Your first blog will always be the hardest one to start. As you jump into the blogosphere looking to create value and community on the web, you are starting with an empty slate, zero subscribers and nothing but hopes and dreams of making it big.
Those first 500 subscribers to your first blog are going to be the hardest subscribers you ever convert and you are going to learn the most you ever have about online communities during that time period. After some success, you are going to naturally look into other blogging outlets to continue the trend. Blogging is addictive as much as it is lucrative…so your mind is just going to steer in that direction without you really even realizing it.
A little while back…I wrote an article on “Blog Expansion – How, Where and Why“. Within that article, I mentioned starting your own blog network as a way of expanding your income streams and offerings online. While it is great to do this (and most successful bloggers do), I want to go into a little bit more detail on how you can make this successful.
Building Your Blog Network – The Easy Way
As I mentioned earlier, that first blog will always be the hardest. As you troll through the internet looking for new subscribers, it can be frustrating at times until the snowball effect of blogging really kicks into gear. As you look for other blogs on other topics, do you really want to put yourself through that pain again? Wouldn’t it be easier if you could…somehow…build off the success of your growing blog to start building up another successful blog?
Let’s take a look at a couple of tips for choosing new blog topics that will make growing new blogs even easier.
- Listen To Your Readers – When I started RobbSutton.com, it was actually a response to the dozens of emails I was receiving because of my blogging exploits on Bike198.com. After answering the same questions over and over again about blogging and getting in free review product for blogs, I decided it would actually be easier to blog about it rather than answer the same questions over and over again. (This process is actually the best way to release online informational and physical products as well.) RobbSutton.com was born and my blog network was expanded. Now…the natural “thinking” for bloggers is to start a blog about blogging after seeing some success online (some do it first…without another blog…and that always baffles me)…just know…it is a highly competitive niche and you will probably have to throw even more resources at it to really grow a network of bloggers. What are your readers asking you repeatedly that can not be covered on your current blog? Would that subject matter be worth blogging about on a separate domain?
- Off Topic But Highly Targeted – When I set out to start another blog that sparked my interest, it was actually a natural progression that does not appear like one from the outside. Recently, I went live with Coffee Obsessed. While it may not look like a related field to cycling and blogging, the reality is that cyclists and bloggers are obsessed with coffee (me included). After the initial launch of 2 articles, a couple of tweets and a Facebook status update, I was already having a lot of conversation on Coffee Obsessed with just two articles! As you can tell, it is a natural conversation that surrounds the readers of my blogs…so success and beginning adopters comes much easier. On top of that…potential review product companies see a lot of comments even though it is not as well established, so they are more willing to throw review product at the opportunity. This also makes beginning growth much easier.
The Blog Is Launched…Now What?
Like with Coffee Obsessed and RobbSutton.com, you listened to the needs of your current readers and got up and running with a new blog. The temptation is going to be to spam every single social media outlet at your disposal with your brand new idea. Don’t do it! Subtle reminders do much more for converting your current network than in your face advertisements. Here are a couple of things you can do to push your current audience to your new project.
- Link In The Footer of Your Current Blog – Not only is this great for search engines as you will get indexed much faster, but it will also be a nice flow of traffic to your new site.
- Link In Your Newsletter or RSS Feed – By linking in both of these outlets…you are using your audience but in a way that is not intrusive.
- Launch Article – If your new blog is on a subject that 80% of your readers will find useful, write one launch article on your current blog with the why and where information. With RobbSutton.com, I did not write a launch article on Bike198.com because it did not relate to enough of my readers. That is a personal preference of mine…so you might want to write an article that doesn’t apply to a lot of your readers, but I like to keep things pretty targeted from a blog article perspective.
- Twitter, Facebook and Other Social Media – Your social media profiles are going to be your biggest asset when it comes to new blog launches. By design, social media is about your life and what you have going on…so your audience is going to be much more receptive to off topic ideas. Mention your new blog launch, tweet new articles…do everything you can to get it off the ground and running without putting off your current audience.
A Final Word On Blog Network Expansion
There are a lot of bloggers that get the “new blog bug” and hit the ground running on a new project when they do not have time to manage it correctly. While you have some great ideas floating around in that head of yours…remember…one of the biggest mistakes bloggers make is jumping from project to project. Do not take on more than you can chew. If the only way you can start a new project is by neglecting your current…hold off until you have more time to give both projects the attention they need to grow. A blog network is no good for anyone if it goes un-attended because the managing blogger is spread to thin.
13 comments
I’m inching closer and closer to my blog about blogging. I’ve tested out the water, I’ve done a couple guest posts on blogs about blogging and I really enjoyed it. I’m not at all rushing into it. It wasn’t part of the original plan, but I have so many ideas in my head for it. This week when I get some downtime, I’m putting down a list of them on paper.
I’m looking forward to seeing what you have in mind! Keep me updated.
Listen carefully to the readers will keep us moving in the correct direction.
I like the way you are leveraging on your blogs to building new blogs under your blog network. Very well planned and structured.
The problem most bloggers faced these days is starting a new blog with almost every new idea that bounces off their heads.
After a period of “low returns”, they just gave up and ends up with another disappointment.
Blogging is hard work, as we got to dish out quality articles regularly.
Many bloggers are leveraging on the popularity of their blogs to create quality training courses (membership sites) for a more sustainable income while constantly adding better content to beef up their training programs.
What’s your view? Are you heading in the same direction?
Hey Robb, great article. I was hoping though that you could refer to an article on growing your first blog, as much of what you write in this article assumes that you’ve already grown one blog and can use it to leverage your future blogs through a variety of means.
Elie.
Check these out.
http://robbsutton.com/comedians-teach-blogging/
http://robbsutton.com/top-8-rockstars-teach-blogging/
http://robbsutton.com/ramping-up-free-7-week-ramped/
http://robbsutton.com/using-online-forums-to-drive-traffic-to-your-blog/
http://robbsutton.com/how-to-get-blog-visitors-and-subscribers-promotion-techniques-that-equal-traffic/
http://robbsutton.com/how-to-write-quality-blog-articles-and-content/
Those should help!
Thanks Robb! Some of those articles are familiar, others are new to me. Thanks for providing the list.
Jumping from project to project can work as long as you make things *scalable*.
I don’t necessarily think having too much on your plate is an inherently bad thing… it’s just that many people use the same cookie-cutter tactics for multiple blogs. It’s impossible to divide yourself into 3 or 4 and do the same job for each.
For the multi-project types, it can be beneficial to focus your efforts in different ways on each blog. (writing style, posting frequency, social media platforms, methods of marketing, etc.) This allows you to put a bit more on your plate and also helps get you entrenched in more channels.
“It’s impossible to divide yourself into 3 or 4 and do the same job for each.”
Absolutely. Ideally…you will want to outsource certain tasks to be more efficient the more projects you take on.
Robb,
Another aspect of building a network and a brand for your sites is networking. Not to toot my own horn here, but we ended up teaming up because we both had big blog ideas and we both could tackle different aspects of the network.
Next to that, we both have connections in different industries. Additionally, JG from Topeca Coffee here in Tulsa (The USA’s first Seed to cup coffee distro) is giving me some packs 7lbs of coffee to send out to people.. you’ll definitely be on the list 🙂
You are dead on…as always 😉
Through running in different circles and continue to network with like minded (obsessed) people…each project becomes easier than the last.
Looking forward to the Topeca Coffee…have heard great things.
Writing the 2nd blog is just so uch easier than the first because you have made all the mistakes. In a couple of weeks you can tick off all the quick wins that took you months off googling and trawling through forums to find the relevant info for the last blog. Linking up from your existing blog is also very handy because you never had that luxury when starting the first one!
The one word of caution that I would have is starting the 2nd blog too early. Getting one successful blog of the ground is hard enough and starting 2 from scratch is pure lunacy! Wait for the first one to be well established and ticking over with only new posts needed before you go trying to build the 2nd!
I’m guilty of jumping from project to project. Right now I have a couple of blogs that are stagnant because I cannot generate content for them since I don’t have the passion and knowledge of that particular niche. I would better get a committed blogger to create content, however since those blogs are not generating any revenue, I’m stuck with them…
Excellent insights, Robb – as always. Thanks for the tip on Yoast’s SEO plugin – I am excited about putting that into use. Wasn’t aware of your coffee blog — as a fellow caffeine junkie, I’ll have to go and check that out!
Best,
Traci