Wanna know how to build a better blog?
Go watch successful bloggers and see what they do, not what they say. Then do that in a way that works for you. #blogchat – @Copyblogger
Seriously, if you want to find answers to what works, what doesn’t, how you can improve and do better…one of the best ways to learn and improve is to see what others are doing and implement those strategies in your own unique way. So today, we’re going to…
Analyze a Successful Blog In Your Niche
Here’s what your gonna do today (and maybe some more this weekend). Pick a blog (or two) and look at your blogs side by side. Of course this works great if you have dual-monitors which I do (neener, neener; yes, I’m five!). Once you’ve picked a blog, you’re going to give it a once over review. Look at things like:
- The Design: What colors are they using? What do their Call To Actions look like? What does their layout look like (one column, two column, three column)?
- The Content: What things are they writing about? What posts seem to resonate well with their audience? What kind of things are they NOT writing about? (Maybe, you can cover some of these topics?) How often are they posting? Look at the structure of their posts…do they use video and photo content? How long are their posts?
- Reader Engagement: Are they connecting with their readers (either through comments, social mentions & shares, etc.)? Do they respond to comments? Do they hi-light recent comments in their sidebar?
- Look at their Traffic & SEO: This one’s simple, just run the site by WebsiteGrader. It’s a free tool provided by the folks at Hubspot that runs an analysis of the keywords used on a blog, page rank, site traffic, number of indexed pages, etc. (Caution: Don’t get too caught up on this. Stats can have a way of sucking you in an driving you crazy. Run your site stats, check your competitors, then leave it alone for a month and see if you’re made some improvement. If haven’t, then you’re doing something wrong and/or you can be doing something better).
So, all that said, let’s take a look at an example blog critique. BlogTyrant.com (hey @BlogTyrant, hope you don’t mind I reviewed your site)
Note of Caution:
Don’t get obsessed visiting and analyzing other blogs. Doing this a few times and finding ways to make improvements on your own site is great. Sometimes however, people get too caught up and end up spending too much time on competitors site, copying their work and less time focusing on their own blog (their own content, etc.). Instead, find ways to do what they do…better! In your own style and your own voice.
Today’s Action Step:
Pick a blog (or two) in your niche and do a quick review. Look at things like Design, Content (post frequency), Engagement and run their site through the Website Grader. Then, report back on what ideas you’ve come across that you can implement on your own site! What seems to work, what doesn’t?
This one’s a fun exercise so I look forward to hearing your thoughts and suggestions… 🙂
I agree that stats aren't important but they ARE HELPFUL! I use the Alexa Tool Bar to monitor my traffic, other sites traffic. If you use Mozilla, it's a free download. The way I explain this to those in the offline world is to think of Alexa Rank as an integer system. The closer you are to zero, the bigger your blog traffic. For examples sake, Google has an Alexa rank of 1 while Ricardo's site here has an Alexa of 386,407. My blog is 1,072,583 but that's a major improvement from where it was January 19th–1,595,520. Seeing the number decrease keeps me motivated! For more info on Alexa, and the tool bar, click here —- > http://www.alexa.com/toolbar?u…
I don't mean stats aren't important. I just mean that people shouldn't obsess over them as much as they do. When you monitor your stats daily, it can be draining and very un-motivating.
This takes me back to an old post on the need to be more specific and setting clearer goals so you know what to measure: https://www.ricardobueno.com/be…
Thanks for the comment and pointing out the Alexa Toolbar jaclyn!
It's almost like dieting–you can get discouraged when you know you are working hard, eating healthy yet you weigh yourself everyday and have fluctuations. I totally get it, numbers aren't the goal–it's about real value and engagement.
I appreciate this challenge and all the tips we exchange amongst each other. Learning so much my head is spinning : ) (and my Alexa is decresing, lol)
I wanted to point out one of my favorite blogs and photographers: http://www.ishootshows.com / Todd Owyoung. His photography and blog speak volumes about his professionalism.
Header: Appropriate for his branding. The use of ticket stubs for the copy fill is perfect.
Navigation: Simple and clean. Good use of drop downs. The number of options isn't overwhelming.
Above the fold: Images shot by Todd, horizontal slider with past blog posts and projects. This allows the viewer to get a sense of what Todd offers as well as an easy way to access past posts.
Ads: He really only has one obvious ad on the front. He owns up to being an affiliate of B&H Photo Video and provides a link to visit their online catalog. ~nice.
Social Media. Todd's sidebar offers a social media widget. All of the usual suspects are available to viewer for following Todd and his work.
Alexa Ranking : 165,953 ( Thanks Jaclyn, for the info on Alexa. http://twitter.com/jaclynmulle… ) – http://www.Alexa.com
Wrap Up: I think that it would be hard to one-up this website. His branding, work presented, layout and ease of use are all top notch.
Kirk: Great website and GREAT analysis! Love that you laid it out so well and in such detail on each of the varying points to look at (well done). Now, I wouldn't necessarily stress over trying to “one-up” his website. When you think about it, this exercise is great because it gives you some insight into what others are doing well, what they're not doing so well and ultimately, hopefully it inspires some ideas for how you can improve on the areas of your own work.
You have a great site too Kirk. Hope this exercise helps inspire some ideas for you to implement moving forward 🙂
I've got to make a confession Ricardo. Lately I've been thinking Copyblogger is the very best blog on the planet with the best design, content, writers, and products.
I recently bought Genesis and I've been editing my blog to look like theirs in some ways. I love their style because everything looks so clean and fresh. They've stripped out the clutter – it reminds me so much of Apple. It's become an obsession of mine.
I've been watching their every move. Here's an example of how meticulous they are. Yesterday they published the podcast “Convert or Die,” as I'm sure you already know. Later that afternoon they published an article called “Save $100 on Search Marketing Expo: Early Bird Discount Expires Saturday, 2/5.” To avoid having fresh visitors hit that sales-pitch post as the first thing their eyes hit, they tweaked their post publish settings so the podcast would appear first.
To convince myself they'd really done this, I had to go to Google Reader to and look at the true chronological order. Google Reader tells the truth!
Now that's some slick marketing.
I don't know anybody that's taken content marketing to the level Brian has. It's breathtaking to watch. He's creating art.
Hey Ricardo!
Didn't get a chance to do this one today. Running around Paradise Valley with buyers.
But the day I signed up for real estate school I analyzed search terms, designs, brokers websites etc. but specific to my market.
I also cross referenced that analysis with a run down of the print players in my market. Most of the bigger agents in my market dominate print, but are hard to find online.
I know my competition and what they rank for, no big blogs though, not in my market at least.
I am maybe a bit different to some of the others as I am a successful blogger in another niche. So I was a blogger first before being a REALTOR.
Hope you had a great day yesterday (and today) Marta! I have to say that I love your work ethic and sense of commitment upon enrolling in real estate school. Lots of people don't do that and it's enlightening to see you show the enthusiasm and put in the hard work to come out ahead of the pack.
I definitely think that you have a unique perspective and that your sense of preparation puts you ahead of the pack. Just keep up the good work! Thanks for joining being a part of this and lending your perspective and I look forward to seeing you again as we move forward. In the meantime, have a great weekend!
Wow. So in analyzing two blogs, I learned a lot. The first one was put on my radar by Debbie (woot woot, thank you!)
http://tinybuddha.com This goes along with the inspirational content I am trying to create.
1) Love the header and tagline.
2) The design is simple!
3) Call to action complies with blogging best practices. Which brings up something interesting. I did not have a CTA/contact form on my blog. Found an easy one, http://www.mycontactform.com, I just have to figure out how to adjust the columns in Blogger.
4) Site monetization: Ads which aren't too “in your face” as well as a Paypal donate button. I have since added one to my blog–it is very easy. Just go to paypal.com and search Donation button.
Other blog is more in line with the consulting I aspire to provide. I look up to the site's owner, she belongs to my women's networking group in LA. Liz Dennery Sanders, http://www.shebrand.com
1) Header–Covers a variety of information in a clean, concise way. Also includes that great Call To Action button in the top right hand corner. Name of the game is content = conversion. I often FORGET that!
2) Navigation is easy and includes a tab to her blog.
3) Layout-wide and short. Not too much scrolling up and down which I believe can take up time and lose visitors.
4) All in all, spells out what her services and product offerings are, utilizes best practices and contains two call to action forms.
5) Good use of social media. According to Grader, Liz has a twitter score of 96.
This all said, I am curious to know if I were to morph these two concepts (which I have attempted to do, inspirational meets practical business) would it be better to call my blog justaskjac.com or askjac? I will still be the Jaclyn of All Trades, just think it may help me tie the consulting piece in. A friend of mine always jokes that I know how to save the world and still make time for the spa. I want to add that as a blog piece too at some point.
Feedback is trusted and appreciated. Thanks in advance. Hope you all are having a nice weekend.
Hi Ricardo — These are all great tips and I have used some of them to start my blogging activities. I now have a few more things to work on. You've got to start somewhere : )
I see you talk about engagement a lot. This is one area I think I do well at, so it should help me get some good traction early hopefully.
As with anything else you build value in over a lifetime, there are no shortcuts – it's simple really, just work smart, work hard and reap the fruits of your labors (still working on the smart part haha)
Some solid advice and now part of my regular reading – thank you.
Well, I am a little behind, but I found 2 or 3 blogs that I like in my niche, 2 of which are huge blogs; http://www.drmercola.com and http://www.drweil.com. The third is rebeccascritchfield.wordpress…., and I like the look and readability of her site.
The most glaring thing to me about my site is lack of content.
Since I am a bit new at this, I did not really pick up on a lot of technical aspects to change right now, but I am sure that I will see more as time goes on. Suggestions, anyone?
Hello all, a bit late but the task has been completed…I must say looking at statistics gives you a mixed feelings…Alexa had me at 3,095,636 while HubSpot had me at 629,777 of 3,251,718…no real idea on the meaning of it all…I looked at a couple of sites and my take away is there are a lot of difference…in general it seems like the more popular ones have a common theme. Clean and not too busy. Most seem to use color sparingly. There is a rather direct “do this” or action point that the reader can follow and generally get something for free…images were used a lot less then I would have thought…I was able to take a few things away that I will implement on my site…
I analyzed Steven Covey's blog http://www.stephencovey.com/bl…=.
Design: peaceful, didn't distract from the content and interface was simple. navigation easy.
Content: Very articulate and discussed the relationship between how spiritual and personal values and mission relate to directly relate o business success.
Reader Engagement: Not as interactive as it could be but content was very relevant and evoked 29 comments from his audience.
This was a great assignment and will help me analyze my blog more effectively
Thanks Ricardo
http://www.web-designschool.co…
Starting over with another blog
“Hey all, my blog is http://www.bethedomino.org can you give me some feedback on how I can make the homepage more reader-friendly?”
I like the idea of the sliding clickable picture collage but it can easily become a bit overwhelming and cluttered. When I first got tot he page it took a while to load and then I didn’t really know how to navigate through them. I like the professional feel of the site and the design! I would definitely remove the picture collage on all ages other than the home page, and even there I think simplifying might help.
I love the magazine style layout of the blog, it’s easy to browse through the posts. I think the footer is a bit too cluttered. Maybe breaking it up into only 3 columns might help here? Hope this helps!!
Thanks Claudia, I originally had the wall of posts only on the front page, I may try to go back to that. I agree with the footer, is is definitely cluttered. 3 columns and maybe standardize what I am putting on it? Thanks!!
Here’s a recent entry to my blog. Topic? How to enjoy summer. Please let me know what you think. In looking at other organizing blogs, they all seem extremely cluttered with a little bit of everything – and they post everyday. So – does that mean I should follow suit and “clog my blog”, or go the opposite route and streamline – which makes more sense to me since it’s an organizing blog! Thanks for your input! http://bestorganizingtips.blogspot.com/
Great idea for a blog. I love your post about busy moms 😉
I also like the bookshelf background, very fitting as it looks organized!
What I am missing to make this blog easier to navigate is a navigation bar. I think you would benefit from listing your categories in a nav bar so people can search for organizing tips based on their interests. I think there’s nothing wrong with posting every day as long as you have something new to say. Also, in order to get more fans you could integrate the facebook widget in your sidebar. People will be more likely to click on “like” that way. Hope this helps!
Orlando really has a need for a good real estate blog. Obviously I am hoping that will be ours (once it’s revamped and revived).
I found one to analyze because it stands out from the rest, I think it’s the best out there at this point.
Orlando Real Estate Blog: http://sworlandoblog.com
Other blogs I want to consider for the analysis (because they are awesome) are:
http://www.thecoralgablesstory.com/
http://nashvilleandbeyond.com
http://miamism.com
The Design:
What colors are they using?
All of the blogs I picked have very subtle colors. That helps to not distract from the content. They are clean looking. Miamism is the page that adds some fun color wise in the top fold, which I like a lot. So it’s clean, yet fun.
What do their Call To Actions look like?
I think all of the blogs lack a bit in terms of call to action. Miamism however is the one that is most clear about their call to action: subscribe to the blog and possibly visit their home search page on the blog. The Orlando Blog only offers an RSS feed that is not very obvious while the other blogs have them a bit more prominent, however not really strong either. The Coral Gables Story at least looks inviting when it comes to their buttons on the right hand side.
What does their layout look like (one column, two column, three column)?
I’m digging the clean two-column design of the blogs. The only blog breaking that pattern is the Orlando blog with 3 columns. I am not a big fan of three-column blogs, just gets too crowded…
The Content:
What things are they writing about?
Miamism has the best topics, from local content to market updates to recent sales news of luxury homes. Of course they also include content relating to buyers and sellers and they have this great element of visitor participation by inviting their readers to submit their pictures of “Miamisms”. I think The Coral Gables Story does a good job here too, just like Miamism they also have a pure photo blog. The best content idea is also on Miamism: how cool is Mojito 411??
What posts seem to resonate well with their audience?
What kind of things are they NOT writing about? (Maybe, you can cover some of these topics?)
That is difficult; I have seen pretty much every topic possible covered…
How often are they posting?
All of these blogs post regularly, if not every day then at least 3 times a week. Coral Gables has not posted in a while though…
Look at the structure of their posts…do they use video and photo content?
Great posts, a lot of video (e.g. customer testimonials on the Orlando Blog) and photos as well as list posts.
How long are their posts?
None of the posts seem too lengthy and most of catchy titles.
Reader Engagement:
Are they connecting with their readers (either through comments, social mentions & shares, etc.)?
Best job here: Miamism. Heavy on social media but also through the blog. Orlando’s blog is not very interactive and I don’t see too much interaction on the other blogs either, however they have facebook pages and a good amount of people like them.
Do they respond to comments?
Miamism does (especially on their facebook page). Not enough comments to see responses on the other sites.
Do they hi-light recent comments in their sidebar?
No, but they should.
Look at their Traffic & SEO:
Couldn’t compare sites yet because HubSpot is busy right now… Will try again later and post here…
Conclusion:
From what I can see it is best to offer a good mix of everything, not just recent sales and real estate market updates. That just gets too boring for readers. Not everyone likes to hear about real estate all the time (even though it is technically a real estate blog). I think real estate has to bee seen broader as it affects lots of other areas in our lives. In fact, real estate is the first step when it comes to building a community or even a city. So topics concerning the community and city should be covered as well. Events, reader generated content etc. All that is important. Coming up with a fun section for the blog is also important (like the 411 Mojito or simply the concept of Miamism). Lots of photos and video as well as short posts are key in creating an interesting and successful blog.
Oh sorry, should have cleaned out the document in Notepad before I pasted from Word…
Need some feedback on my blog as well: http://realestatewall.com
Thanks so much!!
I am not an expert, but if you want an honest opinion….
I think there is too much on your page, especially above the blog posts. I think when a reader returns to your page, and they want to read the new content, they shouldn’t have to scroll down to get it, it should appear above the fold.
I count 16 call to actions before I get to the content. I don’t typically stay on websites with overbearing advertising. I would also reconsider the wide sidebar on the left, with it being almost as wide as the blog area my eyes are all over the place and not sure what to look at.
I don’t mean to sound harsh or overly critical, just some advise from an outside perspective.
Please feel free to give me you honest opinion about my site also. 🙂
I would love your honest comments and opinions on my localized site http://Topekaism.com.
I like the layout. I would sharpen up the header image though. Tokekaism.com looks blurry to me. The content is very well organized.
I would recommend some simple CSS/style tweaks. For example, in the grid at the bottom, the images run into the text. A simple padding-right:10px; padding-bottom:10px; would do wonders and make it nice and clean. A small border for the sidebar would also help separate it from the main content.
Overall your organization looks good.
This was a very fun (and productive) field trip. It did reveal some good news, bad news results though. While I started my search for blogs in my exact (geographical) niche, I couldn’t locate any that knocked my socks off. That’s the good news in that I can wedge my way in more easily than I would have thought. The bad news, is that my niche (distressed properties in a specific region) has lots of advertising, gimmickry and what appears to me as snake-oil sales pitches. That means I have to overcome that image and deal with consumers who may have already been burned (think expired listings!) I did find, what I think is a good model, in Edina, MN. Aaron seems to blend authenticity, skill, knowledge and a solid work ethic. I will visit his site regularly. His “eye” appeal is not attractive to me, but his content is rock solid.
Your site sets a fairly high bar as it is. Comparing around, some areas I can improve:
– Font choice. Mine are ok, but they look a bit blah for the passages of text.
– Better call to action. I like how your site has both the ‘new to this site’ at the top. I definitely could use a better way to recommend sticking around rather than assuming people will subscribe.
– Author bio in each article. I like the way you close the article with the short ‘about’ block of text. I think it really adds a more personal touch to the process.
– Bottom clutter. I just need to do a little style tweaking at the end of m articles where I have my social share features. They are decent, but it’s just off enough that it might give someone pause that I’m not serious about how my site looks.
– My theme is playful and nice, but I may have to make it more modern. For now, I’m keeping it.
Anyone else have some feedback?
http://rickmanelius.com/article/creating-finish-lines
I know I’m a day late. But better late than never 🙂
Unfortunately, looking at web pages from my nitch doesn’t really help. Programmers and software developers rarely take time to make their sites look good, focusing more on the text copy over everything else!
Last comment for this thread: I notice that some of the more successful sites really benefit from the traffic they’re already getting by the conversational aspect. So it’s kinda a catch 22 for me as I’m not there yet. But I can see how they definitely make an effort for outreach.
For example, this guy here:
http://www.socialmediaphilanthropy.com/
Went so far out of his way to help me that he practically spent 15 minutes with me trying to setup a google+ account. Now that is dedication for one’s readers! I’ve been so impressed with his responsiveness that I’ve stuck around and I’m a big fan now.
Thanks Ricardo! That WebsiteGrader site is very eye-opening. Seems like I’m doing an ok job, but some sites are still ranking in my niche that have old content, and some are suspended (yowza). Also, the site is so new to the scene, it feels like it’ll never rank, especially when competing with reviews done by Consumer Reports, Good Housekeeping and Popular Mechanics, but I like to think of Fine Print Large Font as the little review site that could.
I think I can, I think I can… 🙂
I’m struggling to keep up as work has been crazy this week, but am reading all the material ready for when I do get some spare time.
I would love some feedback on my vintage postcard blog http://dakotaboo-vintage-postcards.blogspot.com/