This is Day 4 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, a group project 60+ of us bloggers are doing together in an effort to help each other become better bloggers. You can read an overview here.
Today’s assignment is to spend some time on a successful blog in your niche. That sounds easy enough. But I think this is a lesson and assignment many bloggers are going to have a difficult time with for several reasons.
1) Some bloggers don’t know their niche. For some the issue is similar to Day 1 where you’re still trying to figure out what you’re blog is about and find focus. Others of you are probably bristling at the idea that your blog could be in a nitch because you don’t like to be labeled.
1.5 (Added 5 PM) Some bloggers don’t know what blogs are in their niche. If you don’t read other blogs that touch on the same topics you do, you may not know what blogs to analyze. A couple of places you can search for blogs by topic are Technorati.com and PostRank.com.
2) This sounds like copying. When some of you read the assignment, “Analyze a top blog in your niche” you heard “Watch what the popular people are doing and copy it.” This assignment is not about mindlessly copying anyone or losing your identity. While part of the assignment is to learn things you can incorporate into your own blogging. It’s just as important to identify how you’re blog is unique and how you’re going to differentiate yourself from other the blogs in your niche.
3) Golden nuggets are easy to miss. Chances are you’ve been to the top blogs in your niche. You know what they look like. You know what they write about. It’s going to be real easy to skim over this assignment and not find anything meaningful. When panning for gold, first you’ve got to dig, and second you’ve got to look real carefully to avoid missing the valuable nuggets.
Today’s lesson identifies some good elements to observe on other blogs – topics covered, posting frequency, which topics/posts are most popular, things you like & dislike about the design, etc. Here are some additional suggestions…
- What modules does the blog have in the sidebar(s)?
- Specifically, what features does it have to facilitate sharing and social networking?
- Read the comments. When people say they like a particular post, what specifically do they like about it?
Discussion
- What is your niche?
- What site(s) did you analyze?
- What did you notice about them that you may want to incorporate into your blog?
- How is your blog unique? How are you going to differentiate it from the rest of the pack?
Don’t forget, if you’ve posted a new post to your blog today, you’re welcome to include a link to it in your comments.
The Extra Mile
A few other things you can do to take your blog, other bloggers, and this project even further today…
- Reply & give other bloggers feedback on their analysis.
- When other bloggers include a link to a new article they’ve posted today, click, read, and comment on it.
- Check previous posts in the series for new comments.
- Tweet, share, & bookmark this post. (You could win a $25 gift card!)
My new post for the day:http://campfirecowboyministries.com/2010/05/how-o…
I don't know if this is good news or bad news. I can't find anything that is a top blog in my niche. My niche is basically Simple Christianity for Cowboys. When you do a search for blogs in this area, most of what you get are cowboy church blogs that haven't been updated in six months. Or, their idea of a blog is just an announcement of what's coming up in their church.
Here are a few that I looked at: http://ridinghighministries.blogspot.com/2010/05/… http://hunting4christ.blogspot.com/ http://cowboybible.blogspot.com/ http://cowboycrusade.com/
All of these had good content and had been updated frequently. I looked at other sites not specifically in my niche, but I think that my background display is a little mundane. If I knew what the heck I was doing, I might be able to fix it.
My blog is unique because of how frequently it is updated and the fact there is very little out there that is really cowboy and really Christian.
I think your unique niche is great. Keep pursuing what God has laid upon your heart to pursue.
Agreed – it's fun to watch and see life from another perspective.
Agreed – it's fun to watch and see life from another perspective.
1) I would consider my niche to be spiritual formation / discipleship
2) I analyzedhttp://michaelhyatt.com |http://perrynoble.com |http://www.brianjones.com/blog/
3) Brian Jones does a great job of using the blog and also video tools to post each sermon that he preaches as well. Some video would be a great addition to my site.
4) There is so much information on the web that from a design perspective I am not sure there is anything that can be done to set my site or any other site apart. For me I believe this has to be done through content. Through my personality, unique perspective, and conversational voice.
Here is today's post: http://larrywestfall.com/do-not-listen-to-the-inv…
1) I would consider my niche to be spiritual formation / discipleship
2) I analyzedhttp://michaelhyatt.com |http://perrynoble.com |http://www.brianjones.com/blog/
3) Brian Jones does a great job of using the blog and also video tools to post each sermon that he preaches as well. Some video would be a great addition to my site.
4) There is so much information on the web that from a design perspective I am not sure there is anything that can be done to set my site or any other site apart. For me I believe this has to be done through content. Through my personality, unique perspective, and conversational voice.
Here is today's post: http://larrywestfall.com/do-not-listen-to-the-inv…
1) I would consider my niche to be spiritual formation / discipleship
2) I analyzedhttp://michaelhyatt.com |http://perrynoble.com |http://www.brianjones.com/blog/
3) Brian Jones does a great job of using the blog and also video tools to post each sermon that he preaches as well. Some video would be a great addition to my site.
4) There is so much information on the web that from a design perspective I am not sure there is anything that can be done to set my site or any other site apart. For me I believe this has to be done through content. Through my personality, unique perspective, and conversational voice.
Here is today's post: http://larrywestfall.com/do-not-listen-to-the-inv…
1) I would consider my niche to be spiritual formation / discipleship
2) I analyzedhttp://michaelhyatt.com |http://perrynoble.com |http://www.brianjones.com/blog/
3) Brian Jones does a great job of using the blog and also video tools to post each sermon that he preaches as well. Some video would be a great addition to my site.
4) There is so much information on the web that from a design perspective I am not sure there is anything that can be done to set my site or any other site apart. For me I believe this has to be done through content. Through my personality, unique perspective, and conversational voice.
Here is today's post: http://larrywestfall.com/do-not-listen-to-the-inv…
[…] are suppose to analyze a top blog in our niche. This was pretty hard for me to do. This blog isn’t really in a niche yet. I’ve only […]
Posting my assignment for today. Not a great post but feel free to read it.. 😛 http://guardraildamageahead.com/31dbbb-day-4-anal…
I liked your post and enjoyed reading about Jeremy Shoemaker. Thanks for all the info!
lets see if this works
Explains it, comment too long. Tried 3 times and keep having to rewrite it, getting annoying.
I don't remember everything we're supposed to answer but my niche isn't about something specific like a church, leadership, a business, or one thing, it's vairried and covers many things. I look up to many of the bloggers I'm subscribed to and so I specifically went to their blogs to see how they do things. I want the retweet button, google friend connect, share this, and a couple other things.
A few of the blogs I read are Perry Nobles blog – http://www.perrynoble.com/, the Sears blog – http://searsinok.blogspot.com/, Lifechurch.tv Swerve – http://swerve.lifechurch.tv/, Scott Williams blog –http://bigisthenewsmall.com/.
My first blogpost for today is "Things In The Spring 2 –http://tijuanabecky.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/thin…
My blog niche is that I'm a recovering "Christian" a**hole husband. There are not a lot of "Christian" husbands blogging out there who willing to admit the same. I see a lot of wives blogging about their marriages, presenting a pretty rosy picture. I see some pastor/husbands portraying that they have it all put together in a nice little package. This doesn't seem to be the reality that I see in a lot of churches.
Reality is good. I prefer the word honesty but tinged with grace or sensibility so as not to offend 😉
One suggestion if I may: knowing how short our attention spans are (ohh look, shiny) can I suggest you turn your 000 post into an About page. One less click might make folks hanround longer.