Blogging about blogging

I’ve always read a lot of blogs but only recently have I checked into blogs about blogging.  Wow!  There’s a whole other world out there, a whole community, that blogs about blogging and all the things associated with blogging like how to get more traffic, how to make money, how to create a good blog, etc.  There are also some celebrities.  People everyone in the "blogging about blogging" world know – like everyone in the open source world knows who Linus Torvalds is or everyone into football knows who Howie Long is.  One of the celebrities in the blogging world is John Chow from JohnChow.com. 

In order to see how links can drive traffic, I’m taking John Chow up on his offer to link back to my blog if I write a review about his blog.  So this review is honest but it’s driven by the motivation to get a link.  (So you are duly warned!)

Here are some of my observations about JohnChow.com:

• Great content about how to write a good blog.  John Chow follows his own advice and writes great original content.  (Although giving advice on blogging doesn’t seem to be his primary or only focus.)
• Integrity.  He offered to link back to every blog that reviewed his blog and it looks like a lot of people took him up on the offer and he’s honoring his word!
• Communication.  He’s very good about writing blog posts and about promoting his top commentators but maybe not so good with email.  I originally wrote this review on 2/20/07 and submitted it via email.  I never heard back – not even a thank you or I’ll get to it later.  I’m assuming on 2/25/07 that the reason I haven’t been listed on his blog yet is because I didn’t include a link back to the rules page but some type of feedback that it had been received would have been great.  Feedback on why I wasn’t going to be listed would have been terrific.  If you’re going to have an email form promoted on your website, you should answer it. 
• Navigation.  I like the navigation tabs at the top of the blog and I liked that the subscribe buttons were at the top.
• Memorable logos and banners. 
• Lots of good pictures, especially of food! (And pictures of food are hard – I’ve been trying on My Man’s Man.)
• Lots of community building tools like listing the top commentators and using MyBlogLog to show recent readers.
• I like how he mixes content about blogging (what most people probably read the blog for) and personal stories about restaurants he’s eating at and places he’s been to.  I think that adds "voice."

It feels a bit weird to review someone who is supposed to be the expert.  Maybe I should ask John to review my blog!

[Edited on 2/25/07.]