Seeking Bloggers Expressions of Interest

Would you like to earn an income from blogging? Are you feeling a bit overwhelmed by tackling it alone? Would you like to work with other experienced bloggers on a niche topic blog?

The Breaking News Blog collective is seeking expressions of interest in new niche blogs – you could be the next to join.

Regular readers of this blog will be aware that one of the projects that I work on is Breaking News Blog – a collective of bloggers (some call us a network) that blog on a variety of topics on the one domain. Blogs in the collective currently range in topic vastly – everything from blogs on technology like VOIP, MP3 Players, Printers, Laptops/Notebooks, PDAs and Robotics through to blogs about People and events, like the Pope, the Michael Jackson Trial, Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson through to Health issues like depression, dieting and mineral supplements.

The concept is simple – we’re building a collective of blogs on a variety (a huge one as you can see) of topics. These blogs share a domain and are interlinked and promoted by one another. Since launching a couple of months ago the collective has steadily built its page rank in Google (most now have a rank of 5 or 6) and is gradually growing readership levels (some are currently averaging thousands of readers per day).

All of the blogs are focused upon providing the latest and most relevant news on a topic and are utilizing the power of Google’s Adsense and other affiliate programs to pay their way.

If you’re looking to start a blog on a niche topic and would like to take advantage of the power of collective blogging we would be interested to hear your ideas. Simply email me with your topic idea and contact details. We make no guarantees on accepting all expressions of interest but are willing to make space for at least a few new blogs into the collective at this point (with the hope of more in the future).

Of course we’ll want to flesh out some details with you – but here are a few questions we expect to be asked with some answers at this point:

– What do I get from being a part of a collective of bloggers that I wouldn’t get as a sole blogger? – It is a good question which we think you should seriously think through. Collective blogging is not the only way to build a blogging income (see below for how much you’ll earn) – however we believe it can help out in a number of ways. For starters you’ll be starting a blog on an established domain and should get a decent page ranking from Google reasonably quickly. Our blogs have been ranking very well on MSN search and are improving on their Google referrals. You’ll also be getting support from a number of established and experienced bloggers (the owners of the collective) who can help you optimize and promote your blog. Why will they help? Well quite simply the better your blog does the better the collective will go – its in everyone’s best interest to promote other blogs. You’ll also get a basic and professionally designed blog (which you’re welcome to tweak and personalize as you go).

– What do I have to give to the collective? – Your blog will automatically be set up to promote other blogs in the collective – this will remain the case. You will commit to keep your blog active (ie regular posting). You will agree to post family friendly content (no porn, gambling, adult content etc). You will agree to keep your content on topic (these are niche blogs) and we don’t want to step on each other’s feet. Apart from this you’ll be given loads of freedom to blog on what you wish and to make the blog your own. If you’re accepted into the program there will be a trial period when we’ll test how it goes – at the end of this time all parties can assess whether they want to continue. We also want to learn from you – no one person in the collective holds all the expertise available on blogging – but together we know (and are learning) a lot. We want to share our knowledge on blog design, promotion, SEO, income streams etc.

– How much will I earn? – This will depend upon a number of factors. We’re working on a system whereby the earnings will be split (at a certain percentage) between the collective owners and the author of the blog in question. The percentage will be a generous level to make it worth your time as the one doing the blogging. You will need to be a Google Adsense publisher to use this system. Earnings will vary depending upon a number of features including your topic, the frequency of your posts, the traffic you manage to attract over time. Of course early on income will be smaller – but in time our blogs generally begin to grow in their earnings in accordance with how much you blog.

– What topics will be best? – As you can see by the blogs already in the collective – we’re open to all kinds of topics. We do want them to have some sort of commercial nature to the but this can vary from blogs that have potential high traffic to those will lower traffic but higher click values in Adsense. Just make sure your topic doesn’t overlap with a blog already going and consider if you know enough about the topic or have the ability to find enough content to keep a blog going over time.

Of course you will have other questions (and to be honest so do we – we’re still growing this thing and are learning as we go) – if you’re interested let me know what you’re thinking and we’ll continue the conversation from there.

As I’ve already said – at this stage we’re just seeking expressions of interest – there are no guarantees that your idea will be accepted – however we are genuinely interested in expanding what we do now that we know it is working. So lets talk!