Poliblog Perspective

I was asked to design the “sidebar” buttons this year for people who are in the Top 100 lists for Iain Dale’s Guide to Political Blogging this year. Each button will link back to information about the book (this link will be “nofollowed” in code I supply).

Standard Buttons

The standard button will be like this (with versions for each “Top Blogs” list) :

Alternative Buttons with your Rank Number

The “alternative” design with your ranking number on it, like this:

Notes on the alternative design

1 - Yes I will be offering to create them for you with your ranking - I will ask for an optional link back to this blog in return.

2 - I will also be making the logos available in (Fireworks) .PNG format, with an editable space for the rank number. I’ll do other formats if they are needed and I am able.

3 - I was in 2 minds whether to include “Iain Dale” in the alternative logo:

Including the name implies that it is Iain’s process - which it is. This will inevitably lead to charges of:

“%^&*#@ Iain Dale using my blog for marketing himself”.

(which - given that it is his process - he is perfectly entitled to attempt).

Not including the name would imply that this is The ONLY list of Top Political Blogs - which it isn’t. This will inevitably lead to charges of:

“%^&*#@ Iain Dale wanting to define for everyone which blogs matter”.

Since he obviously can’t win either way, I’ve taken pity on the poor man and included it.

For consistency, if a blogger does not want to be associated with Iain Dale’s process, then he should not be interested in his rank anyway.

4 - This design is still slightly in flux. Fonts may change etc, and the “gobbets of political comment” spouting from the “talking mouth” will be properly lined up. Yes, the logo does represent a political blogger holding forth repeatedly; it seems quite appropriate.

5 - You will see that I have avoided any nonsense about “A-list”, “B-list” and “C-list” bloggers. That would make us sound like celebrities, and that would be degrading - a fate I would not even wish on politicians.

And a question

Should the text read “xxyy blog” or “xxyy blogs” in this case? I prefer “xxyy blogs” because the logos show rankings are within an overall set of blogs, rather than being to primarily about affiliation?

I’d like to know your views on this.

Disclosure and Pluggage

For clarity, I have not been paid for this. However, as a quid pro quo, Iain has supplied me with his blog database so that I can populate the Directory of UK Political Blogs I am building at www.poliblogs.co.uk .

This directory will include features such as:

• Basic data about each blog, including web address, description and political alignment of each blog.
• Geographical locations on a Google map
• The ability to rate and comment on blogs.

This blog (”Poliblog Perspective”) is a companion to the Political Blog Directory, and is concerned with the “Nuts and Bolts of Political Blogging”.

I am also looking for beta testers for the directory if you are interested - email me on “mattwardman AT gmail DOT com”.

The aim is to launch during September, but I may not quite make it.

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