Links, Layouts, and Objects

Using Your Links Wisely

The vast majority of blogs feature a section or two that contains nothing but links. They may be links to the bloggers’ other blogs or to related sites; they may even be links to every syndicated columnist online - such a scheme makes up a good portion of the Drudge Report, Matt Drudge’s headline news portal.

If you feature links, you’ll be following the grand tradition of successful bloggers and doing your readers a service. We’ll talk later about using your links as an assets to increase traffic, but for now we’ll just talk about how they are laid out, and in layout, there are two rules to follow: use your links purposely and organize them effectively.

Everything on your page should contribute to your page, and your links are no exception. They should be organized in a manner that helps your readers navigate them, whether alphabetically or by subject. They should also each contribute something to your blog’s content. Aunt Mabel’s cat blog may be really nice – and you may really love your aunt - but the readers of your open-source software blog will not be terribly interested in it.

• Your links are an asset: distribute them in a way that maximizes your blog’s value, and organize them in a way that ensures your readers can find what they want.

Layout

Fonts, colors, links and artwork are all produced on the page in a layout, a format which ought to resemble the newly-cleaned bedroom of a small child.

There will be a place for everything and everything will be in its place. There will be no toys shoved under the bed where a curious grandmother will find them and tut-tut. The closets will be neat and well-organized. The floor will be swept.

In other words, you’ll need to combine all the elements of your blog into a format that makes people feel relaxed and impressed rather than distracted by clutter. But how do you accomplish that if you have no artistic ability?

It’s not as hard as you would expect.

Most blog software comes with a series of templates, preformatted layouts that will put things where your readers expect them to be. These templates will allow you to set fonts and colors, decide if you want one gutter or several, and place your own artwork on the page. They will allow you to set up an archive, start a mailing list so your subscribers can be notified every time you post, and provide a standardized structure into which you can add the codes and features that will make your blog unique.

Just remember that every blog host and package offers different features (some are simple but don’t allow imported art, some require HTML knowledge but offer great latitude in design). If you don’t want to design the page yourself, professional blog designers, like Solo Stream, offer inexpensive layouts that are easy to customize.

Objects

Objects are small pieces of code that will be added to your site to make it unique and to provide useful content for your readers outside of your own writing. They can be as simple as a page counter or as complicated as an online poll or a RSS feed, but all will be laid out on your page with two ideas in mind: visual harmony and usefulness.

Your page, when viewed for the first time, should speak most loudly to your theme. Whether your theme is artistic or political or technological, every object on the page should do its best to illustrate and reinforce that theme in the mind of the reader.

Some objects, however, will not relate directly to your theme as much as they will to the operation of your site. A traffic counter is a perfect example. While bloggers are excited when their traffic grows and want to tell the world about it in capital letters and bold fonts, most readers are not terribly interested. Therefore it’s good practice to feature objects that directly relate to your theme and content close to the top of your page where the reader will see it first. Operational or structural objects, like a list of blogs that have sent you recent traffic, belong closer to the bottom of the page.

Remember, your objective is to catch the first time reader’s attention and to illustrate, in as little time as possible, the theme of your site. Every object on your page should be placed with that in mind.

Branding – Developing a Name and Image That Will Stick With People

A Blog Empire has many subjects but only one theme.

Every empire has a name. It may be regal enough that “Rome” says everything there is to say. It may try to ride off the success of others, as the “Holy Roman Empire” attempted in the Ninth Century.

Whatever name you choose, however, will establish your brand. It will be the name that people remember, and it will be with you forever. Think it’s not important? Just imagine what would happen to Coca-Cola if its name was changed tomorrow to Sparkie’s Soda. Would you still buy it even if it tasted the same? Would they still be the most popular cola in the world? Their name, built carefully for more than a century, is the most valuable asset they own. Your brand will do the same for your Blog Empire.

Need Brand Be Relevant to Content?

The question immediately arises whether your name needs to be descriptive of your content, and the answer is, unfortunately, “maybe.” Sometimes it helps, as no one going to Red State would expect anything other than GOP-friendly commentary. The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler is descriptive of both commentary and style. Post Secret says everything there is to say about the blog.

On the other hand, many successful blogs have names that are simply memorable. Little Green Footballs, with more than 100,000 visitors a day, is a political blog concerned with the War on Terror. BoingBoing describes itself as “a directory of wonderful things.” Both have memorable names; neither has a meaningful one.

Develop a Blog Theme

Every successful blog has a theme - the idea or subject your blog is about more than anything else - that makes it a go-to site in the minds of readers. In order to make your blog a success you must be able to contribute something unique, and that something is going to make up the theme of your blog.

It might be a comical take on the news. It might be in-depth tutorials for a certain software package. It might even be rumors you hear in your daily job as a top-level political analyst. It may be short stories or fascinating photographs. But you have to find that certain something that only you can contribute and that people want to read or see.

Your blog’s theme can be summed up by what you want you blog to be famous for, the one unique thing your blog presents or contributes.

Pick three or four key words that describe your content and your presentation of it, based on your skills, abilities, and knowledge (e.g. “satirical partisan political commentary” or “sentimental love poetry”).

Then complete your theme:

Blog Theme: My blog is known and respected as the best place on the internet to find: ______________ ________________ _____________ ____________

Blog Empire Construction:

No one Need Blog Alone

If the idea of sifting the news 20 hours a day for blog material gives you the willies, don’t panic: get a partner. One of the most popular blog formats (or rather, the format of many popular blogs) is the multi-contributor blog. We mentioned the Volokh Conspiracy earlier; it’s written by several legal experts who contribute in their areas of expertise to the blog’s main theme.

National Review’s “Corner” follows a similar format: NR’s columnists answer reader mail and contribute quips and opinions, making the page a lively read.

Creating a multi-contributor blog means that you’ll be sharing your Blog Empire with co-regents, and as history illustrates, this has challenges of its own. But if you share a love of your subject with other experts, you’ll be doing your readers a favor by sharing divergent opinions with them.

A second possibility is to join a site that has multiple blogs on it, drawing traffic that may come to read others and stay to read you. A number of newspapers like the Lawrence Journal World feature a stable of bloggers on their site and may even feature some of their bloggers in print or on their paper’s front page online. For the blogger who wants to build an audience quickly, this may be an option.

Be aware, however, that writing under someone else’s banner means you will be giving up significant creative control: it may be a good starting place for you to build a name, but you’ll soon want to strike out on your own.

The Makings of a Blog Empire

Choosing Content That Provides Value

Unless you are a successful newspaper columnist or a famous actor who is able to draw hordes of readers by your reputation alone, your blog is going to need a theme.

It may be a narrow one, like “Libertarian politics in the Massachusetts Governor’s race.” It may be a broad one, like, “art focusing on life and love.” But whatever your theme, your blog is going to keep readers by presenting them with the valuable content they expect.

Not coincidentally, it’s also going to be a theme you love and will not be tempted to stray far from. Because there are literally millions of blogs available, successful blogs reach one kind of reader, and they do it well.

The reason is obvious: a reader who might share your interest in model trains may not share your love of fine wines. He may not care about your vacation in Paris. Unless he’s a personal friend, he may not care about your new car.

That means you’re going to have to pick a subject and stick with it. A good starting place is the following list of popular blog categories:

• political
• spiritual
• society/culture
• rant
• business
• hobby
• technology
• art
• news
• reference

Of the most popular blogs, measured by Technorati.com, a popular blog search engine, a significant percentage are political blogs. This should not be surprising: with the exception of religious opinions, opinions on politics are some of the most fiercely held and vociferously debated.

Political opinions make great blog fodder. But there’s a catch: everyone has an opinion, but not everyone has one that millions of readers will take time to read.

Successful political blogs, whether the liberal Daily Kos, the conservative Red State, or the law-oriented Volokh Conspiracy, all have one thing in common:

1. They have important and timely information (not just opinions) that can be relied upon by serious political junkies.
2. They have high-level political connections, access to rumors, or expertise to share.

If you are connected in politics or law and have serious light to shed on the issues of the day, a political blog may be your Blog Empire. The same case holds for spiritual blogs, hobby blogs, and technology blogs:

• the successful blogs are those run by experts (that is, of course, why we’re going to build your empire on your own expertise) who can tell readers what they don’t know and want to know.

There are, however, successful blogs that are not run by experts; they are run, in fact, by someone who had a brilliant idea. For example, one of the most popular blogs on Technorati, linked by more than 25,000 other blogs, is Post Secret.

On Post Secret, the readers do all the work, creating a picture that represents a secret the contributor wants to anonymously reveal to the world. The secrets may be “I once made a student repeat a grade so I could flirt with his father for another year,” or it may be “I find it amusing when my blind dog crashes into furniture.” In every case, the entries chosen are skillfully presented (the blogger IS an expert in picking interesting content) and readers laugh, they cry, and they relate. But most importantly, they return again and again.

Post Secret illustrates that all you need is a well-presented good idea to build a blog empire.

News, link, and reference blogs require an abiding interest in one subject and the tenacity to find relevant, timely information. Successful ones cover their subject so well that they are considered valuable references by serious news hounds.

A good example of this type of blog is Zero Intelligence. Zero Intelligence gathers every relevant story about “zero tolerance” drug and weapons policies in public and private schools and presents them with commentary. It follows stories through the press cycle to resolution or disappearance and serves as a trusted clearing house for relevant information.

Another reference blog is “Literally, a Weblog,” which documents the popular press’ misuse of the word “literally.” If a writer needs an example to make a point about the use or misuse of “literally” in the arts or media, “Literally, a Weblog” can provide a fitting example for any story.

• No idea is too small, too silly, or too pretentious so long as you present your content in a manner that makes your blog a valuable reference.

If you have an abiding interest in a specific subject more than any other, then a news, link, or reference blog may be may be the place to start.

The final category is, alas, the largest category of blogs and the one that makes up the smallest percentage of professional blogs: the rant blog. Rant blogs are generally “brain dump” blogs, where the blogger simply writes what’s on his/her mind, tells about their day, or whines about their boss.

It is a cathartic project, designed for the blogger’s mental health, and while it may be interesting – at least to the author - it will seldom draw much of a crowd. Unless your life is interesting enough to write a book about, the rant blog is to be avoided. If your life IS interesting enough to write a book about, it’s probably best to write the book.

Building Your Blog Empire

Deciding What Type of Empire You’ll Build

So you want to build an empire. Unlike historical empires that relied on unique military tactics, advanced technology, and slave labor, your empire will rely on a single person: you. You’ll design it, you’ll build it, and you’ll people it with readers who return to it day after day, becoming in a small sense virtual citizens of your Blog Empire and eventually your happy customers.

• You’ll use the same tactics as others, but you’ll use them more efficiently.
• You’ll use the same infrastructure as others, but you’ll use it more effectively.
• You’ll compete with other empires for your readers’ time, and you’ll do so successfully.

A Blog Empire is an empire of customer service and you will not only be its ruler, you will be the servant of all who enter it. Sound like fun? It can be, if you design your empire with one person in mind: you.

It seems a dichotomy to say that a Blog Empire should be built around the provider rather than the customer, but there’s a simple reason for it:

• It will be you who updates it day after day.
• You will be the editor, the designer, and the main focus of the site.

Your expertise, your hobby, or your insight will provide the service that the citizens of your Blog Empire want. You can’t sell from an empty cart and you’ve got to be in it for the long haul.

That means you’ve got to provide content that features what you know and what you love. You will be the key, and every part of your Blog Empire will be designed with that in mind.

However, before you can lay the foundations, we need to review a few options. Let’s take a look at a few successful blogs and generate some ideas. Then we’ll come back for a good look at the one who can make it all work: you.

The Blog as a Business

Most blogs are small potatoes. The vast majority are online journals where teenagers talk about their lives to a readership made up of their closest friends. A growing minority, however, are businesses in and of themselves. They balance costs and income; they purposely seek out content providers, advertisers, and paying customers. They make a profit. They are, in fact, Blog Empires, ruling over a reader-defined section of the blogosphere as the go-to site for millions who come to get the news, buy promotional merchandise, and donate money to keep their favorite bloggers fed and happy.

That’s where you come in. You can draw millions of readers, because what you have to say is important. You can accumulate advertisers, because they will pay to reach your readers. In short, you can build your own Blog Empire, and it’s easier than you think. We will walk you through the steps necessary to see your name in lights and your blog climb to the top of blog listings everywhere, and to fatten your bank account with the profits from your own blog business. It will take a lot of work (what worthwhile thing doesn’t?) but you may find that being a blogger, building a Blog Empire of your own, is the most fulfilling job you’ve ever had.

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