Our group project continues to gain attention and momentum, and over the weekend, this project got some pretty high praise. Before I talk about that, I want to run through a few other items of interest.
First of all, Zoë’s still doing a great job of blazing a trail as the first featured blog, and I’ve been busy finding the next blog for us to visit. Once again, I’ll be letting that blogger know on Thursday, giving a preview on Friday, and revealing the site on Monday.
Somewhere in there, we’ll let Zoë take the stage to share her experience of her two weeks in the spotlight to wrap up her turn somewhat. I know that I’m looking forward to getting her perspective.
Selecting the Featured Blogs, Help Needed From A-List Bloggers
For those on the “A-list” that are coming here for the first time, take a moment to read about how we’re trying to help expose good, under-appreciated content. From there, taking a longer-term view, there are a few big shifts that need to take place at some point, and the first of this is how the featured blogs are chosen. That’s where you can help.
I never intended to pick the featured blogs on my own, but it turned out to be the only way to get things moving quickly here at the start. Now, however, I’m ready to move to a better model, and I’ve decided that the best way to do it is to have a well-respected panel make the choice.
To that end, I’m looking to get the help of top bloggers representing a variety of subjects and styles willing to help promote under-appreciated blogs. Ideally, these will be people with established authority and substantial readership. If that sounds like you or if you can help enlist some of the bloggers that fit that description, I would love to hear from you.
Greater Variety: More Blogs
I’m also flirting with the idea of featuring a few blogs every two weeks instead of just a single blog. The different blogs would each be intended to appeal to a distinct type of audience. The point would be to offer at least one new blog of interest to most readers, regardless of their reading preferences.
There will be some overlap, of course, and you read them all if you wanted to, but this way we decrease the chances of readers having a two-week gap where the chosen blog is of no interest.
Branding, Development, and Design
I’m in the relatively early stages of fleshing out a brand for this project. I’ve purchased a domain, but I’ll have to continue thinking about when to try to make that shift and how it should be done.
I won’t be able to launch a brand on my own, and while I’ve already connected with some helpful developers, designers, and thinkers who are giving me a hand, there’s still plenty of room for others to contribute. If you or someone you know is incredibly talented in one of these areas and wants to help, let me know.
And speaking of design, I want to thank the author of Oktober5.com for making my avatar which now appears when I leave a comment. He made me a banner too, but I haven’t gotten around to putting it up yet. He’s a really nice guy, and his site is excellent.
The Exciting Stuff
Now for the news that I think is so cool. Brian Clark of Copyblogger placed this project on a recent list of ten killer social media resources after a mere three weeks of having started. Being set in a short list alongside the likes of Seth Godin and Darren Rowse along with many other brilliant people is a tremendous compliment to the incredible potential of you as a group. I posted the idea, but you have made it a reality, and I think being on this list is a heck of an endorsement for what we are doing and good encouragement to continue to press forward.
That’s it for now. As always, I’m available via email or my Twitter account. You have done a great job of making this successful so far, and I look forward to continuing to work together to take it even further.
