Reviewed: BlogBadly.com

BlogBadly.com was lucky enough to be our review lab rat, that I get to test my reviewing skills on. What we will be looking at are the goals that Max has set for the blog, who he is targeting and what he is expecting, as well as discussing the things he likes and dislikes about his blog to see if we (including you – with your comments) can offer a few tips to make BlogBadly.com even better.

1. Why Did You Create The Blog?
I created a blog mainly to give me something productive to do rather than just chilling on the computer playing games and using StumbleUpon. I figured that establishing a web presence for myself (especially at a young age) could be something nice to put on a portfolio and I’d learn how to manage a business (that’s what a blog is, after all). Oh, and I also want to become filthy stinking rich. But that’s a side-goal.

I picked the niche of blogging about blogging/SEO/MMO because I thought I was fairly knowledgeable about the subject and it’s something I’m very passionate about.

2. What Are Your Goals For The Blog?
I’d like to have over 400 subscribers and get into the top 30 MMO blogs on 45n5 (currently #80). These two goals basically just involve expanding my readership and reactions to my blog – two things essential for success. Oh, and I also want to become filthy stinking rich ($400+/month by the end of ’08 should do it).

3. Who Is Your Target Market?
My target market? Well, according to me, it’s tech-savvy webmasters who are passionate about increasing their influence on the web. Generally, it’s 18-35 year old males. According to Quantcast, though, it’s old poor white dudes without kids. You tell me which you think is more accurate.

4. What Do You Think Is Good About Your Blog?
The content is probably the best part. I don’t write crappy stuff like plenty of other MMO “gurus.” My advice is funny, practical, and effective, or so I’ve been told. Helping and entertaining my readers is what I’m all about. That and the filthy stinking rich part. I’m also fairly fond of my blog design and that little button that brings you to a random page when you click on it.

5. What Do You Think Needs Improvement?
Improvement? My blog is perfect already!

Well, uh… I guess I could get a custom blog theme and spice it up a bit. I think mine is a little too cluttered. Maybe you can tell me some other things I can put in this category? :)

Lets Have A Look At BlogBadly.com Shall We?
Now we know exactly what Max is trying to acheive with his blog lets take a look at a few of the key areas of a blog to see the areas he is doing well in – and maybe we will be able to give him a few suggestions of areas of improvement. So here we go…

Design & Aesthetics

The design seems nice and clean and looking at the footer it appears to be a free theme. Free themes are a great way to start a blog and make it look nice without spending to much money – so nothing wrong here. One thing I went through with the launch of my new theme was the fact that a lot of bloggers commented that the content was not the priority and there was too much other things taking up too much room. I see a bit of this happening here. Here is what I mean:

One thing I did to try and expand the area of my screen that the content took up was to convert from a 2-column side bar to a single sidebar. Personally I i think it just looks a lot cleaner. Otherwise I really like the theme!

The other main portion of the design is the logo. Everyone who has read my blog knows that branding is one of my favourite topics – and your logo is an essential element of branding.

Looking at your current logo:

I see a nice custom logo. It is unique and has the starting of something that could easily become brandable. The one thing I see that is lacking a bit in the logo is it just feels a little bit plain – it doesn’t stand out enough. Now I am not a graphics designer by any stretch of the imagination but I just played a bit with the colours of your logo to give you a bit of an idea of what I think would help your logo become a bit more brandable.

Notice how it stands out so much more – I’m not saying it has to be those colours, it just needs to be a bit more visible.

Other than those couple of small things, I would say you have done a great job with the design of BlogBadly!

Content

Content is king.

Or atleast that is what everyone is saying. And reading the content on blog badly, I think you have hit the nail on the head when it comes to content. The tagline of BlogBadly is ‘The funny Problogger’. Although the indepth posts like Problogger many not be there, the funny is. Check out some of these posts:

• Blackhat Money Making
• Online Work Habits Efficiency
• How To Talk Yourself Out Of Writing A Blog Post

But inbetween the funny ones there is still a lot of posts that contain quality information that will keep the readers coming back.

Great content!

Traffic

Im just gonna give you 2 quick tips that I used to maximise my blogging reach!

1. Drop your maximum entrecard drops each day!
I think you are allowed to make 300 drops, if you have the time do it! I found doing this along made my traffic jump a great deal, and there are lists of blogs that load quick if you do a quick search that will make your dropping easy!

2. Comment On The Blogs You Entrecard Drop
I think this is where a lot of entrecard droppers miss out on a golden opportunity. If you are already visiting the blog to drop your card, then spend an extra 5 second to see what their latest post is about. If it’s something you’re interested in then leave a comment – that way you are promoting your blog to all that blogs readers as well!

Income

Currently I can see two advertisements slots on the blog. One at the top, and one side banner. Neither of these are generating any money. The quickest way to get these sold is to let you readers know about them. Leave a quick post to tell them whats available and how much, and I bet they’d both be snapped up straight away!

Until then, why not stick affiliate ads in their to at least try and make a few extra dollars a month in commissions. I did this and made $50 from host gator – more then the rest of my income from this blog combined.

Conclusion

Blog Badly is a great blog, with a lot of potential. I think that if you look a little bit into your brandability, and make it a priority to constantly be active in your nicne, that this blog will definately not only be around in 12 months time, but it will be thriving!