Comments on: What I Learned From Building 5 Popular Blogs

By: Gregory Ciotti

Gregory Ciotti — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:13:44 +0000

In reply to Navin Kunwar. You should, Feedburner clicks are pitiful in comparison to email opens from a newsletter. Get on it!

By: Kiefer

Kiefer — Sun, 06 May 2012 17:05:54 +0000

Users should know how to let other people know that this blog exist and this author creates amazing content and there should be a subscription form so they can stay informed. Content is king but what the heck? How to provide good content? follow big content kings and you’ll get what i’m saying!

By: Jonny Rowntree

Jonny Rowntree — Sat, 05 May 2012 20:13:40 +0000

Two of the points you make in this article grabbed my attention. I read something a while back which recommended purchasing all the TLDs available which match your primary domain name so that you don’t leak traffic. However, as you have written in this article, if you have a name such as my own which has a variation of different spellings, should I consider buying the domains which are spelt differently?

Tip #3 also caught my attention. In the past I’ve updated my blog everyday, stuck to a schedule of posting on different days and posting only when I feel like it. However, if you post only when you feel like it and start to have gaps in your posts, I find I lose visitors compared to where I post a couple of times per week.

To combat this, you should always test which will help you get comfortable with your audience and know when they choose to read your content. You can then publish content when they ready to read it.

By: Ryan Shell

Ryan Shell — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:35:48 +0000

In reply to Melanie. Glad to see you making smart business decisions Melanie. @RyanShell

By: Raj

Raj — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:04:45 +0000

the #1 tip which really rocks is choosing a brand-able domain name.. as it is the major factor which helps us in being successful.. the chances of getting returned visitors who have interest in your niche is very high for these cases…

By: Ron Davis

Ron Davis — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:44:32 +0000

One thing I try to remember is to respect your audience. They give you their time to read what you write, so use their time wisely by not wasting it on something that isn’t your best effort.

By: Tommy Walker

Tommy Walker — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:28:17 +0000

I’ve learned… listen to Derek Halpern.

By: jezza101

jezza101 — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:06:40 +0000

Of course the advice is bang on (#2), but as a hobby blogger who enjoys the building and design part of running sites there is no way I’ll be giving it up to write and promote content!

I used to work for a well known UK website / blog (7 figure yearly turnover £) that had over a million email subscribers, and whilst email was clearly a big revenue stream, it only accounted for about 15% of the profit mix. By far the biggest profit generator was organic and PPC search traffic.

Don’t get me wrong, they are definitely something to consider, but if anyone starting out is worried because they don’t want to go down that route then know that plenty of business thrive in other ways.

Some of the biggest blogs on the web have no mailing list at all.

By: Sachin

Sachin — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:21:04 +0000

Best tips Derek, I was also in delusion that we need to create content everyday to get search engine love and to feed the search engine spiders; I was wrong. Creating mailing list is also a good way to get traffic and loyal visitors. Thanks for sharing ideas.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:41:20 +0000

Question: When you build your email list, it follows that you have to send your list email messages. What would you put in your messages? Is that when you start selling them things, or do you just expand on your blog post topics?