Official blog of Clark's Blogging for Journalists class, Mass Communication department

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Find 10 in 20

Find 10 in 20 and evaluate one

Take 20 minutes. Go to
 blogoklahoma.com and to
http://technorati.com/blogs/top100/
http://www.blogher.com/network
http://www.bloggersblog.com/blogalistlinks/


1. Find ten blogs of interest to you. Copy links to your blog.

2. Choose one of the blogs you discovered today, or another one you prefer.
Write a two paragraph evaluation of the blog, addressing the following ideas:
  1. What are its strengths?
  2. What ideas about blogging and your blog do you get from it?
  3. What are its weaknesses and how could be improved?
Be sure to include the link to the blog, and include at least one visual image, plus labels at the end of your post.

List by end of class today. Comment by 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24


17 comments:

  1. I chose http://dailythunder.com/

    1. I like the length of the posts as well as the frequency at which they are posted. Just enough Thunder news without being overwhelming.

    2. After creating my own blog, I realized that a lot of work went in to DT's site design. It looks clean and professional in my opinion.

    3. Smaller/less advertising. I believe that the ads can be a bit distracting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/weathermatrix

    -This blog gives daily weather information for the entire country, including weather model graphics and goes in to extreme detail on future forecasts.

    Its strengths would be it is very well written and is easy for the normal person to read and understand. It doesn't get to nerdy to the point you don't understand. The blog also has videos of forecasts.

    The ideas I am getting from it are that I need to not only explain the weather I need to explain it in a way that everyone can understand. Not everyone understands weather and some weathermen do not get that.

    The blog has a lot of words, almost pages. Maybe write a little less and only write the main points instead of writing a book. It will keep the reader interested.

    ReplyDelete
  3. comicbookmovie.com

    1. Sleek design and lots of information to pick from.
    2. Keep things current with little bits of info. Many of the articles don't have a lot of content but the updates are regular. A spoonful at a time approach.
    3. Cluttered. I counted 27 links just on one screen, only two of which were ads. It's a bit overwhelming.

    ReplyDelete
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  5. I chose http://scorecardscribblings.com/
    1. I like how he as recaps and interviews on his posts.

    2. I want to put soundbites on on my blog as well. I am hosting a sports show so I might want to put that on there. It will change things up a little bit.

    3. I didn't like the fact all of his posts are on one page, I don't like that I have to scroll endlessly to find something.
    .

    ReplyDelete
  6. I choose menstyle1.com

    1.It's strength would have to be it's wide variety of pictures, from framing to angles to content within the photos.

    2. From looking through the site it shows me to remain create and show things from different angles.

    3. A weakness it has is the fact that it only has pictures on it's home page.

    ReplyDelete
  7. One of the blogs I looked at today was Nintendo Everything. Being a big Nintendo fan myself, I was instantly drawn in. Here's what I found about this blog. It's biggest strength is that, as the title of the blog says, it has about everything news related to Nintendo that you could think of. There was even information that even I didn't know about. Which leads me to the second point: What ideas about blogging and my blog do I get from this blog. Since there is information on this blog that I didn't know about, it showed me that I'll need to dig really deep for some topics that I might want to talk about.

    I did find weaknesses to this blog. For one, the posts were really short. Sure, it had links and quotes. Yes, when it comes to writing news stories, short, sweet and to the point is a good thing to go by. But I felt like some articles could've had more to say. Maybe an opinion on some of the matters on here. And when it came to games that most people don't know about, there could've been a summary detailing what the games were about.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I chose lifehacker.com

    1. It's strengths would have to be that it is a well run and up to date blog. It has links for its top stories but it is also easy to navigate through.

    2. My blog is more focused on music but this blog is designed and run how I would like to run my blog.

    3. A weakness for some is that it may be too much information thrown into someones face

    ReplyDelete
  9. I choose http://deadspin.com

    1. The blog had some great insight about sports, and it gave a lot of information going on in the sports world.

    2. I am blogging about the Thunder, so i got some ideas to put pictures up from the games previously.

    3. The weakness are sometimes critics don't believe deadspin is a credible source for sports information.

    ReplyDelete
  10. http://karenluvslife.blogspot.com

    First of all, I am bias. I love this blog because I love healthy living and clean eating. There are healthy alternatives out there for the foods that just aren't good for your body and mind.

    I discovered Karen through Instagram while I was searching hashtags for sugar and gluten free recipes. Karen only posts photos of the desserts she makes to her Instagram and then tells you to go to her blog for the recipe, a genius hook. Discovering her blog was great for me because she included the recipes for all the food she was posting to Instagram. When I begin my blog, I will mimic Karen's technique by capturing photos of my travels and posting them to my Instagram and then referring the viewer to my blog for the story behind the photo.

    Karen's blog is so powerful due to the photos she takes and posts along with her blog. I think it's a wonderful thing to be able to write and tell the story but to also accompany a picture with your story that simple says it all.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I like http://www.blogher.com/omeletta-0
    1. This blog has a lot of new things and she share a lot of food with us. I think it is interesting and her profiles is very attacked me.
    2. I want to write something new and the experience in my travel. I could learn a lot from her blog. the style and the writing. Travel need a lot of foods and sceneries. So I think that is interesting.
    3.The weakness is the background is too simple, there are less color we can't have a good looking at the first time.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I chose http://espn.go.com/espn/blogs (ESPN blog)

    1.This blog contains almost all sports events and information, and the classification is very comprehensive, the reader can get any information from this blog.
    2.ESPN is the authoritative cable television network in the United States. My blog is about sport , so I can get information from this blog which include some events in China or some information can help me to write my blog.
    3.The weakness is the classification of the home page is too multifarious,it is difficult to quickly find what you want because of too much information.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I chose http://vintagehorrorfilms.blogspot.com.

    1. The focus of this blog shows confidence in the validity of its information and has a true passion for this genre.

    2. The ideas that I was beginning to formulate from this particular blog was the fact it targeted a specific genre. Personally, I love horror films, but I also love mystery and old school thrillers, such as "Gaslight" (One of my personal films).

    3. The one characteristic I did not have a liking towards was that it expanded into 80s-90s films; from the way it was described as "Vintage Horror Films", I thought it was going to focus on the more earlier forms of horror films. Plus, the profile picture of the blogger was peculiar. Yet, it was interesting and relevant to its content.

    ReplyDelete
  14. * (One of my personal favorite films).

    ReplyDelete
  15. i chose http://broadwaymusicalblog.com/
    Strengths: I liked the layout of the page. i found it to be very readable and easy to follow. It can be hard to keep up if it is scattered all over the place.
    ideas: I am Blogging over musicals. I like how this blog doesnt just cover musicals but also the singer/actors individually. this is an idea i will use in my blog.
    Dislike: I think it is neat it covers every aspect of the Musical/ I do want to bring this aspect to my blog but also it is a bit overwhelming. Maybe if it focused only on a select few topics, it may strengthen the blog.

    ReplyDelete
  16. http://www.thecourtneykerr.com

    1. Her layout is very simple, black and white. Easy to read, and her writing is very conversational and natural.

    2. Keep it simple and stick to the core of your blog. Whatever your topic may be, stick to it and don't let the layout and design of your blog distract from that.

    3. Sometimes her content is a tad jumbled or excessive. The layout of her blog itself is good, but the actual posts could be streamlined.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I chose http://thepioneerwoman.com

    1. The Pioneer Women has a variety of topics and sections of her blog, giving people with different interests a good place to read and learn. She includes, homeschooling, cooking, home and garden and her personal blog. She takes her own photography and includes it throughout her blog, making her tips easy to understand and the rest of her blog enjoyable to view and read.

    2. I like her use of photos and her commitment to updates and content, even though she has more than one topic on her blog. I'd like to integrate photos and videos into all of my posts and stay committed to my topic.

    3. The only critique I have of her blog is that it has a lot of content on it and sometimes appears a bit busy.

    ReplyDelete