SubscribeAlltop: Helping You Design A Great Business Blog
I was reading Chris Brogan’s post about Alltop the other day, where he points out:
“Alltop isn’t for you or me. It’s for friends and family and coworkers who aren’t yet surfing at the speed of light with Google Reader…”
It got me thinking.
Yes, Alltop does encourage the mainstream [to participate on the Web in different ways] but it can also serve as an extremely useful tool for new business bloggers; especially during that first scary stage - designing the look and feel of your new blog.
Think about it. As soon as a visitor arrives at your blog, before they read the first word, they react to it in some way.
In that instant, your blog needs to be viewed positively, and the only way this can happen is to ensure that it fits in with what your audience expects it should look like. It must appeal to your target demographic. Sure, the Perez Hilton site may look great and appeal to the younger set looking for celeb goss, but his design doesn’t really make sense for a civil engineering blog.
I wish I could say there is a template out there somewhere of what your blog should look like based on your field of interest, but there isn’t.
However, this is where Alltop comes in brilliantly. Because Alltop is an aggregator of top blogs by topic, it can give you a fair indication of what blogs in specific industries look like.
If you want to blog about law, take a look at the Alltop law page
If you want to blog about health, take a look at the Alltop health page
If you want to blog about photography, take a look at the Alltop photography page
You get the idea.
Go take a look at the Alltop main page for a topic similar to your field, and start researching the design of your new blog!
If you have any comments or questions, I’d love to hear them!
And of course, I can’t end this post without saying thanks to Guy for including BlogWell on the Alltop Blogging page - so, thank you Guy!
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This is such a good point, makes me think I need to spend some more time on Alltop just poking around seeing what’s out there. It’s like the encyclopedia of what the top dogs are doing updated faster than a speeding jet… (does quoting Superman comics date me?) Anyhow, great post, allowed me to see Alltop in a whole new light, before reading your post, I looked at it as an the index of umpteen thousand ways to click my way out of an actual work day.
Great post and excellent points. I just learned of Alltop last week (and they added my site today!) it is a great resource in general but had never thought of using in this way either.
@ Melissa - Thanks. It is a pretty cool service; hopefully it will get more of the world excited about blogs. You know, you can turn off specific blogs from appearing on Alltop if you want - just click the x. BTW - Don’t worry about showing your age; it doesn’t matter
@ Robert - Congrats to you! Isn’t it the best feeling?
wow - gotta love this: http://twitter.com/guykawasaki/statuses/804342616
Seems like a bit of stating the obvious but sometimes that is exactly where we should be putting more focus. I think checking the topic categories to view blogs within an industry is a great idea, and not just for the reasons you mentioned.
Imagine you are working on a new blog design for your site. You can use the same methods as mentioned above to see that your style fits within your industry but still provides you with a look and functionality that is different enough from other players in your space to show your uniqueness. Either way, checking the Alltop categories for ideas as to what exists seems like a good place to start.
@ Michael - Howdy - how cool! Thanks for stopping by
I know, it *is* stating the obvious, yet I’m totally thrown by the amount of questions I get about blogging and where to look for inspiration. It’s odd, because I’m so used to the Web, I can think of hundreds of places, but just figured Alltop would be best for those just starting out.
Your point is valid though; Alltop is a great way to check whether you are just adding same old, same old, stuff. Shows you ways to be a bit different.
The most common advice I give to people is you need to look at industry related sites, print out a dozen or so that you like, lay them on the ground side by side, and then get out a big fat red texta and circle what you love and what you hate on each site. Pretty quickly, you begin to notice patterns - and voila - an idea for your own site starts to materialize.
Too few people spend the time researching and planning me thinks
Hi Lid! Just wanted to say CONGRATS for being included in ALLTOP.
Keep up the great work!
M.H.
Yey Conformity! (jk)
Your idea does make a lot of sense. If you want to be great, model yourself after great men - just in the blogging sense of things.
Not only in design does this matter though, but what better way is there to get an insight into what early trends are appearing, or even to identify where there might be a gap in the blogging market.
Though I think for now my main use of Alltop is still going to be the way I quickly introduce new people to the web to blogs on the net that fits their interest the best.
[...] I wish I could give you a template for every industry of the ‘right’ look, but there really is no such thing. You need to do the research to ensure you meet your audience’s expectations. Take a look at our recent post about using Alltop to give you design inspiration ideas. [...]