It's a Blog Eat Blog World

Style Me Pretty



Type: Professional
Purpose: Feature real weddings and vendors to help brides plan weddings
Unique: Showcases modern and stylish celebrations
Brand: In the case of Style Me Pretty, the blog is the brand; the website's tagline is "The Ultimate Wedding Blog." The design is a great reflection of the brand: clean, sophisticated and pretty.
Traffic: According to the Style Me Pretty Website: "We currently see over 16.5 million Monthly Page Views, Monthly RSS Views at just over 1,500,000 and approximately 1,400,000 Monthly Visitors. We also have over 46,000 RSS subscribers. " The well-established blog has a great traffic formula: high on search engines for wedding keywords, links in and out (vendors love to share that they've been published on Style Me Pretty) and word of mouth. I don't think there's a bride out there who hasn't heard of the blog.
What's Missing: To be honest, not much. It's updated regularly, it's consistent (for the most part... I wouldn't say it's consistent with its separate location-centric blogs), it has sharing sites. The company has the perfect blog recipe down pact. My only thing critique is that it does not seem to have a newsletter sign-up or newsletter. The blog is updated several times a day, (and readers know that) a newsletter might not be necessary, but I do think a newsletter featuring ideas or projects would add a different element to the content they already publish.
Advertisers: Style Me Pretty does feature advertiser posts from wedding vendors, and those are usually clearly marked at the bottom for readers.
Success?: Style Me Pretty was one of the first websites out there to showcase real weddings in a beautiful format, it has become a resource in the industry. I would have to say the blog is extremely successful.

One Day, One Photo 

Type: Recreational 

Purpose: A travel diary in the form of one photo per day 

Unique: Interesting twist on a typical travel journal, also very luxury-oriented

Brand: Consistent with the original website, Classe Touriste, which was founded by a travel writer and photographer couple. The brand is everything you'd expect from worldly photographers: clean and full of high-quality photos. 

Traffic: As far as I can tell, traffic comes in from three main sources: the couple's main website, other travel websites/blogs and Bloglovin, a blog aggregator. 

What's Missing: Social sharing buttons on each post. I know that the photographer might be wary about copyright infringement, but slap a watermark on those babies, and you'll be good to go. I think the photos are so gorgeous and the fact that sharing isn't made easier may be a huge oversight. I mean, Pinterest wanderlusters would eat this up.
Advertisers: None, but some potential ones would be travel agencies, accommodation locations such as resorts as well as travel gear manufacturers.
Success?: I would say the blog still has a bit of a ways to go. It is stunning, but you can't really differentiate between Classe Touriste and this photoblog. I think if it were somehow distinguished from the original website and promoted using social media, it would flourish.

Lookbook

Type: Blog Aggregator
Purpose: Serve as fashion inspiration for people around the world
Unique: It's an aggregator that allows users to vote for their favorite submitted outfits.
Brand: Lookbook's brand is basically a blank slate to allow the outfit submissions to stand out. It is also very accessible and easy to navigate, something that is incredibly essential for an aggregator.
Traffic: Traffic is driven by its users. People post and vote religiously on Lookbook, and it becomes a habit of some sort. I use it and within seconds of posting something, I'll have a few "hypes," or votes, and several comments. Usually, if you get a lot of hypes per post, it means you have a pretty legitimate personal blog. It's an incredibly active community, and it works in the blog's favor. I don't see it very high on search engines, but again, it has a pretty loyal following.
What's Missing: This website has everything: e-newsletter, search options, social sharing on every post, a consistent brand, its own blog, etc.
Advertisers: The blog does have advertisers in the form of brands such as Samsung and The Frye Company.
Success?: With more than 1.2 million registered users and big brand advertisers, I would say one hundred percent.