How to fit HP into larger strategy with new site launch
Well, it's only been a couple weeks, but I tried out a few article sites under various names, and settled on a few series that people seem to like.
Between the sites, I've managed to accumulate over 200 followers. I'm fairly encouraged by that. While it's miniscule in internet terms, it seems like a good start for 2 weeks of involvement, so it's time to get past the "throw it against he wall and see if it sticks" bit, and set my sites on the next goal.
I have a site I would like to create. I'm looking at doing a thesis WP site that hosts multiple related blogs. I have a couple other writers that would like to provide content, and it looks like I may be offering a daily cartoon as well. The idea is that it is a daily place for people to get in on all the latest music and general viral internet happenings, but with a decidedly light and comic appeal... the kind of daily break people look forward to checking in on.
Each contributor will have a daily blog... so they are either introducing a new band or song each day, or the next installment in their saga, or a new review of viral videos... but it's daily for each one, so people always have a reason to bookmark, like, share, and return. 100% focused on the content for now. I have other monitization plans down the line. Right now, I just want to build a loyal following, and that means focus on content.
The HP part I'm trying to figure out is this. I have couple of series (one here) that with a bit of tweaking could become a part of the site. However, I can't have it both places. I'm wondering what the best way is to use HP, provide value at HP, but also have that spill over into a series elsewhere.
I'm thinking along the lines of putting the back catalog on the owned site, and posting each new installment here... but not sure after that. Would it make sense to de-index it after a month or so when no one's reading it here any more, then move there and re-index... always offering new content here first?
Basically would like to offer something of value here, find new readers here, and then refer them to the owned site for the history of the collection... which means eventually each new installment needs to end up there.
Is there a completely different strategy? So busy working on the details of the new site, that I haven't worked out all the details for moving some of the content over yet.
In the meantime, I can write some other stuff to stay here as well, just want to keep things relevant so there is spillover appeal.Bad idea, in my opinion. You post it here, get it ranked on Google, then you deliberately delete it and post it somewhere else so it has to build rank all over again?
The first question you need to answer is - how do you propose to make money from the site? Or is it not intended to make money? That can make a big difference to the advice we give you.
Open to completely different ideas or ways to accomplish the overall goal too.
Abridged version since I rambled:
Have series of articles here and others elsewhere that I continue to write new installments for.
Want to migrate main content over to owned site.
Will keep some other related writings here.
Would like to find best way to direct readership toward owned site.
Wondering about new segments debuting here, linking to beginning of series on owned site... then de-indexing here after a month, and adding to continually growing chain on site.
Would ultimately like new content to debut there, but looking for general ways to accomplish this while steering traffic to owned site.
Overall, I'm getting over three thousand views a week just from internal traffic on here, Squidoo, etc. Seems like a shame to abandon that, so trying to find best way to use these sites as a bridge, and maybe social bookmark to HP... then link out.Greg, for reasons of my own, I just (literally just) discovered Marisa's Hub
"From HubPages to Your Own Website" and I think it is something that would interest you, particularly her discussion of the reasons for starting your own website (and reasons not to).I just read Marisa's hub and found it especially interesting as I've only recently started my own sites. Well I bought the domain names and set up hosting five months ago, and only today I got the last one up. I have six sites now.
All of them need more posts but that is coming.
I wanted to promote them now that they have at least some substance to them, and was busy running a list of backlinking sites through my head, when I suddenly remembered Hubpages.
I don't know why I forgot, as I am permanently signed in, but I did.
A lot of my hubs recently gained a PR value, and my sites are based around my more successful hubs. Perfect for backlinking to! And of course with an authorscore over 75 they are dofollow backlinks too!
Anyway it took hours! I only placed links on hubs related to the sites I have. Oh did I mention I have written about 35 blogs too, and there were places for them too. And I've still only touched a fraction of my hubs, so no chance of them being overly promotional.
Oh to stay on topic, Greg I have no idea. Keep related writing here and use it for backlinking, but write new stuff for elsewhere, even if it is on the same topic.I really appreciate reading the details of your work. What I am aiming for is months behind your timeframe, but I am still eager to observe now the steps you are following!
One thing I have read in another thread, but forget exactly where now, is how to research a domain name - is there one great place to do that or is it just a hit-or-miss, try-it-and-see sort of project?Aficionada, be careful looking for domain names, as some of the unscrupulous places will monitor what you're looking for - then if you find a good one, but don't buy it straight away, they'll gazump you.
I use name.com. I've heard others swear by namecheap.com.Another thing that I don't understand is the quoted price. Is there a monthly fee for the domain name or is it a one-time purchase?
I just got a huge jolt. I saw an Ad on a different site (Slate dot com, in fact) - targeted specifically to me, I assume! - advertising a discounted price for a domain name I searched for a few days ago. I thought that I had checked on a reputable site. Oy.
Then, a totally different question: I am thinking of having different segments (pages) of a site with different slants, but still all focused on the same larger topic. I have more material ready at present for what would amount to a second or third page. With Wordpress, can I create the main page or front page at a later time? That is, if I went ahead and started building the site, but starting with page two or page three. (I haven't gotten into looking at the details of Wordpress at all yet.)Aficionada, the fee for a domain name is annual, and it should be less than $10 for the year.
You can pay for two or three years in advance if you want. Probably just pay for one year the first time - but it's not a bad idea to pay in advance once it's established and you know you want to keep it. One of the biggest problems for website owners is forgetting to renew their domain. One of my friends did that - she was only a day late, but someone had already swooped on her domain name and bought it. It was the website for her business, which she'd had for several years, so it was pretty important to her - and now the new owner is offering to sell it back to her for $4,000. The annoying thing is the new owner isn't even using the site - he obviously bought it for that express purpose.
Your second question - on Wordpress, you nominate which page or post to show as the "front page" and you can change it at any time, as often as you like.
You do need to think about your structure. You can have posts (like a blog) and you can also have pages. You can group posts under categories, so it sounds like you'd be best to use posts rather than pages. If you want to PM me with more details I can help you work out the best approach.Thanks immensely! I will likely do that (PM) a bit later this evening.
It's a bit complicated, but here's the abridged version. Ultimately, the biggest single driving factor is creating an ongoing fanbase for future music releases.
The whole idea is to tie into things people are already searching for that have keyword relevance to the music and it's themes, and create a content-rich website focussed on creating as much social network buzz as possible surrounding those keywords.
I'll have done it right if I have a wide built-in audience who are likely candidates for being fans of the music, and spreading it via social networks.
With multiple bloggers on one site that are all related via the keywords, the short term goal is to drive traffic toward the site and encourage cross-site exploration and establish that readers who share these interests have a DAILY place to get their dose of all things groovy.
Advertising revenues can go to the individual bloggers and other content providers. Like HP, I don't expect anyone to get rich off of that, but I do expect them to get significant boost from cross-pollenation and my obsessive linking and social media push. Each should certainly do better than they would on their own if only for the cross-appeal.
The topics of the various blogs all tie into keywords which will specifically drive traffic for my future releases. I can't think of a better audience than loyal daily visitors who came based on keywords I custom chose to represent my music and it's marketing push.
They'll get several tastes of the upcoming release along the way along with incentives to share with new followers, contests, etc.
It may seem a bit backward to people, but the project is half done on the music side, so I've decided to focus on building the store, filling it with likely customers, and doing what I can to keep it growing. Without that, the way I see it, I'd just have a product no one is looking for.
This is the main site in a multi-site strategy, though, so it needs to be the focus of traffic efforts.
I've done some tests here an other places, and it looks like I can drive 1000 or so people a week towards PAST pieces archived on the main site if I give them something NEW in the same series here and on a couple other similar sites.
If I can do that for a while, it should provide enough of a boost to get the organic social linking going to the main site.
The problem is, of course that if they're a series that means the newest piece is here, older there, etc.
That's why I'm asking about different strategies... like maybe I have to have multiple parallel series with similar themes so they all tie in to main site?
Working on getting other bloggers, a cartoonist to do music cartoons, etc... so not planning on doing tons of writing myself down the line, but doing what I can for now to get it up and strong.
Just want for now to give people a one-stop shop for a daily laugh, and daily dose of what's new, what's going viral, a funny take on current hot topics, and a discussion all of the above WORTH sharing with their friends.
Anyway, hope that's not too confusing. Very open to suggestions, and will read the article mentioned.OK, that makes a difference. Your goal isn't to make money from the site, your goal is to gain publicity for your own music. The advertising revenue is to attract guest bloggers.
If you're going to run ads then give the revenue to your content providers, have you thought how you're going to administer that? For ease of management, you might be better off allowing your content providers to include their own affiliate links in their posts, and forget about running ads yourself. That way they can't complain if they don't make money!
What do you mean, "store"? Am I missing something?
That's why I think your strategy is flawed. Why not add the new pieces on the site itself and then use backlinking efforts to drive traffic to it there?
ok
Read the article and still absorbing some of it.
I've already spent a few days researching website design and hosting just to make sure I'm not wasting tons of time doing stuff that wont' work.
I've got thesis theme for wordpress running on a virtual host right now, and starting to do basic tweaks.
Still lining up some of the other contributors, and I've got some affiliate stuff and various issues to work out, but I should have the basic site functional in a few days.
Thesis is a bit tougher than I thouht, but I can see the value of how it separates it's core code from the changes you make so the code isn't broken later as various components change.
Also like the streamlined seo friendly focus... although this site does need to have a much bigger "cool" factor than a typical blog, so some customization is inevitable.
I've got hosting too, and should also have my various link id's and so on straightened out over next few days.
Still scratching my head about content issues, though. A series is just that... one leads to the next.
I've got a few now... one on each site. Even if I don't jump it all over, need to find some way to drive that traffic rather than to keep sending it in a circle.Sunforged will probably jump in and disagree with me, but I think Thesis sucks.
You'll see it highly recommended because it appeals to techie people who love being able to play with the code and customize it endlessly. For a beginner, it's just a headache.
This is a good post by Lissie about why she abandoned Thesis. Bear in mind she IS a techie type - she used to be in IT!
http://lissowerbutts.com/frugal-v-thesi … -compared/
The other thing to bear in mind is that virtually all premium themes have an affiliate scheme - so when you read any review, remember the writer will earn a commission if you buy it!!
I'm wondering if you should be using something like BuddyPress instead.
http://buddypress.org/
It may offer more of the social buzz you're looking for.
well reading this post has given me some ideas! thanks guys!
I haven't worked that part out yet, but yeah... i think I'm just gonna let each put their id on whatever links on their page.
Either no ad, or I keep what's on front page, but backlink strategy is based on sending to their page since that's where all their stuff is archived.
I haven't read this exactly, but it makes sense to me and maybe someone knows: If I have tons of backlinks pointing to all the subpages, but none pointing to the main page, then I have "home" buttons on all the subpages, won't that bump up the main "home" page?
I meant "store" in the metaphysical sense of having a forum in which to offer a product.
Thats a good article. Certainly saw lots on both sides before jumping. Thesis is a bit of a pain, but while don't have experience at web-building, I'm hardly tech-phobic.
I got a tiled image to fill the background today, and it was a real goose-chase to find the know-how. No, it's not in the "manual."
At first, I considered something more like artisteer for visual design flow, but ultimately, I want to use some images and other things,so I need it to run as lean as possible.
I figured I could fix the typical seo issues on just about any WP theme with all in one, but am also concerned about bloated code, too many plugins, and like the theory at least that the code won't break in wp or other updates since thesis just updates it's core to match, and all database and styling info isn't all mixed in with all the other code that might or might not change.
Paid the $164 actually. I figure I already own a few more domains, and will get around to doing something with them soemetime, or will give up in disgust with thesis and return.
So far seems ok, but not very easy to move beyond basic blog format.
As for strategy... if I knew then what I know now...
I'll tell you one thing. The series concept works. By sending people back to the beginning of a series, the residual views of all the pieces in between keep the whole thing floating.
So yeah, I know it's a bit backward, but that's why I'm trying to see if there's some way to maintain a series, but drive traffic too.
I'll take a peek at buddypress. I'm still working out details, but I'm definitely NOT doing a typical blogsite OR one of those obnoxious ad-filld eyesore sites anyway.
Providing content people want to come back to in a reasonably stylish package means having some graphic elements, and artistry in the layout. That part, at least, is coming along nicely. I'm trying to be very judicious about plugin use, though.
If anything, thesis is a bit limited without getting your hands dirty. I've already had to install css twice to do what I consider to be very basic things. Frankly, I'd like to get much weirder with the front-page geometry, but I'm playing with square leggos.
Ultimately, I really DON't want to turn into code junkie, and am not looking for another project to take on, so my hope was that once I got the thesis basics down, I could put it on autopilot, and easily toss up other sites as necessary.Exactly, that's what I'm saying - and that's basically what Lissie says, too. On a new site, you have enough on your plate without having to "get your hands dirty" on a theme which requires you to do most of the work.
If you want lean, go with something like Swift or Frugal.
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