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Game 7: #3 Seed All Freelance Writing Versus #6 Seed Crime Fiction Dossier

The Matchup

Third seeded All Freelance Writing is taking on sixth seeded Crime Fiction Dossier. AFW covers a wide range of freelance topics. CFD is focused only on crime fiction. It is a battle of the general versus the specific. I think this is going to be one of our better first round matchups.

Introductions

All Freelance Writing

AFW is the blog of PR consultant and freelance business writer, Jennifer Mattern. It covers freelancing with an eye towards writing for the web. Mattern blogs for many sites, but this one is all her own.

Crime Fiction Dossier

CFD is devoted to mysteries and thrillers. It discusses current books in the market as well as giving writing advice. The author is book reviewer David J. Montgomery, whose reviews have appeared in many major newspapers across the country.

Archives

All Freelance Writing

The archives date back to November of 2006. Mattern consistently posts three to four times a week, so there are plenty of articles to read. Unfortunately, there is no archive page or other guide to the older material, and because many of her postings are for job openings, that leaves you with a lot of low-relevancy posts to slog through while you are looking for the good material.

Result: AFW drives to the basket scores two.

Crime Fiction Dossier

The archives date back to October of 2005. You remember 2005? King Kong was in the movie theaters and John Mayer was all the rage. Britney Spears was only a bad mother — not insane. Those were good times. OK, so in regular years that isn’t very long ago, but in blog years it’s pretty darned good. His pace is a reasonable three or so articles a week and most of his articles are long by blog standards. He tends to stick to his topics well. As usual, an archive page would be nice.

Result: CFD squares up and shoots a clean two-pointer from eight feet out.

The score starts out tied, 2-2.

Design

Crime Fiction Dossier

There isn’t anything particularly bad about the design, but isn’t eye catching either. It has the look of a stock Typepad theme. The advertisements aren’t too distracting. Overall it is neither a plus nor a minus for the site.

Result: CFD pulls up for a short jumper. Two points.

All Freelance Writing

The design of AFW has a few problems. The banner isn’t particularly attractive and seems a little pixilated. It is also dwarfed by the ad that is right next to it. For some reason, the text ads have a blood-red background, which draws the eye away from the content but also makes it difficult to read the ads. The theme itself is attractive enough for a stock theme (I’ve seen it used more effectively on other sites) but none of the tweaks that have been make improve the look of this site.

Result: AFW gets a point from the charity stripe.

The underdog, CFD, pulls ahead 4-3.

Usability and Navigation

All Freelance Writing

AFW scores well when it comes to subscription options. There are multiple ways to subscribe and you can subscribe to the comments as well as to the posts. There is also category-based access to archives. The options it has are easy to find. There is no archive page though, so you will have to sift through the posts from newest to oldest.

Result: AFT lays one in for two points.

Crime Fiction Dossier

CFD has most of the options people look for. There is a list of recent posts, a category list, syndication options including email, and a Google search option. There isn’t a comments feed option and there is no archive or key articles page. It is easy enough to find the options that are there.

Result: CFD sinks a two in the paint.

The score remains close with CFD up by a point, 6-5.

Purpose

Crime Fiction Dossier

CFD bills itself as Commentary on the world of crime fiction, including mystery and thriller novels, authors, reviews and publishing. It lives up to all of those points. The focus is clearly on crime fiction, and there are plenty of reviews and discussions of the format. While CFD isn’t a pure writing blog, there are many helpful articles about writing and publishing, which is what makes the blog appropriate for this contest.

Result: CFD makes two out of three from the free throw line, missing the third only because it isn’t purely a writing blog. Two points.

All Freelance Writing

The name of the blog is All Freelance Writing, but the emphasis seems to be on web writing and e-books, rather than focusing on freelancing in general. The focus does stay on writing though so it stays true to the needs of its readers.

Result: AFW sinks a two from the outside.

CFD maintains its slim lead. 8-7.

Personality

All Freelance Writing

Mattern often switches between third-person articles and more personal posts. One recent post discusses the ups and downs in her life that lead to her lack of new content in February. She shows her personality, but the blog isn’t focused on her personality.

Result: AFW scores two more from the inside.

Crime Fiction Dossier

Perhaps because Montgomery is a book reviewer, he has no problem expressing or defending his opinions. This is certainly a blog with a point of view. I don’t think his personality drives the blog, but it certainly helps keep it interesting.

Result: CDF hits a jump shot from the baseline for two points.

CFD is still on top, 10-9.

Five Most Recent Posts

Crime Fiction Dossier

Why books get reviewed

This is an informative piece about the various reasons why reviewers will pick a particular book to review. It covers reasons ranging from location to cover image to buzz.

Book of the Week: Joseph Wambaugh’s “Hollywood Crows”

A short review of a new crime fiction novel.

Barry Eisler’s advice for aspiring writers

Montgomery culls some writing tips from a 2005 interview with author Barry Eisler. The advice is good. The What If advice is exactly what I wrote about last month.

What makes a great book a great book?

Montgomery tries to sum up the qualities that make for a great book. This is a follow-up to his previous advice to write a great book.

Write a great book

Montgomery discusses the fact that a having good marketing plan and getting reviewed are secondary issues. The most important task for a writer is to write a great book.

These are five solid blog entries. Some of them only lightly brush on the genre of crime fiction, but they are all very helpful. All of the entries come from the past week, so his posting frequency is excellent.

Result: CFD sinks a three-pointer.

All Freelance Writing

Coming Up with Blog Post Ideas

This is a nice long article that gives plenty of blog post ideas. I’ve seen plenty of similar articles at other sites, but Mattern’s thoroughness makes it worthwhile. Mattern works on many different blogs, so her experience in this area is solid.

Changes to AFW – Ads, Sidebars, and More

Mattern discusses some changes to her blog design. I don’t like the changes, but I do like that she is planning on moving to a new theme although as I’ve pointed out, the base theme she is using is more attractive than her result.

Freelance Friday – March 21, 2008

Mattern dishes out the link love. I am a bit supporter of link love, so I have no complaints there.

Using Wordpress to Host a Non-Blog Site

I’ve done this a couple of times myself, so I was interested in the topic. Unfortunately, the article was short on advice and seemed more focused on linking to some of her other sites.

Overcoming Freelance Stress

Stress management is always a good idea. I’m not sure what makes these methods specific to freelance writers, but the advice is good.

All of Mattern’s posts come within the past ten days, so she has a reasonable schedule. It isn’t an all-star list of posts but there is some good material here.

Result: AFW shoots a short jumper for two.

CFD closes out the victory 13-11

Post Game Analysis

Crime Fiction Dossier demonstrates the value of covering a niche topic well. Many of the blogs in this competition are about freelancing or making money writing, but CFD is the only blog about crime fiction. That unique niche helps make the site stand out. It also doesn’t hurt that Montgomery puts more effort into his individual entries than many other bloggers. All Freelance Writing is a good blog, but it is hard to shine when there are so many similar blogs.

What They Can Work On

All Freelance Writing

The only area that AFW truly struggled in was design. The name of a blog should never be trumped by an advertisement. It sends a bad signal. In most of the other categories AFW was good but not great.

Crime Fiction Dossier

This blog deserves more attention than it is getting. The smaller niche may be costing the site some visitors, but if we can have a #2 seed based on creating white papers, surely we can find some love for this unseen gem. I would suggest a redesign and perhaps a little advertising. The writing needs no help at all.

Speaking of white papers, second seeded Writing White Papers will be taking on seventh seeded The Writing Journey in our next contest.