There Can Be Only One
Let’s get ready to rumba!
It’s time for another rumblin’ review, where two bloggers go head to head, and only one will emerge victorious. Polish your pistols, ready your whips and sharpen your swords, but refrain from whittlin’ your thumbs, as we answer the question: who will lose their head and who will taste the Quickening?
Our One Doubles: One Man’s Goal and One Year Goal. Seeing double?
About
OneMansGoal.com is a blog by a man determined to harness the Internet to earn a full-time income entirely online. Bryan writes, “Give me 365 Days and I will attempt… I WILL… create a viable source of income by harnessing the power of the net. I am not a guru, techie, coder, blogger, or a professional. I hope to learn these things as I go and pass them on to others.”
One Year Goal .com is a blog by a man dedicated to earning $100,000 online in one year. One Man writes, “This blog is about the true American dream for the 21st century. The dream of being an entrepreneur online. The dream of being your own boss. The dream of being free to set your hours and never be chained to a desk.”
With the introductions out of the way, let’s let our Duel of Ones begin!
Risk / Reward
Both our competitors have stated bold goals online. Stating your goals publicly and online is a pretty bold move, wouldn’t you say? Bryan Clark wants to earn a full-time income and One Man wants to earn $100,000. Hey… wait a minute… Did you notice that?
We know who the man is behind OneMansGoal.com. His name is Bryan Clark. He even has his picture on his blog. If he fails to achieve his goal, everyone will know.
On the other hand, who is One Man? His name isn’t on his blog and his domain name registration is private, so no clues there either. If he fails to achieve his goal, who will know, besides a small group of people (like me) who know his real name? He can easily disappear from the blogosphere and start all over.
(The score here is based on boldness.)
Originality
Both OneMansGoal.com and One Year Goal .com have similar goals, as well as domain names. In fact, I think I initially started reading One Year Goal .com because I thought it was OneMansGoal.com. It has even come up in discussions on other blogs as to whether one copied the other. Hmmm. Let’s see…
OneMansGoal.com was registered on July 2, 2007.
OneYearGoal.com was registered on July 3, 2007.
Bryan’s first post on OneMansGoal.com was on June 28, 2007. He started out on a free blog, which is how he was able to post before he had registered his domain name. One Man’s first post was on July 4, 2007.
So, did One Man copy Bryan Clark? Did he feel the Buzz? Does it really matter? Both have original content (we’ll get to that later), and there’s really nothing original in trying to make a full-time income online. So, really, it’s a wash.
Technical
If you visit OneMansGoal.com as www.onemansgoal.com, you will be redirected to onemansgoal.com (no www). Good.
If you visit One Year Goal .com as www.oneyeargoal.com, you will arrive at www.oneyeargoal.com. Visit as oneyeargoal.com and you will arrive at oneyeargoal.com. Bad.
Such a setup can lead to duplicate content issues with Google and other search engines. You see, the search engines will see www.yourdomain.dom and yourdomain.dom as two different sites displaying the same content. Yes, the search engines are that dumb. Since the search engines view duplicate content as having less value than original content, your site can get demoted in the rankings.
Branding
OneMansGoal.com has a big, bold logo graphic across the top of his blog. OneMansGoal.com is prominently displayed in blue with a white outline and shadow effects to differentiate from the blue background. The name really pops out at you, and the graphics with the plain ol’ vanilla gang with the lone red individual leading the pack is a nice touch.
One Year Goal .com is in plain black type against a dark blue background. It also has the tagline of “Can one man really make $100,000 in just one year?” in white type. The tagline stands out more than the blog’s name. It really should be easier to read the blog’s name though.
Diversification
Both blogs share the goal of making money–lots of money–online.
One Man has plans to do this with other projects in addition to his main blog. Early on, he started with plans for TerriblyFunny.com and a dating eBook. Both have since taken a backseat to his other blog, A Man’s Man. A Man’s Man had a good early start, but has been sidelined as One Man focuses on his Fireboard plugin and OYG Ads. And, this week he started yet another project, MOL Talk.
Bryan Clark only has his main blog at the moment. In an eMail, he tells me that he doesn’t want to start another blog until he feels his current one is established. At the time of this writing, OneMansGoal.com has a Technorati Authority rating of 146, while One Year Goal .com has a rating of 32. Whether he realizes it or not, OneMansGoal.com is established, and Bryan should really start diversifying.
While there is certainly wisdom in Bryan’s approach, and One Man’s project hopping reveals the difficulties of heating several pots with one burner, the edge here has to go to One Man for trying so early in the game. Whether he ultimately succeeds or gets burned will remain to be seen. But, for now, the point is his.
Ouch! It has been a bloodbath thus far in our duel, and the fight has not gone well for One Year Goal .com. OneMansGoal.com leads by 3 to 1. Let’s see how our challengers fare as we begin the second part of our raging review…
Design
Since both these blogs have moneymaking as their goal, it should be no surprise that both are filled with ads and other monetizing links. Both blogs appear to have a similar number of ads and both blogs use a three column layout. However, OneMansGoal.com looks less cluttered because his content area is the middle column, which splits up the ads and links visually, leading to a more organized appearance. His color scheme also gives the blog appearance an extra punch, and the light gray shading further helps separate the different content areas.
One Year Goal .com’s smaller blog header allows for more ads and links to appear above the “fold,” which is more attractive to advertisers and gives him an advantage in monetization. OneMansGoal.com’s header occupies more screen real estate and pushes ads and links below the fold. His header could be made half the height, while retaining the advantages mentioned under Branding, simply by cropping it to half the height and making the people smaller. Making the people smaller would also mean there would be room to add more of the vanilla guys, which would further enhance the effect of the leading red man.
For some reason, comments on OneMansGoal.com do not display in Safari (Mac). You just get the commentator’s name and date and a blank area where the comment should be.
Content
As with our last review, we’re going to examine some sample posts from our dueling duo, comparing posts made on the same days in a series of days more or less chosen by random. (In other words, I thought to myself, Hey, how about last week?)
On July 29th, One Man posts a retraction and a problem, while Bryan posts an end of the month summary. Sorry, but, YAWN!
On July 30th, Bryan posts a help request for a friend, which is nice, so we’ll cut him some slack here. Meanwhile, One Man posts an article on getting started with affiliate programs, an announcement (a.k.a. YAWN!), and a reason to review him.
On July 31st, One Man informs you how to track your visitors, a blog milestone (a.k.a. YAWN!) and an Ask One Man feature where he talks about loving to answer reader questions and invites readers to ask questions which then don’t get answered until about a week later, which is an eternity in the blogosphere. Meanwhile, Bryan posts about Jill Koenig the “Goal Guru” which is largely a sales pitch but does have some useful tidbits he learned. He also posts about another blog’s review of his blog (a.k.a. YAWN!)
On August 1st, Bryan posts “Understanding Your Alexa Ranking.” Back at One Year Goal .com, One Man posts about a reader dinner (a.k.a. YAWN!), getting rich quickly, a weekly summary (a.k.a. YAWN!), Bourne mania (a.k.a. YAWN!) and an announcement (a.k.a. YAWN!) of a forthcoming series of hosting reviews.
On August 2nd, Bryan posts about a blogger challenge (which, for non-contestants, is a.k.a. YAWN!) and “5 Simple Tips to Increase Adsense Income.” One Man posts about Prosper and “How and Why to Poll Your Readers.”
On August 3rd, which is the final day in what has turned out to largely be a snore-fest, One Man has a weekly review review (a.k.a. YAWN!), a Prosper reminder (a.k.a. YAWN!) and a list of his past posts you “MUST” read. Bryan has a site review sale and talks about Text Link Ads’ affiliate program (a.k.a. YAWN!).
At this point, lest ye get the wrong impression, it’s pretty certain I chose a weak week for both contestants. Despite the veritable insomnia-busting series we’ve just gone through, both sites do offer a lot of great content. To be fair, I’ll list a few of the great posts from this past week.
In addition to his Hosting Battle Royale series, One Man also posted the following this past week:
This past week, Bryan posted the following:
So, despite one poor week which I just happened to more or less randomly choose to review, both sites really do have great content and a lot of good information to share. Though frequently distracted by other projects, One Man tends to blog more frequently than Bryan. At OneMansGoal.com, there seems to be an average of only one post per day. Few are the days when you’ll see more than one. At One Year Goal .com, there are more days when you’ll see multiple posts in a day.
Still, though, I think both blogs are worth reading and no one takes a strong lead in this category.
Popularity
OneMansGoal.com: Technorati 146; Blog Juice 3.4; PR(n/a)
One Year Goal .com: Technorati 32; Blog Juice 2.0; PR0
In the End, There Can Be Only One: Conclusion
In our final point battle, OneMansGoal.com wins by 6 points to One Year Goal .com’s 3 points.
In reality, there can be more than One. I hope that both will achieve their goals! In any case, both these blogs are worth watching along the way. They share what they learn and we can learn as they learn.
Dan,
Thanks for the very thorough comparison. There are a few points I’d like to address for you and your readers’ benefit:
1) I had the http://www. working, apparently I overwrote the .htaccess. I’ve fixed it now, thanks for the tip.
2) One Man’s Goal uses “viralinks” which is a sort of blog chain letter that contains a link to his site that goes from buddy to buddy of his. They aren’t real links. But if you look at the Alexa traffic rank or his visitor stats, you can he has significantly fewer readers.
3) You wrote that I have a PR of 0 while his is pending. My domain was registered a day later than his. Mine is pending as well….
Thanks for taking me to task Dan, and I understand why you might think he’s the “One Man.” I can assure you that’s not the case
Stay tuned,
One Man
One Man. One Year. $100,000 online. More traffic and more businesses.
http://www.oneyeargoal.com
1) Yes, it is working now. (Just checked.)
3) I used PRChecker.info. It shows your blog as PR0 and his as PR n/a.
Great post! I liked the format (even if I would have lost). It turned out great.
You really did pick a bad week for content. It was a pretty busy week trying to work out the “Something Special For My Readers” post. Jill Koenig isn’t an easy person to track down. Busy - Busy - Busy.
Anyways, after Tuesday I’ll return to a normal posting schedule and you’ll get to see what the content is normally like. I’m really glad that you chose to review the two of us. I hope we both reach our goal and I wish him the best. I hope you are right there with us in the money making category!
-Bryan
I’ve seen past content too, so I know you have good stuff. That’s why I included some links to this past week’s stuff too.
i counted 4 to 1 actually, with a 3 part tie. it’s a good comparison but i have a few questions. can you really count one man’s other endeavors when they link to nothing? terriblyfunny is nothing but a wordpress start page with a naturally generic layout. and while i like the layout of a man’s man i find nothing of interest (and i’ve been one to enjoy “men’s humor” for quite some time). then there’s the plugins that he never finishes either. can he really take credit for starting so many projects and not following through. he stated himself that it costs “a lot” and it shows in his lack of quality content.
i’ve been following bryan from his blogspot account and i recall a comment from one man on bryan’s blog (http://onemansgoal.com/33/update-7-15-07/#comment-68) where he clearly states that he ripped off bryan’s idea. so does he get another point for the original idea?
in one man’s comment he mentions viralinks. well i went to iwebtool.com and checked backlinks: (www.)oneyeargoal.com-105+1118 with and without www, onemansgoal.com-2992. so while bryan’s method may be controversial, i’d say it’s paying off. it’s my understanding that your pagerank, and thus MONETIZATION, are reflective of backlinks (in addition to the rest of the stuff) so can it be that bad? bryan’s not forcing anyone to add him- in fact, you can add everyone BUT him if you wanted to. i can understand that one man wants to defend his loss but why such a classless retort? since you know him, maybe you could ask for me.
Thanks for stopping by!
“i counted 4 to 1 actually, with a 3 part tie.”
I only counted the 2 ties that are indicated as “No One (Tie)” and added those 2 to each of their totals to give them the 6 and 3 points.
“can you really count one man’s other endeavors when they link to nothing? terriblyfunny is nothing but a wordpress start page with a naturally generic layout. and while i like the layout of a man’s man i find nothing of interest (and i’ve been one to enjoy “men’s humor” for quite some time). then there’s the plugins that he never finishes either. can he really take credit for starting so many projects and not following through. he stated himself that it costs “a lot” and it shows in his lack of quality content.”
I mentioned in the review that some of those projects had been sidelined in favor of other projects. He first mentioned the beta version of the Fireboard plugin on July 16th. I don’t know what’s involved in creating a plugin for WordPress, but I do have some programming experience, so I’m not going to expect him to have a finished product barely three weeks after the beta release.
“i’ve been following bryan from his blogspot account and i recall a comment from one man on bryan’s blog (http://onemansgoal.com/33/update-7-15-07/#comment-68) where he clearly states that he ripped off bryan’s idea. so does he get another point for the original idea?”
As I mentioned in the review, “there’s really nothing original in trying to make a full-time income online.” There are plenty of people doing it already. So, really, it’s a wash. If someone starts a blog because they saw someone else with a blog, is that really stealing an original idea? Now, if Bryan had released a BlazingBoard plugin, and One Man came along and copied it to create his Fireboard plugin, then there would definitely be a case.
“since you know him, maybe you could ask for me.”
Actually, I don’t know One Man any better than I know Bryan. I know them both about the same. I’ve commented on their blogs; they’ve commented on mine. And, I have exchanged eMails with both.
I hate to nitpick but I didn’t write that comment…I always include a signature, link to my site, and write well. That comment is an obvious fraud (Bryan). Besides that, I generate more cash.
actually, i’ve been to your site and you don’t write well. and there is no explanation like bryan offers- sometimes your rss subscriber box is longer than your post!
and since we’re speaking signatures… where is it in that post? you are a complete hoax with nothing to offer.
i was referring to the original idea of publicizing the journey and possible failure. it’s like you said, at least bryan takes accountability- one man doesn’t even share a first name. and while the idea of making money online isn’t new, one man admittedly stole bryan’s idea which would, by default, give him the win.
Again, someone forged that comment (Bryan)
that’s a pretty hefty accusation. i’m sure there’s an IP address to prove you wrong, but seeing as you won’t even give out a name, i’m sure you’re using an IP mask as well.
i think it goes without saying that you’re completely tactless.
Yes, you are right, there can only be one–and my money is on One Man’s Goal. I was around when One Year Goal found Bryan and flattered him with his own similar version. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?…Because I blog for personal & narcissistic reasons, the content and idea behind both blogs normally would not interest me…BUT I have always come back to One Man’s Goal because I find quality writing and quality information from a REAL person, not just another drone—And that’s the point, isn’t it? To provide quality [AND USER FRIENDLY!] information? And I like knowing who the man behind “One Man’s Goal” is…it goes a HELL of a long way with readers who are sick of reading the same ol’ regurgitated info…and all of this on a schnazzy design. Not bad, I say, not bad at all.
As far as “diversifying”…well I must agree with the comment snapshotdreams made about [over] diversifying at the [high] cost of quality content. One Year Goal’s other endeavors seem a little…thrown together and not all that interesting….but that’s just my opinion. And for such a lofty goal at stake, should One Year Goal be spreading himself out so thin? I disagree with you on that point, btw. “Project hopping” doesn’t seem productive or lucrative for a moneymaking blog…juss’ sayin’
I thought about just writing a blog about how I’d like to make money and then sit back and wait for it to come for me…but then I’d actually be ripping off Bryan’s idea
I wish him all the best, but keeping forged comments and deleting all the real comments I try to leave is beyond rude…it’s outright scummy.
I delete your comments because you are a link spammer. I allow ONE link (by clicking on your name), and I’ll allow more if the article you are pointing to is relevant.
But whether it’s you or some other random Joe, if they leave a comment like “nice post” and then post their link not once but twice, their comment will be deleted 100% of the time. It’s comment spam. Leave the second link off (unless it’s relevant) and I’ll start approving your comments too.
As far as the validity of the comment in question, I can assure you that I didn’t write it. I would never stoop low enough to leave comments as someone else on my blog. One thing I can’t assure ANYONE of is whether you did or didn’t write it. I’d normally check the IP and see if it matched, but you have a different IP for every comment you leave. If I could have checked it, and seen that it wasn’t you… it would have been removed.
But I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. I’ll remove the comment. And good luck with your goal.
Before this gets out of hand, let’s all consider the “forged comments” controversy closed. Both have denied responsibility for writing the comment-in-question, so let’s take their word for it.
I think a lot of the issues I have with what was said have been discussed already, but I want to point on thing out. Bryan feels like the blog isn’t “established” yet, I would imagine, because he hasn’t hit the $100 through AdSense. Everyone accepts that single qualifier for whether a blog is established. Also, I think some of the points you picked out should be weighted to some degree. Specifically “Risk/Reward”, where you mention that the general reader doesn’t even know OneMan’s name and posts it nowhere to be found. I know I like to know who I am talking to when I comment.
As to OneMan’s contention that he has more readers and makes more money, according to what, you posting what you are making? You don’t even let us know who you are. There is no proof you are even a man, let alone that you actually make what you report. Bryan posts his traffic stats each week along with his income with proof of both. You were recently challenged that you were fudging on your numbers and you posted pictorial proof ONCE.
Bryan’s site reads like if you were sitting there talking with him. One Man’s blog is little more than a recap of all of the information presently available online.
There is no surprise as to who won. I just wanted to add my two cents.
BTW, I just wanted to mention that Bryan is co-author of The Daily Fuzz, which constitutes a side-project. I am running it solo while he concentrates on getting OneMansGoal.com going strong, but he is still contributing almost daily behind the scenes.
Just thought I would point that out.
IMPORTANT NOTICE
Due to both Copyright considerations and authentication concerns, I cannot allow posts or comments made on other blogs to be re-posted here except by their original author or with their permission.
Thanks!