First and foremost, let me say that I fear the hand of Microsoft right now.
Channel 9 is a Microsoft promotion tool masquerading as a blog. The design is cluttered and irrelevant and it looks more like an outlet for MS to promote themselves than to actually have genuine content.
While I understand that is the point of this “blog”, I just think this is a misplaced attempt on Microsoft’s part; they thought “You know, this whole blogging thing is really popular. Let’s make some ads, add some writing to talk about the ad, then call it a blog. It’ll be a hit!”
Yuck.
Oh, by the way Microsoft, I do own an Xbox 360 and love it!
|
The Consumerist takes on quite a different direction from the other blogs I’ve spoke of in the past. The Consumerist is a blog not so much concerned with its own design or posting random findings. It is, instead, a blog that is highly informative, seeking to help the every day consumer from getting burned.
What is really great about this blog is its continual posting, creating the feel of a news site. They have their figurative finger on the pulse of consumer culture, and this is the only way to do it when covering such a dynamic field.
If you ever try to start a blog covering something that is news-like in nature, take a point to visit The Consumerist. They know how to keep the reader updated and subsequently have very little competition from other blogs.
|
Changethethought is a portfolio/blog for a collection of very talented artists. The blog covers (obviously) art, politics, design, and just other general things that catch their eye. I get a lot of ideas for posts about art as they continually point me towards other artists’ great work. Not to mention that the art they produce is very stunning. All around a great surfing experience they’ve created.
Changethethought is better than a lot of blogs at posting creative and generally more “underground” content. While a lot of blogs just end up circulating stuff from the biggest blogs all over the world, Changethethought takes pride in presenting the reader with material that they haven’t already seeen ten times that day.
As a reminder, keep it creative! If you post the same stuff blogs way bigger than you are posting, you’re never going to gain any readers. I guarantee they’ve already seen it!
|
Kottke is one of those blogs that doesn’t have a niche but has enough various topics that it works really well. Jason Kottke, the owner of the blog, posts things he’s come across and they usually remain interesting enough to take a look.
The design of his blog is also super-simplistic. He obviously wants his content to be the forefront of his blog and this is probably a good idea. With a blog that essentially covers vastly different things, creating some sort of relevant user interface would be a daunting task and most likely would distract the reader.
Another great thing about the site is Kottke gives credit for everything he finds. He also links to relevant material. His posts have a light front-end: short and sweet with all the links necessary to get the full story for whatever he’s deemed good enough to share with his readers.
Good job, Jason.
|
As this blog starts to get under way, I really become torn when I consider posting a “bad” blog. The term “bad” is rather loaded, and it’s quite reasonable to assume that whatever blog I post under that category has nothing redeemable about it. This isn’t true; the exercise of Good Blog bad Blog is to highlight issues of blogs that should be avoided. As in the case of Something Seen, the content is fine—another blog that posts things visually inspiring. However, the issue with this blog is its lack of citation.
Something Seen pools a lot of common buzz-images floating around the blogosphere and rarely ever gives credit to their source. It’s frustrating—I have seen posts from my other blog, 95total, get posted on her site with no credit.
I see this time and time again on blogs. People find stuff from a few different sources, post it on their blog, and act as if they found it on their own. While to a degree this is true, you should always credit the person who found it before you. This creates good karma for your blog and will insure people link to you in return. As a result your blog will get more hits! Another importance of citing is just offering your reader more places to find good content.
Remember that bloggers work very hard to find their information and most are proud of what they give to their readers. If you find their content to be good enough to post on your own blog, give them credit. It’s only fair.
|
Uncrate was one of the first blogs I ever read consistently. One of my good friends pointed me towards it a couple years back and I haven’t gotten tired of it since.
Uncrate is a buyer’s guide for men. Each day the blog provides cool products, whether it’s clothing, music, movies, gadgets, home decor or full swing golf simulators. I guarantee there is at least one thing every day that a guy would want. Even ladies, too.
There lies many strengths and few weaknesses on Uncrate’s blog. In fact, the only real weakness is that they don’t do a great job at crediting the source for the products they display. Other than that, it’s all A+’s. The design is classic, easy to use, and very pleasant on the eye. Right when you enter Uncrate you are drawn directly to the content, and that is absolutely key on any blog. Few or no distractions! Also, the content itself is the bread and butter for Uncrate. They consistenly find very obscure products and are nine times out of ten the first place I hear of a product. Being creative and unique has been a blessing for the staff at Uncrate, as they make sure they aren’t just recirculating same-old, same-old.
Uncrate is a wonderful demonstration of simplistic design fueled by interesting and unique content.
|
Today’s blog is of the good variety. ‘skine.art. is a blog “dedicated to moleskine lovers and their art.” Very simply, it is a center for different artists to posts illustrations from their ‘skines that they crafted while they sat in the corner coffee shop, on the subway, or where ever. The art is sometimes sad, often impressive, and always interesting.
While the design of ‘skine.art. is quite good—simplistic and functional—what’s important is the content and focus of this blog. Many prominent bloggers from Robert Scoble to Gina Trapani have noted the importance of a blog’s “market”: that it be as niche as possible. A blog that corners some unique topic will have a far greater chance at succeeding than a blog that covers something like tech or music; there’s already so much saturation in these fields that it is virtually impossible to make a blog that people will read if you start from the bottom. ‘skine.art., however, has found a very creative and unique idea to blog; this is not art in general, nor is it even illustration in general—this is art as made on moleskine notebooks.
Overall .skine.art. is a blog that says what it is in its title. It’s simple, covers an oh-so-small niche, and yet gets very good traffic.
Find your niche. Blog.
|
It’s perhaps ironic to have a blogging how-to site on here. But, it’d be a sin not to show this atrocity of design. Beta Blogger for Dummies is a convoluted mess of in-your face colors, giant fonts, unstructured navigation, and gaudy icons. What it gains in useful Blogger tips, it loses in the stress of navigating this thing.
One of the best things you could do for your blog is make it easy to navigate. If a blog looks different in every other browser, its formatting isn’t good. It just perplexes me that with a site based on dense information would be concerned with overhauling the design so much.
This is altogether a shame; Beta Blogger for Dummies has some pretty useful tips, some of which I have used on one of my other blogs, 95total. However, there are a plethora of other sites that convey the same message in a much more simplistic, easy-to-navigate way.
Perhaps this blogger should be looking at some how-to sites as well.
|
So here goes the first ‘good’ blog, swissmiss. Swissmiss is a blog ran by Tina Roth Eisenberg, “Swiss designer gone NYC.” The blog is mostly a collection of fresh and intelligent design, along with other things that catch Eisenberg’s eye. It currently ranks in the top 2000 on Technorati.
The power of swissmiss lies in its simplicity. The use of white space draws the eye appropriately, creating a streamlined design that’s easy to follow. With the plethora of design blogs around, the design of the blog itself is key in terms of differianting itself from the competition. This is how swissmiss has maintained highness on the blog ranks; the elegant and simplistic design does not overbear the reader. Putting too much on your blog, by way of multimedia, colors, etc., can really push away a reader. Keep it simple!
|
After some time trying to find a suitable host for this blog, I have landed on tumblr. Its stock templates are easy enough to edit, so i chose it in spite of the lack of options. I’m sure there’s a way to code around that.
Anyway, this is a blog about blogs. As much as possible I will share both a good and a bad blog and talk about what each blog is doing good or bad, respectively. My criteria, however, is not limited to design; I also look a lot at content. So, you will see me posting blogs that may not look too hot but are continually delivering quality content. After all, content is what makes blogs possible.
Please check back, things will be running soon enough.
|
