Studio Rockstar

Starting a new site is a really difficult thing to do. Over the years, my sites have accumulated a large amount of inbound links and traffic — so now when I want to start a new site, it’s no problem. I put up a few links and posts about the site and it instantly gets a big traffic boost. But for this site, I wanted to try something new — so this blog is starting from scratch. No free links, no free traffic — just me and my efforts to get it out in the open.

I thought it might be fun to lay down the rules for how I start off sites — and my plan for creating traffic from scratch on this one.

1. Good Design

I’m a firm believer that design makes a huge impact on people’s first impressions. For that reason I went with Grid Focus. It’s a really nice theme that isn’t too popular (which means it looks unique). On top of that, I did some very light customization — changing out the header, making some typographic changes, and laying out the sidebars how I wanted them. Now my blog has it’s own unique identity. It’s not a whole lot, but it’s a start, and something I can easily build off.

All in all, it probably ended up taking me about two hours to customize the site to how it looks like today. I purposefully did not create a new design (although that would have been best). So it shows hope for people who don’t want to create a whole design by themselves, but still want a unique identity.

2. Good Content

You’ll notice this blog isn’t empty. I spent what probably ended up being the better part of six hours or so creating new content for this blog. I’m not talking about the usualy quick link posts — I’m talking about full articles. On launch, this blog had four articles and one page:

• An Experiment — handles the introduction of this blog.
• An Inventory of my sites — a detailed description of my sites and where they stand today.
• Making money with DreamHost — a great guide to making money with DreamHost
• My stats packages — a detailed review of the two stats packages I use most.
• Make Money — the start of a page where I’ll chronicle the methods I use to make money online.

You’ll notice something unique about all of these pages too — it’s not just recycled boring content, or strings of paragraphs. In addition to unique content that I would read if I were a visitor, I’ve added in graphics, tables, and lists to help create good content design. This is very important for a new site, since even visitors years from now will end up reading the first posts.

3. Targeted Blogroll

If you take a look at my blogroll, they’re all blogs in a related field. Not just “my friends” — but sites that I genuinely find interesting, and sites who’s blogroll I would love to get on some day. Flattery is important, so be sure to put links down for people you want to impress (for what it’s worth). In the future, they’ll be a lot more willing to put you on their blogroll if you’ve already done the same. My blogroll is also very minimal right now. I don’t believe in having huge blogrolls at launch: keep it simple and to the point.

4. Commenting on other’s blogs

The first day of creating this site was spent setting up Wordpress, the design, and creating all of the content. The second day was spent commenting on other’s blogs. Usually I’m not the type to comment on sites (I’m much more of an observer). However, there’s no denying that leaving good comments on sites is a great way to get exposure. I can tell you as a site author that when you see the same name poping up on a regular basis, you end up going to their site to see why they have such an interest in your site.

Comments will be my main source of generating buzz for this site. I’ll also be linking to a lot of other people’s blogs generating trackbacks (double duty!). Never underestimate the power of being a part of the blogging community!

5. Posting on forums

It’s always a great idea to become a part of a community. Post in forums, but mean it. Don’t just post for the sake of posting, and don’t blatantly self-promote. A simple link in your signature is enough to get people to come to your site and read a bit more about you — and hopefully become regular visitors over time. You can find me hanging out around 6pins and of course, Sitepoint

6. Effort!

I can’t stress this enough — starting a new site is a lot of work. There’s just no getting around that problem. Unless you’re some kind of e-celebrity already, expect to put a lot of work into your new sites, and keep putting that effort in for months on end.

Conclusion

So far it’s been a pretty hard adjustment starting from scratch, but I think it’s working out well. So far I’m averaging around 80 or so uniques a day — which isn’t too bad for the first days of a new blog. I’ve also received a few comments, which is a really great thing to see. Here’s to helping this site grow!