Hi Allen,

You probably haven’t noticed that the misty theme is the second most popular downloaded theme on ThemeViewer, with over 26,000 downloads. It’s a very popular theme, and I’m guessing the majority who use the the theme are not followers of John Chow.

Perhaps, you should have given John Chow that advice on branding before he used the misty theme.

That is a good point though. We should all brand ourselves with different designs. Take your design for example, it seems very unique with a darker gloomy feel to it. That works! I hear what your saying.

Hey J.R,

I didn’t notice that number at ThemeViewer, nor did i know it was that popular. I guess you’re right then - Most of them were not followers (your words) of John Chow. But you know? the number you have just provided only strengthens my point, doesn’t it?

As i said in the post, I’m not targeting anyone specific with this post, John Chow’s honor remains in it’s place, he has done many other great things to place his blog in it’s current spot in the blogosphere.

As much as I like my design, it’s not a unique one, i basically altered some graphics and code in order for it to better suit my blogging needs. I’m working on higher-priority aspects, ones which will be addressed in the next part of this series. (qv: marketing whore)

Allen.H

Good post Allen.
The rise of entrepreneur blogs is incredible, everyone seems to think that their blogs will be read and will become the next Shoemoney.com, Johnchow.com, etc.

Only thing is…the majority of these new bloggers aren’t overly successful. Therefor they aren’t going to become overly popular (unfortunately for me )

People are free to do whatever they want online so nothing is going to stop them, plus many people don’t plan to become the next big netrepreneur but rather just want a place to vent (again like myself).

It appears I started rambling, looking forward to your next for the series.

Paul, thanks for your compliments.

I agree with your point, many people don’t plan to become the next big thing, hell - many people don’t even plan to make a dime from the internet.

But I’ve already said that - I’m writing this kind of posts to people who are looking to excel in what they do. What I do is called blogging for a living, some people call it “problogging” but I don’t see myself as a pro just yet.

Ambitious people that are looking to optimize, publicize and monetize (don’t you love feedburner?) their personal blog hopefully find value in this kind of posts, others who are not may consider it a nice lengthy article.

Always glad to hear what you have to say anyway,

Allen

Yes Feedburner is a good friend of mine:)

First off thanks for visiting my blog Allen, I do appreciate your comments.

Second, good article. Whenever I try to pick a theme I try to pick one that looks nice, but isn’t too common. I definitely modify all the themes I ever use to try to get it as unique as possible. I’ve also noticed that in the past I would misspell a number of things in my posts, so I’ve started spell-checking everything before I publish it. It’s been working out very well.

Best of luck with everything, and I can’t wait for the second part of the article.

Thanks Ryan, I discovered your blog recently through another blogroll and said “eh, another interesting personal blog” (since it said “ryan’s life” of course). But I’m very impressed with your awareness and knowledge in the media field.

I use Firefox 2.0 as my default spell-checker, and although sometimes it gives weird and unrelated suggestions, it’s instant, light, and bug-free. I’ve had some terrible experience with Wordpress spell checkers.

Anyway, Part II is coming in the next 2 days

Cheers,
Allen

Hi Allen

Great article! I have only one comment to make, and I’m pretty sure that one comment won’t win me many friends, but here goes…

You mention Jon Waraas’ site. Now admittedly I’m a total newbie at blogging (although I [i]have[/i] been on the Net since its early days), but not at writing. Mr. Waraas might have a lot of visitors and great stats, but the spelling, grammar and juvenile tone of his site leave me wondering exactly HOW he is considered to be a successful webmaster.

What am I missing here?

Hey Philip - Thanks for your input and don’t worry, I love when readers add controversy to the discussion, as long as it’s supported with logical arguments, and to answer your question..

First, let’s put everything in it’s place:

1. A successful webmaster is a webmaster who has highly popular and/or well earning sites. Waraas has a network of 11 active sites, some of them with high amounts of traffic, which makes him a successful webmaster in my opinion.

2. You may have wanted to ask “exactly HOW iS his blog mentioned as an example for fairly-branded blogs?”, which makes more sense since you criticizing his blogging style. As I said, there are many aspects that involve in blog branding, Waraas may not be the greatest speller and authoritative narrator, but he is someone you can learn a lot from, he built together a great network of sites and has made good money online…as stated in part II of this series (which I assume you have read):

“(Un)fortunately (depends how you look at it) - It’s true. People that are known names in the industry, whether because of their earnings, their words or their blog design will have sufficient amount of readers to make the average blogger blush without necessarily injecting value into any of their reader’s brain.”

Jon may not have the greatest design, tone or writing style, but he’s a man who proved and claimed his territory in the entrepreneur ground, hence the number of readers flocking to his personal blog.

Cheers,
Allen

Thanks, Allen, for your quick reply.

As a blogging newbie, it seems I did indeed miss one the BIG possible paths to “success”. We all define that term differently, so my apologies to you, Jon and probably a few million others. :>)

Also thanks for your words of encouragement concerning my site - in the “dark hours” of working on the technical aspects, one can lose sight of some of the ultimate goals.

I’m heartened that I’ve discovered your blog - I think it’s going to be an incredible resource once I learn to go beyond my ideas of static websites and wrap my head around this whole blogging phenomena!

[…] Another standout blog piece is AlleNation’s two part series on 5 Blog Aspects to Revise in 2007 (part 1, part 2). What I like about this series (besides being in it) is it reads like an attitude session. What is an attitude session? It’s a blog post that gives you a kick in the pant and makes you rethink what you’re doing. Here’s example from the post. Have you noticed how many blogs are using the same theme as John Chow? I started noticing this after visiting some blogs whom the owners of left comments on Chow’s blog, and I was really surprised to see the vast amount of blogs with this theme. How can you possibly create a brand when your theme is not only the same as one of the most visited personal blog on the blogosphere, but also the same as your friend, and your friend’s friend, and his sister, too!? […]

[…] 4. Knowledge - Now that you’ve covered your role of providing value to your audience, it’s time to inject some value to your own mind. Fortunately, almost any kind of knowledge can be acquired freely on the internet, whether you want to learn HTML, learn how to design a header or improve your blog, it’s all there waiting for you to consume. […]

[…] In his post 5 Blog Aspects to Revise in 2007 (Part I); Allen writes this: How can you possibly create a brand when your theme is not only the same as one of the most visited personal blogs on the blogosphere, but also the same as your friend, and your friend’s friend, and his sister, too!? […]