Measuring Up

John Hewitt — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:07:55 +0000

A while back, Michael Stelzner over at Writing White Papers started a comment-based contest to name the Top Ten Blogs for Writers. He has now posted his official list of nominees, which I have included below. I was happy to see that my blog made the initial cut and I thank those of you who nominated it. For the final vote, Michael is planning to judge the blogs based on the following criteria.

Quality of posts: (55% of decision)
Frequency of posts: (15%)
Reader involvement: (15%)
Technorati.com Ranking: (15%)

The criteria prompted me to think about my own blog and where it is going, so I thought I would conduct a quick self-assessment and see what my readers think as well.

Quality of posts: November has, due to my commitment to participate in NaNoWriMo, not been my best month for quality of posts. I am, however, very happy with the posts I wrote in September and October, especially those concerning the 30 Poems in 30 Days project and the 10 Days of Character Building Project. Overall, I would give myself a B in this category, and plan to move back toward an A in December, once my NaNoWriMo participation is complete.

Frequency of posts: Again, this has suffered a bit this month, due to the novel commitment. In September and October, I held myself to a daily posting schedule, but I have slacked off a bit in November. Again, I would give myself a B.

Reader Involvement: Right now, I have about eight readers who comment with some regularity. That isn’t bad, but it certainly could be improved. I don’t know how I measure up to other blogs in this category, but I would give myself a C+.

Technorati Ranking: My current Technorati rank is 29,043. That beats everyone on the list except Copyblogger (which has an ENORMOUS following I won’t be surpassing any time soon) and Copywriting Maven. I think that Freelance Writing Jobs might have a bigger following than mine but for some reason Technorati won’t give me a rank for that site. I’ll give myself an A in that category.

Overall, I think my blog earns a solid B overall. A month ago, I might have rated it higher, but I am not thrilled with my November posts.

Now, I ask for your feedback:

How do you think my site compares with the others?
What would you like to see me writing about in the future?
How frequently would you like me to post?
Do you like ongoing projects or individual postings?

Be sure to visit the other nominated blogs below. They are all worthy of consideration.

PoeWar » Copywriting Maven

Measuring Up