Blog editor Camilla Chafer shares her top tips on making your site really fly

GUEST blogger Camilla Chafer has edited Bridalwave, Shiny Media’s wedding blog, for three years and seen it grow to 200,000 readers each month. She has also recently independently launched women and family-orientated web and gadgets blog Technoglam and homes blog Hygge Nook.

Here she shares her tips on how to make a new blog a successful blog.

What’s in a name?

A name is one of the first thing that is going to grab attention for your blog and if you want to register it as a domain name, you’re probably going to have to be quite inventive as most easily thought of names with popular doman suffixes (.com etc) will have already gone. Think about what the keywords would be to describe your blog and play about with them until you’ve coined something that sounds right, feels right and is available for registration.

Finding a niche and are there any niches left?

Yes, most topics have been covered but there’s always a new angle to look at. Take Technoglam.com. Like so many blogs it covers gadgets and technology but it’s probably the only one to focus on the 25+ female and family market. Even if there is competition within a niche, if you can do it better, it’s worth a shot.

The design

When you launch your blog, it should look as professional as possible. It is your shop front, the thing people first register before they even start reading your sparkling content. Fortunately many blog platforms have templates that can be used that can be played about with to gain the colours, format and fonts you prefer all with minimal design know how. Try and have the design exactly as you want it to be from the launch so that readers aren’t confused by sidebar features that appear one day and disappear the next or ever changing templates.

The right tools

Equally important if you’re blogging for an audience or for profit is to have your analytical tools in place from the beginning. You should register with sites like comprehensive blog directory Technorati , sign up to Google Analytics to understand your traffic, where it comes from and what it does when it reaches your site. Register the site with search engines.

When should I launch my blog?

When it looks good, when it has a name, when it has some content and when you feel ready to share it with the world. Also take into account any industry events that might be going on that will help gain your blog readers from the get go. It was no coincidence that I launched technoglam.com the week before CES, the largest gadget show in the world. It meant plenty of stories, lots of fresh new content and plenty of interest.

Gaining traffic

You might enjoy writing purely for yourself but what’s the point of that when you can share your witty missives with the world? You will be starting from zero so find as many methods for gaining traffic as you can and see which combinations work for you.

Here are some ideas:

Start a network and cross promote – one blog alone is one blog alone. However, you might know several other people with independent blogs and they probably have readers that are different from yours. Suggest a network and blogroll each other. You won’t be transferring ownership of your blog or restricting your content, instead you’ll be able to cross-promote each other and drive new traffic each way.

Use widgets – a web widget is content that can embedded on different websites. You can use this to advertise a site on another site of yours in an attractive and functional way using minimal know how to customise the look of the widget. A bonus is that other people can download the widgets you create and embed them on their blogs, again driving traffic to your site. Try making them yourself at WidgetBox or SpringWidget .

Link love – If you find an interesting post on another blog, it’s perfectly OK to write about it but it’s polite to include a link to the original story. You can do this by either linking to the site entirely or by ‘deeplinking’ whereby you link to the permalink of the specific story. If you link to others, they may just link back to you and send traffic your way. It’s good netiquette.

Comments – You could comment on other blogs leaving your blog’s link in the signature but do only do this when you have something to say otherwise it’s just spam. When someone leaves a comment to you, reply to it and encourage conversation.

Write a press release – There are plenty of free press release sites and you could write a press release announcing your new site. Not only will people read this and click through but search engines will notice the links and it will help to increase your blog’s profile.

Social networking – make sure readers can do it least three of these if not all - stumble, digg, del.ic.ious, kirtsy and Facebook your posts. You don’t know what these are? Look them up!

Guest blog – offer to write and accept offers for guest blogs and articles for other sites (hi Linda!) to not only spread the word about your site but to promote yourself and share some ideas. You may even get some interesting leads in the comments.

Spread the word – tell people! Add the web address to your email signature. Ask editors to include the address on your relevant articles.

Advertising

Pro-blogging can pay. Not always, but certainly sometimes. If you have a blog that produces excellent content on a regular basis and is attracting readers you might be able to earn some money.

Revenue is gained through advertising and there are plenty of advertisers that will place ads on your blog once the blog has been approved as worthy and it’s actually quite easy to do.

Some rely on page impressions, some on click-throughs and some on a sale only basis. It all depends on the advertiser and your blog’s popularity as to how much, if any, money you’ll make. Here are some popular advertisers to get you started:

Google AdSense – These ads can be embedded on your blog in a variety of formats.

Tradedoubler – Small image and advert texts from a variety of household names. Widgetbucks - Adverts for leading names.

Affliate links – check your favourite stores to see if they have an affiliate setup. For example Amazon’s affiliate advert can be placed on your blog and if it is used to perform a search and subsequent sale, you’ll receive a percentage.

Glam.com – This is an advertising and blog network that sells ads from leading names. Only blogs with 100,000+ readers can apply.

Check your favourite blogs to see who their advertising is provided by and do some research. Try out different advertisers and find out which ones are profitable for you.

Bear in mind that many blogs don’t earn anything and others make enough to enable the bloggers to concentrate solely on their blogs. For the first few months you may earn nothing at all and that’s when many give in.

Be prepared to wear many hats

If you’re lucky enough to work for a blog publisher, they’ll cover design, marketing, promotion, advertising and more.

If it’s just you, you’ll have to learn how to do it all from creating the site and registering a name to finding advertisers, spreading the word and creating all the content. Don’t be daunted, learn these valuable new skills and enjoy seeing the fruit of your labour as your blog becomes successful.

Comments

[Linda]

Just wanted to say thanks again for this piece Camilla, it's good to read such excellent tips on how to actually make money from a blog, for starters. Also good to see someone who knows what they are talking about as opposed to a well meaning but clueless earnest 'newbie' - thanks again and good luck with the new blogs - they're looking great.

[Marty Drury]

As always, an amazing piece. Full of insightful tips and ideas from an expert. Amazing.

Marty Drury
www.joinmartin.wordpress.com
Beyond The Question launches soon!

[Craig McGinty]

Some great stuff there, will really help anyone looking to get up and running.

One addition I'd make is to offer a newsletter to people to subscribe to.

It doesn't have to feature original content and could use the service offered by Feedburner.

But I think people are still more comfortable with giving over their email than RSS.

And if you really want to take a newsletter on, use a service that ensures you have ownership of the email addresses, they will prove very valuable in the future.

All the best, Craig

[Linda]

Hi Craig, thanks as ever, plus there's the opportunity to build a community through groups on facebook and by tweeting on Twitter.

[Camilla]

Hi, thanks for the comments and especially thanks to Linda for letting me write this.

Craig _ I hadn't added a newsletter in because I'm not sure it's worthwhile for new blogs. I feel it could detract from traffic. I do agree that it's another great tool for established blogs. Good tip about keeping ownership of the email address.
Thanks, Camilla

[H.T Lewis]

A great article, I will be linking to it from my site. Many of my readers will find it very helpful

H.T Lewis
http://www.writingmercenary.com