Todd Mintz writes a very worthwhile article at How To Be A Blogging Idol Instead Of An Idle Blogger which I think is a must read for bloggers wanting to start out in ProBlogging.
Whilst I don’t completely agree with everything Todd writes (I’ve never entered into a link exchange program or never bought a text ad for that matter) the article is brimming with useful information that Todd learnt in experimenting with blogs on the topic of American Idol contestants last season of the show. In particular he has had some success with the Bo Bice Blog.
Among Todd’s more useful tips are:
‘Have a narrow focus: The quickest way to drive traffic to your blog is through excellent search engine rankings. If you blog about lots of unrelated topics, you won’t rank well for any of your key terms….
Press Releases: Online press releases are an excellent way to generate notice for your blog. I created a press release announcing the launch of the blog, and once I decided to “actively” blog Bo, I wrote a release each week recapping the show and featuring highlights from the blog….
Involve Fans: When my blog reached a consistent 500 visitors a day, I decided to actively solicit posts from Bo’s fans. Sure, most blogs give readers the ability to post comments…but I thought that if I ran the comments as actual posts, I could create a “buzz” about the blog and generate large numbers of repeat visits….’
I subscribe to each of these tips and many of the other things Todd writes and think they apply not only to fan sites like the one he runs (keep in mind fan sites are hard to monetize…. I’ve been trying for a while now) but to most blog topics.
Wow, I’d never really considered a press release…I’m not sure how I’d even go about writing one?
Hmm…
Carey –
I’ll help you out with that. It’s been my claim to fame :)
Let me know what you want covered and I’ll send one over along with instructions on how/where to submit it.
Yeah, press releases are a great way to get the word out about your blog. I’ve done 4 in the past year for different sites and the results are always positive.
With regards to the “narrow focus” pointer, I would have to argue that while it is beneficial to have a blog with such a focus, it is not always necessary. By definition, every post on my site is on a different subject from one day to the next, and even though it has not been live for a month yet, I am already getting some great search engine results (still with a PageRank of 0/10- I just missed out on Googles last update) and good results with Adsense (passed the $50 mark for July). Admittedly, these results come from only a small handful of the posts which are on current and topical subjects, but the results are promising nonetheless.
Scott Randolph – I’d be interested in learning more about press releases, too. I didn’t see a contact link on your site, though — care to email me through mine?
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“I’ve never entered into a link exchange program or never bought a text ad for that matter.”
Have you yourelf (Darren) ever purchased advertising for one of your websites?
This question might already be covered in another post. If so just point me to it. Thanks.
I like this article … I started blogging on a new topic since last week. And I am planning for a press release. Just that the blog isn’t really ready yet. Still have to fix the templates, add some intro contents, and fix some broken links.
But when I am ready, in a week or two, I plan to have the press release. Anybody willing to help me out with this. I’ve never done a press release before.
Just an idea … and Darren is doing it too. Any thoughts/experience on running a newsletter/mailing list alongside your blog?
Press releases should be in three basic parts. The most important information should be in the first, short paragraph. For a blog, it should include the title of the blog, the topics the blog is about, the URL, and the author.
The second part is filler. You want to add some extra information. For a blog, it might include how you got interested in the topic, why you are might be a credible source, and possibly preview some things you might want to do with the blog. This is an excellent place to put a quote.
For the final paragraph, put in some contact information, give the URL again, and I might add one last piece of pertinent information, such as possibly what posting schedule you plan to follow.
Kidino,
I use a newsletter myself, and it’s quite effective at bringing people back to your blog…while RSS is great for those who are savvy to it, the vast, vast majority of those on the web have no idea what it is. A newsletter does the trick for all the regular joes out there. So far, mine is certainly paying for itself :D
Hi Darren,
what about you doing a blog post specifically on press releases for blogs?
i.e., on how and WHEN to do press releases relating to your blog besides the launching of it.
I’ve never seen anything anywhere written on this topic as it relates to blogs other than this excerpt here.
ie what post’s or topics should you do press releases on, online or emailing to specific outlets, how to write them, where to release them, how often to do etc
Pete Quily
Stay tuned Pete – I’m looking to have something on ProBlogger in the next week or so on this :-)
Thanks Darren for blogging about my blogging article and thanks to all who have read it. Hopefully, you’ve all gotten some useful information.
Thanks to Darren for blogging about my blogging article. Thanks to all who have read it. Hopefully, you all can profit from my experiences.
Announcing the Hot Coffee website
I’ve been reading Darren Rowse’s Problogger site for sometime and have been thinking about ways to turn blogging into more of a moneymaking venture for me. One of the things that he’s made me realise is that the only way…
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