10 tips to help your blog take advantage of online trends

Posted by Ben on January 28, 2009 | Permalink | Hits: 433 
Tags: multiple blogs

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Image by Pieter Musterd.

1. Make sure your blog isn't too specific.

If your main blog is too specific, it will be harder to take advantage of online trends. A theme is good - for instance, Top Ten Blog Tips has a theme without being overly specific.

2. Try writing about the topic.

You can't fully take advantage of anything until you make a start. For instance, if you want to take advantage of the large amount of interest there is in Twitter, try writing about it.

3. Monitor your stats.

So you've written your post. How many views did it get? How many comments? How many of the commenters were new to your blog? Did you see any new subscribers? Did you sell any ads on your site? It's important to look at all of the information that's at your disposal, rather than just one figure.

4. For popular topics, write follow-up posts.

If you find a topic that goes down well, try writing a couple more posts in this style. Give your readers what they want!

5. Set up a new, more specific blog.

Is your idea ready to spread its wings and soar into the clouds? Time to set up a new blog on a new domain. Make sure you have time to manage another blog! Now you can get back to your original focus on your "old" blog, while branching out with your new blog.

6. Add content to your new blog.

Yes, of course you have to add some content to your new blog. It's better to do this before you start telling people about it. Why would they want to see an empty shell instead of a site with a few good posts for them to read?

7. Subscribe to/comment on other blogs in the niche.

Try looking for other blogs that are closely related to what you're writing about, and interact with the communities at each one. Don't spam - write great comments and get your name out there. If you say something interesting and useful, others may check out your site.

8. If things really take off, try a guest post.

Want to take it to the next level? Try submitting a guest post to a large blog, e.g. ProBlogger. It's very important that you have some great content already on your blog before writing a guest post, otherwise anyone who comes to your site from the other site will not stick around for very long.

9. Write a series of interlinked posts.

Once you've found your groove, it's time to write a series of posts within your niche. For instance, The Organised Approach to Websites is a five-part series I wrote back in April 2008. Sometimes, writing several consecutive posts can communicate your message far more effectively than if you try to cram everything into one post.

10. Cross-promote both blogs.

This is one of the best things about running multiple blogs - you can link to the posts on one blog from the other. This helps you to create a much richer experience for your readers.

Is the order set in stone?

Not all of these steps have to be done in sequence. In particular, I think the point when you decide to set up a new blog is likely to be open to debate.

When would you set up a new blog? Would you change the order of these steps? Would you do all of them?

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Comments on 10 tips to help your blog take advantage of online trends

5

Ben | January 29, 2009 | Ben's home page | 207 comments

Lyndi, I guess it's not for everyone. :) The flip-side is that multiple blogs can be a lot of work. In your case, you can keep writing great content at Nice2All and keep growing the blog. Seems you have a very healthy community over there. :)

Dalirin, I wouldn't recommend writing for AdSense or writing for search engines unless you don't mind losing readers. Write for PEOPLE.

AvidReader, I have used the tool in Google AdWords and I found some interesting trends. I have a couple of experiemental blogs set up just to see how they perform with certain keywords. They don't have any real traffic yet though.

Ken, you do have to be happy with the blog yourself, but you need to have a target audience - otherwise, how will people know if the blog is right for them?

8

Ben | January 30, 2009 | Ben's home page | 207 comments

AvidReader, I haven't seen that one. Thanks for the good luck. :)

Leo - thanks! :D

10

Ben | February 01, 2009 | Ben's home page | 207 comments

Thanks, Read 2 Know :)