A good blog – what’s the recipe?

Share This February 11th, 2008 Tom van Aardt

Is there a recipe for the perfect blog? What makes good blog? What is a successful blog? How do you build a good blog? Difficult, complex questions, but the easiest way to answer it is by way of an example. I came across a new blog this weekend which I think is almost at the peak of what a perfect blog should be.

First off the disclaimer: this is a friend’s blog. We were having dinner there on Saturday when she told me about it, and I had to have a look.

She is a writer and a gardening journalist, so she obviously knows how to string together an English sentence. However, she’s not a techie, but she still managed to put together what I believe to be an excellent blog.

Her blog is called ‘The Year of Living Seasonally‘, and it is an attempt to chronicle her family’s attempt at eating only food which is in season:

The Year of Eating Seasonally is my little experiment to find out what it’s really like not to have it all. The only fruit and veg I and my family are going to eat in 2008 will be what’s growing in the ground at the time (or, in winter, what I can get out of store).

Voice

At work I’m in the process of publishing an external blog, and there is a lot of discussion in the BBC about what makes for a successful blog. It is generally felt that a single person runs a better blog than trying to do a group blog – it’s hard to pin down a ‘voice’ for a blog if there are too many contributors. Sally has a single voice, and it’s a very distinctive style.

Purpose

She’s journaling their attempt at eating only seasonal food. This is a perfect example at a very focussed blog, and it’s at the same time also very authoritative. She knows what she’s talking about, and she’s also passionate about the subject.

Information

She provides a lot of information about seasonal food, and she supplements it with recipes. Of course I’ll return to her blog, because I know there will be new recipes and I’ll want to revisit some of the old ones.

Commitment

So far she’s blogged every day, including what they had for all the meals of the day. That shows not only passion for the subject, but also commitment. It creates trust with the reader that she’ll keep it up.

Personal

The style is very informal, almost chatty, which makes it very accessible and also more trustworthy. Even if I didn’t know her personally, I’d still read this because it’s obviously not some corporation trying to sell me their version of the truth.

Tools

Not only is the blog rich with content, she also provides some familiar blog tools. The rss feed is right at the top (try finding the rss on Beeld.com), she links to other related blogs as well as related and relevant sites. However, she doesn’t list half the internet as links down the right hand side, making me believe she put some care and effort into only providing the best links. There’s also the standard search box.

Layout and design

The template is standard and probably free, it’s clean and well suited to the format of the blog where recipes and monthly information need to be displayed all at the same time. Some care obviously went into choosing the theme to suit the content so perfectly (or else she was very lucky very fast). I didn’t have the time to fully evaluate the user experience, but compare it to Jeremiah Owyang’s thorough analysis of the top 10 blogs.

(Least) Effort

I can’t imagine this blog taking too much of her time. The initial setup must have taken a few hours, if that much. Now all she needs to do is sit down every night and write two or three paragraphs, and it’s only an overview of what happened during the day. It’s an excellent example of converting processes into content – taking what you already do and creating content.

Suggestions

I only really have one suggestion for improving this blog – linking. Despite being very focussed and in essence a journal of a highly specific dietary nature, it would benefit hugely from linking and trackbacks to other similar blogs. This would also encourage discussion with other bloggers in a similar field (I can’t imagine there to be too many), and it would also drive more traffic.

If I had to be finicky, I’d change the font on the banner, but it’s a personal choice. This blog’s strength lies absolutely in its rich and unique content.

Conclusion

I think The Year of Eating Seasonally is an excellent blog, and it’s one of those that just make me sit back and think ‘I wish I could do it that well’. There are one or two minor design issues, and the linking issue could make it more a part of the wider blogging community.

This is quite obviously not a technology blog, but blogs don’t have to be only about technology or politics. Overall I think it’s wonderful, and it’s won a place on my carefully trimmed Google Reader feed.

Entry Filed under: General, World Wide Web