I have been building websites for several years, I began with poetseers.org and moved onto blogging a couple of years ago. I have blogs on several different topics such as self improvement, poetry, mortgages, economics, gardening and even a blog about Blogging. List of my blogs here. For some reason, I only started one about cycling in November of 2007. This is one decision I regret, I wish I had started a cycling blog a while ago. I have found that cycling has become one of my favourite blogs, probably because cycling is my keenest interest. It is easy to blog about a topic when you enjoy the topic anyway.
These are some Tips I have learnt about Blogging through the past few years, which may of interest to cycling bloggers.
WordPress
If you want to start a blog, I recommend wordpress. I think WordPress is the easiest to use and most versatile blogging platform. In the past I have converted several blogger blogs to WordPress because I preferred it so much.
Hosting.
I have experimented with several hosting companies. I always choose a host with Fantastico which offers one click installation and upgrade of wordpress. I can recommend Wired Tree as offering very good service. Dreamhost are also quite good and a bit cheaper.
Blog Name
My only regret with this blog is the name ‘Cycling info’ which is hardly memorable. I wish I had chosen something more interesting like ‘It’s all downhill from here’
Domain Name
I recommend any blogger gets his own domain name, like bikeblog.com, cyclinginfo.co.uk/ However, there is no hard and fast rule, some of the most successful blogs are on a blogspot domain like davesbikeblog.blogspot.com
Social Media
I wasted quite a bit of time with Digg with some blogs. For cycling bloggers, the effort of trying to get on Digg is probably not worth it. Stumbleupon is one social media worth exploring. For some of my blogs it sends quite a bit of traffic (more than google) but, for cycling it sends relatively low amounts.
Comments
I’m really grateful to the commentators on this blog, it definitely helps to boost a blog. Also I am impressed at the quality of the comments. On my finance blog, the comments tend to be a bit spammy, but on this cycling blog, you can tell the commentators have a genuine passion for cycling. I think commenting on other blogs, is an excellent way of getting your blog known to like minded bloggers. This is crucial for helping your blog to grow. Don’t think of other bloggers as competitors but people who will help your blogs grow together. Check out this interesting post at Problogger – blogging in formation
RSS subscribers
The long term success of a blog depends on encouraging a loyal readership. This requires consistently good engaging content. It is better to write less often but keep quality high, rather than posting lots of mediocre stuff. I also subscribe to a lot of cycling blogs, as I like to comment on other blogs and sometimes gain inspiration.
Inspiration for Posts
Sometimes I get ideas from other blogs, but, generally I prefer to look upon my own experiences of cycling. I think this makes for the most interesting posts; it is also important to differentiate yourself from other bloggers. If you just read the internet, there is a danger of creating an echo effect where you just blog on similar ideas to other bloggers. Reading cycling blogs and old magazines is another good way to get ideas for posts. The great thing about a cycling blog is that there are always many topics worth writing about.
Photography
Cycling is an aesthetically pleasing sport. Adding pictures to your blog makes a big difference. I always use my own digital photography or search flickr for photos released under a creative commons licence. This means that you can use them on your blog as long as you give credit. By the way, my photos are released under a creative commons license if you want to use them
Advertising / Making Money
Blogging has become a way to supplement my income. However, on the cycling blog I have reduced the amount of advertising because I don’t want to discourage visitors by appearing to be over commercial. The main income source is the google adsense block at the end of a post. I also make a little money through affiliate sales to Wiggle and Probike Kit. Compared to other niches, cycling is a relatively good topic to monetize. For example, my blog about blogging makes very little money. But, cycling is relatively good. Unsurprisingly the most profitable blog is my blog on Mortgages. The only trouble of course mortgages are not quite as interesting as cycling. See also: 80 Tips to Make Money Online
Titles / Keywords
One factor which will influence your traffic alot is the keywords you choose to put in the title. For example, if you choose a title.”Training Tuesday 14th June” you won’t get much traffic from google because people don’t search “training, Tuesday 14th June”. However, if you titled your post “Cycling in the Yorkshire Dales” you will get more traffic because, at least, some people will search that.
The Long Tail.
If you have a post entitled “tour de France” you won’t get any traffic. Because, there are many sites who will get a much higher ranking. It is very difficult to rank for a term like “Tour de France”. However, if you make the title longer like “Tour de France 2008 Contenders” or “Tour de France Mountain Climbs” you have more chance of getting traffic. This is because there is much less competition for “Tour de France Mountain Climbs”
Getting Links
If you want to get more traffic to your blog it is important to generate more links to your blog. I have written an extensive guide on Netwriting – Tips to gain links
Recipricol links.
In other niches, I became wary of recipricol links, usually it wasn’t worth the hassle. But, if a good cycling blog links here, I try to return the favour.
Very nice.