As I look around to see my “competition” I realized that I don’t really think of these blogs as competition, they are like “friends”. Hmm
delicate flower,
Thank you for leaving a really useful link on your comments!
blogtrepreneur.com – 100 must read blogs by women
and Mrs Green,
Your blog is amazing!
Thanks Darren for another thought-provoking day… on to Day 5!
Wendy
Rachel
April 11th, 2009 5:13 pm
I don’t get a lot of comments over at Beyond Beeton http://beyondbeeton.com but I always try to respond when I do.
In the very early days of my blog, I noticed a commenter who had an unusual name and was from my city. I had recalled a friend mentioning a friend of hers by that name on a few occasions.
I mentioned that to the commenter and it turns out that we did indeed have a friend in common. We started tweeting and then emailing and we’ve now caught up a number of times in person. I’ve made a good friendship as a result!
I’ve also been fortunate enough to recently ‘meet’ some new people as a result of 31DBBB and commenting on their blogs.
Darran
April 11th, 2009 7:59 pm
A very tiring exercise, but I am glad I did it. I have seen some ways I can already look to improve my blog.
Here is the link.
http://limetouch.com/archives/analyze-a-top-blog-in-your-niche/
ExcitedByLife
April 11th, 2009 10:15 pm
We identified ZenHabits.net as a similar blog to ours. Our competitive analysis was pretty intensive and included demographic analysis of the traffic
Summay: ZenHabits.net and related niches may be difficult to monetize.
Here is our analysis:
http://www.excitedbylife.com/better-blog-challenge/competitive-analysis-of-zen-habits-blog/
BizMind
April 11th, 2009 10:44 pm
Hello!
Will someone help me how to find the source code of a web page but not necessarily intruding the privacy of others.
Thanks.
Jason Sandeman
April 11th, 2009 11:21 pm
@BizMind – If you use Firefox, why try the Web Developer’s toolbar? Then you can right click the page -> Web Developer ->View Source -> View Source
gabybali
April 12th, 2009 1:12 am
2 Top Blogs that I’ve been following and amazed by, and they are very successful in terms of followers/subscribers/readers.And they are Bali Blog WhyGoBali http://www.baliblog.com that has the most comprehensive guide on Bali out in the world of the wide web, and The Naked Traveler (TNT) http://www.naked-traveler.com, a backpacker blog that’s been published as a book as well and is very hilarious!!
TNT blog always got great response from readers for each post, specially those who are fans of the book, while WhyGoBali I see that it’s backed-up by a big travel company in Australia so the advertisers on this site seem to be well targeted.
And the designs are also simple, not complicated, clean, attractive with special header design.
And NO, I won’t copy them at all, I love my blog WP theme :)
Thanks,Darren! I’m 2 days behind because of my activities here in Bali (too busy on the beach!)
Patricia C
April 12th, 2009 5:02 am
I’m a bit behind so I’m not up to the actual analysis yet – I’m still working on choosing a site. Because my market is so very narrow (art and art jewelry afficianados) it’s hard to find similar as well as successful blogs. Moreover, just because I know the artist doesn’t mean we are aiming for the same or even similar audience. Some blogs are oriented to other artists. And I know a few of these though I don’t know how popular they are. But my blog is meant to appeal to anyone who appreciates the work of an independent artist and especially people who are interested in buying art and art jewelry.
Well… I’m sort of stuck. Google was prety much useless. So I’m going to choose the blog for one of the guilds of which I am a member; the blog for the Etsy Beadweavers Street Team. Every month there is a beadweaving challenge and everyone helps promote it. So there’s a lot of voting and several comment posts. Clearly as I am a member, it must be a releted site.
Hm, does LiveJouranl count as a blog?
Let’s see what I can dig up. At the very least the exeercise should give me some experience so that if I later find a site that has a focus similar to mine and impresses me, I can use the tools and experience to researsch that site.
Thanks!
Patricia C
April 12th, 2009 6:18 am
The blog I am analyzing is http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/ the blog for the Etsy Beadweavers Street Team.
Content:
Most of the topics are the Monthly Challenge Theme – so there have been only about two posts per month, though once there was a post of a piece several of us worked on about cleaning and caring for beadwoven jewelry.
We seem to be ignoring everything else. Wow this is not telling me anything!
The voice is one of excitment, but restrained so still professional if conversational. Thankfully not that shouting used car dealer voice that so turns me off.
Posts are ever so rare. So maybe this is only popular during the 5 days of voting?
The question of level as such is not exactly relevant. On the one hand, anyone can vote and all you have to do is choose the piece that most appeals to you. On the other hand, most people one expects will be visiting are other artists, their friends, their clients, and anyone curious about beautiful beadweaving creativity.
Reader Engagement:
Wow. All of the posts have lead to approximately the same number of comments: range between 9 and 20.
I had thought that the winner announcement posts or the care post would generate the most comments but that isn’t so. There are not enough data points to accrue any meaningful conclusions.
The comments are not very informative. Mostly just beadweavers ooohing and ahhhing over each others’ work. Occasionally there’s a typo correction (as for the care document). And of course congratulations to that month’s winner.
Promotional tools are whatever the members have. I have twitter (hum and my newsletter), other folks have facebook and other SN connections.
Design:
First impression is how colorful and uncluttered the layout is. Clearly an art site. I like that the font is actually readable and that the page is not cluttered with ads and flash and sounds.
The only thing that might be considered to have been done poorly in my opinion is that it’s not always easy to find the comments link. In fact one has to guess that “Comments” means not just read them but leave them as well.
There is a single option to subscribe by leaving your email. It’s a thrid party util (Feedblitz) which I need to check out. There is a Follow thingy by Google. I’m not sure if that’s considered subscribing, though.
The monetization issue is subtle here in that there are no direct requests for purchases of any kind. Rather readers are encourages to visit each members etsy shop and especially those of the various challengers’.
Hm, alexa shows traffic to be about 2 million. I really don’t believe that. Though I do believe that the visitors are dropping. compete requires membership so… no thanks.
approx 176 links according to google.
So… not a world shaking site but I know some of the members have had sales of their challenge pieces. Is this a successful blog? I have no idea. Still.
Jaye L
April 12th, 2009 6:46 am
My blog is artquiltmaker.com/blog. It is about creativity, design and quiltmaking.
The blog I analyzed was Anna Maria Horner’s blog: http://annamariahorner.blogspot.com/
Some things I noticed were:
1. color is consistent throughout the blog. The post pictures have the same look as the pictures in the banner and on the sidebar.
2. she has tons of followers despite the fact that she doesn’t post every day.
3. she uses the regular Blogger template with her own photos.
4. The photography is really good.
5. She has Flickr badges, but no Twitter or Facebook badges that I can see. She also has links to Sitemeter, a Technorati Fave badge/link and a ’subscribe with Bloglines’ link.
6. She talks a lot about her projects at home, her kids and her work. Her blog has the sense of being very real and she comes across as very accessible. I know that I don’t talk about my personal life that much, but stick to my projects and process. It makes me wonder if the tone isn’t real. I don’t know how to measure for that.
CashGiftsDirect
April 12th, 2009 6:52 am
I am going to write these questions into my composition book. These are really good, composite, questions. Someone gave me similar advice, once, and what you have posted parallels what they told me.
Anne Maybus
April 12th, 2009 7:51 am
Wow, that was hard work but well worth it. I now have lots of ideas to incorporate into the blog. I have just installed a new theme and am working to get the colours and header right (still not quite there) but there are lots more things I can add/change now, too. I am happy that I know where I should be going. Thanks for this topic.
Stella
April 12th, 2009 9:16 am
Analyzing other top blogs in my niche really helped me see what they have in common that draws volumes of readers and what contributes to their success.
Lisa @ Stop and Smell the Chocolates
April 12th, 2009 9:24 am
I will have to work on this. It hadn’t really occurred to me to look at advertisers and affiliates, but as I grow I’m keeping that in mind.
When I first started blogging, I did pay a lot of attention to what the bigger blogs in my niche (mainly Christian mom blogs) were doing and got a lot of ideas from them. I also decided to be brave and just ask them to look at my blog and give me some feedback, which they kindly did! So I encourage that, too. Ask some bloggers to give you feedback – the worst they can do is say no or not respond. No big deal! But you may gain some very valuable feedback.
Thanks again! I’m having trouble keeping up on a daily basis, but just going in order as I have the time. I really appreciate all the info.
Naomi
April 12th, 2009 10:39 am
This was such a fun exercise. I had 2 related blogs open side by side and problogger questions next to them. I learned a lot with these questions.
The Scrub
April 12th, 2009 1:14 pm
Thank you for the conceptual framework. I was already analyzing other blogs in my niche (self-help credit repair) but you gave me several things I was missing in my analysis.
Paul
April 12th, 2009 9:59 pm
This turned out to be a very valuable exercise. I just finished analysing yoast.com and it means I now have a list of things I know my own blog is missing and to try and include in the next design (without blatantly copying of course, but a lot of it is sensible stuff I just haven’t gotten around to).
seslichat
April 12th, 2009 10:04 pm
Anway, great post, I’ll make a copy of this list and tick them off as I go
Liz
April 13th, 2009 8:29 am
I found this lesson more challenging in the fact that it was hard for me to find a similar blog. Since I am not a master search engine specialist, I had to spend some time thinking of how to word the search BUT I did finally find one to critique.
I saw a lot of stuff that I could incorporate into my blog like; addthis. So, I added it…and I also saw things that I feel I like better the way I have done it on my own site. Like my template. I changed mine to me more energetic and ALIVE to reflect my tagline.
Soulpowr
April 13th, 2009 10:51 am
Found one that was really good in my niche and subscribed to the feed. This blogger posts everyday and posts at varying links. The content is fantastic and there are multiple comments on most posts. They cover a gamut of stories which would be really ambitious for me as I’m still finding my way, however reading it does provide a little more focus, provides some ideas for better design and provides an additional source of news.
Amelia Burton - Health & Fitness
April 13th, 2009 12:22 pm
Man there is a lot of crap out there!! Many people’s blogs are so narcissistic which equals BORING!
The best blogs are the one’s packed with information. You know those “AHA” moments when you learn something new.
I like Zen Habits, and here is what they do that floats my boat;
1. Keep the blog simple in it’s layout
2. Advertising is present but not in your face
3. Emphasis is on the articles and their content
4. Posts every 2 days or more
5. Posts by different authors
6. Social Networking sites present but like advertising not in your face.
My biggest lesson learned is ‘post more posts!’ I need some help with getting more quality posts (with lots of “Aha’s) out there.
Any health and fitness writers want to contribute to my blog???!
Amelia
Tia Singh aka @TiaSparkles
April 13th, 2009 5:42 pm
I anaylsed a blog I’ve been following for a while (actually I’ve been anaylysing it for a while too!) and I know just what makes it successful.
It’s a coaching / LOA blog and the author posts 2-3 times a week. She writes as she talks, with awesome energy and an informal style, like talking to a friend. All her posts are super relevant to current topics and have an LOA twist.
The posts that attract most attention are the one that make one think a little more about LOA and manifestation, esp the challenges faced therein.
The blog has a sexy style with good use of colors and very simple to navigate.
No advertising or affliliates on her blog, yet she has awesome alexa rankings and a faithful following. 47 backlinks and active on social media sites, esp twitter.
I’ve learned a lot from hanging around her :D
Tia Singh aka @TiaSparkles
April 13th, 2009 5:44 pm
Oh forgot to mention the blog I analysed was http://goodvibeblog by Jeannette Maw
alwaysLovely
April 14th, 2009 1:00 am
I would think the words of warning are apt. Those 2 points are traps which newbie bloggers might fall into easily, including myself. I truly understand the importance of putting your voice in your own blog, allowing your reader to know your personalty and style.
Thank you!
Anton Chuvakin
April 14th, 2009 2:32 am
It seems to me that successful blogs in our niche has MUCH to do with the personality/role/experience of the author and not with any
“blog techniques”
In other words, blogs of “cool” people (=media whores) get read more :-)
Jason@ step by step blueprints
April 14th, 2009 2:36 am
Great perspective Darren. I appreciate you sharing with us a step by step guideline on how to analyze our blogs to make it successful . Yes, these steps are necessary to ensure the effectivity of the blog.
thanks for that!
madafan
April 14th, 2009 10:33 pm
for travel bloggers, I definitely recommend http://www.tipsfromthetlist.com as they are authors specialized on all travel2.0 (though you can find lot of useful tips for us in the travel blogging section).
Editors are very friendly and are very proactive in including other bloggers feed into the Tips from the TList. Moreover, they are pioneers on integrating Google Friend connect in order to build some community around their topic. By the experience of their bloggers and their network, I personally consider them as one trusted source of informations and news related to internet applied to the travel industry
Patti
April 14th, 2009 10:59 pm
I have found only ONE blog that is active and in my “genre” of choice.
The stories at http://modernhistorian.blogspot.com/ are similar in length. I have added the quotes, which this person has not. The Modern Historian blog has been up for years while mine is new.
However, I don’t miss any days :) I have an entire year’s worth of essays I will post here for free perusal in the hopes of getting a book of them published in the future.
Kristin
April 14th, 2009 11:57 pm
After reviewing several blogs in my niche (handmade bags), I seem to have a wider focus on my blog, including a lot about my personal life as well as the bags/business end of things.
I’m not certain if this is a good or bad thing, but for now, I’m going to stay with this focus, as I think it adds a personal touch and lets my customers get to know me better.
http://mymeanbean.com/Blog
If anyone has any suggestions or critiques as far as why a narrower focus would be better, I would love to hear it!
Sam sall
April 15th, 2009 5:45 am
Hi
great assignment Darren i learned a lot
when i After reviewing blogs on my nich in speechstarter.com which is about business and money advice , i found out the following
Content:
• What topics are they covering?
Making money online especially from blogging
How to get more visitor and traffic to your online products
Best ways to advertise business and websites
Blogs monetization
A lot of how to articles in various aspect especially starting up business, internet marketing, how to become successful
Correction misconceptions and myths small business
Working less and earn more
Freelancing and Home Based Business Tip
Search Engine Optimization & Search Marketing
Email Marketing
Business Strategy
Business Ideas and Opportunities
Few talks about Personal Development
podcasts
• What topics are they ignoring?
Complicated deep business issues,
• What voice/style do they post in?
Good writing skill and grammars, optimistic voice , selling the dream, simplifying
• How often are they posting?
at the beginig of their blog they blog ddaily even 2-3 article aday the when the blog become popular they blog Once every 3 days
• What level are they pitching their posts at (beginners, advanced etc)
Beginners, commoners, few advanced stuff
Reader Engagement:
• What topics generate most conversation?
How to bring more visitors to your blog
How to earn more for less work
• What styles of posts seem to connect with readers best?
The less formal discussion, how to articles, catchy title discussion that tell personal real experience
• What questions are readers asking in comments?
About marketing , site traffic,complementing
• What complaints do you see readers making in comments?
Long post,
• What tools/mediums is the site using (eg: are they using Twitter, forums etc)
Twitter,forums, Blogosphere, technorati,blogtopsite rss feeds, StumbleUpon – del.icio.us – Furl – reddit – Facebook
that’s for now
thank you again Darren
Kris
April 15th, 2009 8:38 am
One of the most widely read blogs that I know of it that comes closest to my niche is widely read because of an Ebola outbreak in Uganda. If that’s the price to pay, I think I’ll stick with just a few leaders. But it was interesting to note characteristics – they have excellent photos, post about their activities and provide thoughtful reflection
Tshombe
April 15th, 2009 12:03 pm
I found this exercise very helpful, Darren. Thank you!
In the past, I’ve looked at “competitor” websites, but this gave me specific questions as a way to assess their blog/site, as well as offer me food for thought on what I’m doing and how I want to position myself.
One of the things I realized is that I really want readers to get a solid feeling and experience of who I am through my blog, including what it would be like to work with me if they so choose.
The blog that I assessed has many strengths, but it didn’t offer much (some, but not much) in the way of revealing the personality of the blog owner, nor much in the way of opportunities or invitations to interact.
I found that the assessment also raised more questions in my mind. For example, though the blog has seen a sizable increase in traffic over the last year, there has been a couple of large spikes followed by plunging lows. It makes me want to look at what was being written on the site during those periods to get a clue what occurred.
There was much more that I learned from the process, and I want to thank you for the assignment. It really helped me to solidify what I want to do, how I specifically want to position myself, and how I intend to offer value even to this owner of the blog I assessed.
One thing’s for sure and that is that this assignment helped me see how we both can be of service to each other and to our readers.
Thank you, Darren!
Kat Rice
April 15th, 2009 4:44 pm
Just getting around to today. I’m trying to expand my horizons a bit so I decided to analyze a new blog. I went to technorati and found these two:
http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/
http://www.quickonlinetips.com/
Couldn’t find one quite in my niche (I blog for businesses about their online presence) but these were both close.
I noticed first off that design for each of them isn’t central. Its much more about content. Design is important to me since I own a web design company, but it did make me think for a minute.
The other thing I noted that for being highly ranked by Technorati and getting a lot of traffic, still left them with ten or so comments to a post. Interesting.
I spent some time browsing but I plan to subscribe to both for long-term learning.
Lynda
April 15th, 2009 4:49 pm
This is all so valuable! And i must say, I am learning so much also from visiting the blogs of the participants, so thanks for your included links! Oh, and btw this link is to my business site – blog has not yet launched..but not far away! Thanks for this fantastic programme Darren,I know the effort involved for you will be huge – absolute kudos to you. Lynda.
Alison Moore Smith
April 15th, 2009 5:53 pm
Wow. Never used Google Blog Search before. Went on there and put in “build your custom dream home” and…my own blog is the very first to show up in the top “related blogs” list.
I don’t know how that happened, but hey.
Melani
April 16th, 2009 2:19 am
Great tips. It really is helping me simplify my ideas and narrow down what I want my blog to be all about. Thanks for the help.
http://www.marzipanmama.com
Cougar
April 16th, 2009 9:20 am
What begun as a routine tweak of my site turned into a full-on redesign after I read this task. I decided to pick up the things I saw on my favourite sites into practice. If i wanted to promote the idea of a professional music opinion site I couldn’t rely on a standard template but needed a few upgrades.
My new website is up now at http://www.cougarmicrobes.com and hopefully there will be many more tricks I can learn through these pages,
thanks Darren.
I am a US Blogger
April 16th, 2009 9:14 pm
I already do this thing. And I think they succeed because they have a high frequency of posting!
Blogging Basics And Money Making Tips
April 16th, 2009 10:44 pm
Hi Darren,
For my blog your blog is the niche one :). I have been spending sometime (even though i do this daily) following today’s post and let me tell you its really interesting :).
I know for sure am going to learn a lot from your blog…
Thanks for the post.
Cheers
Krish
http://www.bloggertalkz.com
Charles Bohannan
April 17th, 2009 5:49 am
I constantly analyze blogs in my niche–Problogger being one of them–because I need to be mindful of how I can compliment them.
Here’s a quick analysis:
Problogger/Blogging Tips: blogging medium
Copyblogger: copywriting (sales copy)
Write to Done: craft of writing
Wordful (that’s me): content and editorial strategies
I’m still evolving this model but I’m sure there’s a place for me.
Ark Lady
April 18th, 2009 1:02 pm
I have been following and regularly follow three blogs in my niche area.
What this has done is shown me what topics get the heavy comments and also what topics are hot.
I also participate by commenting but seldom have the favor returned.
However, I have been working on finding the unique spin to make my blog stand out from the masses.
Each blog has a unique focus or voice and mine has to narrow down a bit more instead of being so broad.
cafedave
April 18th, 2009 11:22 pm
It’s taken me a while to get back to this one. One of the things that I work on at my blog is reviewing cafes, and so I spent a bit of time looking at another blog that also reviews cafes. It’s given me some ideas for how to improve, and to even be able to surpass their approach in some areas.
http://cafedave.net/cafedave/archives/2009/04/whos-doing-it-better-crema-magazine
cyza
April 19th, 2009 2:26 am
I have no problem getting to know my niche competitors…mainly because it’s a small niche…chemical engineering…
Patty Reiser
April 19th, 2009 9:49 am
Good assignment. I took some time to review different Blogs. Found some new ones I had not seen before. One was in the area of my passion (Photography) and a few others I made notes about how their blogs were set up to perhaps apply these techniques to my blogs in the future.
Wishing you a scent-sational day!
Alison Moore Smith
April 20th, 2009 11:47 am
I’m so glad you ended this with “don’t become obsessed.” I was getting stuck on day four. Now I can move on!
kathi
April 20th, 2009 3:23 pm
I am going to run with “don’t become obsessed with what other bloggers are doing.” My blog is a personal blog focusing on dogs and technology. Most popular personal blogs seem to have been in existence for a long time; obviously longevity is something I can’t rush! But since I blog mainly for my own pleasure, I’ll get the time in eventually.
I posted the following observations on my blog somewhat tongue-in-cheek. In order to emulate more successful bloggers in my niche:
* I have to have funnier or cuter dogs
* I have to become an actual expert about either dogs or technology
* When I go off the main topics, I have to write about sex or relationships, or else use the F-word more
Seriously, though, my dogs are actually very funny and attractive. It is my writing skills that need to improve to better describe their antics in a more humorous way, and I could definitely benefit by posting more and better photographs. I don’t know if I will ever become an actual expert myself, but I can do mini-interviews with experts for dog topics if not technology. The last one really was tongue-in-cheek, but it does seem that a lot of popular personal blogs have a fair amount of what to me is *overly* personal relationship stuff that I’d never write about, especially not online. And that’s where I’m going to run with “Don’t copy – be unique.” :)
RunningWolf
April 21st, 2009 4:00 pm
I analysed a blog, http://kikolani.com
What topics are they covering? To sum it up: Technically beautiful, artfully beneficial. The blog is covering Blogging, Discoveries, Dreams, Fetching Friday, Life, Motivation, Photography, Poetry, Social Media, Viewpoints
What topics are they ignoring? This is a wide spectrum, don’t thing Kikolani is ignoring anything
What voice/style do they post in? Very casual, yet informative and professional style.
How often are they posting? Regularly, at least 2-3 times a week (I think)
What level are they pitching their posts at (beginners, advanced etc): They are pitching to all users, the posts about Blogging and Social Media are aimed at all users, not just advanced users
What topics generate most conversation? Blogging and Social Media
What styles of posts seem to connect with readers best? The casual yet informative professional ones
What questions are readers asking in comments? Questions related to the topic in question, mostly enquiries or praise when it comes to Social Media and Blogging
What complaints do you see readers making in comments? I have not seen any complaints in the comments :)
What tools/mediums is the site using (eg: are they using Twitter, forums etc): Twitter, Digg and Delicious
What first impression does their design give? It gives the impression that its done professionally, you just know u’r going to be able to navigate and find what u need on the blog very easily. It has that feel to it.
What have they done well? The whole layout, the whole way the options are presented for readers to subcribe. The option that is available to readers to “Tweet”. Also the listing of the amount of Diggs for each post on the top of the page.
What have they done poorly? Nothing in particular. Everything is laid out clearly.
Judging by the way this blog is done, the traffic rating is quite high on Alexa and I’m sure that the blogger is using SEO plug-ins on Wordpress to generate traffic.
The analysis went overall well, and I think that http://kikolani.com should keep up the good work :)
What Options do they give readers to subscribe?
Tara Seale
April 23rd, 2009 11:28 am
I analyzed a blog in my niche: http://jimburke.typepad.com/my_weblog/
Mom Time
April 24th, 2009 5:50 am
When you said “use the link:www.blogurl.com command in Google to find out sites linking, how do you exactly do this? I put http://www.blogurl.com in google and it came back with http://www.blogurls.com which I couldn’t open because of errors.
Or did you mean put the exact url of the site I’m analyzing to see which sites are linking to it? I did this too but it just came back with all the pages of that site.
Please help.
Brandon Carroll
April 28th, 2009 9:41 am
To my surprise the other blogs in my niche are running very similar stats to mine. They blog on similar topics. Interesting.
Prince Sioni
May 1st, 2009 2:24 am
This is a very good assignment. I run a “Make Money Online” blog that I started last week.
googling blogs in my niche brings out tons of blogs. The niche seems too saturated and I hope to improve on my writing over the time.
Kindly visit my blog to drop comments. Be sincere when doing this. :)
http://princesioni.com
Prince Sioni
May 1st, 2009 2:38 am
@Mom Time
For you to know all the sites that are linking to a particular url, what you do is go to google.com and type in link:www.blogurl.com (for example, you want to know all the sites linking to problogger.net, you type in site:problogger.net)
I hope this answers your question.
Prince Sioni
Prince Sioni
May 1st, 2009 2:38 am
@Mom Time
For you to know all the sites that are linking to a particular url, what you do is go to google.com and type in link:www.blogurl.com (for example, you want to know all the sites linking to problogger.net, you type in link:problogger.net)
I hope this answers your question.
Prince Sioni
Pat Bloomfield
May 1st, 2009 8:01 am
Great challenge Darren. I couldn’t find a wedding blog in the top 100 so just went for the highest authority after doing a search on technorati. I did find another blog to subscribe to in the top 100 though.
Definitely time well spent as the blog I found is much better designed than most I’ve been visiting. I also noted that most articles were very short – getting the keywords out and then adding several images for graphical impact.
Pat Bloomfield
PatB Photography – Weddings
Diane Schubach
May 5th, 2009 7:45 am
I went back to the blog that started me blogging. I don’t know what her stats are, but if you google Connecticut real estate, her blog comes up second. I did actually copy her blog pretty much because I hadn’t done any blogging and didn’t know too many. Now I am trying to be more original.
What topics are they covering?
Local news and real estate information
What topics are they ignoring?
Promotion of the real estate firm she works at
What voice/style do they post in?
Folksy
How often are they posting?
3-4 times a week
What level are they pitching their posts at (beginners, advanced etc)
The site is for consumers. Local people can find local non-real estate news and others can find general real estate information
What topics generate most conversation?
Local news and novelty type stories get the most comments
What styles of posts seem to connect with readers best?
Same as above
What questions are readers asking in comments?
Don’t see many questions, just comments
What complaints do you see readers making in comments?
None
What tools/mediums is the site using (eg: are they using Twitter, forums etc)
I don’t see much of that; although I know she’s on twitter.
I’ll have to get back to the rest of this another day!
Jeannette
May 7th, 2009 10:51 pm
So much good advice! I’m more than a little awestruck. I agree with many others… Darren, this is a great thing you’ve put together.
Preston
May 13th, 2009 2:38 am
I know this sounds a little neive or cocky but what if there is no “highly successful” blog in our niche? any suggestions?
Chloe Alice Wilson
May 19th, 2009 9:29 pm
I found this a little bit depressing as I found a related blog in the Technorati top 100 and they seemed to cover every topic and post lots of times a day, something that a one woman band is never going to achieve. I guess this is why they are in the top 100 – doh! I think I might go and look for a smaller successful blog to review instead. I was surprised that this large blog did not get many commenters though. I am trying to get some comments on my blog and even had a toy giveaway over the last 2 weeks to increase visitor interaction but still only got 2 comments – doesn’t anyone want free stuff anymore?!! Back to my review I liked the ‘Image of The Day’ from this large blog along with a ‘Weird But True’ section. They didn’t seem to provide any review type posts which I thought was causing them to miss out on some revenue perhaps. They had no links to Twitter etc but did offer RSS. The design was a bit bland for my liking and the title fonts were huge. There were also too many moving images causing me to be distracted from reading. So I’m now off to find a smaller blog I can check out.
Kirsten Holm-Petersen
May 27th, 2009 5:48 pm
Would anyone know a good blog on children and youth placed outside of their homes – anywhere in the world will do..
Thanks
Baba
June 4th, 2009 7:52 am
Fabulous idea doing a comparison to see what works and what doesn’t. I loved doing this one.
owen
June 8th, 2009 4:31 am
Good exercise to do once in a while. I found it hard to find successful blogs in my niche.
It might mean I don’t know what my niche is or that it is hard to be successful there.
I write about living in France. I don’t like the cut and dry style of just being informative.
Sometimes people are too personal and don’t give enough meat.
I would like to focus on good writing style, informative yet entertaining, and being useful.
I want people to come to my blog to read funny stories about living in France but to also gather resources for moving to and living in France as well as if you just want to travel around my region, Toulouse.
Maybe that is not enough and I need to get a tighter niche.
I don’t like a lot of the UK bloggers doing what i am doing but maybe that is because the experiences they share with each other are too UK based so it doesn’t resonate with me.
I wonder if my blog comes off as being too American based, though I am not trying to target Americans.
Tough exercise if you really try it.
my net hubby
June 26th, 2009 2:05 pm
I want to have additional information using HTML, Java, CSS for my blog site. And finding what themes are applicable to my blog site and choosing what is the best version of blogengine for my blog site.
ED hardy t shirts
June 30th, 2009 7:57 pm
Great idea, this technique would surely make us more creative. Thanks for giving us examples too Darren.
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