There are several great bloggers out there that do a fabulous job on their blogs with writing great content and inspiring readers. As a way to celebrate and highlight successful bloggers that inspire others to dare to dream, I am starting an Inspiring Blog Highlight Series. As a blogger, I understand the dedication and commitment that it takes to run a blog. I am always amazed and in awe of professional bloggers that have made a concerted effort to blog full time and do a fantastic job. In an effort of full disclosure this blog highlight area is subjective. Things such as style, traffic, content, design and overall reader interaction. Success is very subjective. What it may mean to one person, it may not mean to another. The bloggers featured in this section have earned a distinction of being successful at integrating a user friendly blog with great content that is helpful to readers and that inspire other bloggers to take the leap and join in. I hope that you enjoy looking at and congratulating the success and efforts of the bloggers highlighted in these pages. Another thing that I must mention is that several of the bloggers featured use the WordPress blogging platform. I personally feel that WordPress is one of the best blogging platforms out there and it is super easy to use. There are other blogging platforms that exist, however, this happens to be my favorite platform of choice.
One of my favorite blogs to read is Hooked on Houses. Given the name, it is not hard to understand what the subject matter of this blog is about. The Hooked On Houses blog is a creation by the writing genius Julia that was started in 2008. The blog is extremely successful throughout the world because of the subject matter on famous houses that we have all come to know and love. Julia does a great job featuring TV homes and Movie homes that help make a series or scene work. Her writing style is exceptional and reader friendly, she always makes the readers come back for more.
When you look at the Hooked on Houses Blog, you can’t help but love the user interface and the ease of use to navigate the blog to topics of interest. This in part is because Hooked on Houses is using WordPress as a blogging platform. The design team did a fabulous job customizing the colors and User navigation of the WordPress theme. One of the first things that made me smile when I started following the blog, was the use of the Genesis Theme Framework. If you know anything about WordPress you will know that Genesis is a leading theme framework by the Studiopress team. Full disclosure, I use the Genesis Theme Framework in several blogs for over 8 years, therefore, I am happy that this is used by one of my favorite bloggers.
When you are looking for a successful blogger using the WordPress platform that has massive traffic and user interaction, look no further than Julia and her team. According to Alexa traffic stats: Hooked on Houses is hugely popular globally with a global traffic ranking of 85,394. The traffic ranking in the United States is equally as impressive with Alexa ranking of 20,407. Of course this is not the be all and end oall measure of success, but it does help you understand why someone would want to partner with Julia on a project to reach her readers. There is no denying that Julia’s content reigns supreme. If you are not familiar with Alexa traffic rankings, try and under