The Wall Street Journal had a nice piece on Gina Trapani’s Lifehacker yesterday at Lifehacker Draws Visitors With Time-Saving Tech Tips.
Lifehacker is a standout blog in my opinion and a prime example of how blogs can be more than just creating noise and clutter on the web by actually providing useful content to their readers. The quote of the article that sums it all up for me was from Robert Scoble:
“”She focuses on information that’ll make her readers’ lives more productive,” said Robert Scoble, author of the Scobleizer blog and a former Microsoft Corp. blogger. “That’s quite different from other bloggers who share gossip, give opinions or break news.””
I think news blogs have a place and can be quite successful – but if I were starting a new blog today I’d be focussing more upon a style of blogging that is ‘helpful’ in nature as it’s the type of blog that not only draws people in, but that develops loyalty among it’s readership.
It’s also a much easier style of blog to monetize in some ways either through the development of products to sell readers (loyal readers are much more likely to buy something than one off readers) and also through affiliate products of other people’s quality resources.
The other great quote from the article was:
“Ms. Trapani, who manages a staff of three writers, is something of an anomaly among bloggers. She avoids writing about herself and her posts are free of the sarcasm and snarky attitude that other blogs — particularly those on technology — use as calling cards. The former software programmer says she prefers to stay out of the limelight. Any publicity about herself, instead of the site, “makes me want to climb under my desk and hide,” she said. “But that’s just my inner geek.””
Perhaps this is more of a personal preference than anything but the other reason I am drawn to Lifehacker is the voice that it is written in. It’s a remarkably positive blog and I often come away from it in a slightly better mood than I was in when I got to it. As a result there’s a lot of goodwill towards Lifehacker in it’s readership (and in the wider blogosphere). Also – despite it’s size – it’s one of those few large techie blogs that usually has a positive vibe i it’s comments – this has a lot to do with the way it’s written in my humble opinion as that has a lot to do with the type of reader interaction it attracts.
It’s no wonder that they’ve tripled their readership in the last year.
Thanks Darren for the link. I’m always looking for good blogs to read, and this is a good one. So thanks.
I’m a long time (well less than a year) Lifehacker subscriber, and I couldn’t agree more with your comments about it. And, wow, do they post a lot of articles. They are all short and quick to read though.
Lifehacker is one of those sites that has at least 2-3 (and often times more) golden posts throughout the day. I love the site and highly recommend it to anyone that has yet to read it.
I’m a pretty hardcore geek and I constantly learn new things from Lifehacker.
Darren,
“…if I were starting a new blog today I’d be focussing more upon a style of blogging that is ‘helpful’ in nature as it’s the type of blog that not only draws people in, but that develops loyalty among it’s readership”
No sign of LifeTipper then? You have a voice many of us think is perfect for it.
Lifehacker is a role model blog in my opinion. It’s value is perfectly clear without the need for all the snark and posturing.
One of my beliefs is that the external world is a direction reflection of our internal thoughts and beliefs. Everything is depend upon positivity and self esteem which will make our life worth living.
What a great blog, being positive is an attitude that will bring much happiness and joy. we only go around once, so it better be with a positive attitude.