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Blog questions

by Jolly2step
8 replies
Hey guys, haven't been here awhile but have learned quite a bit! I am starting the writing and other content process for a metal blog I would like to start.

1. Which theme should I go for? I found that the themes from themeforest looked the best and offered the most but who knows. My budget for a good quality theme stops at $60. The studiopress ones are enticing for security purposes but not sure how customizable they are.

2. This blog will be about certain types of metal music but I'd like to also write about random things. What would you do?

3. What would be on your checklist if you were starting fresh with a blog?

Thanks guys.
#blog #questions
  • Profile picture of the author LarryHaywood
    I would personally try to register my name for a domain name, learn about branding yourself, research a few plugins to make things more efficient on you and get list building started as soon as possible. Keep in mind you won't be able to use too many plugins as it will eat up resources so choose only the ones you have to have. I also love metal music by the way.
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    Doing what everyone else is doing? You'll get the same results... 97% fail. Are you a sheep or a wolf? My team and I are changing the game. It's not as hard to make it online as you might think. Let's connect and see if we can help you.

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    • Profile picture of the author Jolly2step
      That's cool man! Thank you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    I don't know the answer to your first question, but it probably belongs here, really: Website Design

    Originally Posted by Jolly2step View Post

    2. This blog will be about certain types of metal music but I'd like to also write about random things. What would you do?
    Write mostly about metal music, and maybe start another blog for the "random things". Or at least make sure that the metal music stuff is much more prominent and accessible to your targeted traffic, if metal music is their interest.

    Originally Posted by Jolly2step View Post

    3. What would be on your checklist if you were starting fresh with a blog?
    The top two items, for me, would be ...

    (i) A traffic-generation plan (made in the awareness that publishing content just on your own blog isn't a traffic-generation plan worth talking about, for most people, most of the time: all that can ever really attract is a little, gradual, eventual search-engine traffic which, for most purposes, is just about the worst quality traffic you can get anyway)

    (ii) A prominently incentivized opt-in, attached to an autoresponder, and I'd check that that's working properly before attracting the first visitor to the site. I say that because I'd be wanting to monetize the blog, myself (and I'm guessing that you do, too, since you're asking about it in a marketing forum?), and unless you plan just to use AdSense (that's not really "monetization", is it?) you'll obviously want to collect some of the visitors' email addresses?
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    • Profile picture of the author Marco Moeschter
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post




      Write mostly about metal music, and maybe start another blog for the "random things". Or at least make sure that the metal music stuff is much more prominent and accessible to your targeted traffic, if metal music is their interest.
      Agree on that with Alexa. If you wanna make it a blog to the metal niche then make a blog about the metal. Don't go over board with content which belongs in other niches. Maybe you can make it a sub category but your main focus should lie on the main topic.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jolly2step
    Good information Alexa, appreciate it. I'd really just like to build a little bit of a following and get people back into underground metal again (like the myspace days). Yes monetizing it would be a good idea but I just need the practice so I can eventually make something better down the road.

    I am still in the logo / font / picking a wordpress theme that works.
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  • Profile picture of the author joekoffi
    Hi Jolly,
    Have you come across the X theme? It looks an awesome option to start with. The version 2.0 seems the best
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    • Profile picture of the author Jolly2step
      Actually I have! Looks to be one of the best and most popular on Themeforest.

      I can get rid of the huge banner on the main page right? Also I am concerned about my logo fitting. But since it's fully customizable I am sure that stuff can be tweaked as well as the logo itself being vector.

      I just want to have the best stuff ready to go when my content is finished. Thinking is the hardest process as well as putting the pieces together perfectly on the site itself.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jolly2step
    What about content related to the metal scene? Aside from the music aspect? Only about 2 good metal sites that show up in the search engine. The rest are outdated / not really web 2.0 or ease of browsing. All the competition I have viewed has just stuck to music, videos, photos and a few shirts in their store. I'd like to go beyond that. Just no out of box ideas have come to mind yet except having models on my site lol
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