Example: the first mistake that I made was the URL. I should have included more relevant keywords in my URL. I started this out as a personal blog and then before I knew it I had optimized for film and media production. I wish that I would have done my URL differently but that is okay because there are ways around it.
This brings me to the first step of blogging. The first thing that you should do (after deciding to create a blog) is to decide what you want to blog about. To do that: you must first decide whether you want to have a personal blog and blog about your life/whatever; or a commercial (niche) blog in which you blog about something for the purpose of making money.
If you would like to create a commercial blog, then I recommend that you spend some time planning before you jump right into blogging. I have tips for personal blogs further into the post, but I wanted to start with the topic of commercial blogs because they require more thought and planning.
Commercial Blogs
- Choose a niche
- Find related keywords for that niche
- Cleverly incorporate your main keyword into your blog’s url.
- Create description(s) for your blog incorporating your main keyword and a few related sub-keywords.
- Create your USP and unleash it
1. Choosing a Niche for your Blog
This sounds easy but it is not. One of the hardest parts about choosing a niche is deciding how specific of a niche you would like to write about. There are pitfalls and benefits to both specific and large niches.
Large Niches
A large niche has a wider rang of possible subject matter but there is also a lot greater chance that you will languish in obscurity. The larger niches have a lot more competition than the smaller ones. Niches like gadgetry may be all but impossible to be successful in. Here is a bit of my experience on the matter:
I chose to write about media production (even though it’s highly competitive) because that is what I want to do for a living. Blogging about Media and Film Production afforded me the ability to write about the subject matter that I am studying and thus kill two birds with one stone.
Perez Skelton
Early on in my blog, I was optimized for Vanessa Hudgens and Britney Spears. Had I wanted to write paparazzi crap for the rest of my life, I could have earned a very comfortable living rather than slaving away for blogging minimum wage. Keep in mind that a blogger who makes minimum wage is a successful blogger. Most bloggers are make enough to buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks if they are lucky (I am quoting someone here possibly Darren Rowse). I actually make a rudimentary living at it.
Despite cornering the market on Vanessa and Britney, I just couldn’t live with turning my blog pink and becoming Blue “Perez” Skelton. It worked for Perez and I am not dogging him. He is a blogger millionaire and he deserves all of his success.
So rather than make my blog more niche-specific, I chose to write about media production. That way, I could learn about the industry that I want to become a part of while earning money blogging. I make money by sharing with all of you what I know and have learned. You hopefully get something worthwhile from reading my blog. I have found that instructional or extremely funny blogs do extremely well in the blogosphere. I am not sure that I have achieved either quality but I am hoping to at least be mildly helpful by sharing my knowledge.
Small Niches
The main drawback of choosing a smaller niche is that your target audience is smaller. It may take you longer to develop a large audience for your blog. However, it does enable you to make contacts with other people in your niche. Plus, smaller niches are very conducive towards attracting a devoted and loyal audience. This is key to your blog’s success.
One of the key problems of my blog is that I am very inconsistent in my blogs subject matter. Some people come for film production resources, others behind the scenes footage, others for movie trailers, others for blogging advice, others for my occasional fun stunt and most are still remnants from my paparazzi days. Each visitor is only interested in one thing and they leave if they don’t find what they want.
I have really great friends and readers and so I have developed a loyal following. But my one-time user number is larger because I have an extremely broad-niche rather than having a smaller niche like film production or diy filmmaking.
If you do choose a smaller niche then it becomes increasingly more important that you branch out and network with other people in that niche whether through email or blog carnivals. Smaller Niches often have greater earning potential if you can believe it. This is especially true if they are presented in a way that is different than the rest of the blogs out there. WOOT is a good example of a unique blog a very specific niche (gadgets).
2. Find Keywords for Your Blog
After you have decided the subject matter for your blog, you should go to Google’s Keyword Tool and type the subject keyword that most fits your intended subject into the suggestion box.
3. Incorporate Your Primary Keyword into your URL:
Find a high paying keyword and incorporate it into your URL somehow. Example: Movie Marketing Madness = keywords, movie and marketing.
There has been some argument about whether it is important to include your keywords in the URL but in my experience, it is essential. Hyphenating the words is sometimes a trick used as well, example: www.indiana-jones-trailer.blogspot.com.
4. Find related Keywords for your Blog Description and Early Posts
After you have a URL in place: type the URL of your site into the website analyzer of the keyword suggestion tool and pick out some related keywords for your blog (the more desired the better). Incorporate those into your blog description and early blog posts.
5. Create Your USP and Unleash It
USP is a marketing term for Unique Selling Proposition and it basically stands for what sets your product (a blog in this case) apart from all of the others.
Think of M&M’s slogan “Melts in Your Mouth not in Your Hands” That was their unique selling proposition. Their chocolate doesn’t melt on your hands while other brands do.
Next I highly recommend you spend a little bit of time thinking about your target audience and you are going to market your blog to them. Think of how you can do things differently than the other bloggers. For instance my MO is to create large lists of resources to present my readers that build upon each other. I feel that is my one true contribution to the blogosphere. I have pushed the limits of resource blogging. A lot of people do it better but I was the front runner over the past few months with my DIY Film Equipment, my Media Production Tips and many others.
Once you find a way to be different from your competition, then it comes time to market those differences. Find a way to dazzle your readers with something they haven’t seen before. I try to use Microsoft Paint and Photoshop to make my own personal graphics.
Your other choice is to just do everything better than your competition and improve upon things that they lacking. Both methods work well but coming up with something new and awesome is surest way towards success. Once you have created your USP then you need to…
Personal Blogs
Personal Blogs are much harder to make money off of, unless you are a former Star Trek Actor (Will Wheaton, he’s great) or a Sex Blogger (girl who wrote the movie Juno) or some guy writing about his sex change operation.
However, many people write blogs for fun and fellowship. If this is the case then you don’t really need to do much planning beforehand. Just make your blog the way you want it.
However if you are blogging for fame and fortune, I recommend a lot of planning as to what you want your title to be. My personal weblog is This Wasted Monologue which is something I can optimize and still write whatever I want without being constrained to keywords. It is just a blog that I write bad fiction on to relax. I have fiction that I have worked hard on but TWM is more for relaxation purposes when the Media Production Blog and Life gets too heavy.
If you are going to try and monetize a personal blog, I recommend trying to use at least one keyword (cleverly) in the title of your blog and then optimize for that keyword similar to the way I optimized the word monologue.
What is Your Blog About Wrap-up:
Well that wraps up our first class of the Blue Skelton School of Blogging. I am starting my
1 comments:
Excellent point about the importance of knowing your blog's purpose. Not only does it help a blogger identify what they want to write about, but it also helps them identify who their target audience will be. That's the first step to delivering the quality, valuable content that brings traffic, loyal readership and links from other blogs.
Great advice!
Post a Comment