How to Get Your Blog to 100,000 Visitors and Beyond, Step 6; Read Other Blogs in Your Subject Area

Step 6 to getting to 100,000 visitors and beyond: Read other blogs in your subject area.

While you are getting your blog set up and developing your first posts, you should also be looking around the blogosphere at other blogs in your subject area -- and not only reading them, but studying them. Subscribe to every site you find, using the blogrolls of sites you visit to find even more blogs in your area.

Here's what you should do while reviewing like-subject blogs:

• Consider what is out there and what your "competition" is like.
• Consider what you like/dislike about various blogs. What are their strengths? Weaknesses? What can you learn from them and apply to your own site? Pay special attention to layout, colors, and ad placement -- especially if the site is "successful".
• Learn their "voices". It will help you know what "having a voice" means and thus assist you in developing your own.
• Start building a list of potential marketing partners. You'll want to work with some of these sites one day.

Here's a secret tip that REALLY worked well for me: Early on in the life of my blog, I picked a few sites and benchmarked my site against theirs. I saw what they were doing and copied what I liked. I took some ideas they had, put a unique spin on them, and made them my own. I aslo tracked their stats as religiously as I tracked mine -- even going so far as developing a plan so I could pass them in overall traffic. This "competition" with some of the best personal finance blogs out there made me and my site strive for excellence -- and we were both better off for it.

Click here to read part 7 of this series.

Free Money Finance recommends Emigrant Direct.

Comments

[nancy]

Thank you FMF...I'm reading every post and am starting to discover many of the blogs that cover personal finance. You're absolutely right- each one has have different personality. I started a retirement planning website/blog last month and have learned a lot from your site and appreciate you sharing tips.
Thanks again,
Nancy
www.retirementthink.com

[Ray]

I am using FMF as my benchmark ;)