Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

The Key To Launching A Brand New Blog

July 23, 2009 | Blogging, Feature, Marketing

Situation: You have a new blog. You want to get some traffic to the site. You’re frustrated that everything seems to be happening at a snail’s pace. Nobody seems to care about what you’re writing.

What do you do?

I’m going to boil this down to absolute basics. Because I think too many people forget to look at the big picture and instead get mired down into the mechanics of it.

When you first walk into a scene, nobody knows that you exist. We could be talking about being a new blogger, or we could be talking about being a new employee at a company. It doesn’t really matter. The common denominator is that there is an existing, operating environment there and you are a brand new arrival.

To those people already operating in that environment, you do not exist. So, what do you do?

First, if you haven’t already done so, iron down your target market. In other words, what kind of person is going to find your blog interesting? For example, my blog will appeal to bloggers looking to grow their traffic and income. What is YOUR target market?

Good, next, you go out and find all the people who already exist in your target market. Get onto those people’s radars. So, if I were brand new to the market of “problogging”, what would I do? I’d immediately get myself onto the lines of every other leader I can find in my market. Darren Rowse, John Chow, Yaro Starak are obvious. But,  you want to get onto every line you can find. So, I’d find any blogger who blogs about blogging, and if their site looked even halfway decent, I’d become a regular on that site.

Once you track down all these people, you want to make yourself known. Be a regular commenter. Author quality guest posts and submit them to those sites. Feature them on your site (bloggers are vain, face it). Ask them for an interview. Don’t be needy, but you want to put yourself onto those sites. Not in a parasitic way, but in terms of adding real value. That’s what you want to be known for, and that’s what will attract readers to your own blog.

As you contact more people and get them onto your own blog, you remain in constant contact with them. You continue to author great content. You actively engage with them in comments. In your email list. You find out what they need and want and you deliver that to them.

What can you do differently than the leaders in your market? What shortcomings can you fill? You find this out by asking people what they most want from YOU. And then you get busy providing it.

These initial contacts are highly important to you as a leading blogger in your market – whatever that market is. You want to be telling these contacts what it is you’re up to. If you have a really killer piece of content for your blog, let these market contacts know about it.

In short, you’re setting yourself up as a player in your market by simply putting yourself onto the lines of communication which ALREADY exist in your market, finding out what is needed, then giving them THAT.

So, here it is in a simple step-by-step approach:

  1. Identify your target market.
  2. Identify all the major or minor (but established) players in that market.
  3. Get to know them and become regular contributor, both as a contact, commenter and guest author).
  4. Find out what is most needed from the market. Both from your new contacts plus the audience you see coming to your new blog.
  5. Provide THAT.
  6. Use the connections formed in step #3 and continue to inform them what you’re doing. In other words, don’t break contact, but foster it.

Period. End of story. That is how you launch a new blog and go from nobody to “guru”.

So, if you are in this boat, with a blog which hasn’t really gotten anywhere yet, what are you going to do right now? What’s your next move, after having read this post?

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  • Great step by step approach, the most important element of your blog is the relationships you make with other bloggers and of course killer content but rub shoulders with the top players and you'll be seen as one also.
  • genecoleman
    Still relatively new, I find the blog posts about blogging really helpful. I have picked up some very helpful advice. I t also helps to concentrate on listening to other people instead of trying to figure it all out. Many of these things are things, I should know just by allowing myself to think I, however, get caught up in technical things and I lose track. It is almost relaxing to read and learn from others This site seems to offer this.
  • I haven't really started blog commenting but I'm going to test it out and try using it with Google Analytics.
  • I really think people are underestimating your step appraoch no.3 - guest-posting. This will lead to higher PR, traffic and also gives value to your reputation.
  • Interesting perspective. It's all about networking in your mind. I recently started an online marketing blog to complement a new product for marketers. I haven't really done much to get the word out yet -- I want some serious quality content to be there already before I start seeding the conversations and connections that might bring people there.

    Mostly, though, the goal isn't to build readership as fast as possible. It's to publish unique, quality information that isn't published online enough, so that these blog posts get linked and show up in search results for years to come.
  • Naturally go add my thoughts with a well placed backlink to my blog, thats what I am doing right now.

    Thanks David for another insightful post of real value.

    There are thousands of bloggers out there chasing the dream. Its not that hard when you discover the real pro's and do what they do!!

    Thanks for sharing.

    Kevin
  • Al
    David I hope you reply to these comments when you have the time. I'm posting here just so I can subscribe to the comments and remember to come back when you answer the users' questions. Thanks.
  • I agree with MartinT. "Progressive" is the key here.
  • Another interesting post. I think often people are (perhaps wrongly) worried about contacting people (potential competitors?!) within their own niche. I'd say Jared's comment is a good one - look for people at roughly the same 'level' as you and start there, rather than trying to get on the radar of the 'gurus' immediately. That sounds like a good way to ease into it.
  • Hi David, I really like this post, as many of us like to achieve the higher level from now by mean of blogging. Its really not so easy to teach people how to make money. I always follow your suggestions and implement that in my blog. Its really helpful to me. Thanks for gr8 post.
  • Great advise as usual David.

    As for me, I started off blogging about online businesses, which is a very wide umbrella. Over the past many months I've found that I most enjoy blogging about blogging, sharing the knowledge I have gained thus far and providing others with an insiders look at the many challenges of becoming a pro.

    I have already begun the process of narrowing my blog's focus and have some rebranding ideas to be implemented in the near future.

    As I climb the ladder to success I see an unlimited resource for content which provides a high level of excitement for the future.
  • David,

    First off, congrats on the new addition to your family!

    I agree with you that you take logical steps in attracting traffic such as other blogs in the same industry. When I started my blog, I went first to my offline "warm" list of people I know spreading the word. That gave my new blog a big "shot in the arm." When attending each local networking event in my city, I told at least 10 to 20 people of my blog and URL, and got many more views from there.

    After that, commenting on other blogs, writing a small number of articles, and listing with blog directories and passing out flyers to businesses (my market) with my URL helped tremendously. Soon I expect to be able to attract enough unique "eyeballs" to start selling a banner sponsor on the front page of my blog.

    Keep up the great work here. I appreciate you being down to earth and giving no BS advice to all of us.

    Regards,

    Bruce
  • "Get to know them and become regular contributor, both as a contact, commenter and guest author)."

    This is the best advice... Worked well for me, but it is maintaining that is tough.
  • Cooooool...

    Thanks
  • Lauching a new blog? Believe me, I've been there and did it again with "relaunching" my blog. The easiest trick is to always contactbloggers around your niche email and well, let them kow that you now exist :))
  • Excellent post David... I do have a question about auto content for a supplemental area on my new blog which will be for industry news, and info from my favorite bloggers.

    Do you recommend, or can you recommend the proper way to use this type of content as supplemental content to add value to a blog?

    Thank you,
    lew
  • Hi david I really like this topic , as most of the new bloggers like me will definetly find useful from this.
    I am also from one of them who is looking for an good traffic on my blog http://clickblogging.blogspot.com/. Its really having an
    good stuff to refer and implement these things on my blog. thanks david once again for such post.
    But here I want to ask you one question that, you mentioned here the names of darren rowse, yaro etc. Is there any another way to attract traffic without approching these master bloggers for writing guest post, bcoz there are no. of bloggers who do this and few of them will able to get it. Thanks for this post
  • Hi Doug Dillard, that's really impressive for a new blog.
  • I also completely agree with you STEFAN! :) I noticed I receive a major amount of traffic from my blog commenting (which doesn't take that much time out of my day to do - and I find it enriching and interesting) - and a lot of the readers from the blogs I comment on, head on over to my blog and comment on mine. I receive A LOT of traffic this way.
  • Great post. Sometimes the gurus aren't as hard to get a hold of as you might think. Commenting on their blogs regularly can grab their attention right away. Then after being a regular on their blog, if you send an email to him/her about guest posting or with a question - they are most likely going to know your name and respond. :) That's just my opinion. :) Thanks for the advice David.
  • SZ
    That is really good advice. I don't use wordpress, and have been trying to figure out how to get commenting on my posts for a long time now.
  • Absolutely agree with you David. Our new blog is just over a month old and I have been doing exactly what you have said and it is working wonderfully. My last two blog posts have at least 30 comments each and our subscriber list and twitter subscribers are growing on a daily basis. We are hoping to be Gurus one day :)
  • Great info. I know I havne't been guest posting enough, even though I have good feedback on the posts. I think bloggers should concentrate more on marketing instead of content all the time... including myself
  • Great, my next move is... asking You (an established blogger) for an email interview.

    Is it possible?
  • Hi David.

    I like how you didn't mention anything about social media. I do use social media but I think there is a huge misunderstanding at how well it can perform for generating a big success for you.

    For so many people, it's all about the number of people following you, or even maybe how many untargeted hits come to your site through social media.

    What matters is this: relationships
  • This post and the above comments reminds me of a number of other commentators I have read recently that talk about making connections, networking, joining peer groups and the like.

    Anyone who is old enough to know how business was done prior to the internet would be using these same terms. The message is clearly there for anyone who wants to see it. This is the internet start inter-networking.
  • What if your niche is so small and non tech savvy that you're the only game in town (at this point)? Where do you go to network?
  • Personally I think blog commenting is the number one method to get other bloggers attention. Even though you may get a bunch of traffic from Google, you can decide precisely which blogowner you want to notice you by commenting their blog and adding valuable comments.
  • Great Post!

    I'd like to add that joining a peer group (in my case, a virtual assistant peer group) also helps to promote a new blog. For example, small business owners looking for a virtual assistant would come across popular peer groups specific just to VAs. As an active participant there, my postings include my contact info, site and blog urls. Some peer sites allow space to include my feed so that my most recent blog posts appear as titles on these sites. I receive many 'hits' to my blog through the peer-to-peer groups. Within my blog, I also include a sign-up for my newsletter, which also connects to my blog. It's a very cyclical process.

    Thank you for submitting this information.

    Janine
  • I think commenting and getting to know the people in your niche is a great way to draw in more visitors to your blog. Greg Ellison
  • Right, but I think commenting in good blogs that aren't related to your niche is also a good idea - in this way you may get many new visitors that won't find you otherwise.
  • Right on target as always, great advice. I like to point out the minor players are also key in this approach. While the Guru’s really got it going on they are not as easy to get direct feedback from them since everyone is looking for that.

    Your chances of really establishing some solid connections are much better with someone that is slightly ahead of where you are currently at. You might even be able to form a little group of minor players that can explode your business. I recently started building some great connections using the above approach and it works. Hoping to guess post that somewhere soon that’s on my short term list.
  • What am I going to do? Well I am not blogging about blogging, so I am going to go to other blogs in my niche and try to make non-spammy comments.

    But oddly enough, the call to action on this post is really a call to go read and comments on other blogs. (at least for me)

    Not complaining, just observing the irony. Cheers!
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