Hello! Okay, what's next, err... Right, my question! First off, some boring background: I've been ill a lot, and I'm on the way back now (don't worry, I have a point). As a result, I am currently studying part-time - even with my gym sessions, this means I'm pretty much only occupied between breakfast and lunch for the coming, oh, five months or so. Ergo, I have lots of time to focus on my blog. Now, when it's time for full-time university, I have to move away from this little apartment of mine to a different little apartment near campus - For this occasion, I need money. In order to get money as a part-time student who is, as of yet, too ill to be out and about more than a few hours a day, I'll need to make some dough from home. Hence; my blog. The blog is a tech/gadget blog, with a dash of overall geekiness to it. It's new, has only been up a couple of weeks, and now I feel like kicking it into the next gear. My budget is super-slim, so I'd prefer free advice here - not Adwords or similar. So, please hit me with your best experience-based advice for turning this blog into something lucrative. I'm not looking for an over-night fix (although I would not say no, should I find one), I am more than willing to put in the hours. As a rookie blogger, what do I do to bring in traffic? To monetize it? The blog is self-hosted wordpress - that'll have to stay for a while, I do not have the energy to program etc - I'm a writer, first and foremost. I might move away from Wordpress in the future, but right now it's very neat and simple - I like that. Other than that, I'll gladly work hard on it - I just want a feeling of direction, a sense of "If I do this, it will turn out well". Right now I'm uncertain, and feel like I might be wasting my time, so any help is much appreciated. Thanks for any help! My blog: www.thetechronicle.com EDIT: I figured out a few specific questions I can add: 1. How do I best find the most suitable blogs to comment on? 2. How do I start a relationship with another blogger so that we can have some sort of exchange? 3. (Inspired by Aquarezz) Who, how and when do I ask people to interview me, guest post, if I can do the same, etc? 4. How do I get a hold of review copies? I realize this is difficult for a rookie in a market where review copies are expensive, but utltimately I'll need something. 5. How do I get people to link to my blog? It seems to be a bit of a catch-22: If my blog is well-populated, lots of people will find the content, and the chances of being linked to go up - but if the blog is sparsely populated, these chances are low.
Alright, I'll give a few tips. -Make sure you contribute quality, that will make other webmasters link to your blog. -Be the first to spread news on forums. -Ask people to interview yourself, they'll usually add your website at the end or the beginning of the interview Greetz!
Ok, sure. 1. How do I best find the most suitable blogs to comment on? Blog commenting is something you shouldn't really waste your time on. It's a lot of efforts for a short return. Unless you can find someone who will do a lot of them daily for a very cheap price, but it's not worth the efforts nor the money. 2. How do I start a relationship with another blogger so that we can have some sort of exchange? Try doing some link exchanges here on DP or buy some blog posts in your niche. You can easily buy a simple post for $5 if you write the post yourself and it's one extra link. Eventually you could also put that site in your 'friends' menu item. 3. (Inspired by Aquarezz) Who, how and when do I ask people to interview me, guest post, if I can do the same, etc? Get on MSN (or some other messenger) and start talking to other webmasters and see if they own a webmaster related blog (or a blog in your niche). If they do, tell them if they would like to have an interview with you and that in return you're also going to make a post about the interview on your blog linking to their site (to the interview). Some webmasters will eventually be interested, don't think they will all be though. 4. How do I get a hold of review copies? I realize this is difficult for a rookie in a market where review copies are expensive, but utltimately I'll need something. Build up a reputation like many of us. I also had to start with zero posts, zero reputation and zero iTraders and look where I am now. I'm also sure that the amount of new clients we get daily on WiredStorm has something to do with the great reputation Leon and I have built up on this forum, and even many others . For review copies, just make sure you're fast enough. I'm sure some people have bookmarked the 'ebooks' section and check it every now and then (like some people do for Facebook these days LoL). 5. How do I get people to link to my blog? It seems to be a bit of a catch-22: If my blog is well-populated, lots of people will find the content, and the chances of being linked to go up - but if the blog is sparsely populated, these chances are low. Start natural. Sign up on a few different forums and link to different articles out different threads on different forums. Start with just posting a few though (even like 1 in the beginning per day), but then let it grow bigger. One day you're going to have enough visitors so that it will be possible that your visitors will eventually also start linking to your blog. Greetz!
Hello there, wonderful site , well designed theme and content, and.. nice placement of the "follow" button, its near the scroll bar >.<, and thankz to aquarezz for the answer, it helps me too
Haha, thanks. About the "follow" button - it ended up there automatically because of Wordpress - I myself have one within the blog itself.
Nice site, nice content, except, i think, you should grab a new theme for it, brand it... 90's element: http://how90s.com/thetechronicle.com Do improve it...
There are! I can't quite remember where, though, but it shouldn't be that hard to find - I did manage to, after all.