rileycentral/mmol

Derek Semmler has a blog on, as he puts it: "money, motorcycles, and cars." This is somewhat of a niche. My brother-in-law would be drawn in immediately since these are three of his passions. Me? Not so much . . . but, there is much more to his blog so thankfully Derek gives a caveat by way of parenthesis stating "and a little bit of everything else." This is wise because then the reader (like me) who might not have high interest in the main thrust of the blog could still wonder what the "everything else" means inside. And there's some great stuff in there! Tech, geek, marketing, blog culture . . . and more.

So, there is a somewhat defined niche with an broad umbrella caveat leaving topics open for Derek to write on a variety of topics. I like this approach. Smart.

The content of Derek's site is well written and personal. It's as if he's talking to a good friend about the virtues of business, MMOL, life or any other sort of motorcycle/car talk. Derek shares regularly with his readers the tricks he has found in the blogging enterprise. His blog is monetized and he appears to be advanced in his ability to put ad code and tweaks on his blog. He's been writing a bit lately about long tail assessment of traffic. I am still beginning to get what this is about, so I keep reading and hoping I'll catch on. I think it has to do with those outlier tags that bring your blog up in new reader's browsers. He also covers well known issues such as whether to set your links to open a new window for your readers or to open new links in the same window. This post recently produced a very lively and interesting comment session on the blog, of which I was a part of. If it's on Derek's blog, you know it must be worthwhile blogger stuff.

Derek engages in "Speedlinking" in which he links some of his favorite blog stories or links and writes a blurb about them. I feel this is a great way to network with the blogs you enjoy and respect. If you get to know him, comment on his posts and write something pretty good, he may just speedlink you! It happened to me!

The aesthetics of Derek's site are somewhat minimal (which I am currently way into!) He has a nice image of a sports car (fitting) and a basic 2 column theme inferring that he is not about showy themes but rather content.

Derek's intended audience appears to be people like himself with similar interests or people in the blogging/MMOL field. He has a healthy community of commenters who interact with his interesting articles. If you share his interests, like his candid writing style, or if you would benefit by reading a blog about MMOL and business, then you visit Derek Semmler dot com! My favorite posts of his are the ones where he talks about what's going on in the everyday scheme of life. It's nice to see how worlds compare! I give his blog 5 out of 5 stars as a great place to spend your online time.