Archives for May 2008

Many network bloggers, or aspiring network bloggers, have great ideas for blogs. If this is the case, they might want to pitch it to their networks. The worst they can do is say "no", right? If you have an untouched niche or a fun idea running around in your head, do suggest it to your editors. Here are a few tips to help you out:

Take Your Time

Instead of rushing off a hurried email to your editor, take your time to craft a well-written, well thought out proposal. Describe exactly what you had in mind with the blog and why you feel it will be successful. Include:

• Possible name and available domain names
• A detailed description
• Statistics regarding the niche
• Links to other similar blogs
• How you plan on making it different from others in the niche.
• Who do you feel will read this blog?
• How do you plan on promoting your blog?

Don’t Bug

Don’t bug your editor or contact at the network. If you don’t hear back in a day or two remember editors and people in charge are busy and get email inquiries from hundreds each day. After a decent amount of time, say 30 days, write back and inquire. If you still don’t receive an answer you have several recourses:

• Continue to wait
• Shop your idea elsewhere
• Start up your own blog

If the network turns down your idea

If the network turns down your idea, hopefully they will give you a reason. For instance, they don’t see it as a profitable idea or they already have a similar blog. You can continue to shop your idea around or you can start the blog on your own. It’s good to remember being turned down is nothing personal. There’s a business decision behind it, but that should deter you as a blogger.

You also not let one rejection discourage you from coming up with other ideas in the future. Bloggers are creative people and rejection is only a momentary setback. If you think positive, you’re sure to find an outlet for your ideas.

Yesterday Jennifer talked about how she likes to read blogs not in her niche or about blogging. I like to call them recreational blogs. I read them as recreation rather than work or research. What I love so much about niche blogging is seeing all the different types of blogs – and different types of passions. What I’d like to do today, if you don’t mind, is highlight some of the more interesting niche blogs I’ve come across. Some of this is to show you different ideas and another is because I like to give props to people who do cool things. Some of these blogs aren’t on my daily or weekly read list, but I did want to highlight them because they’re unique niches.

Behold, some great niche blogs:

• The Blog of Unnecessary Quotation Marks – I’ve been sharing this one with my FWJ readers for years. It never fails to put a smile on my face.
• Camdy Blog
• Ecorazzi
• Queens Crap – A blog mostly about how all the beautiful old homes with character are being torn down in my old stomping ground of Queens, NY and being replaced with monstrosities.
• Stuff White People Like
• Fermentarium
• Little People
• Pizza Blog
• Photos from Northern Norway

As you can see, people will blog about anything, and most of these blogs do well. What are some of the more unusual niches you’ve come across?

Guest Post by David Peralty

Deb’s note: I asked my friend and brand new community manager for PicApp to offer a guest post letting you know more about this great free, legal resource for images. I’ve been using PicApp for several months, and while there are still bugs to work out, I also see improvements being made and a way for me to use news and celebrity images legally. The image you see here is from PicApp.

Most of the blog networks that I have ever been involved with don’t spend the money to have access to images. Either they haven’t considered this, or they assumed we could find the images we need from the variety of free sources out there in the market.

Unfortunately, these free sources aren’t always filled with the images we need or want, and as such many bloggers jump over to Google’s Image Search and use copyright images without permission. This is illegal, but for the most part, it has been considered harmless. The harmless factor goes out the window when you are using images for a network blog. Networks are businesses and as such they have to be treated in a certain way. They can’t violate copyright laws or they will eventually have to deal with legal issues that could cost money, and eventually ruin a network.
Some blog networks have already started creating content guidelines to protect themselves, while still not offering money to get the high quality images they require for their content.

PicScout, the parent company of PicApp saw this issue, and while tracking how much copyright violation there is with their Image Tracker service, they realized that there was a void in the marketplace. Bloggers wanted high quality images, but they didn’t have the financial resources to back it up. PicApp contacted Getty, Corbis and other high quality image providers to come up with a solution.

The solution is PicApp, and its service. PicApp provides Getty and Corbis images through a flash embed system. This protects Getty and Corbis from having their images stolen, and through an ad interface on the embedded image, Getty, Corbis and other image providers will make some money back on the use of their images.

This provides bloggers with high quality images from the top stock photography sources in a way that continues to keep the providers happy.

PicApp has now gone beyond just providing those images though, and has added features that make it even easier for bloggers to get what they need. PicApp has added RSS for search, allowing you to subscribe to your searches so that you are notified of new images being added to PicApp.

This is great for those tracking events, or constantly talking about the same subject, so that you don’t have to come back and search on PicApp; instead, we will send the updates right to you.

We have also arranged to have constant updates from our image providers, meaning that bloggers can find images of sporting events before they have even concluded. This gives a competitive edge to the bloggers using PicApp. They will have images of celebrities, amazing sporting events, or even political events before they finish allowing their posts to be even more relevant and interesting.

It has been proven time and time again that adding relevant images to a post attracts more attention than posts without any images.

PicApp is still in beta and as such we are still looking for feedback, so if you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please let me know either here on this post, or at [email protected]

Here in the United States is a holiday weekend, though many bloggers are still working. I’ve been spending most of my time with my family but I’m sure to pay for that in a day or two! If you’re looking for a little holiday weekend reading, here are a few items of interest:

• Don’t Write for the Search Engines at Blog Herald
• Interesting Idea: Weed Out Bad Staff Fast at Xfep
• Is Social Networking Overrated? at Catalyst Blogger
• 12 Tips to Grow Subscriber Base on Your Second Blog
• A $3,000 per month blogging opportunity at Freelance Writing Jobs
• More Wildly Sticky and Successful Blogs on Blogging at Successful Blog.
• A Clear Blog Purpose will Make or Break Your Blog at Lorelle on WordPress.
• Protecting Your Content on WordPress.com at Lorelle on WordPress.
• Clever Website Content that Converts at Men with Pens.
• What Makes You Unique to the Blogosphere? at Performancing.
• 5 Reasons I Love Blogging More than Freelancing at PoeWar (I hear that, John).
• Fear and the Guest Blogger at PoeWar.
• Write Reviews that Add Value and Solve Your Readers’ Problems at ProBlogger

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Deb

Just a quick tip. Sometimes I get a “brilliant” idea for a post, start to type, get stuck, and then sit and ponder what to say next. HUGE time waster. Sitting and staring seems like an easy issue to avoid, but I know lots of people who note that they do this.

Train yourself to simply hit save and move on when you’re stuck. Whether you’re stuck on wording, or how you feel, or for some reason you didn’t have enough info to write the post in the first place; just stop. Hit save. Go work on another post. You can always go back later.

Do you ever participate in sit and stare behavior?

First, sorry to be MIA for 4 days. It’s been one of those weeks. “One of those weeks” by the way, is the perfect time to follow Deb’s advice on guest bloggers.

In Are You Playing Blog Favorites? I noted that I sometimes do play blog favorites, but honestly you should try and give equal attention to your blogs; within reason. I say within reason, because there are circumstances that can make it smarter to pay more attention to one blog over another. For instance, one blog I write has page view issues that aren’t my fault; it’s something on the client’s end that I can’t control. I do give this blog the attention I signed on for, but not much more. Since I’m paid partially by page views at this blog, and page views won’t be going up anytime soon (due to factors out of my hands) it’d be a waste of my time to give lots of special attention to this blog.

Aside from oddball situations like the one above, paying equal attention to all your blogs is a good idea. Giving equal attention means all your clients like you, all of your blogs earning potentials go up, and you’re not putting all your eggs in one basket.

Solutions that can help you give equal attention to all your blogs:

• Use a visual schedule and editorial calender. I showed my schedule/calender here. As you can see I use boxes to check posts off. With one glance I can tell which blogs are getting the most attention and adjust it if need be.

• Only take on the amount of work you can currently handle. I’m not talking about a bad week where your family is sick, and you lose time, I mean on a normal basis. If one blog suffers a lot, you may want to consider dropping it. The fewer blogs you have, the more attention your blogs get and it’s easier to meet and exceed post quotas.

Use a system:

1. Post at your least favorite blog first thing of the day.
2. Post at your least favorite blog last thing of the day.
3. Switch back and fourth.

I like choice number three the best because it allows all of my blogs to get some attention and it’s like a tiny reward system – fun blog; less fun blog; fun blog. I do sometimes post first thing at my least favorite blog to get it out of the way; then it’s done, and I don’t have to think about it anymore. I almost never post at my least favorite blog last thing of the day, because it’s not a fun way to end my day, and I’m more likely to blow it off completely.

• Think in potential terms. Say you have four blogs; you give one blog lots of attention and it scores 150,000 page views a month; the other three you spend less time at and they make about 50,000 page views a month. Sit down with a calculator and figure out how much more $ you could be making if all your blogs were at 100,000 page views a month. If you’re paid by posts only, figure out the same, only in post terms. Seeing actual figures can motivate you to pay more attention to potentially successful blogs.

Quit wasting time on other things when you could be working. Things such as…

• Not knowing what to blog about first
• Email
• Moderating and responding to blog comments
• Forums
• Twitter

What else have you tried that allows you to give equal time to all your blogs?

Yesterday I talked about using your competition as a guide for setting your blog apart from the rest. Today I’d like to talk about one over-saturated niche where I don’t see much of anything new going on at all: celebrity blogs.

Celebrity blogs can be very popular and lucrative, just look at Perez Hilton, PopCrunch or TMZ. The problem is, with dozens of new celebrity blogs starting every day, they’re all starting to look the same. Each one reports on the same bit of news, without having anything new to say. Why would I want to visit a blog saying the same thing as all the others? As a celebrity blogger I had to learn to do a few things to set myself apart from the pack.

• Visit the Different Celebrity Blogs

Ask yourself "What can I do differently than these bloggers?" "What can I say they’re not saying?" "What can I do to make people visit me over the other celebrity blogs??"

• Look for Different Kinds of Celebrity News

Instead of being the 257th person to tell us Angelina Jolie is having twins, see if you can find someone else to talk about. Find interesting facts or post a mini-bio on the different celebrities.

• Find a Niche

Try to narrow your niche. For instance, one of my celebrity blogs is strictly about celebrity role models. Another offers great lists and feature stories in addition to news and gossip. In fact, the blog offering celebrity lists is often quoted by radio stations.

• Search for a Deeper Story or Different Angle

Last summer everyone delighted in reporting on the antics of Britney Spears. Turns out, she was mentally ill and being manipulated by people she trusted. Instead of writing the obvious angle, dig deeper to see if there’s more to the news item than meets the eye.

• It’s Not About Snark

Every gossip blogger thinks she has to be snarky, but that’s not the case at all. Try being a nice blogger and seeing what happens.

As you can see, there are a few different ways to set yourself apart as a celebrity blogger. Why do the same exact thing as everyone else?