Fifty Four Eleven

August 19, 2004 | View Comments (11) | Category: Blog Review

Summary: First blog review. Fifty Four Eleven

Fifty Four Eleven

I have preached how to create a successful blog far too many times now it seems and yet people still ask me how it is done. By success I am thinking about traffic, users, comments, etc. Yes I wrote about what a successful blog is in Frustration, Community, Life, but the reality is that some people will always want more.

Can't blame them.

In any case if I had a blueprint of how to get things done I would follow this site's pattern. High quantity mixed with high quality content. I would have to say that their content as of late handily beats mine. The articles do a great job of getting the idea across and doing it quickly.

The content is relevant to what should be on the mind of designers today and is broken up into two sections: Writings and Contingency Design. If they can keep this pace up they should definitely see their numbers climb over the next couple of months.

Suggestions

Be wary of your reader's expectations. They are starting to pump out content at the same rate is was a while ago and sooner or later it catches up to you and burnout will occur. Careful.

Well worth the time to checkout and explore.

Suggested Entries

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Comments

#1

Thanks for the writeup Scrivs - just having a look at the logs and, well, the influx is noticable.

Looking at that screenshot, looks like something needs to be done about that backgournd tile. That's what I get for taking the easy way out... :-]

To be honest we did exactly what you said - write stuff and people eventually start reading it. Age does help though, and as I mention in one of the posts on the homepage, less posting seems to get better results, if interaction is what you are after...

Mike P. (http://www.fiftyfoureleven.com/sandbox/weblog/)

#2

The screenshot was done at 1600x1200 if that helps.

You can write all you want, but until you get linked it is useless :-)

Once the users start to understand your posting patterns they get the feel for how they should comment. When I was doing daily posts the comments would come in quick because I think people wanted to be in the conversation before it got moved the next day. Now no one knows what the hell I am doing and the comments fluctuate.

Scrivs (http://businesslogs.com)

#3

"You can write all you want, but until you get linked it is useless :-)"

And how is it that you get linked? People have to find you, but how do they find you? Search engines? Won't help much if your not linked in the first place...

Sidenote: I think this is my first comment here, so I'll take advantage to say that I'm a great fan of your content :P

Stijn (http://sken.be)

#4

Stijn, thanks for the kind words. Here is an article that should help you along:

Developing Traffic

Mostly I would just post insightful comments on blogs and write articles that include links to them within.

Scrivs (http://businesslogs.com)

#5

Most of the blogs I read are ones I've found through links on other blogs I read, so the real key seems to be cultivating relationships with other bloggers.

Hmm and if Scrivs is reviewing these sites in the order in which they were suggested, I better prepare myself. Suppose I need to write something worthwhile tonight.

Craig C. (http://geek.focalcurve.com)

#6

thanks for the article scrivs, haven't had the time yet to plunge in Big Money Tips, so that 'll be my first article to read then.

As for commenting, I practically have no time for that.

Stijn (http://sken.be)

#7

excellent first choice, Scrivs - I love Fifty Four Eleven (although they still haven't fixed the comment quote issue, hint hint Mike!)

They also demonstrate a new approach to homepage content (well, similar to whitespace, but different to most blogs) with recent comments, summaries of the last few posts, and a highly visible search box.

Matthew Pennell (http://www.thewatchmakerproject.com/)

#8

Thanks for pointing my browser towards Mike's site. It looks good with some quality content. However, I was expecting more of a criitique from you. This entry doesn't amount to much more than one large link-to. What happened to Scrivs the IA analyst?

clint (http://www.516media.com)

#9

That's why it's a blog review and not a design critique.

Scrivs (http://businesslogs.com)

#10

.

mp3 (http://www.mvcube.com)

#11

.

mp3 (http://www.mvcube.com)

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