Blog Best Practices

In today’s digital world, there are countless blogs written by people from all walks of life, so how can one blog stand out from the rest?  In order to determine the best practices for creating a successful blog, I selected a blog from the Time’s list of “The Best Blogs of 2011" to examine.  I chose to analyze the blog “Get Rich Slowly," which focuses on personal finance.  I currently work as a marketing professional in the banking industry, so this blog interested me because it directly relates to my current business field.

First, I think one of the most important practices of managing a blog is to create a clear, identifiable theme for your posts.  The blog “Get Rich Slowly” identifies itself as a financial advice blog.  One thing that I particularly liked about this blog was that not all of the posts were about obvious financial topics.  When people think “financial” they immediately think of banking, but there are so many more aspects about finances that touch our daily lives.  The most recent post on the blog was entitled "Ask the Readers: How do you dream?" by Linda Vergon; the writer reflects on dreaming and whether or not it is worth it to dream about something that may never be attainable.  Although the majority of the post was not financially related, the author keeps to the overall theme of the blog by wrapping up her post by applying her thoughts to the topic of personal finance.  The writer even poses a question to his audience to promote reflection and discussion of the ideas presented in her post.  The format in which the writer chooses to present a financial discussion is not only engaging, but it also promotes reader participation and feedback.   

Next, frequency of posts is a key component for a successful blog.  The homepage of “Get Rich Slowly” displays the most recent posts to the site.  I searched backwards from the first post, and it seems new blogs are posted almost daily.  The posts are also created by several different authors, which makes frequent posts less cumbersome; additionally, it allows the site to provide a wider range of perspectives on a single topic.  Many of the authors seem to have been chosen because of their firsthand knowledge of the particular subject matter.  For instance, one of this week’s blogs focused on generating income through real estate.  The author of the post was a landlord herself, so she was able to provide insight on the pros and cons of taking on this type of income generation.  All of these factors allow the blog itself to stay relevant and keep readers interested with their continuous posts by various authors on a variety of topics.        

Finally, generating profitability is an important aspect for those bloggers that are making a living from their work.  Anyone can create a blog, but not everyone can make a career out of blogging.  Therefore, bloggers are faced with the challenge of obtaining advertising to support their work.  I think the most logistical way to find interested advertisers is to find ones that relate to the blog’s overall theme, and “Get Rich Slowly” does just that.  All of the ads on the homepage are financially related.  There is a web banner for Ally Bank prominently placed at the top of the blog’s homepage while the rest of the ads were placed on the right hand side of the page.  Although I am sure that the blog owners are making generous revenue for strategically placed ad, I felt that the Ally Bank banner took away from the branding of the blog itself.  The banner was right in between the logo and homepage site and the first post, so it seems too integrated into the blog itself.  Revenue is very important to bloggers, but I think it should be secondary to the overall look and feel of the blog itself.  First and foremost, consumers are coming to a blog for the content, not for the advertising.    

All blogs cannot fit into a single mold, but there are basic characteristics that are apparent within a successful blog.  Theme and frequency are just two of the many staples to creating an engaging blog.  Revenue generation is also very important for career bloggers, but it should not be the central focus of a blog’s layout.  Content is what truly drives a great blog, so that should always be the main focus above all else.