-Basic layout: The basic layout of this site is organized in a single, central column containing both artwork and text. Buttons to other areas of the site are shown on either side, and along the top.
-About page: This site does not feature an about page, but does have a small text box on the home page detailing the fact that the author is a 23 year old graphic designer.
-Advertisements: This site features no advertisements.
-Links: The only links to other sites featured on this blog are to third party sites where the owner would sell his artwork, showing that a secondary purpose of this site was to sell the artwork that the owner would display.
-Readership: This blog pays homage to classic horror movies through the use of art and animation. While it is currently "dead" the popularity it received and the fact that it shows up very early in a google search shows the utilization of art can draw in a crowd. It contains a link to a twitter page for the site, and sported around 20 average comments per post, showing that it was still quite popular. I would expect this blog to draw in both horror buffs and art lovers alike.
The Horror Club
-Basic layout: The basic layout of this site featured the most recently reviewed movies along a banner on the top of the screen, while below displays their various content in a single column along the left of the screen. To the right are the various buttons and “hot posts” that take one to other areas of the site.
-About page: This site also lacked an about page, but appears to be run by a group of various movie critics, all placing their own reviews and content on the site.
-Advertisements: the advertisements displace on this site were rather few and far between, and the ones that were there remained horror themed, therefor avoiding ruining the immersion for the reader.
-Links: The most abundant links on this site were to take the reader to areas where they could find more information about the various movies they reviewed, showing that perhaps the larger goal of the site is to simply help their readers to find and experience these movies on their own.
-Readership: this next site is a simple movie review site, posting reviews of movies from the well-known to the obscure. The site has a particularly large following from all around the world, with visitors from over 224 different countries. The site also contains links to twitter, Facebook and various other social media sites. While far more active in the past, however, the site seems to be in a rather slow patch, as there have been no comments at all on their more recent posts.
Horrors Not dead
-Basic layout: Much like the last site visited, this site featured the most recently reviewed movies along a banner on the top of the screen, while below displays their various content in a single column along the left of the screen. To the right are the various buttons that take one to other areas of the site.
-About page: The closest thing to an about page on this site was a “staff” page, where someone named “Brian Jalbert” advertised that they were working on a film called house guest.
-Advertisements: The advertisements on this site took the form of banner ads along the top with all the various spam and “personalized advertisements” you can find on almost any site, telling nothing about the author or readership.
-Links: Aside from linking to social media, the only links on this site are to other horror blogs, which seems to be for the purpose of creating some kind of horror blogger community, but this appears to have not helped readership.
-Readership: This site shows how a horror movie reviewer drew in his own crowd. With an archive of movie reviews containing movies released back in the 60's, it’s very likely that this site drew in its own following through containing reviews of classic movies that many reviewers would most likely overlook. Along with its Facebook and twitter link, this site seems set for a much larger community than it currently has, and has been very slow activity wise, with little to no comments as well.
Horror Blogger Alliance
-Basic layout: again following the example of the previous two sites, this site featured their various content in a single column along the left of the screen. To the right are the various buttons that take one to other areas of the site. In addition they also provided a pageveiw tracker, showing the overall popularity of the blog itself.
-About page: The information page on this blog provides information regarding the alliance itself as well as how one could join.
-Advertisements: this site features very few advertisements for tee-shirts and the like, as it appears to run mainly on donations alone, showing great faith in its readership.
-Links: aside from the general social media links, the site mainly links to up and coming horror writers to help them get a boost in viewership, which seems to be the larger goal of the site.
-Readership: This blog had a very different approach that I had never seen before. The horror blogger alliance group, while also providing their own reviews of horror movies and media, mainly deal in promoting and reviewing OTHER horror blogs. This niche has made them very popular among the horror community, with almost 400,000 total page views and counting. Another big draw may be that the "alliance" is open to any and all comers, drawing in a large group of other bloggers as well. They also seem to have a strong social media presence on Facebook and twitter.
Little blog of Horrors
-Basic layout: The layout of this site is organized with the main blog posts situated in the center, video links to the right, and a large number of ads completely taking the right of the screen, as well as some kind of large, while column to the very left, showing very poor organization.
-About page: Again this site offers no about page, instead having multiple areas where one can input their own information into the “contact me” areas.
-Advertisements: this site contains a very large amount of advertisements, which are often distracting to the actual content as they take up most of the right of the screen.
-Links: This sites mainly sports links to YouTube videos advertising various horror movies and games, showing what looks like to me an overall goal of obtaining as much ad revenue as possible.
-Readership: This site blog is a clear example of the pitfalls one can step into when creating a blog. While the site still boasts over 12000 followers, it’s most likely a safe guess that many simply forgot to stop following the blog. With its last post in September of last year, a site that’s somehow too short to be shown on a normal browser, ugly and nearly unreadable design, this site clearly shows that even if people enjoy your content enough to the point of overlooking the look of your site, inactivity can still easily kill your blog.
Horror Writers Association
-Basic layout: This site uses a single column on the left of the site, with information, buttons, and social media links to the right, for a clean and smooth design that is appealing to the eyes.
-About page: The about page of this blog gives information on the actual organization itself and its purpose, as well as directing to other areas of the site which would direct readers on how to join the association themselves.
-Advertisements: This site features no advertisements at all, seeming to rely entirely on reader donations, which seem to be enough as the site is still incredibly active.
-Links: aside from the main social media links, the site offers links to informational pages about various horror themed events, other horror writers and blogs, and even horror themed poetry, all keeping in line with the theme and offering a very streamlined network.
-Readership: This site maintains its own little niche by focusing on the "meta" of the horror genre. That is to say that it more focuses on the people behind the scares, interviewing horror writers and encouraging the public to take a deeper delve into the genre. Judging from the Facebook activity and the recent postings on the site, this is a goal they seem to be achieving, as the average horror fan seems just as interested in the people as they are in the monsters.
Anything Horror
-Basic layout: the layout of this site is a simple single column of content to the left of the screen with various ads and contact forms to the right. While still having a nice look, the site also lacks a general homepage, which can make navigation a bit frustrating.
-About page: The about page for this site does not actually offer information on the author himself, simply information about the blog as well as photos of the author with various famous horror stars and directors.
-Advertisements: The advertisements on this page take up the bottom of the left column of the site, advertising seemingly anything that will pay for ad space. The result is a jumbled mess of different ads that have nothing to do with the content presented, ruining a bit of the immersion.
-Links: surprisingly, this site seems to offer next to no links at all, aside from the default “powered by WordPress” along the bottom. This shows that perhaps the author wanted his site to, in a sense, stand on its own, without the need for a social media network.
-Readership: This blog perhaps takes the opposite approach to some of those listed above. Anything horror maintains itself by not just reviewing movies or talking about horror celebrities, but covering anything and everything. As its name suggests, the blog covers a wide variety of topics, which could lead to a draw of the many different types of horror fans. From those who love gaming to those who just like a good book, this site seems to be able to draw in anyone who enjoys the horror genre in any of its forms. The sites regular updates seem to indicate it is still doing well for itself, with or without a social media presence.
Terror Threads
-Basic Layout: Like much of the other Sites I researched, this site organized itself with the important links and navigation on top (as most sites tend to do) and the actual content organized into a single column of multimedia along the left. To the right of said column was buttons linking to various other areas and archives.
-About page: The about us page, accessed from a link at the bottom of the site, leads to a page detailing the owners; a man named rick and his wife Olivia, and details their passion about the horror industry, as well as how thrilled they are to be delving into it with their blog.
-Advertisements: While not having advertisements in the traditional sense, half the site is dedicated to the selling of its own merchandise, with links for things like clothing, collectables and the like. As this merchandise all remains on the topic of horror it tends to not break the immersion of the reader, thus having its place on the site.
-Links: As much of the main blog site deals in the happenings of the horror industry, many of the posts themselves contain links to the topics at hand, like the Texas chainsaw massacre page for example, or pages for new, horror themed Netflix series.
-Readership: This site has found its own little space in the horror community by focusing on news in the actual industry itself. While they don't list their number of followers or members, the site does make sure to have a secondary source of revenue, as while the main site focuses on the news, a majority of the site is also dedicated to selling merchandise, and it’s easy to assume that the extra income will most definitely help the blog stay active and afloat. Judging from the fact that the site is still going strong, I feel it’s safe to say that it has managed to find a following with both general horror fans as well as various collectors who would take an interest in their merchandise.
Mystery and Horror, LLC
-Basic layout: This blog follows the common organizational layout of having the main content organized into a single column on the left while having links to archives and the like on the right.
-About page: The about page reveals that the site and blog is run by a dedicated staff, and explains the origins of the site. It then goes into further detail about the staff members, explaining their various passions for both the mystery and horror genres.
-Advertisements: This blog does not feature third party advertisements, but does offer books written by some of the staff members for sale in the products navigational tab. As the theme of the blog and the genre of the books matches, this seems like a good idea to help generate revenue, as well as share their work with their readers.
-Links: Aside from the usual social media links (which they list along the top of the site) a few links can be found around the site leading to their various listings for their books on amazon, to their page with the Florida authors and publishers association, which they link on their about page.
-Readership: This blog that took its own interesting idea in the form of mixing genres. While it limits itself by focusing mainly on writing, the blog still had potential, as the merging of horror and mystery is a classic one. Unfortunately, judging by the lack of comments on any and all posts on the front page of the site, it appears that many people on the net continue to slip further and further away from the simple printed word. While the Facebook page for the blog may be a bit stronger, sporting 723 likes, it still appears to me that focusing on an older medium like physical books may be a bad idea.
Peter Labrow: the musings of a horror fiction writer
-Basic layout: Again this blog follows the common organizational layout of having the main content organized into a single column on the left. To the right one can find links to archives, various posts and the like, while along the top of the site one will find the navigational buttons. -About page: The about page for this blog details the career of Peter Labrow, an advertiser and non-fiction writer who admits he is new to the world of writing fiction. While he explains his passion for writing horror fiction has always existed, he also plugs one of his older books very often, which makes it appear to me as though he is attempting to bank off of his older success in an attempt to find a following. -Advertisements: The only advertisements featured on the site are for Peter’s own books, again reinforcing the idea that he might be trying to gain his following through past works rather than the quality of the blog itself. -Links: While he does share a link to his twitter page, it appears a majority of the actual links I was able to find were for buying his book on kindle or other such services. While he does talk about current works by writers such as Stephen King, he fails to provide any actual link to the books he reviews. -Readership: This blog is an interesting case to say the least. While Labrow admits he is relatively new to the world of writing horror fiction, he claims he is no slouch in the world of professional writing. With this knowledge under his belt his blog as taken on a mixed focus of horror story reviews and an analysis of the horror genre itself, such as comparing movies to the corresponding book and such. The blog currently lacks a following, and while it seems that this could be contributed to how “new” Peter claims to be to all of this, looking a bit deeper reveals that the blog is AT LEAST six years old, and hasn’t posted in nearly two years, showing that Peter may have simply not known what he was doing, and has since given up.