10 Tips for Developing Your Own Blog Network

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If you enjoy blogging and want to take it and your income to the next level, you should start a blog network. After establishing your first blog, you now have some experience, subscribers and visitors that keep your site humming from day to day. Branching out into a network is a lot of hard work, but at least you have some experience under your belt. Here are 10 tips for developing your own blog network that will help you progress smoothly and increase your prospects for success.

1. Pay attention to your readers – Your customers will give you clues as to what topics to cover in your next blog. After all, they like your blog, so maybe many of your users share similar interests and traits. By listening to the questions and comments that are on your existing site, you can get clues for what new topic will be a natural fit.

2. Use other bloggers – Your blog network doesn’t have to be entirely owned, by you. Make every blog equal and have criteria to join. You can then brand the network and you have conditions for synergy without spending any money. Not only can you share tips and tricks, you can share users and links too.

3. Site promotion – One of the powerful things about having a blog network is that you will ultimately have numerous sites that can provide coveted back links to each other. This eases the promotion efforts for every blog in the network regardless of who owns it.

4. Communications – The increased reach you have with a blog network, but communicating with member bloggers can be challenging. Be sure to have a communications plan and policy in place so everyone knows up front that they are expected to respond to emails and phone calls. If you are going solo, you will probably have to have to pay writers, so make sure they understand your communication requirements as well.

5. Be ready for the expense – The time and money you spend blogging now is nothing when compared to what you will spend managing an entire network of blogs. Be sure to take account of the financial and time aspects of your plan to make sure that you’re willing to make the investment and the sacrifice.

6. Revenue may come in slowly – One of the appeals of having a blog network is the increase in income. After all, potential income motivates most people. Still, the seven figures that some blog networks haul in are the exception, not the rule. There is plenty of money to be made, but it’s going to take some time, money and a whole lot of work.

7. Don’t rely on cheap – Bloggers that want to build a network are often surprised at how much it actually costs. Rather than scaling down their plans, however, bloggers will try to economize and go for cheap Web hosting, cheap writers, and cheap everything else. You might get your network going on the cheap, but most Internet users will not be impressed by your cheap stuff. You will do much better by expanding slower with quality services and content. After all, your reputation is at stake.

8. Research your themes – You have a successful blog already, so you don’t want to duplicate it exactly, but you do want to base your network on keywords that are related but still have strong appeal online. For example, if you have a police blog, maybe a donut blog would be a good topic for your next endeavor.

9. Use your social media base – Since your social media profile is personal, your followers will appreciate knowing about your new initiative. This is a good venue for promoting new blogs in your network rather than going beyond simple links in your existing properties.

10. Stay focused – Bloggers get busy, so it’s easy to start on your network only to get distracted by other projects. Don’t start your blog network until you have the time to dedicate to it.

By taking these 10 tips for developing your own blog network, you can get your expansion off to a good start. Take this advice and get started building today.

James writes full time about technology and reviews new hardware like the Q6000A at an online toner cartridges store based in the UK.

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