I am going to start a blog, for myself. Of course I want people to find it, read it, and comment and click etc...but since this is really just a hobby blog instead of a "business" blog, I don't know how to optimize it. It is basically going to be a blog about book reviews, political commentary etc...nothing special just stuff i am passionate about. So I would like visitors who want to read book reviews but also have my political leanings (libertarian) as well as those who disagree vehemently with my comments and opinions. How do I tackle this? what kind of keywords do I target? domain name? Its easy when I am targeting "web hosting reviews" etc, but when I have this broad spectrum what do I do?
First, you have to submit your blog to the search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo. Second, you have to make your blog more popular by using social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Digg, ... Finally, I think you can find the solution here "http://www.tipifam.com/internetmarketing/to-get-visitors-to-your-website/"
think about your future sales. try not to target for a lot of money from online profit from this niche
your target niche has the potential. You can find out keywords. you just need to do some research. Visit others blogs related to your niche and see what they are using in their keywords tag. You can get ideas from them. You can also put some popular books reviews in your blog. If you want that visitors come to your blog, read your posts and leave comments then you have to put something visitors relevant. You can get traffic from social media. Join communities participate in discussions and leave your mark there.
Good suggestions! I agree that you need to find a "niche" for your site so you can target the correct keywords and drive traffic. Maybe stick with the "book review" concept, and target it torwards "political book reviews". Obviously, you'll need to do some keyword research. I love jasonbaba's suggestion to review POPULAR BOOKS. Since popular books are sure to create website traffic (especially for reviews!), you're likely to draw some visitors if you review the most popular books -- in your case the most popular "political" books. Then use all the other suggestions (social networks, communities, etc.) to further promote your blog.
Joining some forums related to what you are planning to do and being active will be very helpful. The people that enjoy your work on the forums are more than likely going to be willing to follow your blog as well as the social networking you should also set up.
I think your domain should be something creative and easy to remember. If you're doing a couple of different things, don't worry too much about keywords in the domain, create an online brand for yourself...even if this is a hobby blog. The most successful bloggers today got there with a hobby blog, NOT because they wanted to make money. Passion for what you love brings money, passion for money brings frustration. Just write, join some forums and use social networking to show people what you know. It may take a little bit but you'll get a good followers base in no time!
Submit your blog site to social bookmarking website.Submit your blog url to different blog search sites and directories
try to get rss feed from your blog and submit it into rss submission site and also doing blog pinging for more.
First thing that for blogging no keyword should be targeted because blogs ranking depends on post quality. Second You just have to make your social media networks profile as much as you can and add friends keep in mind friend should be related to the category of your blog , now you question how you find peoples so simple check their post and shares you cna find the interest of that people and i dam sure it will works for you