Rick Pratt believes this blog from Wolfworks Designers/Builders in Colorado, not nominated for the Best Construction Blog competition, is a much better example of excllence than the other entries and finalists. Do you agree?
Yesterday evening, I received this blunt and provocative email from Rick Pratt in Colorado. He gave me permission to publish it.
I commented on the website contest you had and I just cannot keep myself from remaining silent on this one as well. I like your e-magazine. I like these emails and think you are an asset to our community.
However, once again I am dismayed with the results of this “contest.” What are those of us wanting to learn about blogging (or website development, the last contest) suppose to learn here. The winner of this Best Blog is barely average. Not really worthy of nomination let alone to be the winner. Usually these sort of marketing contests have the benefit of teaching us subscribers about “better blogging” or “wonderful websites.” Instead this information is now going to encourage people to create average to poor quality blogs because they think they have seen a “winner.”
The only thing Bobby Darnell and Michael Stone should be congratulated on is being expert promoters and sales people which I honestly believe they are and deserve recognition for. However this is a different skill and talent than blogging. Blogging is a subset of this skill. They actually got people to vote for these below average blogs. The first place winner only posts once a month, with no graphics or photos or videos, his posts are too long and only moderately interesting or captivating and there is absolutely nothing to draw one in. Now I don’t doubt that Bobby is a great person and deserving of attention and respect. He writes well enough and appears to be a humble, nice and intelligent guy. But his blog is not of high quality and teaches a very poor lesson on quality blogging.
This is a blog a friend of mine has. It is far superior and something to shoot for if you really want to become a “winning” blogger. http://www.homesthatfit.com/blog/ I show you his blog and not mine because I am not a blogger nor a great promoter of my work. I could learn some things from Bobby & Michael. I just don’t think I should learn blogging from them.
In case you are wondering about Rick’s credentials, here is his public Linkedin.com profile.
What do you think about Rick’s perspective? Do you agree, disagree, or think he is partly right? If you agree, how do you think we can improve the Best Construction Blog competition next year?
Mark,
At least Rick spelled my name correctly!
Bobby
Rick, your comment describes your criteria for a successful blog and your example of a great blog comes from a friend of yours.
Blogs in my opinion are the Daily News of tribes, so, is the tribe getting the news? If nobody reads a blog then it doesn’t matter if its good or not.
Lets pretend a great blog is not grammatically correct or even well written much of the time, but it proves to be provocative and gets people to think and comment. What if blogs like this were always evolving and willing to expand their consciousness, what if learning how to blog were not as important as the impact a blog has on making a difference?
I respectfully ask, why should a successful blog be judged on your criteria?
He makes valid points.
Maybe you need categories.
* Best New Blog
* Best Graphics
* Variety of Topics in the Same Theme
* Relevance
etc.