Follow Up Thread - Starting our own Freesite (BLOG RELATED)

[TrashyContent]

So we posted a thread about starting our own Free Site... with a view to developing our own traffic to our "paysites"

https://gfy.com/showthread.php?t=1058820

A lot of people have suggested we should go the "BLOG" route... which like "traffic" in general we have no experience with

So some questions...

1. I am guessing firstly we need some domain names for these "BLOGS" ? Is there anything in particular we should look at when choosing the names, I am guessing good domain names relevent to what we're promoting is important ?

What about the blog as a sub domain on the actual site we're promoting... for example one of our paysites such as www.StaceyRocks.com would the blog be www.blog.StaceyRocks.com ? Do they work well for SEO ?

2. Second question... what do we do with the software and design of the blog ? I'm right in thinking it's WORDPRESS that drives the BLOGS ? What about Design ?

3. Next... I guess I need to put various sponsors on the BLOG, relevent to the name of the domain and niche we're targeting...

4. I need to update the domain... what's good, I know someone said the more the better... but people are talking about networks of domains that run into hundreads... how in hell do they get updated regually... ?

5. And finally traffic ? How do you drive traffic, link exchanges ?

6. Oh and anything I have missed lol ?

I know some people may not want to reply... but worth a try

[CaptainWolfy]

1.It's better if you have domain that has a keyword for what are you trying to target.
2.If you want blog for subdomain you should implement the current design you have on paysite as blog design,use the header and make background and you are more or less ready to go. Wordpress is the way you should go, also writing should be like the girl is writing her personal blog. 4.Update every 3 days or 5 is just enough for blog. You drive traffic with link exchange, blog submission to directories and seoing whole site, submitting galleries etc.. if you need any more info feel free to hit me up.

[scouser]

its normally better for seo reasons to have domain.com/blog rather than blog.domain.com. with blog.domain.com you spread the links coming in *slightly* so for the main site (which is where you make money so obviously you wanna help the main site) it is better to have links going to the exact same domain, not subdomain. but ive not really noticed a huge difference tbh

yeah, use wordpress. loads of themes for it both free and not free. just find somrething you like. or order a custom one. as you have a paysite personally i would have a custom one that matches the sort of style as your main site but imo its not crucial

'3. Next... I guess I need to put various sponsors on the BLOG, relevent to the name of the domain and niche we're targeting... '

don't do that if it is a blog on the same domain as a paysite. affiliates won't want to send you traffic incase the surfers end up clicking your affiliate links

'4. I need to update the domain... what's good, I know someone said the more the better... but people are talking about networks of domains that run into hundreads... how in hell do they get updated regually... ? '

Hire writers. Or sit there for a few hours and schedule lots of posts. its a fun life . I use marsedit (on osx) to manage my blogs, its soooo much faster than manually logging into /wp-admin/. I've heard on windows MS do something called live writer (i think) that is meant to be good as well

'5. And finally traffic ? How do you drive traffic, link exchanges ? '

seo seo seo


'6. Oh and anything I have missed lol ? '

just get building them. you'll find out what works and what doesn't. make sure you set up wp correctly... which tbh just basically means have permalinks to something decent (%category%/%postname%/ or %postname%). i never bother with seo plugins but some people swear by them.

btw if running lots of blogs on one server its easier to put several blogs on one installation location/config. i wouldn't put 100s on one config but a few on each. in wp-config.php you should have this line:

$table_prefix  = 'wp_'

do something so it does something like

$host = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
$host = str_replace('www.','',$host);
$host = str_replace('.',$host);
$allowed = array('mydomain1.com','mydomain2.org');
if (in_array($host,$allowed)) {
$table_prefix = 'wp_' . $host; // should equal wp_mydomaincom
}
else {
die('Invalid');
}

(untested code... i actually do it slightly different but that is the general gist of it)

[TrashyContent]

Thanks for the input people... it wont actually be me doing this as I am only skilled at taking pics of naked chicks without getting a hard on !

But my techie partner will definetly appreciate any tips/ideas ect

[scouser]

if you're planning on starting a network you can outsource to even the crappiest of writers. it won't convert as well but its not always a huge dent in conversion ratios. im sure a lot of surfers don't even read descriptions. its for search engines in a lot of cases. but if you do make extra effort in blog copy it does help. just takes longer or costs more + need to concentrate when writing ;)

[Rochard]

1. I am guessing firstly we need some domain names for these "BLOGS" ? Is there anything in particular we should look at when choosing the names, I am guessing good domain names relevent to what we're promoting is important ?

Do some key word research. Figure out what your trying to target, and do your own home work on domain names. Then when you write text for the blog, use those key words as often as you can. In other words, if you decide to build a blog about blonde teens, buy blonde-teens.com, and use the text "blonde teens" in every paragraph.

2. Second question... what do we do with the software and design of the blog ? I'm right in thinking it's WORDPRESS that drives the BLOGS ? What about Design ?

Wordpress is the way to go. Everyone uses it and there are a lot of tutorials about it.

For design, there are tons of places that give out free designs.

3. Next... I guess I need to put various sponsors on the BLOG, relevent to the name of the domain and niche we're targeting...

Exactly. You don't put bukakke on a celeb blog.

4. I need to update the domain... what's good, I know someone said the more the better... but people are talking about networks of domains that run into hundreads... how in hell do they get updated regually... ?

You have to update often, and I'd update with at least three hundred characters. I spend an hour or two a day just writing my own blog posts.

I use Blogdesk to write my posts (http://www.blogdesk.org/en/index.htm). It's a little free program that allows you to write blog posts - No need to log into wordpress every time.

5. And finally traffic ? How do you drive traffic, link exchanges ?

There are dozens of ways to drive traffic to your site. Google sitemaps, link trades, free blog directories, link lists, SEO plug ins, etc etc etc. However, every link you put up on a blog dings you with Google, and too many dings and it's hurting you. At this point I just build blogs, do the usual SEO tricks, but never do link trades or what not. Just pure organic at this point.

[TrashyContent]

Originally Posted by Rochard

Do some key word research. Figure out what your trying to target, and do your own home work on domain names. Then when you write text for the blog, use those key words as often as you can. In other words, if you decide to build a blog about blonde teens, buy blonde-teens.com, and use the text "blonde teens" in every paragraph.



Wordpress is the way to go. Everyone uses it and there are a lot of tutorials about it.

For design, there are tons of places that give out free designs.



Exactly. You don't put bukakke on a celeb blog.



You have to update often, and I'd update with at least three hundred characters. I spend an hour or two a day just writing my own blog posts.

I use Blogdesk to write my posts (http://www.blogdesk.org/en/index.htm). It's a little free program that allows you to write blog posts - No need to log into wordpress every time.


There are dozens of ways to drive traffic to your site. Google sitemaps, link trades, free blog directories, link lists, SEO plug ins, etc etc etc. However, every link you put up on a blog dings you with Google, and too many dings and it's hurting you. At this point I just build blogs, do the usual SEO tricks, but never do link trades or what not. Just pure organic at this point.

Thanks Rochard

[xholly]

i recommend not submitting to directories, but thats me.

[globofun]

Originally Posted by xholly

i recommend not submitting to directories, but thats me.

I'll second that!

and

BlogDesk rules!

[TrashyContent]

Originally Posted by globofun

I'll second that!

and

BlogDesk rules!

Thanks XHolly and Globofun... I am guessing (being a NOOB) that directories are like listings... any reason these are bad ?

[xholly]

Originally Posted by TrashyContent

Thanks XHolly and Globofun... I am guessing (being a NOOB) that directories are like listings... any reason these are bad ?

you are required to give a permanent hardlink on your blog to the directories who list you. which should give you a short burst of traffic initially but your blog will e pushed down as other people submit their stuff.

after a short time you will get stuff all traffic from them and the backlink isn't usually worth much as there are thousands of sites listed yet you have all these traffic leaks on your page sending traffic to some directories.

if you are making a quality site, look for real hardlink trades, if you are making a spam blog then by all means submit it to a directory... I think you are trying to make a quality blog.

[ottopottomouse]

just remember that although WordPress displays a journal layout that each post IS a page, and each page is a potential search result, so structure posts so they are individually aimed at keywords. learn how to write for search results and once you get the hang of it you can usually get top half of page #1 on a lot of the suggested related searches even if your intended overall target is too popular to win at.
also, have something like awstats installed so you can see what people were searching for when they got to you.

[TrashyContent]

Originally Posted by xholly

you are required to give a permanent hardlink on your blog to the directories who list you. which should give you a short burst of traffic initially but your blog will e pushed down as other people submit their stuff.

after a short time you will get stuff all traffic from them and the backlink isn't usually worth much as there are thousands of sites listed yet you have all these traffic leaks on your page sending traffic to some directories.

if you are making a quality site, look for real hardlink trades, if you are making a spam blog then by all means submit it to a directory... I think you are trying to make a quality blog.

Thanks for that Holly... maybe we should pay someone to make the first "BLOG" for us... so we can see how it should be done...

So who out there does this as a service ?

[TrashyContent]

Where's all the BLOG experts at !!!