For something new today I offer a little question and answer interview with John about his technology blog called e-Fuze mobile.
Why did you start your blog/business?
The technology blog at e-Fuze.com was developed to provide enthusiasts and professionals alike daily information on mobile, tech and business news. The site is updated many times per day with up to the minute rumours and news.
Understandably, it is very difficult to compete in this market since there are countless established blogs, such as CNET, already covering technology. However, I did find that even the most established blogs can still significantly improve. Most of the time, you see information that is either not relevant, or simply not important. People today want information that matters in a quick nutshell. I’ve also found that writers are expressing their opinions throughout an entry. To be honest, personal opinions are simply insignificant and filtering this information can take a lot of time. At my blog, if an opinion is to be presented, it will be segregated from the news story itself to ensure you get your news as efficiently as possible.
The purpose of the blog is very simply to provide important business and tech news to all sorts of users. In addition we also hope the blog will eventually become a medium for users to engage in discussions and for users to get help on business and technology.
How do you compete in a crowded market like technology blogging?
There is a variety of ways online blogs compete against each other; these can include price, quality, differentiation, flexibility, lead-time (how often do you update?) and service. e-Fuze.com has set out specific goals in each of these groups to help not only ensure competitiveness, but a high quality blog for news information for technology/business enthusiasts to access on a daily basis.
Quality is perhaps the most important facet that must be satisfied. A nice looking website does not bring users back, however, quality content does. For example, I understand your time is valuable, and I understand you want relevant information. For that reason, my entries do not only get the point across in a concise matter, the entries are relevant too.
Because the Technology blog market is heavily saturated (perhaps the word saturated doesn’t even suffice), differentiation is key. e-Fuze comprises a diversified technology realm. The key topics that are covered include significant information on key companies, including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Research in Motion. In addition, I also track web 2.0 and provide news content on mobile devices, including Windows Mobile powered devices and news content about BlackBerry devices. In addition, you will also find many truthful reviews about various products and business insights – in fact, e-Fue.com has over 105 categories!
For you to be successful, you must be flexible. Essentially, this means that you must be able to quickly adapt to changes. Changes happen all the time, and if you’re not ready, it can be disastrous. For example, if you know downtime is probable, do you have any contingency plans put in place to mitigate downtime? What about significant fluctuations in visitor volume? Can you spot these things when they’re happening?
There are various techniques that you can utilize that will help you follow a proactive approach to help maximize the quality of your blog. For example, focusing on tracking visitor fluctuations, you should have an Excel spreadsheet with monthly visitor per day information with a simple line chart. Next, you should find the control limits to see where significant deviations occur from the mean. By keeping appropriate documentation, you can understand what and when certain events are occurring that are contributing to these non-random variations. This way, you will know what you are doing right and what needs improvement. By understanding non-random variations, you can mitigate and capitalize on various things you are doing right or wrong in the future.
Once you have a blog, it doesn’t stop there. Having a blog normally requires “after sale†service, if you will. Users will constantly write e-mails, participate in forums, seek technical support, and contact you because of website problems such as with user accounts. You must be prepared to spend a lot of time providing help and maintaining your community. Having a warm and helpful community is what ultimately determines success. At e-Fuze.com, I ensure to reply to queries within a few hours and our forums are always monitored by our knowledgeable and exceedingly friendly team and of course, monitored by our helpful users.
How do you intend to make money from it?
The e-Fuze blog isn’t actually intended to earn revenue. That is why, at this time you will not find any advertisements. Instead, the money comes straight from my own pocket. Of course, should readership significantly amplify, so will bandwidth requirements, at which point I may consider advertising.
What methods of marketing have worked best to get the word out about your site?
For e-Fuze, the best marketing methods that have worked for us include writing product reviews and having bigger websites link to them. In addition, leaving links in signatures on forums is also very helpful. Having other blogs write and link to your post about a topic can also generate hits. Working hard can also pay off. For example, we hope our hard work will be acknowledged by CNET among other companies and eventually listed on the Top 100 blogs, surely to help increase readership and ensure success.
Visit www.e-fuze.com
Awesome post ! Cheers for, writing on this blog page mate! I shall email you soon. I didnt realise that.