12 Tips for Problogger Wanna Be's: A Recipe for Site Building Success

So, I wanted to start one of those mythical sites that gets lots of traffic, makes a kick-ass monthly revenue, and ends up selling for a gazillion dollars or more.

The only problem was that I had no practical idea how to do that.  I mean, I know the theoretical principles of problogging, but I was having some trouble making the leap from theory to application.

As I was throwing some ideas around with my buddy David Krug, he encouraged me to put the rubber to the road by finally starting my first web development project.

Now, if anyone is the Midas of the blogosphere, it's David. He's a bona fide web rockstar and a master at turning sites into cold hard cash.

Luckily he's also an incredibly sweet guy who has offered to mentor me in my first web development project , which is a food blog called Chocolate Chipped. This new blog of mine is a collection of gorgeous photos of chocolate dishes and the recipes that go with them. With me being a chocolate fanatic, as you can imagine it's a labor of love  .

I have been learning bunches over the past few weeks, and I'd like to pass on what I've learned so far so that if you wanted to build your first money making site, you would have an inkling of how to get started.

Here are the initial basic steps...

1) Find Your Blue Ocean Niche. David says:

"The “ocean” refers to the market or industry. “Blue oceans” are untapped and uncontested markets, which provide little or no competition for anyone who would dive in, since the markets are not crowded."

The opposite of a blue ocean would be a red ocean, a niche that is already way overdeveloped. As a web developer, what we're looking for is the virgin niche, a pure blue ocean. We want to be a big fish in a tiny pond (or the only fish in a big blue ocean).

You're looking for a niche that is pretty specific, has lots of folks who are interested in it, and has products associated with it. That's a biggie--since advertising will be involved the blog's topic has to be advertisement-friendly.

Also, be sure to pick a niche you're passionate about because you'll basically be living at your site for the next year or more.

2) Do your keyword research to see if there's any demand for your topic. Keep in mind that it's not enough to come up with a unique idea for a site; there actually has to be folks interested in your topic in order for it to work. Look for keywords that have lots of searches, and then do some digging to see how many other sites are satisfying those hungry demands.

A good sign is if you do a Google search for your phrases and you see that the first page is pretty heavily dominated by "weak leaders", such as Wikipedia, Answers.com, and Amazon.com. David says:

"You might think these guys are the big dogs but truthfully they can’t really compete against good web standards and a devoted person."

One free site you could use to kick-off your keyword research is the SEOBook Keyword Tool. For more detailed info on how to use keywords on your blog look here.

3) Create your brand. What would you like your site to look and feel like? What will set it apart from other sites that are in a similar niche? When folks think about your site, what do you want them to remember? This is actually the hardest part, but it's the thing that will guide you in developing your site, so it's uber important.

4) Decide on a name for your site. This will be your domain name, which is a pretty big deal. Your domain name is a great place to stick in your keywords, so whatever were the results of your keyword research, you might want to find a domain name that incorporates those words (notice how my site is called "Chocolate Chipped", and one of my keywords is "chocolate chips". You could also use a gibberish word (think Technorati, Boing Boing, etc). 

5) Decide on a tag line. The tagline should describe what your site is about. Come up with a catchy one, one that is memorable, and one that is descriptive of your site's topic. Look at the one David came up with when he was creating the news site 901am.com: "New Media News Fresh Every Morning". Now that's catchy and descriptive. This is the kind of tag line you're going for.

6) Set it up on WordPress. Yeah, I know. This is where the technical stuff comes in, but if you're seriously creating a blog that you'd like to make money off of, it's best if it's a WordPress (WP) blog.

Obviously I'm no tech authority on WP (yet), but David says that WordPress blogs generate more GoogleJuice™ . It has something to do with if your blog is on its own server (or at least not on a server that has a gazillion other sites on it) then Google likes it better. It also has to do with the way WP blogs are structured that makes them more search engine friendly.

If thinking of this makes your brain hurt, don't worry too much about it right now. Just know that you should not use TypePad or Blogger if you want to get your best GoogleJuice™.

BTW--From my own personal experience, this has definitely proven to be true. After one week Chocolate Chipped has gotten more traffic than eSoup, which has been going for over a year! When I feel comfortable on WP, I will definitely move eSoup over to a WordPress blog platform. TypePad is holding me back, baby!

7) Keep your lips zipped until you have at least 10 posts up. A little delayed gratification never hurt anyone. If you're going to send folks to your site, you need to have something there to show them (duh, righ?). So, get some posts up, break the blog in, make it look like it wasn't born just yesterday (even if it was).

8) Focus on creating quality content. David says,

"The first month of content is by far the most important in my opinion. Why you might ask and the key thing is that Google will grade your content. If your content is crappy, Google will view your site as crappy and not send you visitors."

So, know that you are being graded by Google for your content from Day 1. Do not phone it in. While you may not have many visitors yet, Google is always watching. (Cue the creepy music now.)

9) Consistency rules! Post at least 5 times a week for the first 6 months. After six months, pump it up to at least 10 times a week (this is for a single author blog). The key is consistency. If you faithfully stick to your posting schedule, you will see the payoff down the road. In general, the more quality content you can post the better. I see that Darren Rowse at Problogger posts about 2-4 posts a day.

(Sidenote: Remember folks, this is for a money making blog. If you're a human who writes all essay posts, chances are you can't post 5 to 10 times a week. It's just not humanly possible. For a money making blog, if you'd like to make your life as easy as possible it's a good idea to pick a niche that can be supported by some shorter posts. With shorter posts, the more frequently you'll be able to publish. One strategy is to mix up the post length--maybe go for 100-400 word quality content posts with some longer feature posts sprinkled in. This is what I'm doing on Chocolate Chipped.)

10) Share the link love. One of your main jobs in building your site is to get the links coming in. More linking will bring you more traffic, and more inbound links will help your page rank with the search engines. David's got a great post on link building that explains everything he's taught me. I'm doing pretty much everything he outlines in that post.

The Golden Rule of link building is "Link unto others as you would have them link unto you." Be very generous with linking to other blogs. Build your blogroll, link to other blogs in your posts. As David says, "give links away like my grandmother used to give away candy. It’s by far the most effective way to build quality inbound links."

11) Meet 'n greet your neighbors. Entering a new niche is like moving to a new city. You need to go out and introduce yourself, chit-chat, and make an effort to get involved in the community. Visit other blogs, leave great comments, basically let everyone know that you're on the scene and would like to get involved. I find that encouraging other bloggers is the best way to make friends. I do this by including blogs I like on my blogroll and also sharing the link love freely in my posts.

12) Keep on learnin'. If you're a newbie to web development, there will be bunches to learn. For myself it's the more technical things, like learning about WordPress and also learning the tricks of the trade when it comes to link building. It is an ongoing process, so I'm always trying to soak up more info to make my site better.

What about ads? You'll probably notice that I haven't mentioned anything about ads yet. This is because when you're first building your blog, it's really more important to concentrate on the things I've outlined above. Really, you can have ads up and down your site, but if you have no visitors, then what's the point? You need to get the traffic coming in before worrying too much about advertising.

What about a fancy design? You don't need a custom template right off the bat, kids. I'm using an off-the-rack template on Chocolate Chipped, and it works just fine for my purposes at this stage. (A more customized design is in the works.)

These are the first steps that David has walked me through in the first few weeks of my new blog. I'll keep you posted on how things develop, and hopefully one day I'll be telling you how I sold Chocolate Chipped for a gazillion dollars or more!

(Photo via)

Comments

[David]

Thanks for all the kinds words :)

Great Great article. You are well on your way to success. Now if i could only find da time to followthrough on my end of da bargain.

[Sharon Sarmiento]

Hey David-- You're very welcome. You deserve the kind words :-)

Your end of the bargain...oh, the custom design! I have complete and utter faith that Chocolate Chipped will be sporting an absolutely gorgeous new look sometime soon. Thank you for that and for everything else :-)

[Dayna McIsaac]

Great article... & great picture
- I'm glad you like the shot!

[Sharon Sarmiento]

Thank you Dayna--Yes, I love the shot, can you tell? :-) Such a yummy dessert you created!

[Wilma Ham]

Hey Sharon, fantastic post. Thanks for sharing so much in such normal language. None of that hype, just how it is. I will read this and follow what you are doing on your chocolate chipped site. Fantastic opportunity to see a hands on approach.
Also thanks to David as I get his knowledge via Sharon. You are a great team and it is lovely to see such colaboration.
You both deserve heaps of chocolate.

[Sharon Sarmiento]

Hi Wilma,

Thanks so much for chiming in. I'm glad you enjoyed the post.

Yes, you're absolutely right--David is a true visionary when it comes to internet-y stuff, and anytime I get the chance to soak up his wisdom, I jump at it! :-)

[Maryam in Marrakesh]

Ack, just confirming again that you are super woman. I wish I could get my act together and follow your tips some how some way. ~Sigh. Life's a little challenging right now. But big congrats on your new blog!!

[Sharon Sarmiento]

Hey Maryam,

Thank you! Well, your blog is not your average blog. Whether you've followed these steps or not, your blog has an amazing community around it and is admired near and far. I will be thrilled if Chocolate Chipped ever reaches the level of My Marrakesh! :-)

[Kelly]

For your keyword research try using KeywordSpy.com - a keyword research technology that will help you know what keywords your competitors are using and how it generates money for them, you can use those keywords to drive traffic to your site and give your business the exposure it needs. It offers Free trials.- http://www.keywordspy.com/

[satya]

thank you very much for your information