Successful Blog

2.4 The Stats of the Blogdom

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Interview with Ellen

Interview with: Ellen
Her Blog: The Reign of Ellen
URL: thereignofellen.blogspot.com
Her audience: easy-going, funny, non-judgmental readers–moms; dads; college-aged women
Things to note when you visit: the open spirit of community; the royal gallery; the blogroll; the multiple kinds of interactivity; the connection between Ellen and her readers; how the open, friendly, design supports the concept; the special features and unique ideas
Google Page Rank: 5/10

2.4 The Stats of the Blogdom

Ellen uses Site Meter to keep track of what’s going on in the blogdom.This blog is a team enterprise. Ellen keeps her focus on the needs of her readers. Jason, her husband, keeps an eye to what the trends and the graphs might reveal.

What do you do and how much time do you spend these days to build up readership?

To build up readership I usually spend most of my time focused on my writing and the artwork during the week. I also invest time in conversing with my readers by responding to comments and emails that are sent to me. I used to spend about 20-30 min writing a post, and that was the extent of it. Now days I’m spending 1-2 hours of the day dedicated to my blog.

What is your most visited day of the week? Does readership change through the year?

Right now it looks like Wednesday is the busiest day of the week, and I’m not sure how my readership changes over the year since my husband just started tracking visits in June of this year. We’ll see what happens.

What stat totals can you share?

Ellen Stats

The site meter summary chart tells the story better than words.

Honesty, humor, creativity and a genuine relationship with her readers has made The Reign of Ellen a place where people come in large numbers and return again and again.

Are these stats where you guessed they would be? higher? lower? If your numbers need a boost to get to this level, how might you reconstruct some of Ellen’s ideas to make them work for your readers?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

2.3 The Audience is Royalty

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Interview with Ellen

Interview with: Ellen
Her Blog: The Reign of Ellen
URL: thereignofellen.blogspot.com
Her audience: easy-going, funny, non-judgmental readers–moms; dads; college-aged women
Things to note when you visit: the open spirit of community; the royal gallery; the royal blogroll; the multiple kinds of interactivity; the connection between Ellen and her readers; how the open, friendly, design supports the concept; the special features and unique ideas

2.3 The Royal Audience

Ellen's Queens and Kings

Ellen’s relationship with her audience shows up everywhere. The Royal Gallery, The Royal Blogroll, the Coronations, the interviews, the reader comments on her posts, and particularly the way her readers open up to her.

Who is your audience, your readership?

I suppose that I am a dreaded and oft ridiculed “Mommy Blog.� Most of my mom readers, though, are an easy-going, funny, non-judgmental lot. I also have a few men who like to chime in, as well as quite a few single college-aged women.

How do they find out about you?

BlogExplosion, BlogClicker, Technorati, links from infertility blogs, FreeKatie.net (they posted a link to my site awhile back and I got about 3,000 hits one weekend from other people who think Tom Cruise is psycho nuts), and of course your standard weird Google searches (“larva pickle Ellen baby�.)

What do they like best about your site?

Gathering from the emails and comments I get, people seem to respond to
(in no particular order): my cartoons, “The Court of Ellen,” “Lost” Discussion Thursday, stories and pictures about my fantabulous daughter, and the downloadable book on depression.

Ellen offers a consistent order of activities and fun. It’s in some ways like the regular television schedule or the features of a favorite magazine. People know what they can look forward to and when and where they will see it.

What consistent features do your readers have to look forward to? Are those features your readers could find anywhere? Do you offer some features tailored to your readers that could only be done by you? How do you give your readers a value-added experience?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

SEO-OSE-SOE–When an Alternate Spelling Is Optimization

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SEO misspelling article link search image

When I do a link search on MSN for my personal blog, I always get that starred question Were you looking for . . . ? The same thing happens on Google, Yahoo, and most search engines.

I find it useful when I mistype a word, fun to follow when I’m on a link search, and funny when it’s unconnected to what I’m searching for. I didn’t think much about it, except to notice the number of listings under misspelled words.

In an October post written by Jamsi at Workboxers, The Overlooked Optimization Technique, Jamsi tells how with the Overture Keyword Tool, he used an alternative spelling as Search Engine Optimization. By removing a space and a capital letter from a keyword, Jamsi achieved a top three rank in the listings at Google, Yahoo, and MSN for an obscure blog.

The logic is simple and compelling.

It’s the big fish in a small pond strategy. Choose the less preferred spelling, and you’ll get more attention. Use the Overture Keyword Tool to make sure that you still have an audience. Then tag your post with keywords that will get you a higher rank in a shorter listing.

–ME “Liz” Strauss aka My Lis Straus

2.2 A Reign with Purpose

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Interview with Ellen

2.2 A Reign with Purpose

Interview with: Ellen
Her Blog: The Reign of Ellen
URL: thereignofellen.blogspot.com
Her initial purpose: to share her cartoons and to connect with other media junkies
Things to note when you visit: the open spirit of community; the royal gallery; the multiple kinds of interactivity; the connection between Ellen and her readers; how the open, friendly, design supports the concept; the special features and unique ideas

Ellen had been blogging for almost two years, when she decided it was time for a new beginning. That’s how The Reign of Ellen came to be.

How did you decide on a name for the new blog?

I’ve actually been blogging for several years. My former blog was Sugar In The Raw. After I had my daughter last February, I decided that I wanted a fresh start. On my old blog, I had just written a post about taking over the finances from my spendy husband. I was calling the new financial regime, “The Reign of Ellen.” One of my readers suggested that would be a good name for a blog, and so I yoinked the idea.

What made you start the new blog?

I feel like I’ve had two eras of blogging, each with a different focus.

Sugar In The Raw was simply an online journal of my life. I’ve probably filled up about fifty journals since I was 16 years old, and blogging was an extension to that habit.

With The Reign of Ellen, I wanted to create an “Ellen playground” I wanted a place to share my cartoons with other moms, to get feedback . . . and crack jokes with other media junkies.

Ellen Cave Cartoon

From Sugar in the Raw to The Reign of Ellen, Ellen’s purpose for blogging shifted. It went from maintaining an online journal to sharing her cartoons and her sense of humor with other moms and media junkies.

Do you think that Ellen is meeting her purpose of making a playground to share with like minded readers?

Like-minded readers . . . what do you have in common with your readers? Is your purpose their purpose? Should it be? When should you and your readers have a common purpose? When should you have a purpose different from your readers?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Great Find: How to Back Up Your Blog

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It’s data. Best practices say, back it up regularly.

If you’re new to blogging you might not have heard the stories. I read another this week . . . about someone who accidently deleted a whole blog. Indie told one two weeks ago about fans who rescued a blog–piece by piece–when the author deleted it. Things happen to all of us. One night it happened to me. Blogger redid their blogging software, and that work messed up my formatting. ASCI characters popped everywhere that once was an apostrophe or a quotation mark. I had to change each character back by hand.

When I was reading this weekend, I found a great Lifehacker tip you might have missed, Ask Lifehacker: How do I back up my blog? The tip includes download links for two blogger back-up programs–one for OSX and one for PC.

Each of the programs puts a mirror image of the blog on your computer. It’s your safety net should anything ever happen for any reason. That means that not only your content, but any little template tweaks you make over time will remain true and faithful–never needing to be made again.

If you don’t have one or something like it, stop and go get one. Don’t find yourself thinking, “Oh man, I wish I would have done that when I had the chance.” Don’t work in the “high-risk” zone.

How much time could it take? How much time could it save you? 🙂

–ME “Liz” Strauss

2.1 Ellen Talks about Success

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2.1 Meet Ellen

Interview with: Ellen
Her Blog: The Reign of Ellen
URL: thereignofellen.blogspot.com
Location: United States of America
Genre: Family Life /Cartoon Blog
First post: The Reign of Ellen–May 2005 / Sugar in the Raw–May 2003
Her audience: easy-going, funny, non-judgmental readers–moms; dads; college-aged women
Things to note when you visit: the open spirit of community; the royal gallery; the multiple kinds of interactivity; the connection between Ellen and her readers; how the open, friendly design supports the concept; the features and unique ideas

Meet Ellen.

2.1 Meet Ellen

Ellen’s an American blogger, a graphic designer interested in cartooning and music. Her blog is a team effort. Queen Ellen reigns in blogdom, and Jason, her husband and self-proclaimed serf, manages behind the scenes.

Ellen’s interview is important because her blog shows how personality, content, and visual design can be seamlessly integrated into a one-of-kind blog. The closer you look into this blogdom, the more you’ll find corollaries to a sitcom, a game show, and a brought-to-life comic book. I kept getting the feeling that I was watching people on TV.

Though it’s called the Reign of Ellen, Ellen’s not the only royal on this blog. Each king and queen is honored with a portrait and a coronation. Read through an interview–THAT is reader participation. The comments show that folks who hang out here are not only having fun, but that they consider the blog part of their extended family. It’s easy to see why Ellen’s readers come back every night. It’s nice to be with her. She’s the real thing. Just listen.

Ellen, what would you call a successful blog?

When I was starting out in the blog world, I would have said “honesty.”

If you are always being Miss Merry Sunshine, readers are going to get irritated or bored. I still believe honesty is important, but I think stepping it up to the next level requires including your readers in your world. I think that community is key. And I think that you need to like your community.

I know of several well-known blogs that would probably be considered “successful” due to the amount of commenters that they get. But some seem to have gotten to this level by being negative, bitchy, elitest and controversial. They spend half their time yelping, “Well, stop reading my blog then!â€? to anyone who gives a dissenting opinion. Do readers tune in because they are invested in the writer’s blog, or just to lurk in on the many catfights? Is this really success?

I’m not sure. Honestly, I’m not sure what defines a successful blog. Blogging is such a new phenomenon–time will probably weed the successful ones out from the others.

Two weeks ago, Indie said,

. . . I never posted anything that I did not think was up to my standard of quality. In this respect I can call my blog a success.

What three words would you use to describe your blog?

Community, quality, content, honesty, information, authenticity, humor, accuracy, creativity, value, personality . .

Thanks, Ellen!

–ME “Liz” Strauss