Promoting and growing a new blog...

This week Darren Rowse of Problogger was guest host on WebmasterRadio's NetIncome show with Jeremy Shoemaker (Shoemoney). Great session. Here were my take away notes on how to promote and grow a new (or existing) blog:

1. Use Technorati's top 100 and market your new stories to related blogs...

2. Setup alerts on google for types of content you are interested in blogging about to keep up on what is new

3. Frequency of posts is based on your content and readership... If you are posting very thorough articles/posts... less is better... perhaps 4-5 week. If you are just commenting on news articles/links... you can do more since they are easier to digest...

4. 103bees.com - Helps generate ideas for new topics for your blog while analyzing how folks found you...

5. StumbleUpon traffic seems to linger longer and convert better... try to get stumbled

6. Stay on top of where big traffic spikes are coming in from... (ie - Digg) and update those entry pages temporarily to also promote your RSS feed... newsletter... etc... to try and retain as much of the traffic as you can...

7. Paid links/ads are OK if they are relevant... steer clear of unrelevant text link ads...

Good stuff guys. I heard it was Jeremy's (Shoemoney) last show for his current contract with WebmasterRadio. I hope he resigns for another season. I really learned a lot from him and his guests.

Starting a Site From Scratch

I heard some interesting advice last week while listening to the WebmasterRadio Net Income show. Quadzilla, the guest speaker for the week and a popular "blackhat" marketer, was asked the question: How would you go about starting a brand new "whitehat" site in todays market?

I thought this was a great question since it affects so many beginner web entrepreneurs out there, as well as seasoned marketers looking to get that next idea going. His reply was simple, he would look to buy something first as a starting point.

He reasoning was that in today's current search engine conditions, purchasing an aged and trusted domain/site gets you a lot farther than any amount of work you could do trying to SEO and market a brand new domain. His thoughts were that even if you have to shell out a little bit of cash in the begining, it is well worth and will increase your chances of success.

Definitely something to consider if you just starting out...