Starting a serious blog, some questions

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Hi everyone, I have finally settled on a site I want to build with a blog, online shop (eventually) that will be pretty much become the biggest info related site in a specific area.

The purpose of this site will be that it should become the best in that area and is meant to stay for a long time and only grow over time. It's an interesting subject so I'm not too worried about the competition.

I have some doubts and would love to hear some advice from the masters.

1) It looks like the genesis theme for WP seems the most reliable in regard to future updates and perfection of a WP theme. I'm in for the long haul and feel that they are the best bet. Anyone feels there would be a better theme out there?

2) I will create all my content myself because I know about the subject but how could I make sure that no one will copy it and use it against me in SEO? Once I publish it google will be smart enough that I was the original publisher right?
Any suggestions on that?

3) About SEO, I downloaded the google SEO guide and plan to follow that. I feel that by generating great content and do a little bit of social marketing traffic will come from itself. I don;t plan on doing any crazy backlink building etc.
Am I missing something?

4) What are the biggest mistakes people make with new big sites like that that destroys them?

Sorry for all the questions but they are really burning within me and like to figure all that out.

Thanks so much for reading this,
Ben
#main internet marketing discussion forum #blog #questions #serious #starting
  • 1: Elegantthemes also has some pretty online shop themes
    2: Yea once you get indexed your content is safe
    3: Social marketing is great, but you need a bit of onsite SEO, keywords density and all that stuff, don't expect much by doing this
    When targeting social sites try to have some High quality images and videos to grab more attention
    I will suggest to try some backlinking services having good comments, there are couple of service's here on this forums and other IM forums
    But only when your site is couple of weeks old, i try to diversify by using lowest package of different services to have most of diversity
    4: Building bad links to their sites
  • post fresh content regularly to keep people wanting to come back
  • Awesome info guys! thank you so much

    Anyone wants to share their experiences with the genesis theme?
    • [1] reply
    • Yes, I have years of experience. Genesis is actually the Genesis Framework. This framework allows developers to create WordPress themes compatible with the Genesis Framework.

      You could build your own theme for your purpose of creating a large site. One of the largest sites built on the Genesis Framework is problogger.net if you care to see an example. Also, cnn.com used the Genesis Framework for the blogs in the past. However, heavy customization was required for both sites.

      To take advantage of the the Genesis Framework you really should be experienced with WordPress and the Genesis Framework. There will be times you will want to go beyond what the Genesis Framework can do, but there is a great support forum and there are Genesis Framework Professionals available in the forum.

      Jeffery 100% :-)

      P.S. Make a plan now before you invest any money in anything. Large sites require reliable and fast servers. Shared hosting is okay to start, but if the he site becomes a large site at a later date you will most likely need a dedicated server and the switch from shared to dedicated is not cheap.
  • Hi,

    #4 - Most bloggers use fear as their motivator which leads to fear-filled results.

    Example; the majority post once daily because they fear blowing out their readers. I post 3 to 5 times daily because my blog - like all - is a newspaper, online. So I generate 10,000 to 14,000 page visits daily because I keep my feed humming and know my readers want more and more good content.

    Let faith rule your mind. Forget about people stealing content. If you are really into blogging and push yourself to create content, and you build a massive network of blogging buddies, yep, people might steal some but you will be so busy helping folks and making money that you will be happy, and thinking abundance instead of lack.

    Hope this helps!
    • [2] replies
    • It's true that daily blogging and a very active and informative site is the approach to adopt, but it is no longer true that "traffic will come by itself" just by doing this and nothing more. As was already mentioned, on site SEO is a must, and yes, a good WP theme will take care of most of that. Effective off page SEO is also necessary, and there are plenty of sources for that too. These days, social media = of course. But these are all the things your competition will be doing as well. If your topic really is "interesting" as you say, do something different, like offline buzz generation. Ring your local newspaper and make sure it is an attractive scoop for them. Browse around in Fiverr too - you can get some great inspiration there, and some practical help too, really cheap. Gotta think outside the box . . . .
      All the best,
      Sue
      • [1] reply
    • Most important in my opinion is not giving up. I have been guilty in the past with some of my projects. Dont move on to the next big thing. This is the big thing and building an authority blog takes time. Give yourself atleast 3 years to start with. Dont quit and be consistent no matter what. Regular updates to your blog builds reputation and respect which builds loyal readers. You can read copyblogger for creating titles and content that sticks.

      Hello Ryan,

      Can you share how to build traffic ? If you are getting 10-14k, you are obviously doing something I am not. Some tips ? Is it all organic or do you indulge in some daily roadmap of sorts.

      Thanks.
  • Everything sounds on track, and don't worry about people copying you. There really aren't that many people who do that. And if they do, you can file a DMCA notice with Google. Yes, they will know if it is your original content.

    Besides that, your key to success will be continuing to create new and fresh content. And that is what will make you successful, provided you are right in that you have chosen the correct niche.

    People mess up by doing Black Hat SEO. And it sounds like you already understand this. Stay away from link-building schemes, as your approach of creating massive content will get you naturally occurring links over time, anyway.
  • Your traffic generation plans concern me. Create great content and do a little bit of social media? That's not going to cut it.

    Have you thought about which keywords you might target?
  • No, not really. If Matt Cutts (head of Google webspam team) uses Genesis, then I will too.

    There's no way to stop someone from using your content. All you can do is set Google alerts for your content, and whenever someone copies it, either A) Talk to 'em or B) Report them if they don't take it down.

    Yes - you need to be building backlinks, just not doing it crazily. Ethical ways you can do that:

    1. Guest post.
    2. Write articles in a FEW article directories.
    3. Content syndication

    They don't follow through, or work hard enough.
  • Google SEO guide: I have read it, tried to abide by it, and still got whacked. Read it to have a general idea, but focus on event driven content, it can be your journey in the niche, or milestones that happen in your niche. Do be aware of key words and phrases, but focus on writing to people.
  • Don't get lost in the minutiae, create quality content and you work on building out your audience and you can't go too far wrong.
  • Two things:

    1- You will encounter obstacles along the way. Don't give up. Create quality content that caters to your target market. Encourage them to interact also.

    2- How are you going to monetize your blog? Will you be building a list, using Adsense, or something else... Monetization is the most important thing here because if you are just worrying about creating more content and SEO'ing it, but don't have any conversions, what good is that?

    Something to think about. Just my $0.02
  • The Genesis framework is excellent and their support is good. You won't be disappointed.

    TIP: Even though the Genesis built-SEO is probably the best of any premium theme, consider using an SEO plugin in the event you change theme frameworks in the future. You can use StudioPress' SEO Data transport plugin, but I find using a plugin saves that hassle.

    Google is smart enough about who published first. Don't worry about people ripping off your content - and yes it will happen. Just put out good content.

    These days, if you build a backlink do so for traffic, not SEO. Social media, Guest posting, commenting, forum posting, Videos, social bookmarking are all legit traffic strategies and should be used as traffic strategies.

    For example, you could guest post on terrible websites for a backlink, or put more effort into it and guest post on a high traffic website. Go for the high traffic website.

    Trying to game SEO. This stuff worked wonderfully a few years ago, but with Google getting smarter it can eventually come back to haunt you. I've had websites go down in flames. If you're in it for the long haul, focus on content and only build links that generate targeted traffic.

    Put together a traffic strategy plan from the onset. You will need to do more off-site traffic generation than you expect in the beginning to get initial eyes on your content. Again, engage in off-site activity for traffic only - not SEO. Every link you build should send your site traffic. If you do this, you'll build up traffic and if your site is good, they'll come back and subscribe.
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    Starting a serious blog, some questions

    Hi everyone, I have finally settled on a site I want to build with a blog, online shop (eventually) that will be pretty much become the biggest info related site in a specific area. The purpose of this site will be that it should become the best in that area and is meant to stay for a long time and only grow over time. It's an interesting subject so I'm not too worried about the competition.