the value of being a resource
I recently began a digital photography tips blog. It's gotten to a relatively slow start, but traffic is increasing, and I'm trying to get into a consistent writing pattern.
Recently I've been thinking of what makes a good blog that people want to come to. In learning Japanese, one of the websites/blogs that is super popular is Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese. As web sites go, it's very simple and minimal in design, not fancy at all. The value is purely in the information on the site, and to a lot of people searching for online Japanese resources, it is pure gold.
The value of Tae Kim's guide is not that it necessarily offers resources that you can't find anywhere else. But he has spent a LOT of time writing a very detailed, in-depth guide that very clearly organizes the information in a way that is simple and no fluff, that makes sense to the reader.
The result of Tae Kim's work is pretty obvious in the comments left by numerous readers; they all praise the site and thank Tae Kim for writing such a great guide. Many express frustration in their searches elsewhere online for finding Japanese learning material. So his guide is clearly filling a great need.
The other great draw is that Tae's blog is completely free to use. Zero ads, only a donate button that says all proceeds will go towards creating learning material for the site. There is even a forum for users to share their questions. I honestly don't know how Tae runs everything for nothing, but he must spend a ton of time on the whole thing.
Short List of What Makes a Good Resource Blog
Anyway, with all this in mind, my end goal is to create a similar type of resource for photography. I think that even with the plethora of photography sites out there, I haven't seen a site that is well-organized with a beginner's guide out there. There are many, many photo sites, but most have multiple purposes, like image sharing, tutorials, and gear reviews. The lessons seem either random or are categorized, but are not really written with a cohesive progression of articles.
Tae Kim's site is great because it is pretty much in book form, with a table of contents. I think something like that for learning photo stuff would be really desirable to a lot of people learning photography.
Recently I've been thinking of what makes a good blog that people want to come to. In learning Japanese, one of the websites/blogs that is super popular is Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese. As web sites go, it's very simple and minimal in design, not fancy at all. The value is purely in the information on the site, and to a lot of people searching for online Japanese resources, it is pure gold.
The value of Tae Kim's guide is not that it necessarily offers resources that you can't find anywhere else. But he has spent a LOT of time writing a very detailed, in-depth guide that very clearly organizes the information in a way that is simple and no fluff, that makes sense to the reader.
The result of Tae Kim's work is pretty obvious in the comments left by numerous readers; they all praise the site and thank Tae Kim for writing such a great guide. Many express frustration in their searches elsewhere online for finding Japanese learning material. So his guide is clearly filling a great need.
The other great draw is that Tae's blog is completely free to use. Zero ads, only a donate button that says all proceeds will go towards creating learning material for the site. There is even a forum for users to share their questions. I honestly don't know how Tae runs everything for nothing, but he must spend a ton of time on the whole thing.
Short List of What Makes a Good Resource Blog
- Understands what the reader's needs are
- Offers information in a form intuitive to the reader's needs
- Clear navigation, reader can easily find what he/she needs
- Good design: modern, doesn't distract
- Doesn't seem over-commercialized or salesman-y
- Updates consistent and/or frequent
Anyway, with all this in mind, my end goal is to create a similar type of resource for photography. I think that even with the plethora of photography sites out there, I haven't seen a site that is well-organized with a beginner's guide out there. There are many, many photo sites, but most have multiple purposes, like image sharing, tutorials, and gear reviews. The lessons seem either random or are categorized, but are not really written with a cohesive progression of articles.
Tae Kim's site is great because it is pretty much in book form, with a table of contents. I think something like that for learning photo stuff would be really desirable to a lot of people learning photography.
