Alex of A Blog that Lies has reviewed me again. Thanks, Alex!
He first reviewed me here and his current review is here.
Overall, it’s a positive review. But, should I be worried about that, since it is A Blog that Lies? Hmmm.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Heehaw, y’all! If you’re hankering to hustle up some green, then this here’s the review for you, partner!
It’s time for another head-to-head review, where two bloggers walk their ten paces, and only one will remain standing. This week’s hustlers offer to help you stirrup some scratch, but do they hitch up to the hype? We’ll slice and dice ‘em, and see if they’re all that. And then we’ll serve ‘em up with some cornbread and home fries on the side, ’cause we know you’re gonna want fries with this shakedown.
Our Hustlin’ Hustlers: My New Hustle and Net Hustlin’. It’s already past high noon, so let’s line our money-slingers up…
About
Net Hustlin’ is a blog with “creative ideas to make money online.”
My New Hustle is a blog “about about getting your (legal) hustle on! Whether it’s online or offline, I’ll show you different ways of leveraging opportunities so you can benefit and either add to your existing hustles or jump full-time into a new one.”
With the introductions out of the way, it’s time for our Hustle Hoedown!
Technical
My New Hustle has its own domain name, mynewhustle.com.
Net Hustlin’ is a Blogger blog, workontheweb.blogspot.com.
Having your own domain name is preferable, and gives you more options, such as changing hosts and having a lovely matching eMail address. Now, what cowperson wouldn’t want that?
Branding / Design
Both blogs have blue themes. Both have their names in plain ordinary text against a blue background. My New Hustle is slightly more exciting, but not enough to break a tie.
Content
All righty then! It’s time to make our hustlers take their ten paces. Net Hustlin’ is at a disadvantage, since she doesn’t post as frequently (but more on that later). So, we’ll let her set the pace…
Pace 1 On July 29th, Net Hustlin’ posts about “Playing Guitar Online for Money.” Great for the musically-inclined. My New Hustler fires back with a humorous post, “Hustle Humor: Curse Out Your Boss & Co-Workers for Profit.” Nice, but we’d like to bring home the bacon.
Pace 2 On July 31st, Net Hustlin’ posts about “Social Networking for Money,” but it’s only about one social networking site. But all My New Hustle offers in return is his “Hustle Hookup.”
Pace 3 On August 2nd, Net Hustlin’ posts on how to “Become a Hired Forum Writer.” But, My New Hustler doesn’t post!!!
Pace 4 On August 4th, Net Hustlin’ posts about “Amazon Mechanical Turk.” My New Hustle isn’t taking this one sitting down, and he fires back with “Gettin’ My Hustle On: How To Gain Advantages Over the Competition” and “15th Hustle: Make $100,000 Giving Directions.”
Pace 5 On August 7th, Net Hustlin’ tells you how you can “Get Paid To Try Google Products.” My New Hustle phones in his shot with some hustle humor.
Pace 6 On August 9th, Net Hustlin’ explains how you can “Get Paid To Be An Online Juror.” My New Hustle tries a little bit of reverse psychology and tests you to see if you catch on with his post on how to “Waste Time with Web Contests.”
Pace 7 On August 10th, Net Hustlin’ lets you know how you can “Make Money Writing on Newsvine.” My New Hustle doesn’t post! Where’s he gone!?
Pace 8 On August 15th, Net Hustlin’ shows you different ways to “Sell T-Shirts and Merchandise Online.” My New Hustle highlights One Year Goal .Com. Hey, I did that last week! Sort of.
Pace 9 On August 16th, Net Hustlin’ writes about how to “Make Money Answering Questions.” My New Hustle tells you how to “Legitimize Your Hustle with Credit Cards.”
Pace 10 On August 17th, Net Hustlin’ informs you on “Embedding a Fortune.” My New Hustle has made a run for it! I think he’s headed for the saloon!
Overall, My New Hustle takes the advantage in quality of posts. His posts edge out Net Hustlin’s posts in terms of quality. He has a slight edge too in frequency of posts, but, as you can see, he regularly misses days as well. My New Hustle has a two-month lead on Net Hustlin’, but he still appears to struggle in terms of keeping the blog regularly updated. Net Hustlin’ had 17 posts in July and 8 so far in August. My New Hustle had 25 for July and 15 so far for August. So, he is faring better than Net Hustlin’ for the month. On the flip side, My New Hustle had only 8 posts in his first full month (June) yet Net Hustlin’ had 17 posts in her first full month. But, she’s fallen behind as My New Hustle had 25 posts in his second full month while Net Hustlin’ has only 8 thus far this month, and it’s more than half over.
Popularity
My New Hustle: Technorati 256; Blog Juice 4.2; PR0
Net Hustlin’: Technorati 21; Blog Juice 0.9; PR(n/a)
Hoedown Showdown: Conclusion
In our final point battle, My New Hustle wins by 4 points to Net Hustlin’s 1 point.
But, the point spread doesn’t tell the full story. Net Hustlin’ managed to hold her own against the competition. With more experience, she’ll certainly give My New Hustle a run for his money! Both of our contenders need to work on the frequency of their postings. If time is an issue, they ought to look at scheduling their posts. In either case, keep an eye on both of these newcomers as they continue to grow their blogs.
Until next time, heehaw, y’all!
Popularity: 8% [?]
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.
Popularity: 13% [?]
A lot of bloggers review other blogs, but how many do two at the same time, eh? Yes, that’s right. In the spirit of dueling banjos, I am going to review not one, but two–yes two–blogs at once. First, we must ask ourselves, which one has the prettier mouth?
Our Dynamic Duo: Chris Bloczynski dot Com and ChrisBlogging.
About
As described on his blog, Chris Bloczynski dot Com is “a blog about entrepreneurship. It’s targeted towards business owners and bloggers….”
Meanwhile, ChrisBlogging reveals “tips, tricks, and strategy for earning a full-time income through writing, blogging and internet marketing.”
With the introductions out of the way, let’s let our Blogger Death Match begin!
Design
Both blogs are reasonably easy to read. Chris Bloczynski dot Com features a gray/platinum/steel/this-is-so-two-years-ago color theme with a touch of orange highlight to complement the RSS feed logo. ChrisBlogging takes the edge, with a crisp blue and green theme that’s bright and cheerful and not terribly hard on the eyes. Chris Bloczynski dot Com is a newer blog, but already cluttered with ads and links, though not terribly so when compared to a number of blogs out there these days. ChrisBlogging, while the slightly elder blog, is amazingly ad free, which is interesting for a blog about earning a full-time income with blogging.
ChrisBlogging takes the lead in navigation. Chris Bloczynski dot Com appears to lack a “Previous Entries” link to view older posts. While he does list earlier posts in an end-of-the-month summary post, that’s not as easy as flipping through the pages. Plus, why have an “Archives” link if you cannot easily skim through those archives? The month of July indicates 24 posts, yet you can only reach 10 of them through the Archives link, except if you read the posts one by one by following the links in his summary post. That’s contrary to the way most blogs work, and makes the site less intuitive to navigate. ChrisBlogging uses typical navigation tools, and is much easier to browse.
I also like the little calendar icons that ChrisBlogging uses to indicate the posting dates.
Content
Both of our competitors come out swinging here. ChrisBlogging has a nifty article titled “Give People a Reason to Read your Blog” and mentions that some blogs attract readers because they have “pictures of scantily clad celebrities.” Chris Bloczynski dot Com tosses in the occasional pretty girl in a sweater.
Yes, I poke fun, but, as I said, both blogs come out swinging in this arena. Let’s take a look at some examples. And, since we’ve got a dueling duo, let’s compare posts made on the same days!
On July 22nd, ChrisBlogging throws down the gauntlet with an insightful post on “The Topics and Subtopics of your Blog.” Chris Bloczynski dot Com battles back with an impressive post on “10 Techniques to Make Your Brand Memorable.”
On July 24th, ChrisBlogging has a great post on “Tips for Managing Multiple Blogs.” Not to be outdone, Chris Bloczynski dot Com has an excellent post on “Branding on the Web.”
On July 28th, ChrisBlogging battles back with “Give People a Reason to Read your Blog.” Chris Bloczynski dot Com responds with a post about John Chow.
And the rumble rages on!
Both sites have some excellent and insightful posts that are well-worth reading. ChrisBlogging takes an edge in blogging more frequently and consistently than Chris Bloczynski dot Com.
Popularity
Judging by both the number of comments and their respective Technorati ratings, ChrisBlogging is the more popular blog. Of course, he also has about a month’s lead on Chris Bloczynski dot Com. With the quality of content Chris Bloczynski dot Com has to offer, and if he can increase his posting frequency, he will certainly catch up with ChrisBlogging.
Who Has the Prettier Mouth: Conclusion
The duel of two Chris’s will no doubt continue for many months to come. Both offer a great selection of content and are well worth a regular visit and reading. Be sure to check them out today!
Popularity: 8% [?]
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