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Featured Blogs Coming Soon To ChristianBlog.Com! |
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Posted By: abelajohnb
Featured Blogs:
Featured Blogs are the latest feature we are developing here at ChristianBlog.Com!
What is a Featured Blogs you ask?
It's as simple as this: For a small fee, you can have one of your Blog Entries be a Featured Blog for one week!
Featured Blogs will remain on the home page, near the very top of the website, for one week.
We will allow any member to sign-up for one Featured Blog per week.
We have not decided if we will place a limit on the total amount of Featured Blogs we will display at any given time.
Exactly where you see this Blog Entry, is where we plan on having the Featured Blogs - but no long-term promises.
Pricing:
Pricing has not yet been determined.
At this time, we are thinking it will range in the $5.00 through $10.00 price range.
We are considering a pricing option that would allow you to buy 1/3/6/12-months worth of Featured Blogs, so you could easily select a new Blog Entry each week as your Featured Blog.
We are also considering a secondary purchase feature that would place your Featured Blog in a section on the right-side of the website, perhaps below the "Manage Your Account" section. As this would be displayed on nearly every page of the website, not just the home page, costs for this would be slightly to significantly higher.
Qualifications:
Because of the nature of our website - that is, people trust us - we will have to have some qualifications for who can utilize this feature.
Here are our initial thoughts:
Featured Blogs must be approved by our Moderator Team before they are accepted. This qualification may be suspended for a specific member, after the said member has proven to publish and select top-notch Blog Entries that are upgraded to a Featured Blog.
Featured Blogs will only be accepted by members in "Good Standing" -- if you are not, you would know you are not.
Featured Blogs would only be accepted by members who have xyz amount of Blog Entries - perhaps 10, or 20. (??) This would help ensure a higher quality of Blog Entries would become Featured Blogs.
Suggestions Welcomed:
Should you have any thoughts about this, please, drop a reply in and we'll give it some thought!
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Posted: 04/27/08 10:58am - Total Views: 2,194 - Category: Site News
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Login to be able to view all the comments for this blog! If you are not already a member we invite you to become a member... it's free!
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blessings2you |
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Posted by:
blessings2you
(Posted: 04/27/08 1:00pm)
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Excellent idea. You know I would be all for it LOL.
Any thought to a special section on the site just for featured blogs? You know, like a whole new tab on top. Just a thought.
When you get the details figured out, I'll be in line for sure.
Thanks,
B2Y
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abelajohnb |
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Posted by:
abelajohnb
(Posted: 04/27/08 1:36pm)
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Hello,
Great to hear somebody likes the idea!
Yeah it is! Actually, it was GreyBear's idea, I can't take credit for it 
He sent me the idea a few days ago... I talked it over with a few people... and most everybody liked the idea behind it.
There are some obvious logistical problems that I still have to figure out, but I think I've got most of it mapped out.
Yeah, it is already in place on the home page of CB. -- purely a "proof test" at this point in time.
Hmm, not sure about dedicating a tab at the top of the website... that's a lot of real estate to dedicate to just this one feature...
But, as I mentioned above... I might be up for a "right-side block" feature... I'm just not sure. The whole right-side of our website is the "prime zone"... whatever is over there is considered prime content. For us to go and throw in a section that has specific blogs (other then top blogs, etc).... hmm, I'm just not sure... I think from a "business side of things"... the price would have to be substantially more then just showing the "Featured Blogs" on the home page of the website. Know what I mean?
Awesome to hear! A feature like this is equivalent to Blog Authors getting their article mentioned on the cover of a magazine (!!) - while for CB it provides another source of revenue.
I'll keep everybody update as I progress though this whole idea. Again, I welcome feedback and comments of any kind related to this.
John B. Abela
Founder/Owner, ChristianBlog.Com
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poodlelady |
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Posted by:
poodlelady 
(Posted: 04/27/08 2:16pm)
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 I think it's a fantastic idea John. I'm not a great blogger but we have many here that are and this is an awesome feature for them!
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savedbyegrace |
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Posted by:
savedbyegrace
(Posted: 04/27/08 2:58pm)
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John, realizing of course that this would be a way to generate revenue, I nevertheless wonder if there is a way that CB'ers could nominate a specific blog to be the featured blog. i suppose there's no way to have those who nominate pay for it, but some blogs are just exceptional and deserve featuring
Gracie
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allforhim |
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Posted by:
allforhim
(Posted: 04/27/08 3:11pm)
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I am in agreement with Gracie, although it will not produce revenue, I think it more honorable to have it nominated rather then paid for. There are some blogs that I think just deserve that recognition! Blessings! Andrea
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blessings2you |
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Posted by:
blessings2you
(Posted: 04/27/08 6:13pm)
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Why not have both? Have a section for nominated blogs (perhaps one or two per week) and one that is paid for.
B2Y
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abelajohnb |
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Posted by:
abelajohnb
(Posted: 04/27/08 7:01pm)
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Hey SBG, thanks for the comments and suggestion!
I have thought about this suggestion for the last four hours.... and about an hour ago the answer hit me... "We already have this feature!!"
As I see it, when people post comments to blog entries, that is the same as giving it a "hey, great job!" (unless of course, you are being critical of something said)... so, realistically, this very feature that you have suggested is already in place... we call it the "This Weeks Hot-Topic Blogs!"
You see, each time somebody gets 7+ comments in their blog entry, it gets added to that section, and stays there for a week.
So, yeah... we already have this feature!!
You know, so many people feel like adding comments to blogs that are nothing more then "Hey, great blog" is some cardinal sin or something... but it isn't! I find it a pleasure to read blogs with a bunch of people who've said "great blog" or "nice job!"... because to me, that is folks taking the time to say they really like a blog entry! Why folks do not just take the time to say "great blog" more often is beyond me! And, by doing so, you will help the blog entry get into our "This Weeks Hot-Topic Blogs!" section!
Anyway, I think I've (pre-)solved this feature suggestion you made!
Blessings,
John B. Abela
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savedbyegrace |
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Posted by:
savedbyegrace
(Posted: 04/27/08 7:46pm)
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In theory John, what you said should work. But the one blog i read that made me think of nominating great ones, was not commented on by anyone but me, I think. That may have changed in the last few hours. Hope i don't sound argumentative here, but sometimes a blog makes me think to the point of being speechless and therefore i don't comment. (hard to believe, I know! )
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savedbyegrace |
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Posted by:
savedbyegrace
(Posted: 04/27/08 7:48pm)
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I stand corrected. The blog I was thinking about had a couple responses, but not enough to make it a hot topic.
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abelajohnb |
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Posted by:
abelajohnb
(Posted: 04/27/08 8:10pm)
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Yeah, I understand where you are coming from.
I just think that if we ever did add a feature that allowed people to "nominate" a specific blog entry for some sort of "members nominated" feature... it would require a pretty high amount of people "nominating" it, before it could make it into our "members nominated" section.
In my opinion, having one or two people giving a "thumbs up" (of sort) to a blog is far from that blog being a really really great blog worthy of anything. It would really require a LOT of people to give something a nomination before it could be worthy of making it into a community-based "featured" section... wouldn't you agree? I mean, after all, if only 1% of our active membership gave it a "thumbs up", does that really make it a great blog? I sure hope not. Now, if 10% of our active membership gave it a thumbs-up... then yeah, it might be starting to become a good blog...
Anyway, I do hear what you are saying, but I think with the present "Hot Topics" of the week, and the way it works... that is the best way to go about this. Not only because the system is already in place and doesn't require any additional development... but when it comes down to it... ChristianBlog.Com (on a business side) needs activity (like people posting comments) more then people pressing a "nominate" button, which really doesn't increase anything for us on a business level. While not everything here is "business"... I do have to always keep things in mind that are business-minded. People posting comments increased our numbers, makes blog authors feel better, attracts more people to blog, and all that good stuff. While as, have a simple "nominate this blog" button, doesn't really do anything other then the feature it would be directly intended to do, and which really doesn't help CB grow all that much.
Anyway, I do see where you are coming from... I just happen to see (from where I sit) that the existing "Hot Topic of the Week" is really a great feature, and meets the feature you've asked for... without any further investment on our/my end.
Thanks,
John
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savedbyegrace |
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Posted by:
savedbyegrace
(Posted: 04/28/08 4:50am)
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Cool beans. One more question: will you reserve the right to first read the potential featured blog to make sure that even if it's been paid for that it is biblically sound? We wouldn't want to have anything unscriptural up front and center on the home page .
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kraftykatz |
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Posted by:
kraftykatz
(Posted: 04/28/08 7:46am)
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 I read many more blogs than I leave comments on. Sometimes I simply enjoyed reading the blog and it made me think or encouraged me to explore more into the subject matter.
Maybe we should all consider leaving a simply "great blog" comment and "thanks for sharing" .
KraftyKatz
 drinking tea
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abelajohnb |
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Posted by:
abelajohnb
(Posted: 04/29/08 12:33am)
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I have added four more entries to the "This Weeks Featured Blogs" on the home page to give everybody a chance to see what it would look like with some more blogs in this section.
Check it out, let me know what you think.
Thanks,
John
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kraftykatz |
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Posted by:
kraftykatz
(Posted: 05/04/08 3:57pm)
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I for one would have a hard time deciding which one to feature. What I think are my better blogs don't always get responses. But I like the idea of featured blogs.
KraftyKatz
drinking tea
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abelajohnb |
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Posted by:
abelajohnb
(Posted: 05/04/08 6:37pm)
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Ok folks,
I think it is time to ask the really big questions....
How many people out there would be willing to pay for this?
And, if you are: How much per week per blog?
Thanks.
John
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abelajohnb |
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Posted by:
abelajohnb
(Posted: 05/08/08 9:35am)
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Ok, I'm going to take the utter silence as an indication nobody really cares about this feature all that much...
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kraftykatz |
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Posted by:
kraftykatz
(Posted: 05/08/08 9:47am)
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John,
I thought about your question for a day or so then was going to come back and answer it and could not find the discussion link.
I looked for several days and could not find it.
Anyway, yes I would if I could decided which ones were good enough. My only questions is
If someone payed for 6, would all 6 have to run 6 weeks in a row or would we be allowed to spread them out over a 2-3 month period?
KraftyKatz
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abelajohnb |
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Posted by:
abelajohnb
(Posted: 05/08/08 10:52am)
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I was hoping to have some more feedback before I was in a position to make those decisions... but from what I am thinking of at this point, is to just do away with the "package pricing" and just let folks pay for them one at a time, as they publish blog entries. I think that would reduce the amount of work and support on our end, and thus allow us to charge less for this feature, as it would cost me less to build this feature.
What I've also been thinking about doing is having a tier-based pricing... each month Gold Members get one Featured Blog for free, Premier Members would only have to be a couple of bucks, and free members would have to pay a couple of bucks more then Premier Members.
But, all that said, unless we can keep the whole "Featured Blogs" section populated with Blog Entries... it would not be worth it for ChristianBlog.Com to even have the feature. I would want to see us have at least 3-5 "Featured Blogs" every week... and thus far, based from the lack of feedback, I just do not see us having those kind of numbers, so I'm not sure if we should even proceed with this whole idea.
While I think this idea rocks... I can understand people not wanting to shell out more money. That said, when we did have the 5 Featured Blogs last week, they generated over 50 click-throughs... so that was rather impressive I thought. My own blogs that were setup as Featured Blogs got twice as much activity in the one week they were a Featured Blog, then the last two months since I actually posted the blog entries... but, again, I understand folks not wanting (or being able to) put out further money. This is clearly a feature that is for those people who are a bit more dedicated to publishing their work... and I just do not think CB has a large enough members-base who are those type of people.
Anyway,
John
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blessings2you |
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Posted by:
blessings2you
(Posted: 05/08/08 3:35pm)
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Come on folks, I don't want to be the only one willing to do this featured blog. I know there must be others of you out there who would love the exposure. I second what John said as far as views when I had a blog there for a week.
Let me know the details, if you still go through with the idea, and I will faithfully commit to one per week. I guess you need a few more than just me though. I do hope this works out for I feel it is an excellent idea.
B2Y
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abelajohnb |
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Posted by:
abelajohnb
(Posted: 05/10/08 5:10am)
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Just a quick update....
In the last ~24 hours since I placed seven (7) blogs entries on the home page as "Featured Blogs".... those seven blog entries have generated eighty (80) distinct click-throughs (views), specifically from the "Featured Blog" section at the top of the home page!
So, that's 80 views of blog entries that would have gotten maybe ~1/3rd of that kind of activity had they not been a "Featured Blog".
For at least two of the seven blogs, they have now gotten more views (in the last 24 hours) then they had in the 10+ days since they were first posted at the website.
Now, I realize all of these numbers might not mean much to most, but to those of you willing to actually utilize this style of a feature here at ChristianBlog.Com, I suspect these numbers will mean a great deal to you.
Thanks,
John
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abelajohnb |
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Posted by:
abelajohnb
(Posted: 05/11/08 11:37am)
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I just did another count and the total click-through count for all of the Featured Blogs is: 142 (as of this exact minute)
So that is an increase of 62 new click-throughs in the last 30 hours.
Impressive!
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abelajohnb |
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Posted by:
abelajohnb
(Posted: 05/12/08 8:16am)
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As of this moment, we are at 178 total click-throughs for the Featured Blogs displayed on the home page.
That is an increase of 36 new click-throughs in the last 21 hours.
What I would like to do is get a "head count" of people who would be willing to spend a few dollars a month to have access to this feature.
Oh, I also come up with a new possible approach to all of this... here's what I am thinking of:
You can have any ONE Blog Entry at ANY TIME be a "Featured Blog".... You can change it any time you want, but you can only have one at a time.
We will create a page that shows all of your Blog Entries, and by simply clicking a button next to a specific blog, that blog entry will become your "Featured Blog".
So, I suppose, if somebody really had no life, they could sit here and click on a new blog entry each minute, and each minute the website would display a different blog as their Featured Blog.
I will stand by the present system that only allows one specific blog to be displayed for one week.... so no hogging a featured blog for weeks after weeks with a single blog entry!
So, rather then doing this as a "pay per blog" system, we will go the route of "monthly fee" and you can change your Featured Blog any time you want!
This approach will make it more affordable, a bit more fun, and a lot more manageable!
The only question this type of a system leaves open is.... what about the whole "Featured Blogs must be approved by our Moderator Team before they are accepted" as explained in the first post. How exactly do we handle this situation? Hmm, no idea yet.
Anyway, anybody got any thoughts on going this route?
John
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kreynolds |
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Posted by:
kreynolds
(Posted: 05/12/08 10:27am)
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I would be interested in (and willing to pay for) this feature. It sounds like a great idea!
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blessings2you |
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Posted by:
blessings2you
(Posted: 05/12/08 11:45am)
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I think it sounds good but I am not quite sure I understand the specifics, but what I do understand looks like it would work fine. Any idea as to monthly fee?
Not being familiar with your moderator system I don't know how to accomplish that outside of clicking something that would say "send to moderater" and once it was approved it would be posted.
Thanks for sticking with this great idea, I believe once it established it will be a huge blessing to the site. By the way, Please count my head!
B2Y
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abelajohnb |
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Posted by:
abelajohnb
(Posted: 05/24/08 6:29am)
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Hey,
I think I've got this working, at least an initial version!!
At this time it is available only to Premier/Gold Members... so if you are not already a premier/gold member, here is yet another reason to upgrade your account!!
Here are our initial usage rights for Featured Blogs:
For those of you who are Premier/Gold members, and are logged into ChristianBlog.Com, here is how to use this new feature:
Click on the "My.Blogs" at the top of the website...
You should now see a new section on that page that shows:
If you click on the link that says "Your Featured Blog Entries" you'll be taken to a page with all the stuff about Featured Blogs!
Down the page a bit will be a list of your recent blog entries... on the right-side will be a link that says "upgrade".
Pick a Blog Entry you would like to be a "Featured Blog" and click the "upgrade" link... and, that SHOULD set it as your Featured Blog and take you back to the Featured Blogs page and now show you the blog you picked in the top section, with the exact date/time you set it, when it will expire, and how many click-throughs it has had.
And, if you go to the "home page" you should now see the blog entry within the "featured blogs" section.
Ok, I think that about explains how it works.
Again, this is an "initial version" of this feature and I am still thinking about other features to add.
Let me know if it works, doesn't work, or any thoughts.
Thanks,
John B. Abela
Foiunder/Owner, ChristianBlog.Com
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abelajohnb |
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Posted by:
abelajohnb
(Posted: 06/09/08 2:04am)
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Quick update....
This new feature seems to be going well !!
I just got to set my third "Featured Blog" this morning.
It looks like my last one got 78 total click-throughs throughout the week. That's pretty good if you ask me!!
John
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