31 Days to Build a Better Blog: Oprah, I Wanna Be Like You
[Ahem, this is a pre-post disclaimer, because my dad is worried (hi, Dad!). Anyway, this post may contain traces of irony. The gracious Cassandra Frear has offered to hold up the laugh sign at appropriate ironic junctures. You never know what kind of good help you'll find when chatting on Twitter! Thank you, Cassandra. And here's the coffee cake I promised in payment. :)]
Today I'm supposed to analyze a top blog in your niche. No, make that MY niche. This is supposed to teach me the secrets to blog success.
I say the more the merrier. Why analyze one top blog? Why not analyze FIVE? (I was going to do ten, but it is Day 4, and I'm already getting a wee bit tired from all this blogging every day. Ann Voskamp, how DO you do it? Maybe since you have all this excess energy, you could come and blog for me. I would let you do it for free. Seriously.)
Okay, on with adventure and discovery!! :)
The Top-Five Blogs in My Niche (Or... Hey, ProBlogger, Oprah, Ann, Bradley, and Kelly, I Wanna Be Like You)
1. ProBlogger. I know what you are thinking. Um, L.L., ProBlogger is not in your niche. He is not in your neighborhood, your city, maybe not even on your planet.
And I am smiling and saying back, Are you kidding? ProBlogger is pro-blog and so am I. That makes us niche buddies! I'm thinking that being pro-blog is the first key to blog success.
Also, when I look at his blog I see that he has ProBlogger written in multiple places. I'm quite sure this is a technique to be copied. (ProBlogger, ProBlogger, ProBlogger, ProBlogger.)
2. Oprah. Oprah is in my niche because she is a woman who smiles a lot, and so am I. Supposedly, Oprah blogs for herself. And I, for one, totally believe it.
I just read her 21 Day Cleanse Diary and now I know what I need to do. Get ready for this: after the 31 Day Project, I will blog about my 21 Days of Intestinal Housecleaning.
Being totally honest like Oprah, in this highly personal way, should garner some serious traffic, don't you think?
3. Ann Kroeker. Ann is definitely in my niche. We work for the same cool place, HighCallingBlogs.com. She has four kids and I never wanted kids (no worries, I do love the ones I have.) Ann lives in the Midwest and I live in the United States (Silly, the Midwest is now part of the United States! Don't you know your geography? :)
But mostly, Ann loves food, and so do I. She even writes about healthy food. (Her ramblings about Nutella don't count. But at least she doesn't write about sausage .... ahem, Marcus!)
I think a major key to Ann's success as a blogger is that she doesn't write about sausage. So I am never going to write about it either. (It does not count that I've written about Sausage-Flavored Lentil Soup. That, btw, is one of the best-trafficked posts on this blog, so if you are doing a post on the Dalai Lama anytime soon and you want to double your blog traffic, make sure you mention Lentil Soup too. :)
4. Bradley J. Moore. Bradley and I are in the same niche, because we actually met 30 years ago, but didn't know that when we started working together at HighCallingBlogs, until I went to have breakfast with him in New York and we discovered our amazing SECRET past.
Bradley likes secrets, and I think that is one key to his blog success.
So I am going to keep going faceless here on this blog, to continue the sense of secrecy and mystery. Plus, a person who writes about her intestines probably should stay undercover, for her own protection. (You know, right, how the paparazzi come after you when they discover you are baring your intestines to the world?)
5. Kelly Langner Sauer. Kelly takes awesome pictures. That is why she is in my blogging niche. Because I want to take awesome pictures too.
With any luck, somebody will recognize my talent someday and put one of my photos on a book cover, like this woman did for Kelly. Now all I need is a camera with a GPS system (you know, "Turn right, for cute picture of twin Pit Bulls on Poodle Street").
Oprah (and Company), I am so glad we get to niche together.
RELATED POSTS
LL's Day 1: Bambi in the Database, Day 2: The Dalai Lama Effect, Day 3: Darren Rowse, Please Link to Me
ProBlogger's Day 4: Analyze a Top Blog in Your Niche
Paul's 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Project
COMING TOMORROW
Dear Reader, You Are So Cool, for Day 5: Email a Blog Reader
Would you like to follow Bambi's efforts at better blogging? Here's a button, if you like :)
Labels: 31 Days to Build a Better Blog
posted by L.L. Barkat at 8:00 AM
21 Comments:
oh this does delight me so much. Seriously. Showing a side of you I had not yet met. Makes me happy. :)
This? This is GREAT!!
OMGoogle!
What Billy said. Take THAT Oprah!
Hey, what about Okra Winfrey sausage & lentil soup? Bet that would bring some traffic!
If you post on the 21 day cleanse, I will definitely be following.....
;)
Or perhaps Oprah Mocha?
You really did say "intestinal housecleaning," yes? I believe that's the first time in all my years that I've ever heard that particular coupling of words. If you do actually take up writing about this topic in this public space, I will not want to read it.
But I'm not sure I'll be able to resist either. Like Frodo and the ring.
Just so long as you give as a warning prior to starting to blog about the cleanisng then we can diarise when to re-surface :)
Tx again for a good giggle.
You guys are too funny.
I assure you that the part about the Intestinal Cleanse... well, that was one of the "traces of irony."
A comedy cleanse will probably be more in order in about 20-ish days :)
Yum.
Now, where are the funny spots?
Maybe Oprah will stop by. I better gussie up.
lol - if I hadn't signed into Twitter, I'd have missed this today! You gave me such a laugh! What wonderful fun!
In a world where everyone takes themselves and their blogs pretty seriously, can I even tell you what a breath of fresh air this post was.
I just breathed deep and it smelled like sausage.
Thank you, immensely!
~Lisa-Jo
I love to read those who are intellectually fluent in the language of sarcasm.
Without sarcasm, my family wouldn't have anything in common.
So, how's the quadrupling of blog business going? I had 109 page views yesterday. Which is nothing to write home about, I know. Although I remain mysterious, I am completely transparent when it comes to my blog traffic. I am also certain that mentioning my name on your post here did not do much for quadrupling your traffic.
Anyhoo, thanks for the mysterious mention. And I am turning 50 tomorrow, so an intestinal cleansing is probably not a bad idea.
(PS Love the photo. Makes me want to take a little vacay)
My blog is frighteningly similar to Oprah in that her name is just five letters long and I had five page views today.
Coincidence? I think not.
It's a sign that someday I'm going to have my own TV talk show. And a magazine I will name after my first initial that will feature photos of me on the cover every month. I'll even start gaining and losing weight periodically just to keep those covers from becoming too "samey."
It all starts today. With my five page views.
Thanks for your post. Without it, I might have missed this prophetic word.
You will not believe this, but tomorrow's post will be about sausage. Sausage casserole. I'm posting my Mother's Day brunch menu that I'm preparing in advance to ensure a Mother's Day brunch.
Does this mean I'll no longer be a successful blogger?
I should stick with Nutella.
Or oatmeal. I've had tremendous success as a blogger with steel cut oatmeal. As a post. Although it's possible that ingesting it has also contributed to my success...
Feel free, by the way, to incorporate my steel cut oatmeal post into yours about intestinal housecleaning. I think it could work.
Oh, and LL? I'd put your photos on my book. I fall over looking at some of them. In the best way possible. Just sayin'.
How cool. Your blog is fun, interesting to read, and just how you say things is interesting. Thanks for blogging!
How cool. Your blog is fun, interesting to read, and just how you say things is interesting. Thanks for blogging!
I almost missed this.
Hysterical!
ROTFL, LL...I love your sense of humor. I especially enjoyed the bit about the lentil soup post being one of your best trafficked posts, because the great irony of my blogging career is that until recently my most-read post was titled (drum roll, please)
"How to Make Your Dog Throw Up."
You'd be amazed how many people have benefited from my Labradoodle's unusual taste for Miracle Gro.
Yep. And nobody's ever left a comment on it, probably because they are rushing from the computer to force-feed their ailing dog hydrogen peroxide!
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