How To Flush A Blog Down The Toilet

by Brian on April 9, 2010

So, one of my favorite blogs to read just went down the toilet… It didn’t have to, but swoosh there it went.

I’ve been following Tom at BuildThatList.com since Jan. of 2010, when Tom started up the blog.

Tom had instant success… not because he kissed the Blarney stone or got a blessing from the Queen, but because he did things right.

Tom’s blog was getting 40 – 70 comments for each of his posts… He climbed into the top 75,ooo on Alexa… And due to starting a new business and personal reasons, he decided to sell his blog…

Tom, if you’re reading this… Congrats on your new baby girl… I wish you and your family much success and happiness… I’m glad you found the 4HWW and are taking action.

Here’s What Happened…

Tom set his blog up for someone to take over and have instant success… BUT, swoosh happened…

I don’t know who Bob is other than he’s the person who apparently took over BuildThatList.com…

As a loyal reader and newsletter follower, I knew there was going to be a change at BuildThatList. I just didn’t like how that change happened.

Here’s what Bob did wrong in no particular order:

  • He did not introduce himself… He just picked up like he was Tom, which he’s not…
  • There’s no “About Us” page. Who is this guy and why is he qualified to tell us how to build a list.
  • He changed the author on all of the posts to Bob… It’s his blog and his prerogative, but give credit where credit is due…
  • He (from what I’ve seen) isn’t interacting with the few people who are commenting.
  • He’s not following the same writing format that Tom did.
  • Stop promoting affiliate products/services right now… No one knows who you are on this blog and it’s a HUGE turn off.
  • Your writing is very long winded.

Solutions and Resolutions

I’m not one to point a finger and say this is what you did wrong and not give any solutions or resolutions on how to fix it. So Bob, if you read this… You’re welcome in advance.

  • Go on and do a post introducing yourself…
    • Tell who you are.
    • Why you bought BuildThatList.com.
    • Why you are qualified to give advice.
    • Why you liked what Tom had to say.
    • Tell both how you are similar to Tom and how you’re different.
    • Tell them what they can expect from you.
  • Send out a letter to his subscriber list covering the same as above. In addition tell his subscribers what they can expect from you above and beyond what they are getting from the blog.
  • Put an “About Us” page us ASAP… You’ll find that it’s one of the most visited pages on your blog, if not THE most visited page on your blog.
  • Change the authors of the posts to reflect the correct authors. This could have been done by mistake… Thesis can be a pain in the ass to work with.
  • Interact with your commentators… One reason Tom got so many comments is because he would interact with his followers.
  • Study Tom’s old posts and continue the same formatting of the posts he did… Including pictures on every post too.
  • Realize, we (his followers) know Tom and have grown to like him and what he had to say… Coming in and changing everything like a “New Sheriff in Town” isn’t the way to win the likings of Tom’s followers. Coming in as an expert in the field with good perspective and value to add to the conversation is.
  • Don’t promote affiliate products or services until you build the trust and confidence of your audience. If you’re looking to start over, don’t listen to me… You need to give away some really good valuable information for free.
  • Your writing isn’t very reader friendly… Shorten up your paragraphs to a max of 3 sentences, make bullet points, use sub-headings… Read CopyBlogger, ProBlogger, BloggingTeacher and ProCopyTips to start…

So there are 1 of 2 ways Bob can look at this…

  1. Brian is an asshole and is picking on me, boo-hoo… If you really feel that way, FU.
  2. Brian has a few good points and some decent advice… My goal is to win him back as a follower.

I’ll check back in with BuildThatList.com from time to time, hopefully Bob will look at things from my 2nd point of view.

Here’s the link to BuildThatList.com. Go ahead and check out the site… Read a couple of pre-April posts (Tom’s Posts) and a post or two from April (Bob’s Posts)…

Once you’ve done that, come back here and comment… what you think Bob can do to help mend BuildThatList.com?

I wish Bob the best of luck…

What would you recommend Bob do?

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