dotbloggers

Knock Knock WHOIS There is proud to announce these members of our dotblogger program.

    .blog Featured Site: bulgarianonthego.blog

    Travel blogger bulgarianonthego.blog is on a mission: not only to share the most beautiful attractions across the globe but also to fight against over-tourism and demonstrate the joys of ethical, off-the-beaten-track travel. After studying journalism and communication science in Vienna, Austria, writer Lyubomira launched her travel blog, which takes readers on an educational and inspirational tour of the world’s hidden treasures.

    Who is the blog for, and what’s it about?

    Lyubomira describes her blog as a “platform to share all of my practical tips and tricks with you, to tell you about places you might have never thought of visiting, and most importantly – inspire you to go out there and see the world, because nothing makes you richer than traveling.”

    Her goal is to encourage would-be travelers to discover underrated destinations and hidden gems rather than following the crowd to all of the world’s most-visited tourist sites. Her blog is divided into three sections: 

    • Destinations, which rounds up her travels across three continents 
    • Useful Resources, which offers tips and tricks for travelers
    • Bulgaria Travel Community, a group that connects travelers to the best spots in Lyubomira’s home country

    What makes it special?

    By focusing on lesser-known travel destinations, bulgarianonthego.blog sheds light on hidden spots that many travelers miss out on. It also carves its own niche, setting itself apart from the other travel blogs that cover the same old ground— literally.

    Her inspirational writing, aspirational photography, and oozing passion make the blog—and the destinations she writes about—a place you want to be. Always informative and not patronizing, her view of the world, travel, and discovering the lesser-known is perfectly conveyed through her posts on topics ranging from ski resorts to Christmas markets. And to accompany her prose, Lyubomira’s gorgeous photography would make even the most unadventurous reader want to pack their bags and book a flight.

    All the content is clearly well-researched and thought-out, and all of the posts balance opinion with fact.

    What can we learn?

    In 2018, Lyubomira combined her passion and education by launching bulgarianonthego.blog. She was already traveling the world, one unblemished country at a time, so what better way to put her journalism studies into action than by writing about her adventures?

    But it’s not just Lyubomira’s passion for travel that makes bulgarianonthego.blog one of the most inspiring travel blogs on the web. Her niche—promoting the benefits of exploring lesser-known, sustainable travel—gives her site an edge that appeals to an educated, engaged audience. 

    From considering climate change to over-tourism and the devastation it can wreak on under-resourced communities, bulgarianonthego.blog offers the conscious traveler a wealth of alternative destinations and ideas.

     What to incorporate into your blog?

    • Discover your niche and run with it: When your audience understands what you’re about, they’ll come to you for the information they know they won’t find elsewhere.
    • Work with your passions: They say that if you find a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. Lyubomira combines her love for travel and expertise in communications and proves that perfectly.
    • Don’t skimp on the details: The consistent aesthetic of Lyubormia’s aspirational imagery is as important and impactful to bulgarianonthego.blog as her writing.

    .blog Featured Site: fantastichiphop.blog

    YouTube content creators can become familiar faces, but content creators don’t have to show their faces to be successful. This week we take a look at Fantastichiphop.blog, a blog that puts the creator’s vast knowledge of hip-hop music front and center. YouTuber, Fantastic Hip Hop shows us how a blog can complement a successful YouTube channel.

    Who is the Blog for, and What’s It About?

    This blog is for anyone passionate about hip-hop. Changing the world through the power of music”, it includes reviews, commentary, and rankings in both written and video formats.

    What Makes It Special?

    Fantastichiphop.blog is 100% dedicated to hip-hop music. The title and content make it clear quickly what readers will gain from visiting. This is a great example of how YouTube content creators can use a blog to gain further reach for their content and shows us how bloggers can benefit from including video content

    All the content is clearly well-researched and thought-out, and all of the posts balance opinion with fact.

    What Can We Learn?

    There is no face behind this blog, which is evidence that bloggers don’t always have to show themselves but rather create a brand image and appeal. This approach also allows hip hop to be the true feature of fantastichiphop.blog.

    The clear passion for hip-hop culture and well-defined niche organically benefit search engine optimization (SEO). [link to Google’s new update article] Equally notable is the impressive regularity with which Fantastic Hip Hop posts. The consistent and timely publication of reviews of new albums makes this site a relevant and helpful source of information for music lovers.

     

    .blog Featured Site: fujifilm.blog

    The team behind fujifilm.blog describe themselves as “curious, explorers of daily life, collectors of experiences.” Inviting readers to “explore the world of Fujifilm,” this blog offers all the photography content you would expect from a global photography brand alongside a look into the company’s culture, values, history, and people.

    Who is the Blog for, and What’s It About?

    The official Fujifilm Corporate blog features photographers and Fujifilm employees and gives tips on all things related to photography. It highlights new products and technology and shares Fujifilm’s greater mission: to make the world a better place through articles such as this one on  Breast Cancer prevention.

    What Makes It Special?

    The blog supports Fujifilm employees by uplifting “colleagues that invent, produce, communicate and sell our innovative products and services to create value from innovation.” Beyond photography, the blog shines a light on the company brand and values. Posts, such as this one highlighting how Fujifilm has been integral in developing healthcare technology from 1934 through the pandemic, share lesser-known applications of the company’s technology.

    What Can We Learn?

    Fujifilm.blog effectively showcases the culture around the brand; for both those who are part of Fujifilm and those who want to learn more about the company. It’s a great illustration of why all businesses should blog.

     

    .blog Featured Site: samk.blog

    Comedian, author, and award-winning activist, Sam Killermann, is the voice and heart behind samk.blog. Sam travels the world performing comedy and giving talks on themes of social justice, gender, and sexuality. He has been featured in TIME, The New York Times, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and “other fancy places.”

    Who is the Blog for, and What’s It About?

    In his own words, Sam’s blog is “part open letter to the world, and part sharing experiences and observations of why I hold the world so dear.” The ultimate goal of his work is to nudge people toward a healthier, happier, more whole way of living. Everything he does and writes about is centered around activism. Posts are divided into three main categories: Better Humaning, in which he answers the question, “how can I be a better me while creating space for others to be a better them?”; Technolophizing, which addresses “how can we ensure technology is serving us, and our well-being—and not the other way around?”’ and Adventravel, which features stories from backpacking around the world and other anecdotes from his travels.

    What Makes It Special?

    This website was built from the ground up using Jamstack, which was created to be as fast, accessible, and environmentally sustainable as possible. Everything is open source and uncopyrighted, so it can be shared with others. 

    Sam also does his own illustrations and is proud of having designed the symbol used for gender-neutral bathrooms across the world.

    Like his uncopyrighted website content, he notes that every book he has ever written or co-written is available as a free PDF so that money isn’t a barrier to education. He says, “[y]ou cannot steal my books: I’ve already gifted them to you.” 

    Sam has an upcoming book release that originated as a series of blog posts.

    What Can We Learn?

    Ultimately, Sam made a blog that he liked. It’s impossible not to notice the changing color pattern while you browse. “You might be wondering about the constantly shifting chameleon color scheme,” he says, then addresses if it was a necessary addition. “Yes, my friend. Because it makes me happy to visit this site, and I need to come here for this thing to work. So it was more than a need: it’s everything.” This sentence gives an insight into his conversational writing style, humor, and personality, which are all prevalent throughout the blog.

    His blog also hosts his CV, has a place for Patreon subscribers, email subscribers, and links to his books. In monetizing his blog, he has made supporting him financially really playful: “I support this site, my puppies, and my global justice projects, by selling books. Royalties buy coffee. Coffee fuels articles.”

     

    .blog Featured Site: greatermancunians.blog

    Greatermancunians.blog is a collaborative photography project that profiles people across Greater Manchester who have somehow shaped the community. Sponsored by Manchester City Council and created by students at Manchester College, this blog shows us how blogging can contribute to and celebrate a community.

    Who is the Blog for, and What’s It About?

    Greatermancunians.blog is a student-led “landmark photography project” that seeks to acknowledge the people who have shaped the region. Musicians, sportspeople, entertainers, entrepreneurs, politicians, actors, comedians, artists, and community champions each chose a significant place in the city to be photographed.

    The influential community members range from Parliament Member Angela Rayner to Sarge, a security doorman. Greatermancunians.blog celebrates the Greater Mancunian spirit and creates a space to tell their stories. 

    “Greater Mancunians” will be published in 2023 and culminate in a major city center exhibition.

    What Makes It Special?

    At its heart, Gretermancunians.blog is a photography gallery in the form of a blog as a piece of art. It’s a directory of the region’s influential people, an artist-guided vision that shows blogging doesn’t have to be in written form. 

    As well as being a collection of photographs and stories, it serves as a learning opportunity for students. One major goal of the project is “to give talented young students employability/work experience skills so vital when breaking into the creative industries.”

    Each post tells the featured subject’s story alongside a collection of photographs from their photoshoot. They conclude with either a Q&A or reflection on the student’s experience of meeting and photographing them. Together, each post creates a beautiful picture of Greater Mancunians.

    What Can We Learn?

    Greater Mancunians is an excellent example of a blog that goes beyond its virtual space and contributes to its larger community. Each post uses a similar format while matching the subject’s personality, showing how to create variability in a blog and where uniqueness can come from.

    It’s a captivating biographical blog that positively impacts the community, serves as a learning opportunity for aspiring artists, and is part of a larger project. This is a reminder that there are many different uses for blogs — only limited by our ideas.

     

    .blog Featured Site: interconnected.blog

    Kevin Xu is the author and founder of Interconnected.blog. An expert voice on global tech and geopolitics, his publication explores the connections between builders, operators, investors, and regulators. He writes from professional experience in founding startups, as a White House staffer, at enterprise tech companies, and in venture capital.

    Kevin studied Law and Computer Science at Stanford and International Relations at Brown University. He co-hosts a podcast on Asian American and Canadian political discourse. His work has been widely cited and published, including in The New York Times, Business Insider, Wired, Al Jazeera, and The Wall Street Journal.

    Who is the Blog for, and What’s It About?

    Interconnected is a bilingual newsletter focusing on the intersection of tech, business, investing, geopolitics, and US-Asia relations. By highlighting these “interconnections,” the blog gives entrepreneurs an edge in building companies, investing, and hiring. It serves as a place for those interested in the international business market to find information that can help them become more educated consumers and professionals.

    What Makes It Special?

    Kevin publishes new content every Sunday in English, Chinese, and sometimes Japanese. He believes sharing content in multiple languages is an important part of building more common ground and information accountability between cultures. “No lost in translation, no lost in suspicion, and no media filter, just words straight from […] the author himself.”

    What Can We Learn?

    Kevin uses this blog to publish articles from his newsletter. Newsletters can be an effective tool for building subscribers, creating loyalty, and driving readers back to your blog. Also, Interconnected.blog offers free and paid premium subscriptions. For free, anyone can read interconnected.blog’s public, non-premium posts, and for $80 per month, subscribers have access to premium-level content, gain early access to co-investment opportunities, and receive a 1-on-1 expert consulting call.

     

    .blog Featured Site: alearningaday.blog

    In May 2008, dotblogger, Rohan set out to blog every day. Fourteen years later, he says this daily habit has changed his life. Consistency is key to a successful blogging strategy, and this week we take a look at, alearningaday.blog, to uncover some of the learnings within. Rohan introduces himself to us with the three virtues that guide his blog and how he lives, seeking to: 

    1. Contribute positively to the world, 
    2. Build meaningful relationships along the way, and 
    3. Learn from every opportunity.

    Who is the Blog for, and What’s It About?

    First and foremost, alearningaday.blog is for Rohan himself. He shares how the act of daily writing has changed his life by giving him confidence in his ability to keep his promises. In his own words, “discipline is the foundation of integrity.”

    He writes openly about the blog serving his personal growth and being a platform for “being the change [he wishes] to see in the world.” Although his daily blog posts are born from a commitment to himself, Rohan’s writing and dedication are inspiring to anyone who visits his site.

    What Makes It Special?

    Very few bloggers can say that they have published a post every day for over 14 years. Rohan’s consistency is remarkable and certainly sets his blog apart. Alearningaday.blog is also unique in its purpose and content. Rohan categorizes his posts into three broad themes; people, learning, and making a contribution These he explores through a series of observations, opinions, quotes, stories, reviews, and more. “Some days, [the posts will] provoke. On others, they’ll challenge. And, on a few, they’ll resonate.”

    What Can We Learn?

    Writing and blogging consistently can have many benefits. Writing every day can help to refine your voice and improve communication. Blogging regularly keeps visitors returning to your blog. Alearningaday.blog gives us an insight into what one blogger has learned from blogging as he continues to ”inspire a learning-focused mindset that values becoming over being.”

     

    .blog Featured Site: neil.blog

    Author, podcast host, and public speaker, Neil Pasricha has been blogging for over a decade. His career began with a daily blog called 1,000 Awesome Things, which won a Webby Award in 2009. Its success paved the way for the publication of the bestselling, Book of Awesome, and Neil continues to spread positivity by thinking, writing, and speaking about intentional living.

    Who is the Blog for, and What’s It About?

    The overall focus of Neil.blog is intentional living, with themes of gratitude, happiness, failure, resilience, connection, and trust spread throughout his entire site. 

    It also acts as a personal branding tool, bringing together all of Neil’s content, products, and services. Through the blog, readers can join his 100k+ newsletter subscribers, watch his speeches, book him to speak at an event, access his Top 200-rated podcast, and purchase any of his bestselling books.

    What Makes It Special?

    In one word, awesome describes everything about Neil.blog. Neil is a Canadian family man whose blogging journey started with a countdown of 1000 awesome things, and this positive theme still underscores everything he does. It’s no wonder that he’s found such success as a writer and speaker. He writes with authenticity, a tenet he advocates for, and he is always engaging.

    All content comes back to his mission and links to his podcasts, books, and YouTube videos, allowing readers to learn more. For example, in a single article, 10 Small Daily Habits to Dramatically Boost Your Productivity, Neil links to speaking engagements and books, references other well-respected books and resources, and shares personal details of his life, such as his daily shake, morning routine, and relatable clothing choices.

    He also hosts a book club where he gives monthly recommendations. He notes that he started the book club as a “public commitment to read more.” Alongside it, he also shares transcripts of speeches that have inspired his work. 

    Neil.blog is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to bring positivity, productivity, and intentional living into their daily lives.

    What Can We Learn?

    Neil.blog is an excellent example of how a blog can be key to building your personal brand. While Neil earns money through speaking engagements, book sales, and the like, his blog is full of free content. His podcast, articles, and email newsletters are all 100% ad, sponsor, and commercial-free, giving readers an accessible insight into what his brand entails.

    He engages potential email newsletter subscribers by sharing descriptions and examples, so readers know exactly what they’re signing up for. By noting that he reads every email he gets and aims to reply to each personally, he creates a personal connection with his audience.

     

    .blog Featured Site: Magnet.blog

    Magnet.blog is home to the writers of Magnet Quarterly, an original and creative quarterly magazine from Turkey. Each themed edition covers topics like culture, arts, and fashion.

    Who is the Blog for, and What’s It About?

    The Magnet Quarterly blog is an extension of the physical magazine. The publication describes itself as catering to “men and women, typically between the ages of 20 and 40, with a high level of education and income.” Magnet.blog is a place to learn about culture—from hotels to space tourism—all types of art, music, and fashion, even fashion in space and virtual reality.

    What Makes It Special?

    As a premium domain, Magnet.blog is instantly recognizable and memorable. The one-word name, followed by the .blog TLD makes it easy to identify the site as a blog and further supports the brand

    .blog premium domain names are short and to the point, making it easy for readers to find, recognize, and immediately connect to a brand.

    Aesthetically, the blog feels elevated and visually matches their magazine. Post formats vary to include videos, interviews, and articles, and they offer a unique perspective on topics like arts and fashion, exploring these fields in the virtual domain. 

    Magnet.blog appeals to younger, technology-driven people who care about staying on the cutting edge of topics like NFTs, the digital world, and evolving beauty standards.

    What Can We Learn?

    Magnet Quarterly successfully uses blogging as an extension of their brand. Having an online presence that gives readers a taste of who they are, allows magnet.blog to ignite interest in the physical publication and encourages people to subscribe to the magazine or for magazine readers to find them online. 

    Having a premium .blog domain name helps boost online branding as it shares the same name as the magazine.

     

    .blog Featured Site: exploratree.blog

    Kinsume is an influencer marketing platform with an environmental twist. Their passion for sustainable living is supported by a core business connecting influencers and marketers. Their blog, exploratree.blog is a resource for both audiences, sharing marketing expertise and industry trends while shining a light on important climate change issues.   

    Who is the Blog for, and What’s It About?

    Kinsume is a platform for businesses of all sizes to find ambassadors for their specific digital marketing needs. The success of both brand and ambassador is critical to Kinsume’s business. The informative content published on exploratree.blog targets both key audiences: influencers and marketers. How-to posts, lists, and tips for both groups help them get the most out of their relationships. 

    Simultaneously, the blog supports a climate-positive mission and its goal to plant 10 million trees per year. With content aimed at people interested in affiliate marketing and saving the planet, it’s a wonderful example of a blog with a focused and specific niche.

    What Makes It Special?

    Kinsume shows us that it’s possible to run a business and support a greater mission at the same time. They educate and advance the influencer marketing industry while positively impacting the planet through their pledge to plant one tree for every new subscriber. By connecting influencers with partner brands, they’ve planted over 10,000 trees already and don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. Read more about their mission and plant a tree yourself here.

    What Can We Learn?

    Exploratree.blog shows us how a business can use a blog to attract, engage with and support customers. The blog keeps readers engaged with visuals, tables of contents, and infographics, making it easy for marketers and affiliates to learn and browse. With tools like the Kinsume user guide, they show how a blog can serve to advance a company’s mission. 

    In addition to learning from the posts, readers know they’re helping the planet and feel empowered to make a difference in their own communities.