Is a blog that has blown up. I actually stumbled across the blog on Yahoo news a couple months back. It's based on a father who decided to dress up in crazy costumes and stand in front of his house waving at his son who got on the school bus. His son at the time was a sophomore in high school and it was his first time riding the bus. The father never repeated a costume and did it for every single day of school his son had. The father also lost one of his legs in 1992 and he used that to his advantage in many of the costumes. For instance, he was a pirate with a parrot on his shoulder and had a peg leg.
In the midst of embarrassing his son he decided to start a blog as well. He documented his costume for the day along with a little story. Before he knew it he started receiving attention from media outlets and appeared in their local newspaper and then the local TV news. He's continued to grow with his blog and is now making money from something that was just supposed to be light hearted fun with his family.
The blog is wrote by him and updated often. He includes pictures, videos and occasionally links to other pages. He's reaped some success from his blog however the blog could still use some improvements.
For starters, he simply made a mistake in a recent post that needs to be fixed. Take a look.
As you can see two photos and some words have shifted to the right side of the page and actually run off of the page. A mistake like this is a simple mistake and one that shouldn't be made. It can easily be fixed and the posting shouldn't even be posted without proof reading.
The site has advertising and that is expected with the site having over 7 million hits. I like that the page hits is listed, I've always been a fan of this feature. I understand the yellow and black color scheme as it goes with a yellow school bus theme. With that said, I'm not a fan of the color scheme the way that it is. I also feel that the layout could be improved. When a blog starts making money and has ad listings I believe it's important to invest a little money to improve the overall quality of the site.
The blog does link to his Facebook page and it also features his Youtube video about the "Wave At The Bus" inside story. These are great features and helps him attract more attention to his blog. The Youtube video helps explain more about the blog to new visitors. It's a couple minutes long though and because of that I would still like to see a brief "About Me" section. New comers to the site are seeking clarity and an "About Me" section could provide just that.
Probably my favorite feature on the site is the link to the "Wave At The Bus" phone app. This is a key feature allowing millions of people to easily access his blog with the touch of a button on their phone.
The blog is a mix of personal and business. The blogs original intention was to be a purely personal-public blog. Now that the blog is producing money it's a mixture of a personal and business blog. Because there are ads on the site the writer must be semi-aware of what he says in that he doesn't offend any advertisers. Due to the nature of the blog that's probably not a big concern but it's still one to be aware of.
Overall, it's a fun blog to follow. The content is there and it's updated regularly. The dialogue is broken up with pictures and video and can almost always provide the reader with a laugh. The biggest question the blog is facing is, where do they go from here? Does the father/writer continue to dress up in crazy costumes or does he change it up. It will be interesting to see how the blog evolves.
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