Blog Critique: Pintester

One of my all time favorite blogs is Pintester.com, written by Sonja Foust.

Sonja finds ideas on Pinterest and tests them. Hence the name "pin" + "tester".  Pinterest is on online equivalent to pulling pages from a magazine that might have recipes, fashion, craft ideas, etcetera. and saving them to try later. Sonja finds pins that are generally highly re-pinned (saved by many), tries them out, and blogs about them. Not many are overly successful; most are usually failures.  She uses ordinary, sometimes profane - well maybe often profane, language along with photos to describe how she was able to recreate the pin with her own results, which are usually genuinely hilarious.

Sonja does an excellent job at identifying her audience and writing in such a manner that would appeal to that audience. When Pinterest was very new, she realized that it was a fantastic tool, but at the same time people see a lot of ideas there that simply do have the same results when attempted by an amateur. She is endeared to her audience, because she is not afraid to poke humor at herself and isn't shy about potty humor. Let's face it, no matter how old and mature we become, potty humor is still pretty funny. She portrays herself as an ordinary person without any special skills trying out these pins that we are all pinning, but generally do not find the time to execute. She saves everyone else the hassle, by showing us that even if we had the time to try these pins, it really wouldn't be worth it anyhow.  If there is a pin that goes well for her, then we know that ANYONE can succeed with that particular recipe, project, or nail polish idea.

Pintester.com mixes both written media and video. I think this makes her blog a bit more interesting as the videos give a deeper appreciation of who she as a person and really brings her to life as an online personality. Some of her best blogs are the "Cock-nails" videos, which combine a cocktail recipe and a nail polish technique. The drinking generally has a negative effect on the nail polishing, but funny nonetheless.

Sonja, the Pin Tester, really nails it when it comes to form, function, and substances. She keeps her blog on topic. All posts are related to testing pins. She engages her readers and encourages comments on her posts, which makes her even more "real" by adding the element of interaction with her readers. The function of her blog is very helpful to learn which pins to avoid as they simply will not end well. The substance of her writing is excellent in consideration of her audience. The comedy is well written and not forced, which makes reading her blog so enjoyable.

Now, if only I had more time to read Pintester.com...