Best Practices

The most successful blogs cover a certain niche, but not one that's too tiny. Your blog should focus on a topic broad enough to allow for frequently-updated content that is never boring or repetitive. Most city magazines choose to blog on topics that correspond to their print sections: Food & Dining, Arts & Entertainment, Shopping, Politics, etc. These are great subject areas, but "Food & Dining" is not a great blog name!

Aim for a name that's relevant but catchy and unique to your site. Some magazines have branded names for sections in print, and these can sometimes translate into blog names. For example, The Washingtonian magazine's front-of-book section city and politics section has been titled "Capital Comment" for years; when it came time to launch a city and politics blog, this name remained a great fit—it is catchy, relevant, and not overused. The New York Times did the same thing with "Diner's Journal", the name of a newspaper column that translated to their dining blog. Other magazines simply call their print sections what they are, but come up with more creative names for blogs. Atlanta magazine's food blog is called "Covered Dish" and New York magazine's is named "Grub Street". Both of these titles give a clear indication of the blog's subject matter (food) with a catchy and easy-to-remember tagline that becomes a brand-within-a-brand for your publication.

You may know of some blogs that include an author's name in the title, i.e. "Sara Levine on Food" (this is just an example, not a real blog!). This is fine for a personal blog, but for one associated with a publication we generally don't think it's a great idea, for a few reasons. First, specifying one blog author implies that only one person is responsible for all content. To keep the blog fresh and constantly-updated, it helps to have multiple contributors. Your main food critic, for instance, can post the blog's dining reviews, but other members of the staff (including interns!) can help feed the food blog with other content like chef interviews, restaurant openings, and recipes. If your blog is named after a specific editor and also includes work by other contributors, this can confuse readers. And what happens if the title blogger moves on to another job? Now you are tasked with completely re-branding your blog and possibly losing some of its audience.

When you have a very specific idea that you want to blog about, try to incorporate it into one of your topical blogs. Some publications have created blogs that specifically cover a process--like a high-profile restaurant opening or a senate race--from beginning to end. Again, we're not big fans of this idea, for a number of reasons. The nature of a blog is such that there is no "ending." A blog is not a story; it is a daily publication. You want to develop a loyal following that continues to check back in with the blog day after day. Instead of creating a new blog titled "The Making of a Restaurant" or "Race to the Senate", make this a series within your food blog or political blog.

Along with a great title, your blog needs a visual element—a logo that further enhances your niche brand-within-a-brand. New York Magazine's "Grub Street" has a little Chinese take-out container; this visual appears in the blog's header and is also the tiny icon that appears in your browser. The New York Times brands each of its blogs with a small but distinctive graphic in the header as well. The result is that each of their blogs have a different look and feel while using exactly the same page templates. Using graphics to visual brand your blogs is a great way to provide a distinct experience within your site while complimenting the style and tone of the blog.