Blog Networks that Work
Of course I'm going to post on Weblogs, Inc. and on Darren Rowse from Problogger.net and his network of blogs. True to my word, we will be focusing on their web design, their layout, and not their content or personality.
Recently I mentioned the best way to get something in life is to look at what someone who has what you want has done. Follow in their footsteps to get what they've got. Now, this is not a new concept. I certainly didn't coin the phrase, "do what they do to get what they've got" and I have no clue as to what motivational speaker did, but I think it was probably Napolean Hill.
Now, let's take a look at the general look of the Weblogs, Inc. blogs. Without looking at all 80 blogs (10 should be sufficient), we can see some general asthetic characteristics. Note they all are generally designed the same, with the same layout, though many sport different color backgrounds. Their layout consists of a calm background with a non-busy 3-column white blog overlay.
In contrast, most of Darren's blogs have an individual look to them. He has several set-up at 3-columns and several 2-columns. Of course, Darren's set of sites don't really bill themselves as part of a blog network, while Weblogs, Inc. is every inch a network.
While these differences set these two companies apart, their similarities are what makes both of them so successful.
1-Darren and Jason (and Jason's bloggers) are both highly reachable.
I have commented on Darren's ProBlogger site many times and often Darren will respond to the comments addressed to specific commenters. Jason responds to his comments timely as well, as does his staff bloggers. Knowing someone's reading the comments creates that 'community' that brings users back for more.
In fact, notice both men have given us more than just email and comments to use to contact them. Jason has several times posted his LinkedIn name and an invite to make him your friend. I did this and within 24 hours he had approved me (who he did not know save through his comments page). Darren has posted his MSN name and an invite to IM him with questions. That's dedication. Plus, little 'above and beyond' things like this mean so much to bloggers. Someone like me, probably will never bug either of these guys, but knowing I can, creates a deep appreciation for these gentlemen.
2-Very Specific Sites
With names like Engadget, TVSquad, and Autoblog, it's not hard to see that these blogs target a small subsection of a popular market. Weblogs has more than 80 blogs, including blogs in 4 different languages. Darren's blogs are similarly specific with a Digital Camera Reviews site and a PVR blog, just to name a few. These niche market blogs are the future of internet news sites. Not only are they naturally full of the keywords that you want your site to be known for in a search engine, these same keywords (again, that naturally occur in a niche site) serve you targeted ads from contextual ad networks like Yahoo and Google.
3-Low Key, Mostly-Text Ads
Knowing that according to common wisdom text ads perform better, both publishers have chosen to make their ads blend beautifully with their site. Both have taken advantage of the link ads from google at the top of many of thier sites. Darren has also utilized the Google search box on many of his sites as well. Both men have been careful to listen to readers as to offensiveness of ads, knowing that if the purpose of ads is to make money, one must have readers to visit the ads if one is to have revenue from said ads. You'd be wise to note that. Don't irritate your readers into leaving and never coming back.
4-RSS and E-mail Subscription
And, finally, both men have made use of subscriptions to really tie in their readers and create ownership of the blog by the readers. When a person subscribes to your site, they are giving you a vote of confidence, and a certain loyalty goes along with that. A person subscribed is more likely to give you a head's up email when your name is muddied, when there is a breaking story you need to cover, or when they are thinking of unsubscribing from your site. A casual reader has no real connection to your blog, and as such will rarely notify you of any of these things.
Tomorrow:
"Don't Copy These: Bad Examples of Blog Design"
This entry has been contributed by Creative Reporter Robyn. Robyn Tippins is a small-time blogger with lots of time and very little money. With a background in net marketing, Robyn enjoys sharing her experience with others on her business blog at SleepyBlogger.
