Dave BurGess's blog: teach like a pirate
When building up our own blog, it is always a great idea to check out other people's blog. On the one hand, we can appreciate other people's hard work; on the other hand, we can probably learn something useful from their blogs and thus apply them to our own.
Dave Burgess is the New York Times Best-Selling author of Teach like a Pirate. This is a very famous book that almost everyone at least knows about it. I just visited his blog and find interesting. Let's follow me and have an exploration in his blog!
To visit his blog, copy this website URL and paste it into your browser: daveburgess.com
Or simply click the button below:
Dave Burgess is the New York Times Best-Selling author of Teach like a Pirate. This is a very famous book that almost everyone at least knows about it. I just visited his blog and find interesting. Let's follow me and have an exploration in his blog!
To visit his blog, copy this website URL and paste it into your browser: daveburgess.com
Or simply click the button below:
When you enter his blog, you will find a big advertisement for his best selling book -- Teach
Iike a Pirate. There is a photo of him and his book. And at the very top, you can choose to subscribe to his newsletter. He is a famous figure, and he really does use his blog to advertise himself to get people to buy his book. Actually, he put his book on top of every page. So when you click on other pages, the first thing you will see is him and his book. Therefore, I learned that a blog can actually be a place that you can use to advertise yourself. Here is what it looks like:
Iike a Pirate. There is a photo of him and his book. And at the very top, you can choose to subscribe to his newsletter. He is a famous figure, and he really does use his blog to advertise himself to get people to buy his book. Actually, he put his book on top of every page. So when you click on other pages, the first thing you will see is him and his book. Therefore, I learned that a blog can actually be a place that you can use to advertise yourself. Here is what it looks like:
As you can see above, he has some social buttons on top of each of his article. When you click on them, you can share the article to your social media. Therefore, it is very convenient for readers to share his blog on facebook, twitter etc. You can read through all his articles from his homepage. Actually, all his blog articles are located on his homepage.
There is one thing worth mentioning, he doesn't have sub-pages. All he has for his blog are: Blog, About Dave, Book, Speaking, Contact, Products, Treasure, Pirate Books and Photos. When you move your mouse on those buttons, no sub-pages will drop off. And when you click on them, it goes directly in that page. I actually find it very simple and clear. Because when I was reading some other blogs that Professor Kuhn provided to us, I usually find them very complicated to navigate because there are a lot of sub-pages and they didn't clarify them clearly. So, in my opinion, it is good to have sub-pages, but it is better that you organize them well and make it clear, so it won't be confusing when your readers are trying to navigate or trying to find stuff that they want from your blog.
Now, let's see what Dave's got in his other pages.
When you click "About Dave", you will see an introduction about who he is.
It is a very traditional About page -- a photo and texts introducing his basic information. I think how he put sub titles and make them bold to make his introduction more organized. And he states his teaching philosophy here as well.
Next one: Book. Basically, this is a specific page that introduce his best selling book -- Teach Like a Pirate. There is a brief introduce about what you Weill read about in this book. And there are two links that lead you to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, where you can purchase his book there. Again, he makes a good use of his blog to get people to buy his book. What a brilliant idea! Below is an image from the "Book" page.
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In addition, I like how he has a "Leave a Reply" section on every page. It enable readers to leave some comments and thoughts, which is a great platform for communicating with each other. You can put your name, email and your website there. Blog is a place for exchanging opinions and learning, I think I should build up a section like this in my blog too. Here's what it looks like, and you can see people actually commented on it, which is awesome:
In addition, I like how he has a "Leave a Reply" section on every page. It enable readers to leave some comments and thoughts, which is a great platform for communicating with each other. You can put your name, email and your website there. Blog is a place for exchanging opinions and learning, I think I should build up a section like this in my blog too. Here's what it looks like, and you can see people actually commented on it, which is awesome:
On his Speaking page, I think it is just a summary about his central topic of speaking. He must be giving speech a lot, and people will have a general idea about his education philosophy after reading this page, and probably will figure out like:"Oh, so this is what he's been speaking during his speech." If you are interested in what he's been talking about through his speech, you can go and check it out!
Next, his contact page. Basically you can leave your name, email, and comment here. I am know if he will really contact you, probably you can have a try!
Because of his best selling book, he makes some side products like shirts and hoodies. Again, he makes a good use of his blog to promotes all his products. You can buy his book here, and you can even buy some shirts and hoodies here:
Next one, Treasure page. This page is actually mysterious and I don't know what's going on. But I think it is kind of interesting because you will need to enter a password to be able to view it. I guess it is also some idea from his best selling book, like you are like a pirate, and you can find some treasure in his blog...
I think I like his Private Books page the best. Here, you can find some other similar books just like his best selling book. They are all about education and I think introducing outside resources in your blog is a pretty good idea. It makes you seem more open-minded, and people can actually find something else useful besides you. Because blog is not necessary all about you, you and you. Sometimes, including other people's stuff is a good idea too. Here is a screenshot of some other two books that Dave recommended on this page:
Last but not least, the last page is Photos. There are actually just a few photos there, which indicates that this page is just existing, not the main point of his blog. But it is always good to have it because it seems like everybody has it:
Overall, I think the biggest feature of his blog is that, he doesn't have sub-pages. And I actually like it. The function of his blog is more like advertising his book. Also presenting his education philosophy. Last but not least, you can really express your thoughts here by entering your name and email, and then leave comments, which I find really inspiring. And if you like Dave Burgess, you can go to his blog and explore some other authors just like him!
Finally, these are Dave Burgees's social media. If you are interested in him, you can go and check them out! Just simply click on the buttons below and you will be able to view them in new windows: