Headrush, a blog about “creating passionate users”, had a post last week entitled The real secret to a successful blog/ book/ business… The two hand-drawn Venn Diagrams reveal the secret.
Headrush, if you’re not familiar with it, is in Technorati’s Top 100 blogs list. But unlike some of the politblogs in the A-list, it doesn’t breed any controversy. It’s success, or so Kathy Sierra says in her post – and illustrates in diagrams – is due to concentrating mostly on content that is both good for users and for the business.
The site is aimed at people who have the role of creating passionate users in a particular tool (as well as the users themselves). In her case, she’s the author/ co-author of a series of computer programming books from O’Reilly called Head First. There’s no other advertising on the site (that I’ve seen) except for the books.
So here, what’s good for the “business” is to get people to read more of the Head First books, presumably by blogging about similar and related topics – not the books themselves.
It’s kind of an a-ha moment. You already sort of know that her “secret” really is straightforward. But are you doing that yourself? What about the blogs you read that are associated with a business? Are they talking about themselves/ their products/ their services, or are they getting you to use their products and services by giving you valuable content?
It’s an educated guess that weblogs will become even hotter properties in the next few years than they have been in 2006 and 2007. (At least, before any tech bubble burst that may or may not happen in 2010, like it has at the beginning of every new decade since 1970). But if you’re in the blog speculation game, ask yourself which type of blogs are going to be hot?
I don’t mean, for example, how real estate blogs are hot, but niche matters, too. What I mean is the style of blog:
- Does the blog build a conversation with readers, including commenters and other bloggers?
- Does it build additional dialogue by linking to and discussing relevant posts elsewhere?
- Does it answer more questions than it asks?
- Does the content advance the business? I.e., does it satisfy Kathy Sierra’s “secret” of being good for both reader and business?
- Is the readership reacting? Are you gaining subscribers, even if they don’t all leave comments?
Those are the types of blogs that will likely be hot. And yes, is it in either a profitable niche or add value to a particular market/ industry? A blog does not have to earn advertising dollars to have value to the blogger/ business, as Headrush and, for example, Seth Godin, shows.
We might even start to see a new breed of talent scouts and blog brokers (if they’re not out there already) whose sole role is to scour the blogosphere looking for bloggers and blogs, and then broker deals with buyers, possibly in niche industries.
I’m sort of skirting around that role myself, having brokered a few blog sales. It’s a good role for the right person, and as the blogosphere matures, we’ll see more big deals like ESPN’s purchase of NBA blog TrueHoop. And this could all be part of a new American dream for those fed up with the rat race and commuting to work everyday.
Originally posted on February 19, 2007 @ 9:55 am
Dave C. says
Great post. This really solidified some things for me about where I’m headed with my site. Thanks.
Mr. Bona Venture. says
From: Mr. Bona Venture.
Cor. Harrison
and Plein Street
JOHANNESBURG,
South Africa.
{MONEY TRANSACTION}
{THIRTY SIX MILLION USD}
(RE: TRANSFER OF ($ 36,000,000.USD
{BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY/YOUR ASSISTANCE IS NEEDED}
My name is Mr. Bona Venture.and I work in the
International operation department in a Local Bank
here in South Africa On a routine inspection ,I
discovered a dormant domiciliary account with a BAL Of
36,000,000 (Thirty Six Million USD) onfurtherdiscreet
investigation I also discovered that the account
holder has long since passed away (dead)leaving no
beneficiary to the accountThe bank will approve this
money to any foreigner because the former operator of
the a/c is a foreigner and from Iraq in particular and
I am certainly sure that he is dead and nobody
willcome again for the claim of this money A foreigner
can only claim this money with legal claims to the
account Holder therefore I need your cooperation in
this transaction.
I will provide the necessary information needed in
order to claim this money, But you will need to open
an account where this can be transferred.If you are
interested send me your private Telephone No And Fax
number including the full details of the account to be
used for the Deposit. I wish for utmost
confidentiality in handling this transaction as my job
and the future of my family would be jeopardized if it
werebreached The information will be as
follows——————-
Bank Name\Address———-
A/C Name………….
A/C Number.\Even an empty a\c is still ok!—-
Swift Code No…………..
And i am assuring you that the transaction is risk
free hence we are going to follow the normal transfer
process .Finally a 25% of the total fund will be given
to you for your steadfast corporation.
Upon the receipt of the above details, payment will be
activated by the feeding of your data into payment
system, followed by a signal that will be sent to the
paying bank to remit funds into your nominated bank
account within 5 official working days of receipt of
the above information.Contact me urgently via email
privately for further
details:{[email protected]}
Thanks.
Yours
Faithfully,
Mr. Bona Venture.