While we've written no shortage of articles about flogs, one thing we haven't done is taken a more in depth look at what makes a flog a flog. Their success has taken almost everyone by surprise, and in a what's old is new way, we've seen them emerge alongside their Advertising 1.0 cousin, the review site. Like blogs on which they are based, the flog is personal. It doesn't shout - corporation - and it doesn't immediately shout - advertisement, even though it does focus heavily on products. Those who have written blogs using Typepad, Blogger, or Wordpress, will recognize the layout as a standard two column approach, one that allows for a large space of content and a smaller section, generally off the right, for the author information, subscription options, links to other sites, along with archives, recent posts, and other database driven links meant to make reading other posts easier. The flogs follow some of this, but they are only one post, designed to look more robust than they are - the ultimate jump page which will only improve over time. Spotting one in the current form is generally pretty obvious when you know what to look for. Whether your interest lies in building one or just knowing how to spot one, here's what we have identified as the most shared components. We haven't included some of the newer trends, like FAQ's, just the goodies.
Title
Straightforward, it sets the tone for the site ahead. Here are two of the more heavily advertised. One is more stylized and gives the title and the description along with the not often used "Last Updated."
About Me
One of the more important and common elements is the about. It's almost always located off to the right as the first element in the right hand column. You generally won't find professional photos but ones designed to tell the story of the author in words. It's the chance to get to know the person who shares your pain and help you convince you that you need to do the same. Some of the more clever, actually use IP address mapping so that their location matches yours. We will just have to ignore how so many of the about pictures seem to be the same image on multiple blogs from different people.
Before and After
Arguably the most important piece, here you get to see the results. The diet flogs invented the form and the first pictures they show in the main content are the results. Nothing like seeing what might happen to you to get you reading further. Some of the more creative will show more graphic images of large stomachs to add to the authenticity. If it's a financially related flog, you see the fruits of their labors - a check that proves the money they mention must be real. Below we have Jenny, who is the largest of the display advertisers and as such has a more polished looking site to get the distribution.
Steps
People like lists. They make life simple. We make them for going to the store, for other to do's, and especially for instructions. The flog is no different. A key component is emphasizing what you need to do. On the right hand side, they tend to summarize what you need to do. The body of the content is dedicated to describing each in detail, showing ancillary documents and additional pictures, and in general creating the story behind how they came to the solution that "worked." Economically, most flogs try to promote two high CPA offers. Not all do, but it's definitely the trend.
Media Mentions
Rivaling the before and after section are the media mentions. The diet flogs have exploited this to no end. The products themselves have not appeared on the media, certainly not Oprah, but the ingredients and/or procedures have. If anyone has ever mentioned the benefits of Acai for example, you will find a site discussing how it was featured there. As users, people want to so much to believe that while the sites don't actually lie, i.e. saying the product was there, the user naturally connects the dots from Acai as featured and this particular Acai product.
Comments
No blog would be complete with out comments, and each of these has them in spades. Kudos to the site creators, they try and make them look real, as though they are part of the dialog. More often than not, though, if you try to add to the end, it won't show, or the site has made a statement that they are closed.
Subscription
The more ambitious ones also include mechanisms for signing up. Alas, or perhaps fortunately, you won't actually get to subscribe. From email address submits that go nowhere to non-clickable images of popular blog readers, perhaps my favorite is this one:
But when you want to join the almost 30k strong...
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