Blog Experiment #2: Creating/Promoting 50 Post Blog - You Join Too

Update:

I'm in a pretty big time crunch, so I only had time to search for ten new long tail keywords and publish one new post. This long tail keyword phrase gets 813 searches a day, with just 417 competing pages.

But this post was very fun to write and it ended up being over 700 words long. Once I start to market the blog, I want to put some extra emphasis on this post. I made it somewhat controversial. I want to promote it n sites like Digg and StumbleUpon. If you know of any other social bookmarketing sites I should check into, please let me know.

Best wishes,

Joe

Posts Published: 5
Posts Needed: 50
Percentage of Phase 1 Complete: 10%

 

Hi JoeMack,

I am really interested in this experiment. Please keep us update.
To your success
Interval

 

I want to know how this experiment turns out as well

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. Hope you get a good result this time.

 

OK, JoeMack. Remember me? I was the nasty guy who criticized your previous experiment.

One thing you convinced me about was that “you ‘ave to try!”
I just snapped up a domain name about mobile phones. Still cannot believe I got it for a reg fee It is a niche, not as crowded as yours but still pretty busy.

I’ll go along with your experiment with a difference that I’ll be using my own domain name + Wordpress and Adwords Keyword Tool to explore my keywords.

Another difference – I’ll be using methods to collect visitor e-mail addresses (legitimate methods), i.e. building opt-in list.

And I’ll start probably this weekend (too busy converting my clients to XHTML standards )

 

Tankard,

I wouldn't say that you were a "nasty guy." We just had a difference in opinion. I encourage you to keep posting your thoughts.

I'm glad that you are joining me in this experiment. I will say that your way (own domain + Wordpress) should rank better than a similar Blogger blog. No doubt about that (and I generally go that route).

And building a mailing list is another great idea. I have about 10 different mailng lists, and am busy enough trying to maintain a relationship with them. For this experiment, I am not doing that (yet).

Well, I hope that you post updated as you progress along. I'd like to hear them.

Best wishes,

Joe

 

I agree. I was about to do this on a Blogger but then I came across this domain name and as I need to activate it as soon as possible (you know this "older domains rank higher" story) I thought - instead of putting up another minisite, why not joining this interesting experiment.

From the point of speed of spidering and Google alerts, I must say that Blogger is somehow better. At least sometimes my Blogger efforts get visited more frequently than stand-alone domains.

Anyway, I just wanted to share another method of creating a long-tail keyword list. I'd like to think it is one of the fastest available. Feel free to shatter my opinion.

If it is a new unfamiliar niche, I go to a competitor's site and run a SeoQuake Density for FireFox. I pick several two-word phrases, maybe add something of my own and go to

http://www.submitexpress.com/keytracker.php

It allows to check up to 15 keyphrases + it gives data and suggestions from both WordTracker and KeywordDiscovery. I completely disregard the estimated searches because the numbers are VERY inaccurate, but I take the suggestions as they represent what people would possibly search. Especially paying attention to 3-word and 4-word phrases.

Then I copy the long phrases into Google Adwords Keyword tool, select All Territories and tick Use Synonyms.

The two lists Google gives then get downloaded into Excel and sorted ascending by searches per month.

Eventually the bottom of the list is something I will use when I get there, i.e. when my site will be oooh so popular. The start of the list is the long-tail keyphrases that attract anything between 100 to 5000 monthly searches and have almost no competition.

In my case I obtained around 120 long-tail keywords with trustworthy monthly search/competition data in less than 15 minutes. I think it will be enough to get me started. I almost feel guilty about that.

 

wow.. the above post is amazing,.. thank you guys for sharing such methods with the community

 

Tankard,

I agree with Oblivion. Very good post! I'll definitely try out that method.

It's those types of posts that I really like. Very informative. Thanks for sharing those tips. And do keep me updated on your progress.

Update for my blog:

Just wrote and submitted another post. It's based off a long tail keyword that gets 435 daily searches, and has 3100 competing webpages (slightly more than my previous LT keyword phrases, but it fits very well into my niche).

I'm chugging along. It's hard because I want to start marketing this blog. But I am going to dedicate myself to completing those 50 posts first (Phase 1) before worrying about marketing.

Best wishes,

Joe

Posts Published: 6
Posts Needed: 50
Percentage of Phase 1 Complete: 12%

 

Thank you, Joe.

I'm just thinking... if you have already published 6 articles, isn't it an idea to get Googlebot start indexing your blog (e.g. Digging or Stumbling an article or two)? That way you will let Google follow your gradual progress from 6 posts to 50 posts.

I, personally, think it is better to show progress (regular updates) than introducing a complete blog but I am not sure, I would like to hear another opinion.

Good luck!

 

Tankard,

That's a great point. I wanted to focus solely on creating the 50 posts before I started marketing.

However, I don't want to miss an opportunity. So I took the one post that I mentioned yesterday (the one that I wanted to Digg because it was so unique), and submitted it to Digg.

I also found a high traffic blog in my niche, left a logical question the post, and linked back to that same blog post.

I tried submitting that same post to SocialMarker.com, but it froze on me three times.

Is that enough? I do want the Googlebots to get wind of my blog (and my daily posting) and visit more often. What else should I do?

I'm going to do more of a marketing launch when I'm done with Phase 1, but letting Google know about my blog as soon as possible is a good idea.

Thanks again, Tankard.

Best wishes,

Joe

 

Update:

I took one more action of getting Google to discover my blog.

I went to Feedburner.com and entered in my blogger address. That told me the name of my RSS feed (I know that its supposed to be something like http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds, but I couldn't get it to work that way, so I used Feedburner to discover the coorect RSS feed address).

I then went to Pingomatic.com. I entered in my blog name, blog homepage address, and RSS feed (which was optional), and the site automatically "pings" a couple dozen other websites.

Now, I don't know what "pinging" is, but I have read enough times that it is important.

If anyone can explain pinging to me, and how often I should do it, I'd realy appreciate it (I'll do some of my own research as well).

Best wishes,

Joe

 

Well. Pinging is like just a way of telling a particular service/site that u have updated your site which makes it come back to your site and update the additional content...

 

So if I'm adding a new post each day, should I be pinging my blog everyday too? Is that too much?

Joe

 

Your back! I was wondering where you went after your last experiment. Good luck!

 

You can also submit your site to google - http://www.google.com/addurl/

and if you have a google webmaster tools account (free) you can check your sites crawl status and what the googlebot sees on your website. Stuff like that.

 

Hey, thanks for the tips. I did submit my url to Google (something really definitive about doing it manually).

As for the Google Webmaster Tools. I do have an account. However, when I tried adding the special tracking code to one of my other blogs, the traffic just stopped. So I took the code off, and things went back to normal.

I'm sure it was just a fluke. I haven't read anyone else having that happen to them (and it doesn't make sense why it would). Just to make myself feel better about it, I'm going to do a little more research on it.

Best wishes,

Joe

 

Update:

Preparation, preparation. I did the planning today.

1. Made a task-list. Wrote down 30 post titles I wanted to write about on a sheet of paper (it is white, thin stuff made of pulp and you don't need to upgrade it). I've found that it makes life easier. Then I will sort the titles from my task-list into my diary (paper again) for the next 15 days (2 posts a day) starting from Sunday.
Then, when I sit down by computer I will save time because I will not be wandering around thinking, dude, what shall I write today?

2. Collected all the raw data like techs, specs, boring texts from phone manuals etc. Printed all the stuff out (only 12 pages) as I don't have two screens and it is easier to keep a sheet of paper on the table, peer into it and write posts on the computer. And I already got my list of long-tail keywords (print again).

3. Collected all the pics needed, named them properly like this-phone-001, that-phone-002 etc. Again - saving time. I already have all the material needed to complete 30 posts; worries about "where to get stuff" are over!

4. Installed the Wordpress, plug-inned it, uploaded all the images in a certain folder and copied all the file/folder hierarchy on my computer.

Took me 2 hours.

Now, when I got a moment this Sunday, I will just crack on without wasting precious minutes.

You can go to blogsearch.google.com/ping and submit your feed url (now that you know where it sits)
I have heard that this works for blogger blogs and doesn't work (have tried myself) for stand-alone domain blogs.

 

Tank,

Wow, our styles are so different. You are much more organized and thorough than I am. I rarely use an paper anymore. And often times I do think, "Man, what should I write about today?" But the outcome is generally a unique, keyword rich post, from a slightly different angle.

I wish you the best on your blog.

Joe

 

Update:

I have been thinking about Google finding my blog as soon as possible, to maximize the benefit of posting daily. I did a few link building strategies (submitting to Digg, posting a comment on a related niche blog, etc), but I want to do a little more.

So I am tweaking my Phase 1 action plan a bit. Along with the 50 posts, I am also going to be write and submitting one article a week to Ezinearticles.com. So when I finish with Phase 1, I'll have 50 post and 5 articles published for my blog.

So far today:

I wrote a new post arund a long tail keyword that gets 700+ searches a day, with only 49 competing webpages. It was probably one of my weakest posts in terms of quality.

I also wrote and submitted my first article for this blog to EZA. It should get approved by Mon. In my author resource box, I have the keyword phrase anchor texted to one specific blog post. I also have another link going to the blog homepage.

Best wishes,

Joe

Posts Published: 7
Posts Needed: 50
Articles Pending: 1
Articles Live: 0
Percentage of Phase 1 Complete: 14%