News aggregator blogs

Types of Blogs

Imagine getting a carefully curated set of links to recent news about a topic that interests you, every week.

This type of blog benefits from a tight focus, knowledge of the subject, and regular periodic publication.

The News Beat

To attract readers, a news aggregator (or news roundup) needs a focus that is super clear.

If you follow the News of the Week in Film, you might not care to see links there about crockpot recipes.

So if you are considering this format, ask yourself: what is your news beat?

And also, do you have the capacity (time, knowledge, passion) to cover it comprehensively, and regularly?

Your goal is to provide your readers with the best stories of the week (or other period) within your subject area. Don't bite off more than you can chew.

On the other hand, if you already follow your topic online every day, you are more than halfway there. Just share what you know.

Finding Your Niche

A good example of a news aggregator blog is the weekly update at Peggy K's Tips and Tricks.

Peggy's "beat" is, broadly, online media, with an emphasis on Google and, especially, YouTube.

Peggy also posts her own reports on these topics outside of the framework of the weekly updates, but the updates are the backbone of her blog.

Tech lends itself well to the news-aggregator format, but in principle a knowledgeable person could curate such a blog on any topic with enough news to report regularly.

Imagine a blog about developments in archaeology called "What's New in Ancient History."

Considerations

News is like fresh fish; it has a short shelf life.

Few will be interested in reading last year's reports (or last week's).

Accordingly, the organization of such a blog is simple. A clear mission statement on an "About" page is helpful, and you will want to feature subscription and sharing gadgets prominently.

If you add other content that is more evergreen, you can link to it as appropriate from your news posts, and feature it on static pages or dynamic label-search pages.

A tabbed navigational widget can be a good way to make that available to readers.

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