Starting A Blog..

[Gangleri]

I've been thinking about doing this for a few weeks to not only try and promote my music but to also gain more skills in writing and articulating myself. I realise that a blog should not be your only point of action when promoting your music online but I figured that if I stuck to it that it would be a good thing to have and to direct people to.

My question to you guys is what kind of things should I consider when either writing my blog or trying to get it out there for people to see? I know that there are a lot of articles on the web on how to make your blog popular and get lots of views but I was wondering if anyone here had any experience with handling a blog that was specifically to do with their music. I want to write something of a journal for the musical part of my life, getting to grips with songwriting, gigging and recording, I'm not interested in being overly self-indulgent, it would just be a casual commentary on the happenings in my life with regards to music. If that makes sense. It was difficult to word that without sounding a bit pretentious, I tried to avoid using phrases like: "I want to document my musical journey!" or "I want everyone to read intently as I grow and flower as a superior musician!", that would've just made me sound like a burke.

ANY tips are helpful.

[john]

Are you starting one here on Songstuff?

Hmmm, blogs, there are so many different aspects. For example, how you write a blog, how often, what length, should you use a structure etc, and then there is harnessing the networking, promotion and social media integration etc.

I'm happy to help with advice etc, but it is a bigger subject matter than one post. I plan on putting together some intro tutorials, so help you would be a good way to get me off my ass to do it lol

First question is, is it for fun, or is it for promotion? Not that promotion can't be fun, but there is a distinction when it comes to primary purpose...

Next , pick a good name for your blog. You have to live with it for a while

Second, be prepared to make a post a day for the first two weeks, and settle to a post two or three times a week if it is a promotional blog. if simply and only fun then go at your own pace, but a couple of times a week is reasonable.

Have a focused purpose to your blog, and a primary topic.

If promo, It can be a good idea to set up two or three satellite / supporting blogs (more on these later) Although you post to these it is cunningly easy if you know a trick or ten.

Don't get sucked into posting content that is not your own, post original content text wise.

As well as posting regularly, your main job now is to build readership. There is lots to do here (and most people running a blog have no idea, honestly). To make it worthwhile you really need to do this.

Getting on and doing it makes a difference, but it's best to know up front (when doing a promo blog) that understanding keywords, tags, article structure and understanding how to construct and write promotional copy. All things I can help with.

I hope that helps. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll see what i can do to help.

Cheers

John

[TheBrewer]

Hi Gangleri and John!

I'm in the process of establishing one on my side since 4 days (John already knows it) and it's already online. Not complete, but already online. I even sold 2 songs today ;-P

Seriously, John is right. It will be from now on a big work to do and keep doing. For now, mine is in french but i'm in the process tonight to make the english version and it will be probably online by the week-end. Can you guys have a look at it and tell me what you think about it? I put a translator on the pages in the meantime, but don't use it as it's not showing all the flash stuff.... I mean you can use it, but i suggest after your first tour of the site. After the english version will be online, this translator will be taken off...

Let me know what you think!

Pascal

Blog link with ecommerce solution inside too: My blog

[john]

Hi Gangleri and John!

I'm in the process of establishing one on my side since 4 days (John already knows it) and it's already online. Not complete, but already online. I even sold 2 songs today ;-P

Seriously, John is right. It will be from now on a big work to do and keep doing. For now, mine is in french but i'm in the process tonight to make the english version and it will be probably online by the week-end. Can you guys have a look at it and tell me what you think about it? I put a translator on the pages in the meantime, but don't use it as it's not showing all the flash stuff.... I mean you can use it, but i suggest after your first tour of the site. After the english version will be online, this translator will be taken off...

Let me know what you think!

Pascal

Blog link with ecommerce solution inside too: My blog

Just a quick message for now, your music link is broken and give an error 404 (not found) when clicked on

I'll take a closer look tomorrow

[TheBrewer]

The english version is now online... Website/Blog is not finish though, but now, we begin to have something... :-)

[Gangleri]

Thanks John and Pascal, great advice and input.

I think I'll be using it both for promotion but also fun. I'm now troubling myself with the thoughts of whether I should actually do it or not, I'm worried that I won't end up being satisfied with the results. Then again, I won't know if I don't try so..

All in all, I suppose I should give it a go, work at it a bit and see where I am with it in a couple of weeks.

A few questions though John, what are the satellite blogs you talk about? And what are some of your main tips for building readership?

Thanks a lot for the responses!

[Mahesh]

By experience,I can tell that John REALLY knows what he's talking about.

Well,Im not sure what John actually meant by sattelite blog,but this might be it(even if it isnt,this would be useful),

Maybe what he meant was having one blog as the main focus on what you want to promote or talk about,and a few other blogs that would generate traffic to your original blogs thru themselves(ie., its main purpose would be to drive traffic to your main blog)

Usually,these blogs would be non-personal (you wont be talking about your music or yourself) but rather a general topic of your interest. for eg., Songwriting.like articles containing tips that you can give to other songwriters,etc

Many blogs are always better than one as it covers a lot of land on the internet and since you would be "funnelling" all your traffic from these blogs to your original one,imagine the result!

Anyways,like I mentioned,John has many secrets locked in(the old prick lol),very useful stuff,Im sure he would be glad to help. (plus,as much limited my knowledge is,I would be glad to help as well)

Cheers,

Mahesh

[Gangleri]

Hey Mahesh, thanks for your response.

Yeah I thought that that's what John meant by satellite blogs. Not a bad idea at all and easily done with Blogger, which is the blogging platform that I think I've decided to go with. I actually wrote my first post today, I'm gonna look over it and edit it because I think it needs refinement, I was too focused on just getting words down, I need to make it sound a little bit more interesting before I start sending the links to people.

How long have you had your blog? How are you finding the experience thus far, are you attracting enough of a readership to feel happy yet? Do you use it for any specific purpose such as to sell your music?

[john]

Hey

Satellite blogs are just as Mahesh describes, they are feeder sites. I wouldn't limit them to just being blogger blogs, it's a good idea to have one on each of the main blog platforms, but at a minimum I would say blogger and wordpress.com

To build subscribers the main thing is to create engaging content, something that is of true value each post. That might seem a world away just now but practice and understanding that you do have a lot of knowledge and interesting things in your head etc.

Try and include an image or video in your posts where possible. As ever only stuff you have copyright permission to do so or it is public domain or there is a blanket agreement, for example YouTube vids.

Use text formating such as titles, bold, italics too. Where sensible write things as articles, ie an intro and a conclusion with section(s) in between... even when it's a chatty blog entry this helps make them more navigable.

Promote, promote, promote

Oh, it's a good idea to write your blog article, then write your satellite blog articles referring to your original in some way with a call to action link, for example "Read "Blah blah blah" now!" where blah blah blah is the link.

Tag your articles. use keywords related to and included in your article / post text.

There are ways to easily create your satelitte blog posts, and much much more promo and leveraged promo you can do once you are up and running.

You get the most control if you buy a domain and host a wordpress blog. As this is your first blog however I think you are going about it the right way. You can always launch your own later.

Incidentally I would think of your main blog(s) (yes you can have more than one) as topic lead. For example one about YOUR music, another about playing guitar or singing, YOUR lyrics etc, about you as an artist but targetted at other artists instead of fans, another about other specific musical interests. Satellite blogs are better to cover a broader topic, such as the online indie music scene, being AN artist online, about writing lyrics.

Use your blogs to support each other too where topically it is right to do so.

There are a lot more tips, but that I think is plenty to get started.

Cheers

John

[TheBrewer]

Interesting, very interesting!

There's a lot to learn from you John! I appreciate!!!

[Gangleri]

Lots to think about there, I thank you John! Definitely plenty there to get started with as you say. I'll start thinking about my satellite blogs then!

Many thanks John. I'm sure a good deal of other people stumbling upon this will find it immensely helpful too.

[MikeVeny]

In my opinion, blogging is one one of the core marketing activities that EVERY business should do. That being said, it's one of the cheapest and most fun. Check out this article that I wrote, "How to Make Money from Your Blog in 7 Easy Steps".

The most important thing that I have learned about blogging is that you need to find a way to educate your audience. We live in a world that values searching for things we want to know about. Also, keep articles brief and simple (use bullet points & headings). Your audience will increase in a relatively short amount of time.

Last month, my blog, www.MikeVeny.Com doubled in traffic. If you have any other questions, please feel free to email me.

Happy Blogging!

[alexdrum111]

Even i am having a idea to share my view and thought with all, that's why i am going to start my own blog