Simple Stated Blog

The Real Simple blog.

Real Simple has a very active blog presence. Their blog Simply Stated. is updated frequently. It looks like it takes a break on the weekends, but posts are constantly being put up on the site everyday. Usually there are multiple posts in one day. I think it's interesting that the blog goes dead on the weekends though. I'm not sure what the statistics are on the weekend traffic to their blog, but it seems like a big risk to only maintain it Monday-Friday. However, no where on the site does it say it is a daily blog, so maybe they only want it to be a weekday stopping point. 

The posts are spread out at different times throughout the day. This gives readers an incentive to come back and visit the blog more than once a day. It looks like posts will go out as early as 8 a.m. to as late as 7 p.m. I'm sure what the strategy is behind the times, but it works because nothing is going up within minutes of something else. 

Something that  I like about their blog is that when an editor makes a blog post their picture is right next to the title of the post. This brings a human aspect to the blogger. I think seeing the picture of the person who is blogging makes the reader feel more connected to the subject matter and shows that even in the far-off land of New York City that real people are still writing these blog posts and that they still do exist. 

One of the down-falls of the blog is that is doesn't seem like it's promoted enough. I had no idea it was a blog until I clicked on it. On the homepage of Real Simple there is spot where it lives. It only says "Simple Stated. : Daily Tips from our Editors and Experts." I would have been more inclined to click on the link earlier had I known that it was a blog. They should consider making that more clear on the homepage somehow. If they included it in the masthead of the blog title on the homepage, instead of the "Daily Tips from our Editors and Experts" I think it would be much more clear that it's a blog and not just another area on the site that offers daily tips like the "Daily Finds."

 

What the blog looks like on the homepage of Real Simple.