Can you spare a little time helping feed back on a new blog we’re launching?

malebolge

Totality wrote: »

Really can't see this taking off. I'm sure the staff are having a great time, but has anybody gone to the blog looking for a deal rather than the forum?

This is a very important point. I wondered just how easy it was to find blogs on MSE.
OK, I have the grabbit, disabled & general forums pages bookmarked and have never thought about the blogs on here till I contributed to this thread. That makes me a regular user, and I've not used any. I looked at the home page and at the top, in small letters - is blog, same as it appears on this page. I clicked, and was directed to Martin's blog. It took me a bit to see, in teeny red letters on that page - team blog. I honestly don't think I'd have noticed it unless I'd been looking for the word - blog.
Now the forums, news etc are very well read, as evidenced by the number of replies in the forums. The weekly email goes out to thousands, I expect. (no idea of numbers, just a guess) Martin's blog - the only one actually advertised on all the pages, has very few replies to posts. The team blog has even less. One article has 2 replies - both by other members of MSE.
This strongly suggests to me that very few people who visit MSE for any reason, even by googling, would arrive at Martin's blog, and way less would go to the team blog. Why on earth then, introduce another?
I have expressed the opinion that the last 2 posts in the 'new' Deal Hunter blog are better in content than the initial ones. The number of views in this blog varies by article, but the most is (currently) 648. I do feel, however, the number of views is not a true reflection as anyone visiting the popular Grabbit forum has been asked to look.
I think even the better last 2 articles could have been easily placed in the Team Blog as they are not in any way so different that they would not have fitted in there.
I think, having had a good look at all the blogs on MSE, that rather than introduce a new one, have a look at revamping the team blog and make it something worth reading. There are some good articles there, but it's not user friendly. It feels very text heavy and turgid at times. In fact, none of the blogs, with the boring traditional layout and teeny pictures, encourage me to spend time reading. I love blogs and have a fair few favourite bloggers whom I follow. Compared to these, the layout of the blogs on MSE is awful, to be blunt.

autumngirl

I completely agree with everything malebolge has said. The last 2 articles on the Deals Hunter blog have definitely been better than the first offerings but the blog still needs work and what's the point of trying to improve the blog if hardly anyone is going to read anyway?!

I follow my favourite blogs via Bloglovin (as does every other reader of blogs that I know.) I've just looked up Martin Lewis's blog on there and found that it has a grand total of 65 followers on Bloglovin......yes, that's right, sixty five!!!

The MSE blogs may have some interesting articles but I don't see the point in calling them blogs if they're just going to look pretty much the same as the other articles on the main part of the MSE site - I can't really distinguish between the two, to be honest.

Ken68

Anything to reduce "chatter", aka Facebook Twitter and some boards on here
HUDK is the way to go.

autumngirl

Ken68 wrote: »

Anything to reduce "chatter", aka Facebook Twitter and some boards on here
HUDK is the way to go.

I like the chatter and think that's what gives this site its friendly community feel. HUKD is arguably best for deals - i.e. just the hard facts re what you can get and where - but for me that's where it ends. My ideal deals forum would have the fast-paced energy and volume of the HUKD deals forum along with the (generally) caring and sharing community vibe of MSE.....pretty much how the MSE Grabbits board used to be

Former_MSE_Andrea

Thanks for the feedback everyone, it's all good for us, even if you're not sure it is

Just to quickly answer something someone mentioned above, the weekly email goes to over 9 million email addresses (although some may be duplicates where people have changed address and not removed their old one)

Charlotte's put a new blog up today. See what you think

How to slash the cost of your daily cuppa

Gigervamp

A "cuppa" is generally considered to be tea, not coffee. I was expecting hints and tips on cheap tea, not takeaway coffee.

Former_MSE_Andrea

Hi!

Charlotte's latest is a rundown of Hamley's "Top 10 toys your kids will want for Christmas" and where to find them cheaper.

In case you missed it she also posted her and forumites' tips about the Next Sale: Find out what’s in the Next sale before it starts

fiscalfreckles

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Hi!

Charlotte's latest is a rundown of Hamley's "Top 10 toys your kids will want for Christmas" and where to find them cheaper.

In case you missed it she also posted her and forumites' tips about the Next Sale: Find out what’s in the Next sale before it starts

"9. Xeon – The Cheeky Interactive Baby Monster £100 (I can’t find it elsewhere yet)
I couldn’t even pretend I wasn’t horrified by this toy. Basically, it’s a gross Furby with snot coming out of its nose. Kids, eh?"

You probably can't find it because it is called Xeno, not Xeon...;)

bodacious

I know Andrea keeps resurrecting this thread, presumably to try and drum up traffic for the blog, but it seems a rather pointless thread to me so can we just let it drop down the board?

Totality

Yeah I just don't think it's working...if you're expecting people to come to the grabbit board to follow a link to a grabbit/deal elsewhere, what's the point? Just post it on this board.

The lack of responses on this thread alone surely shows that this isn't going to take off?