Tag Archives: astrobob

The top five things to learn from our #1 blogger

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The other day I was looking through Areavoices Quantcast data because, well, you know that’s what all the cool people do. Actually, while it sounds a little dull, I find it fascinating. Quantcast breaks down how many people are reading each of our Areavoices blogs.

Almost every month the same guy is at the top of list. His name is Bob King and he’s a photographer for the Duluth News Tribune. But he’s not blogging about that. He blogs about his hobby: Astronomy.

His blog, Astrobob is the number one blog on Areavoices (I’m excluding the Topics blog here because that blog is not really a written blog, but a discussion center for the day’s top news stories).

About 27,000 people across the country read Astrobob every month. That’s double the audience of the second place blog, Bisonmedia. The gaps widens even more when you include the global audience. That puts Bob up to about 41,000 people a month.

I mention this now for a few reasons. I think bloggers and would-be bloggers can learn a lot from him.

First, I think Bob is a good lesson in writing about what you love. As a rule, food blogs and sports blogs will tend to have a higher audience, but this is evidence that if you write something well your audience will find you. You might think nobody cares about what you care about. You wouldn’t have an audience. Wrong. There’s a niche for everyone. Write your passion: find your followers!

Second, he’s consistent. He writes often. His readers know that they won’t go weeks without hearing from him.

Third, it’s visual. Not surprising from a photographer, but Bob includes stunning photography and impressive graphics in his blog.

Fourth, he breaks down sometimes scientific information in a reader-friendly format.

Fifth, don’t always look for the newest blogs to get your Areavoices fix. Sometimes the oldies are the goodies. Bob has been blogging for years and he’s great at it! Check him out! What are you waiting for for heaven’s sake!

Get it? “For heaven’s sake?” An astronomy blog? I’m punning you and it’s only 7:00am. This is going to be a great day!

Check out Bob and the other recommended blogs of the week in a post later today.

Areavoices Digest #1

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Welcome to the first AREAVOICES DIGEST!

Every week in the digest, I’ll be telling you about the newest additions to the Areavoices community. I’ll tell you more about their blogs and where to find them. I’ll also be giving you updates on some of our most popular blogs and uncover some hidden gems on areavoices – blogs that you might have never seen,  but warrant your attention. So in no particular order here are today’s digest features:
(New) The Area Voices Community – http://community.areavoices.com/ -  We set it up this week as a resource for bloggers about what’s new on Areavoices. I’ll be updating this blog daily offering suggestions for effective blogging and also trying to actively recruit bloggers in our suggested topic areas: food, family, health, money and travel. I envision this blog being a permanent storing house for information helpful to our bloggers. We’ll be linking to technical support as well as to online tutorials on Youtube.

(New) Artist Insight – http://artistinsight.areavoices.com/ – Scott Brusven is the theatre director for the Fargo Moorhead Community Theatre. He says, “This Areavoices blog is dedicated to bringing you information about the arts and the artists in the FM area. You will find conversations with artists from all forms of art and learn more about what they’re working on.” 

 (New) Our Students Our Future – http://ourstudentsourfuture.areavoices.com/ – Moorhead levy referendum supporters created a blog this week to raise awareness about the November 2nd operating levy referendum vote. They will use the blog to provide information about the specifics of the plan, where to donate or volunteer and where to vote.

MomStar – http://momstar.areavoices.com – Lisa Simony, aka MomStar, is a Grand Forks, North Dakota, blogger and mother of three. She says she writes “about family, health, money and travel (when we can get away with it!) … oh, and food (mmm, food.)”

AstroBob – http://astrobob.areavoices.com/ – “Celestial happenings you can see from your own backyard.” Many of you might be familiar with AstroBob. This blog originates in Duluth and is one of their most popular bloggers.