If you're just starting out blogging you have probably been wondering how to set up a niche blog. Here is a quick and easy 9 step tutorial to get you started building a niche blog. Just a quick note here: This is a very basic tutorial and is aimed at those just getting started!!
Step 1. Choosing a niche for your blog
This is going to be your biggest stumbling block. Well next to finding traffic for your blog. (YOU WILL SPIN YOUR NOODLE trying to figure out how to get good targeted traffic to your niche blogging site).
And is the one of the most often asked questions. How do I find a niche, or how to I choose a niche for my blog or website.
You'll find building your niche blog alot easier if you're building it around something you're interested in, that's not say you should stick to just your personal interests but it's always easier doing something if you're actually interested it. Or look at it another way. People have problems and want solutions to them. A niche is a solution to a problem, an answer to a question, a review of a product. Basically anything that offers an answer or solution to something.
A quick start to get your creative juices flowing is trip over to ebay and check out the want it now (http://pages.ebay.com/wantitnow/) section. Once you've done that.
Here's a free tool that will help you check the popularity of some of those topics: (http://www.nichebot.com)
Step 2. Do Keyword Research
Don't skip doing this. I think we've all made the mistake of not doing good keyword research. And it is easy to do. You get all excited about something and go bang up a site with out having done good keyword research only to find you have to go back and redo it…. Skip this at your own peril.
While it is nice to write about grapple grommets or widgets and I am sure there is some demand for that kind of content, you have to kind of be serious about what you're going to choose as a niche and what kind of targeted traffic you're going to get from your keywords. You MUST include targeted keywords in your niche blog copy. A god place to start doing keyword research is Overture Keyword Tool for research:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion
You can also use wordtracker. its a paid service but you can get a free trial for a limited time. I HIGHLY recommend you use Wordtracker .
Note: keywords must be relevant to the THEME (subject) of your site. Be careful not to over use them. Search engines don't like keyword SPAM.
Step 3. Get A Domain Name
Having a unique domain name is important. If your site is about canoes try to get hockey.com (I'm canadian, can you tell?) or something along those lines, if you have to hyphen space the name then do it. ie canoe-shop-extreme.com . I have read that using hyphens is a good choice as google sees that as seperate words as opposed to canoeshopextreme.com which I have read that google sees as one word. But I'm not an SEO expert. So experiment or read up on that before your choose your name. There are a whole load of places to get your name from, some like godaddy, which I use. The choice is yours.
Step 4. Write Keyword Rich Content
This may be a hard thing to do for you. Or for those of you who don't consider yourselves to be good writers. Have you ever explained how to do something to someone?, yes?, well its as easy as that. I write like I speak or so I have been told. I have a conversational tone. I'm not a good craft copy writer. Others are better at that sort of thing than I am.
You can go on about the benefits of your subject. And more than likely should If you're pitching a product or service. Need some help with good copy writing skills. Check out copyblogger This guy is just wicked at writing great copy and has loads of helpful hints and copy writing tutorials you should use.
Remember that you're writing to inform, or solve a problem or pitch a product or service. And your keywords should reflect that as well. There are great debates about what percentage of keywords there should be on your page. The basics are this: keywords in the title of your post. Mention your keywords on the first few lines in bold face. spatter them about a few more times through out the body of your copy in either Italics or different font colours and once near or at the end. Keep in mind that they should be used sensibly and in context. Again these are the basics. Its can get kind of complicated using h1 and h2 tags in your posts and a whole other host of other techno jargon which I'll go on about at great length in another tutorial for you.
Step 5. Build Your niche blog Site
Again, this is an area with lots of debate. and heated arguments. If you're just getting started You can start with blogger.com its FREE!!!. Some horror stories abound about people losing their blogs or having them mysteriously gobbled up by google without a mention as to why. I personally have never had this happen. And can only speculate that those who have had it happen have done something that violated their terms of service. I have a detailed post about choosing the right blogging software to use on my main site.
You have a lot of creative freedom on how you want your niche blog to look (I prefer black copy on white backgrounds with photos), but remember that people are looking for attractive, easy-to-navigate sites with useful information.
Step 6. Sign Up for Matching Affiliate Programs
You've created a niche blog about xyz subject. Now look for affiliate vendors who perfectly match the theme of your site. Integrate your affiliates attractively into your web site copy. Don't confuse your visitors by giving them too many choices.
If you want to list a lot of affiliates on the same page, you can create a helpful "resource guide" page.
Step 7. Include Google Adsense Ads
Google has a great program for web site owners who wish to make a little extra money for simply displaying google ads on their web site. It's easy to sign up and free. Just visit google
(http://www.google.com/ads) and sign up for their Adsense program. They'll give you some html code to copy and paste on your site.
While google decides which ads will actually appear on your site, you can decide how the google ads will look – choose colors, borders, etc. and where to put them on your pages. Again the definitive guide for optimizing your blog for google adsense is Google AdSense Secrets 3.0
Step 8. Find Link Partners
I found out that exchanging links with other web site owners is a MUST if you want to improve your search engine rankings. Google especially will consider your site more relevant if your site has other sites linking to it. Also the ad copy from other sites, if relevant, can add more valuable keyword content to your own site.
I use Linkmarket (http://www.linkmarket.net) to find credible web sites to exchange links with. It's free to join.
Step 9. Write Articles to Promote Your Site
Oh oh. Here's that writing thing again. Well, you better get used to it, because writing articles like this one (normally your articles will be about the subject matter of your web site) will help give your affiliate web site much needed exposure. It doesn't matter if you write them yourself or hire others (ghostwriters) to write them for you.
You'll find that the best Internet marketers all write articles to promote themselves, their newsletters, and products and services. Remember, there's a reason the Internet is called the "information" super highway.
After writing your articles, you can post them to an article directory site like Article City (http://www.articlecity.com). People can easily find your articles to use as free content for their sites.
1 comment:
For keyword research you can also use these tools:
Google Free
Overture Free
KeywordDiscovery - Keyword Research Tool Paid - lots of features and has a free trial
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