In the spirit of the new year, I thought I would start off the year with a series post. This will be several part series on finding your own blog voice and how the A-List bloggers can teach you to find it without even knowing they are showing you. I had originally only planned on making this a single post, but as I got into it I realized in a single post this is going to be way too long.

I’ve been spending a lot of time browsing various blogs around the web. As a member of Entrecard just as a side benefit you find yourself on a lot of blogs with a lot of different types of content. These niches range from making money to personal blogs to humorous blogs as well as quite a few others. At first I considered this a waste of my time, but the longer I spend with this system the more similarities I see, but also I see a lot of differences. The main differences do not come from the content as a lot of it is good, but in the technical expertise of the various bloggers. Some bloggers are quite astute when it comes to the technical side of things such as SEO, web design, traffic generation( well sort ) and some don’t have a clue about the technical side but are very good writers. Some think they have a clue even when they don’t and this goes for both sides of the equation.

But neither of these items are the similarity I’m referring too. I’m referring to the raising of hands screaming at the A-List bloggers saying hey look at me. Some of these blogs do this so much that its hard to figure out what the blog is actually about. Some of these are quite amusing such as Not John Chow’s John Chow is Dead post I’ve been guilty of linking to some of John Chow’s or Darren Rowse’s posts in the past and I will again, but not for the point of begging either of them for attention. Did do it for the trackback link :-)

I read both these bloggers almost every day because sometimes there are some decent tips to gain knowledge about blogging. A lot of these tips come from the Guest Bloggers and not the actually author of the blog. But still you have everyone saying hey John look at me, I’m so special if you would just look and give me a link then I’ll be great just like you. One thing is certain if you want his attention then pay him $400 bucks for a review and then he will pay you some attention. You can determine this for yourself if you look at the number of paid reviews posted in the past month. The one thing I find missing from John’s blog is actual good information you can use to build your own blog. Some people say the same thing about Darren and Problogger. Of Course John does not beat around the bush in this area. After all the title of his blog is I make money by telling other people how much money I make. He never says he is going to help to teach you to make money like he makes. Sure there are tips on the blog, but not actually how he does it. John says he made 27K in November. Whether you believe him or not is up to you.

Lets look at that number a little bit. The top four money makers follows:

  • Private Ad Sales: $12,854.84
  • Affiliate Commissions: $6,579.67
  • ReviewMe: $4,400.00
  • Text Link Ads: $2,012.66If you add this up you will get $25,847.17 or the majority of his money. With the most coming from Private Ad sales, but I’ve never seen anywhere on his site information on how to attract advertisers, well not directly. The second best earner is from Affiliate commissions. I would guess a lot of the commissions come in the form of commissions from other bloggers who have signed up under John in some tiered structured payout program such as WidgetBucks or Bidvertisor. John does post Affiliate links in posts so part of this probably also comes from those links.Now I have no doubt that John is very successful at what he does and how he does it, but is it more important to act just like John or find another way to gain attention. You don’t need John’s attention you need the attention of your readers. After all if I was going to pick someone to emulate then I would copy ReadWriteWeb, I bet if John would tell you who he wanted to be like then that may be one of the sites he wished he could become like.

    Well tune in tomorrow for the next installment. You may want to subscribe so you don’t forget and miss it. Where we analyze Darren Rowse and maybe even get closer to the point of finding your own voice for your blog. For now take a look at both of the Year in Review posts from John Chow and ProBlogger. As they will help set the tone for the rest of this series. While you are at Problogger you may want to check out some of the posts about what was done to improve your blog in 2007. These are all posts from other people and there are some really great tips. My favorite is how to Improve your blog with networking but in all the entries are some great food for thought.

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