Jakob Nielsen published his list of the most common mistakes of weblog authors concerning the usability of their blogs: The Top Ten Design Mistakes.
- No Author Biographies
- No Author Photo
- Nondescript Posting Titles
- Links Don’t Say Where They Go
- Classic Hits are Buried
- The Calendar is the Only Navigation
- Irregular Publishing Frequency
- Mixing Topics
- Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss
- Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service
So much about this list, and I am aware of the fact that the MikeSchnoor.com does not conform with the first two issues so far. I believe it is important to reveal a little bit about yourself as an author, and in order to meet that small and simple criteria, I’m going to post my biography and some fancy picture in the About section.
However, the problem with having words linked like „here“ or „click“ as seen in the third issue doesn’t happen at all on this site. Usually it is quite easy for a reader to understand that links created by myself lead to that what they are targeted at.
The fourth issue of posting a list of the top articles in a blog is useful, and I might do this in the near future. Fortunately I don’t even use a calendar for its horrible usability. But I’m not sharing Nielsen’s opinion about mixing topics or posting irregularly. I do prefer to mix topics since I cover many issues on this blog. For this, the four major categories (shown on top of the site) combine the others which are seen as the „big list“ in the sidebar. And how can one expect to judge content by posting only if there’s time for blogging? If you have other things to do, this is more imperative than covering the show in your blog. Thus this is a problem which is aimed directly at corporate or professional bloggers who post once a week.
The question about your future boss is always important – never forget that one may like to hire you and become offended from your writing. But one may never forget that a flame war in your blog is different from a critical opinion and thought. If I have a problem with the fictional Company X, and I get hired from that company after two years, the company should accept that employees with critical opinions are more valuable than the simple digest that oyu can find on the street.
Last but not least, we do have a domain name here – or you wouldn’t read us at all, or not? ;)
Buy me as Mr. Money Maker!
BlogkulturMy blog is worth $22,581.60.
How much is your blog worth?
I wonder who’d ever pay so much, but the idea behind combining the blog link ranking with the AOL prices is quite a nice gadget for every nerdy soul like me!
Best of the Blogs Awards
BlogkulturI’m honestly dissatisfied with the selection of the nominated blogs for the Best of the Blogs Awards. Especially for the category of German Journalistic Blogs, I sense a disturbance in the force. Jörg-Olaf at Medienrauschen asked the right question: What qualifies these blogs as being journalistic? To be honest: What the hell?! Where’s the journalistic sense gone to? Who made that selection – and is that the best of the germanspeaking blogosphere?
And even one of the nominees Anke Gröner wondered
aboutat the whole on her own!ClockBlock: Watch that Watch!
KuriosesThe clock for everyone who likes to be… blocked! I found this old, but uptodate piece on Rob’s Basicthinking! Enjoy yourself at the ClockBlock and watch time passing by in flash.
Can you be a ProBlogger?
BlogkulturWell, certainly the phenomenon created by (and around) Darren Rowse is certainly a prime example on how successful a blog author can become. However, many others who aren’t part of the blogging star network continuously try to become the same – and fail! The Workboxers have written a nice statement concerning this failure routine:
Clearly, this is true. And who would ever want to publish their secrets on earning money to the people who generate that money? In the end, many people do not realize they need niches. And without these niches, they won’t be in the center spot of any attention. I know this, I realized this, and live wonderful with it. The question seriously is: Do you want to be a professional blogger, or rather choose to find the newest niche for you to dig in and become the counter part to Darren? I’d follow that way.
[via Light Within, Workboxers]
Fun stuff
KuriosesTrivia Reading Test: isn’t our brain amazing
Their circular life: Life passes by so fast.
Zefrank: Finally I can build my own kaleidoscope – how did I live them when I was a ki
d.
Exparation Days: Interesting…finally I can figure out what I better toss within the next days and what will be allowed to survive a little longer in the shelf.
Find-A-Human: In the times of IVR’s and callcenter this is pretty need. Unfortunately this is only for the States but it is a nice idea…
So, that’s enough surfing for the day. I’m off for today and maybe next time a little more fun stuff.
Mike’s new favorite…
…TV show is Puffy AmiYumi. I’ll see if he is goin to join the mailing list from there as well ;-) I wonder if he prefers the cartoon or the real girls Ami and Yumi which are actually pretty sucessful especially in the USA.
Vogelgrippe
LebenDer SpOn schreibts, und man ist irritiert: Ein Papagei stirbt in Großbritannien an der Krankheit? Und am Samstagmorgen fragt man sich beim Käffchen und bei den Power Puff Girls auf Kabel1 nach einer Lösung. Schnell einen Blick mit der Freundin ausgetauscht, und summa summarum summiert…
Er: „Hilft ein Präventivkrieg gegen die Seuchenherde? Auf zum Angriff auf die Geflügelfarmen!“
Sie: „Also Du isst kein Hähnchen mehr in den nächsten Wochen… und sonstiges Getier!“
Er: „Aber ich find das echt gemein…“
Sie: „Ich wollte dich noch behalten.“
Er: „Danke.“
Sie: „Dann müssen wir uns auch Tamiflu besorgen.“
Er: „Was?“
Sie: „Na das Grippemittel… wenn es das noch irgendwo gibt.“
Weblog Top Ten Mistakes
Blogkultur, DesignJakob Nielsen published his list of the most common mistakes of weblog authors concerning the usability of their blogs: The Top Ten Design Mistakes.
So much about this list, and I am aware of the fact that the MikeSchnoor.com does not conform with the first two issues so far. I believe it is important to reveal a little bit about yourself as an author, and in order to meet that small and simple criteria, I’m going to post my biography and some fancy picture in the About section.
However, the problem with having words linked like „here“ or „click“ as seen in the third issue doesn’t happen at all on this site. Usually it is quite easy for a reader to understand that links created by myself lead to that what they are targeted at.
The fourth issue of posting a list of the top articles in a blog is useful, and I might do this in the near future. Fortunately I don’t even use a calendar for its horrible usability. But I’m not sharing Nielsen’s opinion about mixing topics or posting irregularly. I do prefer to mix topics since I cover many issues on this blog. For this, the four major categories (shown on top of the site) combine the others which are seen as the „big list“ in the sidebar. And how can one expect to judge content by posting only if there’s time for blogging? If you have other things to do, this is more imperative than covering the show in your blog. Thus this is a problem which is aimed directly at corporate or professional bloggers who post once a week.
The question about your future boss is always important – never forget that one may like to hire you and become offended from your writing. But one may never forget that a flame war in your blog is different from a critical opinion and thought. If I have a problem with the fictional Company X, and I get hired from that company after two years, the company should accept that employees with critical opinions are more valuable than the simple digest that oyu can find on the street.
Last but not least, we do have a domain name here – or you wouldn’t read us at all, or not? ;)
Deutsche Pass-Liebhaber
KuriosesWer noch keinen Pass hat oder bald einen ausgelaufenen Pass in den Händen hält, sollte laut akadeMix bist spätestens zum 31. Oktober 2005 einen neuen beantragen. Wer das nicht möchte muss ab dem 01. November 2005 insgesamt 23 Euro zahlen und darf nicht mehr auf dem Foto lächeln! Nebst dieser Tatsache der Kategorie Sparstrumpf hat ein Versäumnis noch einen weiteren Nachgeschmack. Ab 2007 werden biometrische Daten in den Pass einfließen, und wer das nicht möchte, hat mit dem jetzigen Pass noch eine 10-jährige Schonfrist! Ich muss morgen früh wohl zum Fotografen und danach in das Bürgerbüro von Flensburg stiefeln – und kann nicht im Bettchen bleiben.
Odé an die Kinderschokolade
MarketingNun ist es aus. Schon vor wenigen Wochen gab sich Günter Euringer als Mann hinter dem Gesicht der beliebten Kinderschokolade bekannt. Kurz darauf modernisiert der Hersteller Ferrero die Verpackung der leckeren Süßigkeit mit viel toller Milch durch ein neues Gesicht.
Und schon passiert es: Wir mögen es nicht!
Die Geschmackspolizei vom Fontblog hat zugeschlagen, und die Kommentare wie auch mein eigener sprechen für sich: Der grinsend frische Jahrtausend-Junge passt vielen älteren Käufern der Schokolade nicht recht in den Sinn.
Scheinbar hat Ferrero mit seinem jüngsten ReDesign-Coup einen kleinen Marketing-PR-Gau fabriziert, der so langsam ins Rollen kommt. Persönlich distanziere ich mich von einer Diffamierung des wohl recht unschuldigen Jungen, dennoch ist ein Traditionsbruch wie dieser nichts anderes als ein entsetzlicher Eklat von schon trügerischem Ausmaß! Ich werde wohl in Zukunft keine Packung Kinderschokolade mehr kaufen, insbesondere deshalb, weil ich nicht zu der Generation Manga, Handy, Chatter und Tokio Hotel Fan gehöre.
Welche Agentur hat euch bei Ferrerro nur dazu beraten? Die Eltern kaufen das für die Kinder …und auch gerne für sich selbst. Wer die Tradition bricht, kann vielleicht viele Kunden verlieren. Ab jetzt kaufe ich beim Gesichtsneutralen Lidl oder Aldi das entsprechende Produkt… einfach nur aus Protest!