[best of weekend] How To Make Your Blog Network STAND OUT in the crowd

Everyday some kid is upstairs in his room writing a hit record. But you never hear it.

There are suddenly lot of blog networks popping up. Folks working in their rooms making potentially hit sites.

But how many can you actually name?

The art of getting heard/read/seen above the din of your Rice Crispies is tough.

But let me show you how to do it. Step by step.

1. Content: This simple little word is the most important. You have to have something to say. You have to be able to tell it in an interesting way. And it has to be something someone wants to hear.

2. The Blog: Keep it simple. Don’t crowd it with ads everywhere and stuff that is irrelevent. Your website is the only experience a potential convert has with you. Make it a good one. Give them reasons to come back. In fact, tell them to come back.

3.Empower your readers. Give them something to do. Put them to action. You want to create a religion. And you can’t do that without self-made traditions. Invent phrases. Don’t be so fucking pedestrian. Empower them with different ways to spread the gospel of your site. RSS. Podcasts. Video. Comments. Digg. Tags. And ask for sacrements.

4.Tour: First thing in the morning and whenever you are free go to every site which is of interest to you and post a comment. A good comment. Something relevent and smart and interesting enough to make someone say “I need to check out that person’s website.”

5.Never Sell Out: the easiest way to lose in this day and age is jumping at the money. Nobody respects that. You aren’t like them anymore. And people like people who are like them. Hang in there, your fans will eventually make you rich.

Don’t repeat the formula.  Constantly evolve.  Madonna taught us this, and Google reinforced the paradigm.  If you’re not growing, you’re losing your audience. Why should they expect your site to always look the same and say the same things? 

Got it?

[this post originally aired Jan.23rd 2006]

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