Angie Battistini-Gentile

WS 445
2/2/2011

Evaluating Blog Sites and Creating Effective Blogs

Blog Platforms
1. Blogs Machine
This blog site is powered by the Wordpress Platform. According to their FAQS
section, they are a free hosting blogs provider. They put ads on the blogs that people get
for free. People can start their own blogs for free, but on their Comparisons page it is
shown that by paying a fee people can get added features. If people pay a monthly,
quarterly, or yearly fee they get ads-free blogs, premium e-commerce themes, extended
tutorials, and faster priority support. Members are able to add widgets to columns.
Nowhere on the site did they explain exactly how many templates are available, or what
sort of videos and pictures could be added. Still, the site the site had some good
information about their features. They give free members 10MB disk space, which
upgrades to 1000 if a paid member. They have premium plug-ins that apparently helps
improve the versatility of the blog. They also feature daily backup for all blogs for
protection. I think this would be a good platform for a beginner blogger to use.

2. Wordpress – Blog Tool and Publishing Platform

Wordpress is clearly a great choice for a blog. I was honestly overwhelmed while
exploring this site and all the options it offers for a blog. I couldn’t find what sorts of ads
would be put onto people’s blogs, but I’m sure they need ads because people can blog for
free. This site has 1,314 free themes. They have 12,938 plug-ins and feature a Twitter
Widget and a Display Most Recent Comments widget. The site provides an explanation
of how static pages can be added to a blog. In the future I would like to explore and
understand this site and what it has to offer in further detail.

3. Blogger: Create Your Free Blog

This site offered a tour of their platform. It gave a background of what a blog is.
They explained how people can leave comments, how the blogger can have a group or
individual blog, how the blogger can control who reads and comments on the blog, and
how the blogger’s profile helps connect them to people who share their interests. The tour
says how a blogger lets people choose their own templates, customize their colors and
fonts, and use a drag-and-drop system to organize the page. The site explains how to post
photos with an uploading button. Photos can be uploaded from a computer, the web, or a
camera phone with a Blogger Mobile option. Videos can also be uploaded. I didn’t find
information about what types of ads were used but as a free hosts I’m assuming they use
them.

4. Feministing
Feministing is a blog site that also has a Community Blog option where users can
create their own blogs. The ads on this site feature how to be more eco-friendly, an anti-
gun petition, and an “advertise liberally” blog network. The site explains that this is a
feminist website to connect feminists and encourage activism. If any bloggers are not
having “progressive and safe discourse” or have spam will not be allowed. This would be
a good site to start a blog for me because I would like to write a feminist blog and
connect with others who have similar ideas.

Creating Effective Blogs

1. Nine Signs of an Effective Blog
This article was written by Dustin Wax, a freelance writer. He laid out nine ways
that a blogger can be sure to get their point across and connect with an audience. This
article was very easy to follow and had great suggestions. He got many positive
comments from readers. He begins this article by talking about the goal of a blogger,
which is usually to entice the reader to take some sort of action, whether it is choosing to
buy a product because of a review or knit a scarf because of a how-to explanation. Four
of the nine tips that I thought were most important were: The Headline Draws the Reader
in, The Layout is Clear and Skimmable, the Post is Persuasive, and the Post Asks for
Some Action. Each of these was elaborated and the remaining five tips were also well
thought out and helpful. You can read the entire article here

2. 10 Effective Ways to Get More Blog Subscribers – CopyBlogger

If a person is blogging, it is assumed that they have ideas they want to
communicate with people. If no one reads the blog, the blogger may have wasted their
time writing a well thought out persuasive piece. This article lists ways a blogger can get
more subscribers. One tip is to make the subscribing option easy to find and ask for the
viewers’ subscriptions. Another tip is to focus on one main specialized topic. The article
also suggests contributing content to another’s blog as a guest blogger or starting a
podcast. This article had some good ideas but some of the tips were too technologically

2
advanced for me to understand. Also, I didn’t feel it actually gave many ideas for getting
people to read the blog, just to subscribe. I don’t know enough about blogging to know if
that is the same thing.

3. Pam’s House Blend

I looked at this blog to evaluate and see the setup and content. I was definitely
impressed. This blog features numerous widgets along the left side of the page and many
videos that relate to the articles. There are recent comments as well as many links to
different blogs or articles. It wasn’t surprising to me that this site has won numerous
awards, as advertising by a widget in the upper left hand corner. I feel that I could learn a
lot from reading this blog, both about content, how to write an effective blog, and how to
make an interesting site.

4. Tiny Cat Pants

This blog was very wordy. It dealt with feminist topics but the writing was more
personal than professional. I liked that but would also enjoy some visual imagery. The
site had an area featuring recent comments, recent posts, and archives. There was a
blogroll and a widget from Twitter. There was an article I saw that did have pictures, but
there were an overwhelming amount. I think this blog is fun to read but more opinion
based and not as technologically savvy.

5. Feministing
This site is full of many different blog entries about different topics. On the main
page they talk about the situation in Egypt, and feature a video about women’s part in the
protest as well as featuring links to an Egyptian feminist’s site. This blog does have ads,
but they aren’t obnoxious bothersome ads. They promote health care, and a healthy
ecosystem. People can start their own blogs in the community blog area. I liked this site
because it was written in a readable way but also covered current issues with links to get
more information. They had quick hits, take action, and subscribe areas on the right hand

3
side of the page. The layout was easy to understand and didn’t take away from the
content.

Sources
1. B l o g g e r . G o o g l e , 1 9 9 9 . We b . 1 F e b 2 0 1 1 .
< h t t p s : / / w w w. g o o g l e . c o m / a c c o u n t s / S e r v i c e L o g i n ?
service=blogger&continue=https%3A%2F
% 2 F w w w. b l o g g e r. c o m % 2 F l o g i n z % 3 F d % 3 D % 2 5 2 F h o m e
%26a
% 3 D A D D _ S E RV I C E _ F L A G & p a s s i v e = t r u e & a l i n s u = 0 & a p l i n s
u=0&alwf=true&ltmpl=start&skipvpage=true&rm=false&sh
owra=1&fpui=2&naui=8#s01>.
2 . B l o g s M a c h i n e , We b . 1 F e b 2 0 1 1 .
<http://blogsmachine.com/>.
3. C l a r k , B r i a n . " 1 0 E f f e c t i v e Wa y s t o G e t M o r e B l o g
S u b s c r i b e r s . " C o p y B l o g g e r . N . p . , n . d . We b . 1 F e b 2 0 1 1 .
< h t t p : / / w w w. c o p y b l o g g e r. c o m / 1 0 - e f f e c t i v e - w a y s - t o - g e t -
more-blog-subscribers/>.
4. F e m i n i s t i n g . C o m m a n d C D e s i g n , 2 0 0 4 . We b . 1 F e b 2 0 1 1 .
<http://feministing.com/>.
5. P a m ' s H o u s e B l e n d . S o a p B l o x , We b . 1 F e b 2 0 1 1 .
< h t t p : / / w w w. p a m s h o u s e b l e n d . c o m / > .
6. P h i l l i p s , B e t s e y. T i n y C a t P a n t s . Wo r d P r e s s , We b . 1 F e b
2011. <http:/ /tiny catpan ts.wordpress.com /about />.
7. R o w s e , D a r r e n . " N i n e S i g n s o f a n E f f e c t i v e B l o g P o s t . "
P r o B l o g g e r . N . p . , 0 7 1 0 2 0 0 8 . We b . 1 F e b 2 0 1 1 .
< h t t p : / / w w w. p r o b l o g g e r. n e t / a r c h i v e s / 2 0 0 8 / 0 7 / 1 0 / n i n e -
signs-of-an-effective-blog-post/>.
8 . Wo r d P r e s s , 2 0 0 3 . We b . 1 F e b 2 0 1 1 .
<http://wordpress.org/>.