Hello all, I've recently launched a social blogging network and would love to get some constructive criticism. It's quite tricky to see what's wrong when you've been looking at the same design and layout over and over again! The site is www.seekopia.com. Any advice will be appreciated - I am constantly trying to improve the way it works and looks. Thanks, Marc
I love the idea. The only thing is how are you going to get bloggers to add to your content? I can make money on my own blog anyway. What is your Unique Selling Point to bloggers and their readers?
Well, the unique selling point to bloggers is the way you own a share of advertising on each and every post: You can either put your Google Adsense ID for contextual advertising, or else upload your own custom ads. I will use the Google Adsense example to explain: Say there are 100 bloggers (you being one of them) and you each add 1 post. This means there are a total of 100 posts on Seekopia. Now in theory this would mean you have a 1% advertising share of Seekopia (1/100). This would mean that out of those 100 posts, 1% of the times they load, your Google Adsense will load. This is in fact no better than if you owned your blog as 1% of 100 is 1, which is the same amount of posts you submitted! However, what will happen is that as the site grows, not everybody will upload their Google Adsense ID. If only 50% of those 100 bloggers do, that means that you in fact own a 2% share, since the advertising share is divided amongst 50 bloggers, rather than 100. This effectively means your earnings are double what they would be if you had a individual blog with the same amount of content. Obviously, your advertising share also depends on how active you are and how well your posts are rated. This means that if you keep posting regularly, as other bloggers on the network stop posting, or slow down, you will be taking part of their advertising share! Your earnings can literally multiply. The USP to the readers is that rather than browsing various blogs and having to remember each one of them, they can find all blogs on one central network and add the ones they like to their favourites. Seekopia will automatically customize its home page based on who your favourite bloggers are so you can keep yourself updated easily and quickly! That's the plan anyway Marc
I like your colors and the layout is very functional for me. I am new to blogging and looking to learn so may spend some time there. I really like the logo. It is unique. Did you design it? The adjustable font is a good idea for an older person like me. Good job.
Thanks Yes, I designed that logo. If you are new to blogging and need some help, feel free to PM and I'll help you out! Thanks Marc
I really like the way sites like Blogger save as you're writing a post. I've lost count of the number of posts I've lost midway through due to an accidental click or tab. Does Seekopia have this option?
Hi Edgray, It already has something similar, it stores the post in a cookie till you save it as a draft or final version. You can then load the post from the saved cookie! However, I shall be implementing the auto draft save sometime this week Marc
Quality. I really like the site design and the idea, looks very professional. Whats stopping me from writing an article/1 blog and then always getting a % of future posts? or do you earn a % based on posts?
Hi JohnUK, Glad you asked! Your advertising share is based on 3 things: - How many posts you've added in all - How many posts you've added in the last 30 days - Your average post rating (users can give you post a thumbs up or thumbs down) It is all explained here (http://www.seekopia.com/page/earn/about) but I will give you a short explanation: Every blogger's share on the entire website is determined by the amount of points he has. Your points are calculated like this: 100 points bonus for the first 30 days after adding a post (They will expire after 30 days). 10 points for every post you've ever added 5 points for each positive rating you get That means that if you join today and add one post, you will get 110 point (100 bonus + 10 points). After a month however, you will only have 10 points left. Which means that your share will be quite low. This way, Seekopia encourages people to stay active. At the same time, those people who do stay active will benefit as they will be taking the advertising space of those who stop posting! To see the potential of this... if you have submitted 2 posts this month and 2 posts last month, you now have 240 points (100 + 100 + 10 per post). If somebody submitted 4 posts as well, but all last month, then he only has 40 points. What this means is that while you have 240 points, he has just 40 so you have a share of 85%, while he has just 15%. This means that on all the posts (all 8 of them), there is a 85% chance that the advertising will be yours, even if you posted the same amount. You can literally double your earnings very easily as long as you're an active blogger. This system makes sure the blogging network keeps growing and in doing so, you'll be getting more and more followers to your blog Sorry for the super long explanation - It's not easy to explain Let me know if you have any more questions.
No that make sense. Brilliant idea, hope that it works for you man. Are you advertising on google? How are you going to get people to sign up?
Well, I am starting an adwords campaign shortly I have advertised using Facebook Ads up until now as I wanted to get a few members in before starting an Adwords campaign. It's quite tricky since there's so much competition but every little helps - if you have any ideas feel free to tell me! Hopefully, slowly slowly more bloggers will join and the site will start working just as planned!
it's hard to think and design a logo.. it is nice, but it's as if 'm in a jobseeker's website. it's the magnifying glass...maybe u can change it if you like..