Overview

I feel it is only fair to say out front that I am a fan of One Man’s Goal. I don’t remember how I happened upon it, but it was and still is one of a select half dozen blogs I check back on several times a day. The motivation behind the One Man’s is as old as man. To find fulfillment and purpose in ones work. Bryan realizes something that I and many others have known for a long time. Working for someone else and getting ground under the proverbial millstone will not produce contentment and happiness. His answer if all goes well is his blog, or at least the roadmap to his goal will be in his blog.

A quick note since someone is sure to ask What is the goal? Basically the goal is for Bryan to take his almost non-existent internet skills and turn himself into a self-made, self-sustaining ecommerce success story.

The Good

When I started to actually do a little research on One Man’s Goal I noticed that Bryan has been very open and honest from the beginning about who he is and his motivation for setting this goal. I didn’t count each and every day but from what I can tell he missed only one day, but rather than just ignoring it he actually went through the trouble of posting twice in one day to make up for it. This shows his dedication to reaching his goal.

Bryan is very personable in his blogging. As I read it I get a sense of him sitting across the room from me talking to me and telling me about his life, how things are going. The personal touch that we so often miss in the online world. Overall the blog has been relatively well written since day one (6/28/07), but on 7/1/07 he really kicked it into gear with his Adsense 101 entry. That’s really where the blog seemed to turn a corner and actually start moving towards his goal rather than just talking about it. Each day since then it has grown in quality. Some days are better than others, but in general the trend has been moving in an upward fashion.

Finally I like the fact that the blog is interactive. No, I don’t mean that we can leave comments. That’s pretty much the norm for most blogs. When I say interactive I mean that Bryan asks for his readers to participate, and give input. When he needs help or an opinion he asks for it. One example would be getting his domain name. The man even goes so far as to place a link to his Myspace profile page. A profile which is likely designed specifically for the purpose of supporting this goal, but still it provides us as readers of his blog one more avenue to interact with him.

The Bad

As much as I enjoy the blog I find a few things to be wrong with it. Keep in mind with this and any other review I am not a blogging expert. My goal is not to tell anyone how to improve their blog or how to properly monetize it as much as it is to give some reasons why I don’t find certain aspects of it appealing. There are plenty of people more suited than I to help people with their blogs.

The Concern: Desperation – This isn’t so much a problem at this point, but when it was first started the blog reeked of desperation. Bryan had been let go from his job as a bartender and seemed to be floundering trying to figure out a way to support himself. His writing almost felt like he was pan handling to the readers. At this point it has turned 180 degrees from that, but I can’t help but wonder how many potential viewers did he lose simply because of the tone he set. Had I found his blog at the beginning I doubt I would have kept reading it.

The Concern: Clutter on the right side – There are a lot of ads, links, and graphics on the right hand side of the page. It may just be me, but I find my eyes are constantly drawn over there while I’m trying to read his posts. I realize part of the goal is to monetize the blog, but personally I feel that if I’m being distracted from the content by the ads there is something wrong. My suggestion would be to look at all the things on the right hand side and decide if you really need it there. I’m talking about more than the ads. Is there a reason for that long Blogroll, or could it suffice with say 5 links to relevant sites? How about the latest commensts section? Does it add anything to the site? I realize it provides convience, but at what price?

The Concern: Posts are cut off – In the world of Websites one thing I’ve always been told is to keep the links to a minimum when it comes to one topic. In other words rather than making people click a bunch of links to reach the end result assume that they are to lazy to do so and don’t force them. In this case the end result is to read the blog posting which in turn builds rapport and trust which will hopefully lead to a sale or a click through. My advise on this matter is to not cut the blog enteries off, but leave them full length on the page. Perhaps make it so only 5 or 6 show up per page, but don’t force the reader to have to click through to reach the end of the posting.

The Concern: Lots of advertising – I realize the goal of this blog is to generate a living. I can’t help but wonder if it isn’t a bit to young to be using it for advertising space as aggressively as he is. The blog is barely a month old and he is marketing advertising space on it. The rates are really reasonable, but does he really have the viewers to justify squeezing out those few dollars at this point? My suggestion is to rethink the amount of advertising on the site. I mentioned before how personable the site is and how it makes it that much better. To much advertising makes it feel commericalized instead of personable. I can only speak for myself but you best believe I will spend money with the personable store long before I will spend it in the Wal-Mart chain stores.

The Conclusion

As I discolosed before I really like this blog. I believe it has all the potential in the world. The concept is pretty neat, a daily look into his economic life and a roadmap for others to follow (or avoid as the case may be). Even if he doesn’t succeed in the sense of the blog itself generating revenue I’m convinced he will succeed at his one year goal for the simple fact that he will have learned something and more importantly than that he will have shared his knowledge and wisdom with everyone else who cares to listen.

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