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WRevenue.com – Web Business With Scott Wainner

It’s not often that you get to review a fellow blog, let alone a blog about online entrepreneurship and business. That’s why I snatched up the review of NorthxEast and was eager to complete this review that Scott Wainner ordered up.

The blog in question is called WRevenue – a name which highlights Scott’s last initial, and is also a clever play on words which sounds like “Double Your Revenue” if you say it right – something which has also been emphasised in the tagline.

So, this dude if offering to double my website’s revenue? This seems like an outrageous claim, until you checkout the official About page of the blog and read the short bio on Scott’s entrepreneurial journey so far. Here’s a short quote:

“In 1994 I started a computer hardware reviews site called SysOpt.com in high school and by 1997 (Freshman in college) I was earning $100,000/year from banner ads. In 1998 I launched a second site, ResellerRatings.com. I continued operating the sites until 1999, when a company called Andover made an offer to buy them. A second company, EarthWeb, got into a bidding war with Andover and eventually bought the sites for several million dollars…”

Wow, so you can already see that you’ll be learning from an experienced guru in the online business niche. I just wish that I had started online way back in ’94 (although I would have only been 4 years old then). Think of the amazing domain names you could have purchased. In the end, due to the Dot Com Bubble Burst, Scott managed to buy back ResellerRatings from the original purchaser at a fraction of the cost, and convert it into a money maker again – a sign of a true entrepreneur.

Above is a screenshot of WRevenue.com’s homepage. It seems to be a custom-coded template installed on WordPress and looks very clean and stylish. The colours blue and black are soothing to the eye and the picture of Scott in the header is a very good marketing tactic – this will ensure that people instantly recognise Mr Wainner, and he gets to connect with his audience immediately and provides a sense of authority and a personality behind the blog.

Credibility

Another thing that adds instant credibility, is the fact that Scott has a Feedburner widget which shows how many subscribers he has. At the time of writing, this figure stands at nearly 400, which is an absolutely phenomenal increase since the 28th September when the blog was started.

This of course, would be mainly due to the high-profile interviews Scott has ordered up on the likes of TylerCruz and JohnChow, again helping to increase branding opportunities – a must for any new blog, even if you don’t pay for it.

The Design

There are a few issues which I would like to bring up in terms of the design aspect of WRevenue. Firstly, in the header, there are 4 other images besides the photo of Scott which show various aspects of his life (cycling, piloting and internet business). These appear to be hyperlinked but don’t lead anywhere – so either linking them up to bigger versions of the pictures or removing the links altogether would be best.

Also, a fact which Tyler mentioned, would be to reduce the size of the sidebar, especially as we can see that the Categories and Blogroll section only take up a narrow amount of space. The Meta area also needs removing – as it is unnecessary and is maybe a security issue, although I’m not sure of the technical details on that one.

In the content area, the big title draws the eye in and encourages you to read what Scott has to offer which is another plus point. However, an instant negative blotch on the record is the fact that Scott has already Adsensed his blog. This is understandable for new site owners, but I’m sure Scott isn’t looking for a quick buck here (and I’m sure he doesn’t need it either).

In my opinion, removing the Adsense would help get rid of the ugly visual ads, and from a potential subscriber’s view, would make sure that you don’t appear to be selling yourself short or for too small a price. With an RSS base of 400 odd subscribers, I’m sure he could get a lot more money than the couple of dollars a month he brings in with Adsense – but I could be wrong.

Finally, at the end of each post are links which show the “Popularity” of each article, and another link which says “Read more”. The Popularity plugin by Alex King is used very well in the header where the most Popular posts are found – as this encourages further reading and digging down into the Archives – by both readers and Search Engines.

However in my opinion, I don’t think these are necessary for each post, as it may devalue a certain post if all your others are particularly popular. As for the “Read more”, it seems to be a useless link. What I would prefer as a reader, would be to have a link taking me to the Comments section so I can air my views about the comments.

The Content

One of the best things about Scott’s site is the level of depth he gives for each post, and for the real-life examples he gives in each one. Instead of explaining each and everyone, I’ll just link out to my personal favourites:

  • Don’t Strive To Be Rich
  • 10 Steps To A 7 Figure Income From Your Site
  • Ten Business Boosting Quick Tips For Site Owners
  • Make More Money With Google Adsense in Forums

To Conclude…

Scott definitely seems to know what he’s talking about, and has created a lot of preeminence in the blogosphere. Whilst there are a few things in terms of design that could be worked on, his content is great and I’m not surprised he’s built such a large readership in such a small space of time.

I’ve subscribed to his RSS feed as I don’t want to miss any insider secrets from a successful internet entrepreneur, and would encourage you to do the same. I’m sure we’re all going to be hearing a lot about Mr Wainner in the near future. Good luck Scott!

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