Step by Step: Building a Niche Blog Network

Hello Warriors,

A lot of Warriors have shared there techniques and I've learned a lot ever since I joined 2 years back. Thought I'd share something myself

Now, search engines are a great way of driving visitors to your website or blog. Organic traffic is NOT free though - you may not have to pay for it but you do have to WORK for it. Nonetheless, it is a GREAT way to send people to your site on a regular basis, once you get your sites up in the SERPS.

I'd like to share this little process I use to do just that: get my site to come up in top 10 results for my targeted keywords.

What I do is simply this: I build a "network" of say 2 or 3 blogs on a niche and link them to each other.

Before I begin, let me say that this is not the only method out there. This is just something that I've seen work myself and think would help at least someone out there. Plus, your results may vary

Ok, here's what I do:

Step 1:
The first step is, you guessed it, keyword research. The only tool I've ever used for keyword research is WordTracker Free Keyword Suggestion Tool From Wordtracker

It's result may not come across as accurate but it gives you an idea of the search volume. You can also use AdWords Keyword Suggestion tool at: http://www.google.com/url?q=https://...rdToolExternal. But I don't like it as it doesn't show me the number of searches in figures.

So, I go on to wordtracker and enter the name of my niche or possible keywords my target market might use to search for a site like mine. That brings up a list of keyword phrases along with their search volume. I pick a keyword phrase and search for it at Google with and without quotes.
I usually pick keywords that have less than a million results without quotes and less than 500,000 results with quotes. I add all such keywords to my list.

Step 2:
Now I have a list of keywords that I want to target. I pick the top 2 or 3 keywords and look if I can get a domain name that contains that keyword phrase. I try adding hyphens at times - it never affected my search results. If I can find a domain, I buy it immediately.

Now this is not at all necessary. I've seen pages rank for keywords when they didn't even contain the keyword phrase in their domain name but it sure is a plus point to have it.

If you don't want to buy domains, you can always start up a blog at Blogger.com and WordPress.com. I prefer using my own domain and hosting because I'm a control freak: I want to control what shows up on my blog and what doesn't. Besides, WordPress.com doesnt let you post AdSense or other type of ads.

Step 3:
When I have my domains ready, I install WordPress on all of them. I simply prefer WordPress because I find it easy to install and use. Additionally, it's easy to optimize it using plugins and it lets me change the look and feel of my website using templates. So, I set up 2-3 WordPress blogs on my server. You can use other blogging platform if you like, or even static HTML pages if you're comfortable with that.

Step 4:
Next, I sit down to write my content. I write about 30 300-350 word blog posts for my blogs. I make sure at least one keyword phrase I chose appears in the title. Then, I pick other keyword phrases and put them in the body, making sure that they are part of the flow of the article.

Sometimes, I get keywords that don't quite fit a normal sentence. An example would be "motivation self understanding". When targeting that phrase, I make it a part of a sentence like this:

Through motivation, self understanding and blah blah blah. That does the trick

Step 5:
Now, I go on to post this content to my sites. I post 1 article on every blog in a day. When posting, I link a keyword phrase to one of my other blogs in the same niche. So, if you wrote a post that contained the phrase "gardening tips", you can link it to your blog on the other domain. This is simple backlink building via anchor text.

Step 6:
I install the All In One SEO plugin and make sure all my targeted keywords are put in it for every post.

Step 7:
Whenever I publish an article on my blogs, I ping it through Pingoat.com and Pingomatic.com. I also submit my feed to a lot of other sites. A good list is here: 45 Working Sites to Quickly Submit Your RSS Feeds

Step 8:
Using the Google Sitemap plugin for WordPress, I create a sitemap for all my blogs and submit it to Google via Google Webmaster Tools (http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/).

Step 9:
You can track traffic using Google Analytics easily. I personally use the Google Analyticator plugin for WordPress as it lets you integrate Analytics very easily. GA also tells me which keywords people used to get to my site - pretty handy when you're targeting particular keywords.

As cliche as it sounds, I "rinse and repeat". To save time, I sometimes outsource the writing part. I like writing myself though, as it lets me add my own "voice" to the articles. When I run out of ideas for content, I try searching article directories and Google to help me out.

Hope this helps someone out there

Warmest Regards,
Sagar