Can We Tell If Your Blog Is Successful?

[00:01] creators will look at their website and just not be able to tell what it is success we hear this all the time and people want us to look at their blogs and see if we can figure out what is holding them back today we want to see

[00:14] given to see if just looking at the front end of the blog no analytics just what you can see publicly if we can determine which of these blogs are [Music] not so Julia issued us a challenge we

[00:30] that's why I keep looking over there we have five blogs and we know roughly the page views that they have per month but we don't know which is by looking at them and I'm a little bit nervous cuz last time Julia gave us a

[00:46] challenge we ended up in the river so hopefully that doesn't happen again huge thank you to our income School insiders all of these sites came from insiders who submitted their sites uh for review and we're going to go ahead and actually

[00:58] you some some other takeaways uh for each one of these sites so thank you very much for sharing and we wish you all the greatest of success so let's all the greatest of success so let's dive in um the first blog here is daily

[01:11] time.com okay first impression I'm going to let you go first well I guess my first impression the site looks really clean U very visually appealing which I seems like this is something that you would want to look really nice um I'm

[01:26] would want to look really nice um I'm seeing an ad here on the side um a logo I also want to just make sure that I intending to be about versus what I'm seeing so we've got a lot of recipes and

[01:39] stuff here which uh is pretty competitive can you scroll back down to what I thought it was it's basically it's all about tea te's been a part of her life so how much content do we have on this website

[01:53] 116 posts and again just from the menu it looks like it is basically recipe recipe recipe so lots of competition but also uh quite a bit of content over 100 posts my impression of how it looks it looks exactly how I

[02:09] would want it to look for what it is looking through the posts man those images are yeah the images look really good helpful yeah what about just comments are open but like the one we're looking at doesn't have any yeah maybe

[02:23] we can look at a slightly older article let's look at one further back this is a little bit nerve-wracking it's it is really hard to tell but I think what you has all the elements here that I would expect of a website that's doing

[02:36] something right we're looking for interaction because we do have comments looks yummy thank you there's some back and forth here some actual questions that's a really good sign for me too on a lot of blogs we don't see a whole lot

[02:49] of commenting going on I see it a little bit more in a couple of places one on recipes especially if people have questions about the recipe and two when there's anything that's like very opinionated and especially

[03:02] get comments cuz people just want to argue like crazy but a lot of blogs get very few comments the fact that this has that many comments in there does make me feel like this I mean this Blog has some real traffic high level looking at this

[03:17] I'm curious to see the others though before I pin a number to it I feel like this could be or should be doing maybe better than the second best one on here

[03:29] but I am not convinced that it's the top one yeah I I'm just going to say right now my guess is this is maybe the second highest amount of traffic just because of kind of what you said the the niche is so competitive and so and just given

[03:44] the number of Articles um I think it's very likely that this person created some good content but then maybe a smaller portion of those articles are which would make sense for based on some of these numbers cool thing is there's

[03:57] 116 post recipes that are all tea I mean when we're talking about topical Authority like they're probably covering at least tea recipes really well yeah uh I what I don't know is are they talking about and

[04:11] I don't really see it unless it's inside the recipes but are they covering other aspects about tea uh questions that people have about tea in general that might help to build more topical Authority but the fact that they're very

[04:24] focused on tea right also makes me think that they're building some Authority there definitely cool I'm ready to look at the next one all right here we go oh interesting very different very different feel on this website my first

[04:36] impression here this looks like like a tech news kind of website right off the bat when I look at it I don't I don't love it it doesn't make me excited when enough white space or the white space I'm seeing isn't how I would want it to

[04:50] I'm seeing isn't how I would want it to be design wise um each of those posts is it's close together so it just kind of feels like a lot of stuff being thrown at me all at once right uh I don't like this full boxed in look I think uh it

[05:04] the footer are full width that's kind of the much more modern style so my first impression is it looks good it doesn't look very disorganized by any means but

[05:16] either okay one thing that I noticed right off the bat on this site is we're missing any sort of there is recommended content over here on the sidebar but any sort of like highlighted content it's just like blog roll right off the bat

[05:31] and I think that that's one thing that just makes this feel less special or like spectacular is it just feels like a Blog roll on the homepage I would like to see some highlighted content on the top maybe some larger images uh

[05:43] whatever but just to give it a little bit more variety in the formatting and I we're not even looking to see how any of these articles are ranking I'm curious to know how much content though uh only 43 posts which surprises me by the way

[05:59] when I look at this on the outset given how many menu items there are and how full that homepage looks only having that much content actually surprises me there is but what that tells me too is that with all the different menu items

[06:14] we have a few different brands going on and TV hacks as a topic we may be a little bit all over the place not building a lot of topical Authority that's coming right they're they're building it out and they're just early

[06:26] on but for those reasons I don't think this one's probably getting a lot of traffic yet in fact why don't we do that real quick I'm just going to say can't find CBS app on Smart Songs that's a really specific question okay so I'm not

[06:40] seeing this website at all I'm getting Samsung I'm getting some other this one at all and that doesn't surprise me a ton the kinds of questions answering can you get Paramount app on Samsung Smart TV that's a really really

[06:57] specific question that is also very easy to answer it's a yes or no kind of question and there's not a whole lot of caveat to it right if it was like well you can but it's hidden and you have to find it the secret way well that would

[07:10] be really helpful but for most of these it's like it's either available or it's AI or it's going to the answers are Samsung documentation yeah I'm going to

[07:22] go out on a limb here and say that this is ranked number four or five um in in respect to how much traffic it's getting every month that's just my gu yes cool I here we go moms la.com so the whole to take a little bit

[07:36] of a deep breath here on this home page um it just feels a little bit busy it we somehow end up on the wrong we're on it feels like we're on about page okay okay this looks a little bit more H homey one thing for me is these links

[07:50] things like we're we're trying to point out specific content but those the way the blue underlined is that feels a little bit I don't know basic outdated yeah very very amateur it would look a

[08:05] button I don't know just a little bit more design to it and the image itself different options that I think would make it look a little bit better I also your Pinterest icon looks smaller than the other ones maybe because there's

[08:19] or like it's not visible if there's supposed to be one so it looks a lot smaller than the others so little things like that kind of make it feel a little bit more amateure but also kind of just feels like one thing right after another

[08:31] without any real Design Elements to help break it up yeah one thing that I notic at the top there's the menu but it's almost there's so much else going on that you almost don't even realize that it's there and then I SK right over it

[08:45] this almost feels more like where the menu might be or should be but it looks like these are like highlighted posts or whatever or resources at least so yeah it definitely seems like yeah it definitely seems like a little bit of

[08:57] organ reorganization of this page but I think also if you look at like a a elements they're just broken up a little bit yeah um and like you said this just feels like one thing after another so just a few things there my eyes don't

[09:10] this is this is the problem here is my eyes don't go to any like particular place so because of that and you're not actually like getting my attention to focus on one thing at a time and I think maybe that's one of the reasons why in

[09:23] good design we spread things out a little bit more leave a little space in making it feel like there's just tons of open white space is literally to kind of section to the next uh even if it's subtle and that makes it feel if that

[09:40] divider is kind of happening halfway in between the space it makes that space not feel huge but it allows us to focus on one thing at a time MH so this is really interesting so the the blog itself feels a little bit outdated but

[09:53] there are other hints going on on this website it's a little bit of an older website um it it seems like there are other industry connections potentially when I looked on the homepage scroll down as featured in so there's there's

[10:07] all these things pointing to potentially a a more successful site which is a little bit interesting right uh I don't know what are your thoughts on that I I agree those are indicators by the way those indicators there give social proof

[10:21] places you probably have some good backlinks and potentially traffic that site would probably do a fair amount better if it felt a little bit more yeah little bit more up to date something else I noticed they do have um email so

[10:38] some sort of sign up for people which is I I would consider maybe to be a slightly more advanced thing someone who's just getting started is very unlikely they have EMA opting started they have a book which makes me think

[10:50] success and then they are using it says they're on the trellis framework by medine medine I don't know just by looking at the homepage here some definitely elements of success the other thing I want to see is how much content

[11:04] See they have over 500 posts I mean that alone their age the 500 posts the eat they've built up MH and all of those things as well as the topic they've

[11:16] chosen as well they're focusing on La and things to do in LA and connecting businesses with parents that kind of stuff is kind of their thing might be more than enough to be overpowering they they could just be getting a lot of

[11:28] improving their brand a bit and potentially making a lot more money mhm with some simple improvements we kind of glossed over like these social icons but they have LinkedIn Instagram and Facebook short of really looking at each

[11:44] one of those things I'm I'm going to like go out on a limb here and I think traffic that's going to be my guess in spite of design that's not and notice that too that's kind of a cool little thing but they've got this um um little

[11:59] sign up here that when you scroll past it the first time every time the rest of the screen kind of just goes a little bit dim for just a second and it pop that's a cool little feature as well very indepth and notice how all their

[12:12] just a little bit longer cuz they made the ad box I'm guessing medine's one that did that but they made the ad box big enough that the space is big enough little longer y makes you a little more yeah I'm going to say this is the number

[12:25] be so let's look at the next all right all right this is climers point okay got a decently built out homepage they do have some featured content it's not totally that different from the blog rooll I'd like to see a little bit more

[12:40] VAR little bit more from a design standpoint and this isn't like a huge critique but the fonts are all too small yeah it's like if I'm using this website I feel like I need to zoom in and I hate zooming in on my browser cuz then when I

[12:55] all screwed up and then I have to zoom back out I just for some reason I hate that the fonts are all too small I'd have also liked to seen it very on the menu you don't have a logo there I I think at this point like probably get a

[13:07] logo and then I think your or you know your main menu bar could be a little bit stays with you as you scroll down we don't need such a huge search bar yeah yeah this the menu I'm assuming this is the menu here it almost feels like yeah

[13:22] so this is like categories on the site it's like okay but are there other Pages that's one thing we're not doing at all is we're not featuring any pages on the homepage really except the newsletter there was a call out for the newsletter

[13:36] there's everything else is down there in the footer menu but I just going to check and see yeah how much content 55 55 and it feels like more than that like it feels like you got quite a bit of content if it's 55 is posts and it's

[13:50] spread across that many different aspects bouldering sport climbing uh training I have a suspicion that we don't I think we're at more than 55 now right but at the time they submitted this I suspect that this one didn't have

[14:03] a lot of topical Authority and so it's probably one of our middle ones that's like I have some sort of community which I think is good there were a few other doing to maybe build some Authority and that sort of thing they've got a forum

[14:18] on their website that's cool or is this just their blog looks like you can some ask a question feature so it looks like something so it's kind of like a maybe some sort of forum yeah okay yeah which is cool I don't know how short of

[14:31] active it is any opportunity you can have to create engagement and build some Community is going to be good so you're doing a lot of really good things I just don't think it's yeah far enough along yet to to be getting yeah this one feels

[14:44] middle of the road out of these five so let's take a look at this last one here glitter Rebel okay that looks nice see how I mentioned okay that looks nice see how I mentioned before like that full width kind of top

[14:57] days and then like the background changed to just white to kind of give you a little bit about me section and then top continents here that's kind of new background so we have a lot more space in between but it's not just white

[15:11] really really empty well and even like there's the various aspects and elements spread out and I think that that's a good thing to some extent because it's not too much but it's just not a overwhelming amount of information as I

[15:25] scroll I'm only really able to focus on one thing at a time and I'm okay with the homepage having only a few latest articles on it I think that's fantastic for this kind of homeage yeah definitely this it looks like I mean they have

[15:39] different you know content about various um places in the world it feels a little bit I would just say the niche fits this style very well it feels more custom Des feels right definitely they have socials yep or maybe these are just share

[15:53] buttons they've got a YouTube channel with some subscribers 81 videos not a looks like in their menu they're offering some free resources either they've created haven't checked yet oh this is uh the topic of blogging so

[16:09] they're telling other Travelers about how to blog very interesting but they only have the one blog post in there couple of comments so a little bit of Engagement there I think I'm ready I think I know the order here's where I

[16:21] think I know the order here's where I place it um I've got moms la.com has 200,000 pag views a month I think glitter Rebel glitter Rebel has 14,000 daily T has 11,000 climbers

[16:33] Point has 1,000 and smart TV central has 300 those two I could have switched that's my guess but I don't know the answers so I'm curious what you think answers so I'm curious what you think okay um I feel like I pretty much 100%

[16:47] okay um I feel like I pretty much 100% in line with that the biggest reason and to not be too redundant though the biggest reason driving that for me the order is the mom's la first of all massive amount of content a fair amount

[17:01] of age but also real eat that I think they've done a good job of building even though they don't have like amazing design looking at the travel one the fact that they have the socials their design is great they have uh the second

[17:16] these you know travel's competitive like recipes are but the fact that they have the other social element makes think it's probably helping quite a bit that's why I put it above um daily tea time but they're fairly close to one another in

[17:29] terms of traffic yeah got on a order 100% yes nailed it awesome so the big takea away from this is the sites that did the best had a few things in common one for

[17:45] the most part they had some kind of social media which yes it can drive traffic it's a good part of it but also it builds community and Community is a great way to actually build a brand that people come back to the the next thing

[17:59] was that all of these ones that did well they have built some Authority outside of just their blog eat was probably one of the biggest things I think that drove the biggest one to success and then the last one is these ranked almost

[18:14] posts they had the ones that created the most content are the ones that did the best so learn from those lessons and do those things and don't make some major blogging mistakes we've made some major blogging mistakes and I'd like to tell

[18:28] video right about heish that you can go check out uh so blogging mistakes we've made and how to avoid