Buzz: The Blue xB – how Not to design your Blog

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BlueXB

Finally, I found the last entry to my May Buzz Competition: The Blue xB. I lost the blog address AND the email address of the blogger, so I had no way to find it! I eventually found courtesy of Technorati!

Time for your Buzz!

This blog has been around for a while, but due to the way the blog is administered, it’s difficult to find out anything about the blog itself, the blogger, or anything else at all. In fact, it’s difficult to believe that this is a blog.

Here are the problems I found that I think would be best addressed by all bloggers, if you want your blog to be recognized as such.

  1. There’s no way to navigate easily around your blogs, except via the categories/tags in each post, and the bottom of the page link – get your categories in your sidebar! Some posts don’t have any tag.
  2. There’s no search function for the posts in your blog – why not? Let visitors search your blog so that they can find stuff that they want, remember the blog is for your visitors to enjoy! Google provide a search function that can help you to do this. Google does allow you to search this site as any. Click here to see what I mean… but why should I have to go to Google to do that when the function is built into WP.
  3. Give your blog some personality, please! At least make it something that readers can recognize! There are hundreds of ways to set this up! You can even create a persona like Kumiko Suzuki‘s blog has done! I’m not even sure she’s a female blogger – but it’s still a great blog! At least add an about page! Or change the theme!
  4. Allow visitors to respond to comments! Right now, in some posts comments are closed, in others registration is required but registration is closed. That’s a pity – if you are worried by spam, you can easily install anti-spam plugins

In fact, the more I look at this blog, the more I believe it’s purpose is simply to post for money, not to post for readers. I do hope PPP bloggers aim for something more than dollar signs in their eyes. And I seriously hope I’m wrong… so take a look for yourself. Adding categories, search, some blog personality, and interactive elements would all go a long way to alleviating that impression, and creating a small community of readers sharing your interests, thoughts and passions!

Blogging 24/7 – Should bloggers have guest bloggers when they are too busy?

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So you’re away on holiday! This happens! You get sick – it happens, too! How do you keep the blog posts up? How do you not let your readership down?

Well, guest blogging is one option that the itinerant or holiday making or sick blogger has. It brings new talent, new points of view, may attract new new readers from the guests’ own blog. For the guest blogger, it will provide extra exposure for themselves, drive more traffic to their own blogs, and challenge to reach new readerships.

However, for the blog’s readers you need to analyze if the situation will benefit your readers carefully. I was watching John Chow’s blog over the past few days while John was over here at Computex 2007. Now, naturally, he couldn’t blog as much as before: he was busy! So he invited Alex Shalman, Jane May and Michael Kwan to guest blog for him.

I think that it may have been a bit of a mistake, oddly enough not because of the quality of the blogs or the bloggers themselves. In fact, their posts were of a high standard, a very high standard. It’s just that page views and comments seem to have declined while John Chow was away from his website.

Alexa graph

I can’t quite tell but it’s much easier to get in the comments top ten than previously. Also a quick look at Alexa’s page shows dropping page views. Comments per posting have decreased too. They used to be in the 60’s but now many are in the 40’s or so. And many of the guest blog comments are the ones50 and under.

I think the results may reflect something of a downdraft in John’s audience figures as he has drifted from posting his own thoughts to posting lots of posts about Computex, beer, babes and so on, that are less relevant to his readers’ interests! Perhaps his readers are tiring of his postings as much as they are not warming to the postings of the guest bloggers. Of course, this is John’s blog: he can do whatever he wants… but he may need to get back on topic. The good news is his RSS readership is still expanding. So perhaps the Alexa and comments don’t tell the whole story.

But what is a busy blogger to do to keep her or his readers happy? Suggestions.

Books and MLM: two things that don’t normally go together

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I was browsing through my day’s websites as usual, when I came across this odd business. Someone is trying to turn books into the next multi-level marketing business! Geez, I thought, how is that possible? The margins in publishing aren’t as great as in other industries, like cosmetics, pharmaceuticals or whatnot… how can it be done? Also, books aren’t as sexy as other products, so…

Well, I visited Bookwise to find out what it was all about… It’s basically a book catalogue with a monthly required purchase which fulfills your membership requirement. In addition, you will get some other stuff like e-books and advice.

bw-biz

So, anyway, I found the video, which is long (very long, in fact). It took ages to download, but it showed two prominent people, Richard Paul Evans, a well-known author and Richard Allen, author of “Multiple Streams of Income” fame talking about Bookwise. They were very enthusiastic about the club, and all of the value that they would pour into your joining the club! The fact that it would cost only$35+pp made it sound like it was the best thing since sliced bread

I must admit I’m intrigued by this! Mostly because of the idea that I could use books to interest people in topics close to my heart! Mmm. So how does the deal stack up?

The deal is quite simple: To join the club as an Associate, you will pay a $39 enrollment fee. Thereafter, you’re charged $35 per month (plus applicable taxes and shipping), with an annual renewal fee of $30.

So your first bill will be $74, and annual purchases will be around $450-460 for your membership plus membership requirement. You will, of course, get a starter kit including a business guide, instructional content, promotional material including stickers and brochures, and more

There are other benefits, including one hardcover book, you can purchase additional books from the BookWise catalog at wholesale prices – cheaper than Amazon.com’s (and I checked several books), a newsletter every month, as well as discounted entry to BookWise conferences, etc.. etc.. There are also additional charity links that might appeal, too!

I’m intrigued by this and I think that it could be a powerful tool in the right hands to make money! But, as with most MLM schemes, most people are unlikely to make as much! Still, very intriguing, … Have any of you been involved with Bookwise at all? What were your experiences? Share with me! I’m considering purchasing a membership, out of curiosity! I love hardback books!

Sponsored Post.