How to start a successful blog?

[W44NNE]

So I've got all the photos from my previous and current watches, and lately, as I've had more free time with work, I've been thinking of starting a watch blog. The thing is though, I have NO idea where to start. A quick Google revealed a site called Wordpress but if I start this, I'd like to aim for it to be successful in terms of hits. Would Wordpress be the way to go?

I believe some people do make money off these things but I'm not naive enough to think I'll instantly, if ever make any money from it. It's more about getting my views and opinions out there, and if it creates an income then so be it. I enjoy the watch hobby as you all know so this will hopefully just be another area of the interest for me.

So please treat me like a complete noob and give me helpful ideas of where and how to start. Also, perhaps you would like to give me ideas of what you'd like to see in the reviews etc... is there anything missing from the (probably) the many other bloggers' reviews out there that you've seen?

Basically, any helps and ideas would be super :-)

[MikeP]

The first thing you need is a domain name. Your own address.

Then you use Wordpress to build a site at that address. Its technical but not too difficult.

Then, the hardest part of all, you've got to get people to visit the site. And there's ways of doing that, Facebook and twitter drive traffic to your site for instance. Posting here too.

It takes time though, and patience. But most things do right?

Its possible to make a blog hosted on a free site instead of getting your own domain but in my opinion you should get your own domain. If its successful you'll want your own domain anyway and you wont want to change over later. And if you're using a free host then you're not really serious about it and it'll probably lapse.

[Backward point]

Don't start every piece with "So".

[learningtofly]

I have/have had a few blogs, Wayne, and it really isn't difficult to start up. Wordpress is my favourite (although I've used Blogger too) and if you use the .com version as opposed to .org (basically, that's the consumer as opposed to business version) it couldn't be more straightforward. Just choose a theme, give the site a name and everything else is done like magic for you. Posting is easy (WYSIWYG, as you'd expect) and you'll soon get used to layout issues, etc, when you post.

There are one or two blokes on here who have decent watch blogs, of course

[Backward point]

A blog is a very effective means to transmit to the world that you're a self-obsessed knob. "Look at me, I'm really rich and I've bought myself these expensive watches/cars" etc.

Also, if you're writing for public consumption, you need to make your output engaging, so that your readers want to come back for more, and spread the word that you're actually worth reading.

Grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and stupid affectations like starting sentences with "So" are instant turn-offs.

There are thousands of self-indulgent blogs out there on the internet. Hardly any of them are worth a second visit.

One member of TZ who has what I think is an excellent blog is MMC. If you can consistently attain his standard, you might have a chance. Otherwise, you will run the risk of putting a lot of effort into making yourself look like a complete berk.

I like your photos, though.

[learningtofly]

Jesus Christ, that was unnecessarily offensive, wasn't it?

[Fords]

My wife has a blog on wordpress it's all about holidays, knitting, craft work, frugal living & out and about with kids, what to do's, Food etc.


My daughter has one about Pokemon she breeds them, she then runs competitions and the winners get a baby pokemon. she has over 300,000 followers.


Most of the wife's subscribers offer to buy her a virtual coffee through PP I checked her account once

[Backward point]

Jesus Christ, that was unnecessarily offensive, wasn't it?

No. Like I said, very, very few blogs are worth a second visit. I enjoy yours for the photographs and the information therein, and MMC's is very engaging and well written.

Most blogs are self-indulgent crap.

[learningtofly]

No. Like I said, very, very few blogs are worth a second visit. I enjoy yours for the photographs and the information therein, and MMC's is very engaging and well written.

Most blogs are self-indulgent crap.

Blogs were purpose-built for self-indulgence, if you consider what they actually are. However, they were/are a fantastic platform through which people can express themselves, and they hurt nobody. Good blogs gain readership, poor blogs just... well, don't.

I was lucky enough to be very active in the "blogosphere" about ten years ago (before the likes of Twitter and Facebook took off) and I still have friends from pretty much all parts of the world from those days.

[Neil.C]

You have got to know your subject and be able to get across your enthusiasm for your passion.

You also have to be eloquent and show a sense of humour.

It is very difficult to stay interesting. I can count on one hand the amount of blogs I have read in a decade that I would ever think of returning to.

[amnesia]

Saw this on the Beeb yesterday...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28018981

Wish I had the creative spark to blog about something I loved for £100k+ per year !!!

[bitfield]

I think you have to decide whether you want to build a personal blog, where you share your own titbits, pictures, and whimsical reviews, or a commercial news site where you are going to drive traffic and sell ads. The two things require quite different approaches and content. Traffic and revenue from the first type of site is likely to be about non-existent, but of course it's mainly for you and your friends and your personal enjoyment. The second kind of site will need a lot more resources, regular updates, many hours a week writing content, and even more hours marketing, link-building, search engine optimising, and ad buying. Making money on the internet is even harder than real work!

If you're mostly interested in a personal blog, great, go to it (Wordpress is an excellent choice of platform).

If you're looking to the commercial side of it, you might want to re-think whether watches is even the topic you want to choose. Unless you're simply affiliate-selling high street jewellery, watches are an incredibly niche interest. You might put thousands of hours and a good deal of money into developing a watch site and find that, even if you convert most of your traffic, you make far less money than you could have done by choosing a more popular topic in the first place. And the smallish watch market is pretty well covered already by the well-known sites like Hodinkee and ABTW. You'd have to take traffic away from them, and it's very difficult to do that because traffic tends to be a function of time - the longer your site is around, the more traffic you get, and the better your Google juice is, assuming you work at it. That means it gets increasingly difficult to break into a given niche if others have been occupying it for a long time.

Those discouraging words aside, anyone can have a successful blog, so long as you're careful to define 'success' as meaning 'I have fun doing it, whether I get any traffic or not'.

[kungfugerbil]

The above is all good, but the key question should be "why" rather than "how" - that's just mechanics.

If you start a blog on a subject that there are many existing blogs about, and offer nothing unique, it won't get the traffic. Standalone Blogs themselves are on the wane as folks get their fix through aggregators and syndicated content.

I'm a very active Internet user and consumer of content on watches, technology, cars etc and I can't remember the last time I actively visited a blog.

[MMC]

A blog is a very effective means to transmit to the world that you're a self-obsessed knob.

One member of TZ who has what I think is an excellent blog is MMC. If you can consistently attain his standard, you might have a chance.

Bloody hell - almost just fell off the office chair! That's a compliment I'll take very happily - thank you.

I'm still a self-obsessed knob though.

[Broussard]

It's difficult to give advice without sounding offensive or a self-obsessed knob.

My first 'blog, a decade ago, was the ultimate in self-obsessiveness. Probably. I documented the "playlist" on my iPod as I travelled around. I also "curated" items, "reviewed" things and just wrote stuff. Ten years on, there are still pages on it that have never been read by another living being. Which is nice.

Of course, I learnt from that experience**. My #watchnerd 'blog is still only read by 100 or so people but I'm grateful that they read it. Few leave comments; most appear to prefer to take the conversation to Twitter. Getting no feedback can be difficult, as it's hard to know whether you come off sounding like a knob.

On the plus side, and due mainly to the ‘blog, I have made some excellent acquaintances and quite a few friends (Twitter / forums no doubt also help here). I’ve also been asked to write for other people, magazines, online publications, etc.

But it all depends on your measurement of success.

I only write when I *want* to (and that, I guess is what makes me a 'blogger, not a writer, by the way). I have no deadlines. I have no clients. I don't get paid. I don't expect to get anything from the 'blog. I don’t attempt to monetize. I enjoy what I do, and I don’t really expect anything from anyone else.

If someone does read it, and likes it, and happens to mention it in passing, well, that's success for me.

Probably.



** I've updated the description to read: The 'blog you can safely ignore. Helps set expectations.

[number2]

I don't think anyone ever started a blog with the idea of it being a success, just do it.

[learningtofly]

I don't think anyone ever started a blog with the idea of it being a success, just do it.

Absolutely right - it's just for fun and anything else is a bonus.

[Neil.C]

One other thing, you have to be able to write, I mean really write.

Very few people can do this effectively - and hold the readers attention.

The two members above, Broussard and MMC have individual styles that are very readable.

If you cannot do anything approaching this quality forget about making any money.

[learningtofly]

One other thing, you have to be able to write, I mean really write.

Very few people can do this effectively - and hold the readers attention.

The two members above, Broussard and MMC have individual styles that are very readable.

If you cannot do anything approaching this quality forget about making any money.

That's not true, Neil - the only thing that matters is hits and, consequently, click-throughs; whatever type of content gets you there is fine.

I have far more photos on mine than writing, but I've had many, many offers to monetise it. I've turned them all down as I want it to be something that's just done for fun, but I could have gone down that route and I could have set out to attract more hits by a variety of means (and other than merely writing more content) if that was a motivating factor.

[Broussard]

That's correct - you get more hits through photos. The "galleries" over on ATG Vintage Watches, for example, where I have a few photos (342), and have almost two million "views" (1,919,945 to be exact). I'm not sure what that means, as it doesn't translate into money for me (or, perhaps, the owner of the 'site).

On Flickr, I have about 380k views. Perhaps if I were simply to add short 'blog posts to my Flickr photos, say, in the description field, I could count those as "hits"? But would that make my 'blog a success?

I'm not sure. But it does illustrate that even with my dreadful photos, you can generate "hits".

[cricketer]

Not watches but our fellow WIS and TZ-UKer DAVIDE did ok http://greyfoxblog.com/

cheers

Alan

[Neil.C]

That's not true, Neil - the only thing that matters is hits and, consequently, click-throughs; whatever type of content gets you there is fine.

I have far more photos on mine than writing, but I've had many, many offers to monetise it. I've turned them all down as I want it to be something that's just done for fun, but I could have gone down that route and I could have set out to attract more hits by a variety of means (and other than merely writing more content) if that was a motivating factor.

Just my POV Tone.

I find "picture books" with little content very tiresome personally.

It is droll and interesting comment that draws me in.

You can find really good pics in catalogues etc if you wish. Good writing? Not so much.

[Emeister]

The key question should be "why" rather than "how"

I had an idea to set up my own Wordpress blog as a way of cataloging my collection (watches, space stuff etc), a kind of "Museum of Me". [sounds very "self-obsessed knob"]

Partly so I could remember what I had already bought; so much stuff ends up back in boxes , and partly to leave some written detail to my daughter of why I had collected it, what it meant to me (and why it shouldn't necessarily mean anything to her) and maybe how best to value it and offload it once I'm gone.

I've no idea if google would ever lead anyone to such a blog but I'd probably link back to threads here if anyone wanted to discuss anything. I'm not a fan of the few comments that I have seen on Hodinkee, for example, which basically amount to people saying they've got a similar watch and does anyone want to put an offer in for it.
I assume you can choose not to allow comments?

I even bought a domain name from GoDaddy but my laptop died and I've been without a computer for at least a year now.

Any thoughts on pros & cons or alternatives for this kind of idea?
Privacy/physical security is one concern. I'd have to make sure I didn't give away any clues as to my address.

The other is "How long does this stuff stay online?" If my domain comes up for renewal just as I 'pop my clogs' then will it all have been in vain?*

Ian

*Slightly related does anyone know what the story is behind the continued existance of Chuck Maddox site? Will this just disappear one day?

[learningtofly]

Just my POV Tone.

I find "picture books" with little content very tiresome personally.

It is droll and interesting comment that draws me in.

You can find really good pics in catalogues etc if you wish. Good writing? Not so much.

No argument in terms of a POV, Neil, and I like that too - in fact, the blogs I follow are without exception beautifully written. That isn't necessarily the best way to make money, though, which was the only point I was making.

[Neil.C]

*Slightly related does anyone know what the story is behind the continued existance of Chuck Maddox site? Will this just disappear one day?

The site was taken over by friends of Chuck including Jeff Stein, Ryan Rooney and Bill Sohne and will remain in its present form ensuring Chuck's legacy.

[Emeister]

^^^
Thanks Neil.

[triumph coupe]

Starting a blog is very simple. I use a hosted service with wordpress as the mechanics behind things. It is really simple to use and pretty much uses WYSIWYG so is easy to get the hang of things.

You add plugins which do various things (filter spam comments for example - I am getting many 100's per day of spam comments advertising fake watches and hooky Chanel handbags).

As others have said the hardest bit is getting traffic to your site through external links, FB & Twitter, SEO etc. But don't let that put you off, it is fun. I've been writing my blog for 7 months now and am steadily seeing 5 figure unique visitors per month now which I found encouraging. I guess that part of the key is finding subjects that are enjoyable and informative to read rather than just rants about people in the queue at Starbucks and about how your holiday was ruined by a dawn chorus of German tourists laying beach towels of the sun loungers by the pool. I think that content is the most important thing.