Creating my first blog and I have some questions about the process

You should be more concerned about the quality of the content.

Have you done any research on your target audience?

Brent

1. I think TheCityDream.com is a good domain

2. Website design is pretty important today, people are much more attracted to visual resources than before; fortunately this is easy to improve with wordpress templates, if you do not like the one you have or you see it is unattractive you can change it for another one with relatively little work
3. You will get many different opinions here, I think that at the beginning you should write your own articles and eventually consider hiring writers.

1. I'm not a huge fan of TheCityDream.com. It doesn't really seem to have any meaning to me. Although, I'm not a New Yorker. But, I don't see it as a huge hinderence other than it was just registered 3 weeks ago. If you're on the fence about it, I'd change it to something you're more excited about.

2. My 2 cents is to stop working about the design and worry about content/traffic. You can always tinker with the design. And there are some pretty ugly sites out there that convert. Many years ago I bought a business that converted around 4% with a hideous design. I thought I'd be smart, change it and increase the conversions even more. The conversions plummeted under 1% and I had to change it back.

3. Depends, if you have the money to outsource and trust someone else to write it. Or if you want to write it yourself. I've outsourced a ton a content and I always found myself rewriting it. Now, I only outsource if I'm in a bind or feeling lazy. I use to hate writing content but I've come to somewhat enjoy it now.

1) its a URL Who cares.. will people remember it as in BRAND.. its not bad.. but you probably are not even so concerned about that right now anyways.. so its fine already.

2) it can ALWAYS be better.. fads will come and go.. color combos will come and go... As long as its good enough.. then its solid.

3) This has absolutely nothing to do with money or this or that or the other.. its about consistency.. its about VOICE.. you are not going to hire a VA in BFE that knows a lick about new your let alone have the written tone of someone that lives there.

If the idea is to be an insiders guide.. YOU are the insider.. you want to have other LOCAL insiders do some writing for you.. that's cool.. but ensure its not in YOUR name but posted under their own name.

Other than that.. just start pumping content.. something to look at.. look up the local parks in your area.. I know in most metros this is generally a place to slide in pretty easy in terms of getting rank. b give the details of the park - does it have a dog park, a playground restroom what ever... can you rent a Gazibo for the afternoon.. leave the number to do that.. stuff like that.

Hope that helps man! best of luck!

Hi John, I've had a look at your website and it looks pretty good. I wouldn't concern myself with your competitors websites. Also the domain is perfect for the city life - And implies just that "Living in, or visiting new York City". It doesn't necessarily need to be about New York though.

As far as content is concerned, I think you could easily write 500-600 words in your spare time. It doesn't have to be everyday either. You could even outsource and find a writer on Freelancer, Upwork or Iwriter at a reasonable price.

Once you have someone writing your content, you could be working on improving the design, adding an Optin form, your own product or services etc. You could also make some Youtube videos if you have extra time in your hands.

I hope this helps, and I wish you every success with your website

I dig this idea. Write the content yourself, and run with it. Growing up in NJ, many in the tri-state or around the world would dig your blog-resource.

I'd suggest writing your own content first and design second.

Use a decent looking Wordpress theme and stay with it until you get a decent sized audience.

Then worry about making your site look beautiful later.

Unless you're blogging to a entrepreneur / professional audience, design really doesn't matter much.

As a blogger, you will live and die by the quality of your writing and the quality of your message.

Design is just the cherry on top.

1. The domain is ok as long as it is unique, not too long and easy to remember.
2. Design is subjective, so don't too particular about it. People searching for content and not your design. Also, Google likes content and not design.
3. Outsource is the way if you don't like to write or your writing is not too good and you have budget.

Just start, take some action, and work on improving things later.

Chris

Hi There :-)

I took a look at your website. On your About page you have written - We create content to educate and inform people who are moving to, living in, or visiting New York City.

If this what your site is going to be about - How long have you lived in New York?

Richard

The way I look at anything online is if you are going to make it the best thing you can do is focus on writing good content. Once you focus on this everything else will fall into place.

Your content should focus on your readers and help them to solve any problems they may have when moving to the city.

The more questions you answer for your target audience the more people will share and like your content. Good content is the only way you'll make it online these days.

I also took a look at the site and it's really nice and clean the next thing you need to do is spend some time trying to find out what people want and write your content tailored to them. Do this and there's no reason that you shouldn't succeed.

Remember though it's going to take some work in the beginning. One thing I see a lot online is people give up too quickly. Stick with it and you should do well.

I wish you luck fellow warrior.

You are creating a blog that's great. I can recommend you to create a youtube channel at the same time. Now a days, people loves videos, so if you are making a a traveling blog, youtube would help to boost your engagement of your viewers

1/ The domain name is fine, what is boils down to is creating content and I suggest writing a blog post daily to get the momentum going.

Quality content that gives your audience value and helps them in some way. Make sure you do your keyword research for your blog posts.

Don't get stuck on the design of your website, you can change your design later on.

2/ I would suggest you start writing yourself and start from the beginning why you wanted to move to NYC and what is happening on a daily basis. People love to read stories.

Figure out your avatar and create content around that.

Hi, I'm new into blogging. Making website thing is new to me. This is my website Can anyone help me in improving it? Thaks much in advance.