If Your Blog Were A Restaurant
Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Food, glorious food! If you’re anything like me, you’ll agree that eating is very important. Even a humble cheese sandwich gets me smiling, and since I really enjoy good food, I am pretty particular about where I eat. This got me thinking about blogging; if your blog were a restaurant, would you eat there?
Here are a few thoughts about what good blogs and good restaurants have in common:
Signage
If there is no sign outside a restaurant, chances are you’ll walk right past it. The front page, header and page title of your blog must be clear and tell visitors the name of your blog and what it’s about. This is especially true if your blog has a weird and wonderful name - it took me ages to figure out what The Big Noob is all about!
Atmosphere
Just as important as the signage, is the design of your blog. The way a place looks can give visitors a good clue as to what they can expect. Take a look at Fanboy.com, I immediately get the idea - this guy loves old school video games, cartoons and movies.
Menu
Alright, so I like the atmosphere of your blog and I take a seat… Where’s the menu? Set up your navigation in such a way that it is easy to sample some of your delicacies. How can I “order” anything if I don’t know what’s on offer?
Service
Be helpful to your visitors. Offer useful bits and pieces like contact details, a comments box, RSS Feed and permalinks. If someone finds the proverbial “fly in their soup”, for instance a spelling or factual error, do your best to respond positively and fix the mistake. Discerning readers will notice your efforts.
The main course
This is the most important part. The content of your blog has to be edible! People will soon realise if your entries are stale and your ingredients are old. Quality is more important than quantity. It is better to write short, intriguing posts from time to time, than to frequently offer a lot of boring uninspired content. Make your visitors come back for a second helping. Add substance to your entries by doing some research on the topic and offering links for further reading. Spice up your entries by using a suitable quote or joke from time to time.
Dessert
Throw in a little something extra for the hungry visitor. Maybe a picture or illustration to accompany your entries. Even an interesting “About Me” page could do the trick. I always enjoy finding out a little more about the man/woman behind the blog.
The bill
Remember not to be too “expensive”. Try to save your visitors time, effort and frustration in any way you can.
Your blog is a restaurant - bon apetit!
fatima Says:
August 8th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Wow! that’s a really great way to think of blogging!!! You are really getting into this thing man! I’m quite impressed-well done and wishing u luck for your ‘blogging future” …u making quite splash, mr cssimports! can i get a hell yeah! anyhoo what did your lecturers think in the end? lemme kno.
cheers4eers
Blogsolid Says:
August 8th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Hey Fatima
Thanks for your support! Wayne actually asked me to speak to the 3rd years about this project, so that’s pretty cool!