Photo by BottleOfPills

I’ll admit it. I will probably never be as successful a blogger as someone like John Chow but that doesn’t mean I have nothing worthwhile to say. I am a blogger that does something 95% of you are already doing. I blog about something other than blogging.

Since starting my blog, tailgatingideas.com, I have become somewhat of an RSS junkie. I subscribe to numerous feeds, many of which are about blogging and being a better blogger. I am a loyal subscriber and reader of LAOB among other blogs about blogging. In my pursuit to learn more about blogging, I noticed that the only ones giving advice were those that blog about blogging. Was there anyone out there that was willing to offer advice to me, the average blogger that doesn’t write about blogging? That is why I dropped a comment on LAOB and suggested I may provide bloggers some insight on my experiences as a brand new blogger. Hopefully you can learn from some of my mistakes I made as a blogging newcomer.

Know your stuff and be passionate

I know you have read this 1,000 times on every other blogging advice site out there but it really is true. I have been a season ticket holder to the San Diego Chargers since the 2004 season. I became passionate about tailgating and tailgate parties through my experiences and found that there was not a lot of information on the internet regarding this subject matter. Many of the websites out there were e-commerce websites and were online to sell more BBQ grills and coolers. I decided to start my blog about tailgating because it is something I love to do and wish I could do it more often. If you are going to start a blog and expect to be good at it, you need to choose a subject that you are well experienced in and have a great passion for. The web has millions of people floating out there thinking they will turn a quick buck by blogging. They are mistaken. It takes time and unless you are passionate about your subject mater, you will lose interest quickly. Although I can’t go tailgating every day, whenever I blog about tailgating it satisfies that desire to be at a tailgate party.

Choose a good domain name and stick with it

At this stage in the game, most short and catchy domain names are already claimed. When checking for available domain names I was not surprised that tailgating.com and tailgateparty.com were already registered. My next step was to find the key word search terms that people were using in conjunction with those generic terms like tailgating or tailgate party. I used SEOBook.com and used the keyword suggestion tool feature to see what other words people were using in conjunction with the word “tailgating”. I learned that many people were using the terms “tailgating” and “ideas” together in searches. Obviously these searches represented people looking for advice on tailgating and they wanted new ideas. I realized that by incorporating those two key words into my domain name my blog would be easily discovered by those people using Google or Yahoo. Depending on the day, my blog typically is ranked No. 1 or No. 2 on Google for the terms “tailgating ideas”. I am a firm believer that by doing the necessary research before registering a domain name has help my SEO rankings tremendously.

Find blogging software you are comfortable with

I have a secret to tell you. I did get a little help when starting my own blog. I have been a contributing blogger on an auto racing blog called FastMachines.com. FastMachines.com is published on Movable Type, a popular blogging platform. When I first wanted to start blogging on my own, I assumed I would use Movable Type since I was most familiar with it. The creator of FastMachines.com suggested I use WordPress because it is a bit more flexible and user friendly. I was apprehensive to change what I had known but once I started using WordPress I fell in love with it. I quickly started teaching myself how to add plug-ins and even created a “custom” theme by switching out header images and background images. I use a WordPress theme called Heliosgrin, designed by Elegant WP Themes. By adding in the header image I took while at a tailgate party, the background asphalt makes it look like it is a tailgating parking lot and placing relevant ads in the top four boxes, it looks like a custom theme built specifically for a website about tailgating. I would recommend WordPress to anyone but you should check out all the different types of blogging platforms out there and go with the one you like the best.

Photo by Guptill Family

Being social without being too pushy

Once I started my blog and started adding content I learned of all the social media sites and the flood of traffic they can bring. Reading stories of blog servers becoming overloaded with thousands of visitors sent by Digg or Slashdot motivated me to jump into the social media game. Of course I didn’t want my blog to get overloaded to the point it stops working but an avalanche of traffic was surely something I wanted. I decided to focus on just two major social media sites rather than spreading myself too thin. I chose to go after StumbleUpon.com because I liked how I could also use it to my advantage when I was stumped for things to write about. I also chose to be an active member on Digg because it still seems to carry a lot of clout and the traffic surge potential is tremendous. Since September 1, 2007, StumbleUpon has been far and away a better traffic generator than Digg. SU has sent me close to 1,800 unique visitors in that time frame compared to just 66 from Digg. That’s more than 25 times more traffic from one social media site than the other. The key is to find the social media sites that fit you and your blog’s audience the best. StumbleUpon may not be the best fit for your site but it has been a goldmine for mine.

A final note on social media sites

I understand that everything that comes off your finger tips and onto your blog is considered internet gold. Believe me, it isn’t. No one hits a home run with every post. Please do not ask your social media friends to Digg or Stumble every post you make. It’s like the old children’s tale, “The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf”. If you ask me to Digg or Stumble everything you post, then all of your posts will lose their impact. Resist the urge to get everything promoted by your social media friends. Ask them for help when you really have something that is Digg worthy. I recently published an article regarding the NFL’s policy to ban tailgating at the Super Bowl. I had not asked for Diggs or Stumbles in a few months and I believed this article was worth calling in a few favors. Since publishing that post, StumbleUpon has sent over 700 visitors and more than 70% of those visitors visited two or more pages on my site. By strategically using social media I have increased the awareness of my web site and have also added a number of new RSS subscribers coming in from that one post. I doubt I would have seen the same results had I asked my social media friends to Digg and Stumble the other 20+ posts I had published prior to that one.

Every blog is different and every blogger is unique. Advice that may work for most may not work for everyone. I wish this were not true but even the most experienced bloggers make mistakes. Minimizing mistakes and learning from them is what separates the good bloggers from the great ones. Hopefully sharing my experiences as a blogger over the past six months was helpful. Feel free to ask me questions by emailing me at: dave@tailgatingideas.com or leave a comment on this post. Enjoy your blog and keep reading Lost Art of Blogging.

This article has been guest posted by Dave Lamm, “a rabid sports fan,” that can be caught writing down at his blog Tailgating Ideas.

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The Blogging Tips From a Non-Blogging Blogger by Tibi Puiu, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.