National Speakers Association Blog Reviews
I’ve recently created a listing of all the blogs I can find created by members of the National Speakers Association on my second Blogroll (see right hand column, scroll down if necessary).
I thought it might liven things up with my NSA colleagues by offering my unsolicited, opinionated reviews of their blogs.
I obviously won’t be able to read each and every post on an active blog. But I promise to look at each post from the current month as well as at least a good dozen from the archives.
I plan to offer both a factual inventory (posting frequency; length of posts; number of images and links used; popularity) as well as a totally subjective report on what I liked about the blog. Hopefully, other professional speakers will find these brief summaries amusing, even instructive. Heck, they might even find a reason to click through and read the source blog then let me know via Comments if they agree or disagree with my assessment.
After careful thought, I’ve hit on a standardized rating scheme (OK, OK, I stole it from the San Francisco Chronicle movie reviews):
| Ratings Key: | ||||
 Excellent |
 Good |
 Adequate |
 Poor |
 Don’t Bother |
I’ll quantify each blog on a number of criteria:
Blogging since: Date of the first post in the archives.
Posting Frequency: how often do they show up?
Post Length: Average word count.
Aesthetic Appeal: Does the visual design of the blog establish its purpose and intent?
Graphics: Description of any pix, charts or other graphics displayed.
Categories: As listed on the blog.
Blogroll: A count of those listed on the blog.
Target Audience: Who is the blogger talking to?
Comments allowed: Are they interested in a conversation?
Trackbacks: Are they interested in a sophisticated conversation?
Alexa.com traffic ranking: One measure of popularity or activity around this blog.
Sites that link to this blog: A second measure, as shown on Alexa.
Yahoo Links: A third measure – as shown by a yahoo search on ‘link:blog url’.
While running these reviews might not necessarily be the best way to ‘Win Friends and Influence People’ I won’t censor any comments the blog owner cares to leave in reply. I’m very aware that blogs work best as two-way conversation.
My aim isn’t to throw brickbats at other bloggers in the National Speakers Association, there are precious few to begin with. Rather, I hope that these summaries simply tell more people about the NSA blogs that are out there. It might also stimulate debate about what makes a blog and blogging interesting and valuable for speakers, audience members and readers in general.
If you are a National Speakers Association member with a blog and I’ve not listed you in my Blogroll please send me the URL and I’ll be sure to include it.
2 Comments so far
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Dear Ian
I sat a couple of rows behind you at Kim’s NSA presentation in Orlando. Back in the Uk and now trying to decide exactly how to move things forward. I have to start blogging so this is my first contribution, to yours! The evaluation criteria for bloggers (Blog rating scheme) lacks symmetry. May I respectfully suggest that: Excellent (4) Good (3) Adequate (2) Poor (1) and Abysmal (0) could suffice.
This system will encourage appropriate balance in your evaluations. In addition you could compute percentage scores, not only against each blogging competence, but also as an aggregate for each speaker. The winner each month could look forward to a prize? A personalised Ian griffin blog maybe!
All Good wishes, Tim Kidson
By Tim Kidson on 08.21.06 11:53 am
Hi Tim:
Great suggestion, I’ve renamed the categrories as you suggested. I’m not sure about the percentage scores and the prize, but agree that these new titles are more balanced.
Thanks for the suggestions.
I look forward to seeing your membership in the nsa_bloggers Yahoo Group where you’ll find lots of people to call on to support you as you develop your new blog.
Ian
By Ian on 08.21.06 1:46 pm
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