Blogger Brands

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Prezi

Bloggers Getting Famous

Question: How do individual bloggers market their writing and turn it into a successful brand?

PART ONE. Summary of Advice

Set Up

Pick a blogging platform.

           Wordpress can be extended for other purposes aside from blogging or migrated.

Customize a domain name.

Host it.

Generate traffic.

• Publish quality original content.
• Pay for search engine advertising.
• Promote your blog on other platforms (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• Arrange to do guest blogging
• Add a subscription option
• Learn SEO (Download Yoast)

SEO Factors (As Determined by Google)

• Good keywords
• Check on Google Adwords
• Find terms with high volume of searches and low competition
• Think like you would type in a search engine
• Page activity
• Incoming traffic (have someone link to you)
• Outgoing traffic (link out with explanations, citations, references)
• Original content
• Don't plagiarize from other sites
• Create original pages within your own
• Page content matches the title
• Subheadings
• Optimized media
• Active updates
• Credibility (Google looks for good social signals)
• Always do your research and cite when necessary
• Get other reputable blogs to link to you
• Be confident

Good Writing Tips

• Your title is the MOST important part
• It has to be provocative, not simply interesting
• Tease readers (As annoying as it may be)
• Say something inflammatory
• Shorten it by taking out unnecessary words while still being conversational
• Make it scan-able
• Add bullets/subheadings
• Emphasize important parts
• Make paragraphs shorter
• Take pull quotes with intriguing phrases
• Encourage participation
• Choose topics with inspiration from your every day life

Decide How to Make Revenue

• Direct ads
• Set up a contact form for direct advertisers to contact you
• Immediate ads (ex. Google AdSense) (Steady income)
• allows publishers in the Google Network of content sites to serve automatic text, image, video, or interactive media advertisements, that are targeted to site content and audience.
• Affiliate links (Less predictable)
• Recommend a product on your blog. You get paid when people sign up or click on affiliate link.
• In-text advertising program.
• Services (ex. Blog consultancy program)
• Paid reviews

PART TWO. Case Studies

Tucker Max 

Co-founder of “fratire,” the male equivalent of “chick lit.”

Career

• Started posting explicit short stories on website TuckerMax.com in 2000 
• Started publishing books 2001, other blogs in 2002 
• Published I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell 2006 
• Made the NYT Best Seller List from 2006 to 2011 
• Released a movie in 2009, poorly reviewed 
• Almost worked with Comedy Central in 2006 
• Now an investment banker, 2014 

Controversy 

• 2003 Story posted about Miss Vermont, ACLU intervened 
• 2006 message board satirized socialite’s failed party 
• 2012 Planned Parenthood controversy

Take away: One gimmick type of guy. Controversy without a purpose doesn’t last.

Perez Hilton

Celebrity gossip columnist, know for using paparazzi photos embellished with doodles. 

• 2005, within the first six months of Hilton's blogging career, PageSixSixSix.com was named "Hollywood's Most-Hated Website" by The Insider
• Radio Perez, nationally syndicated radio show, including updates from his blog, premiered on May 5, 2008
• Reality television show on VH1 "What Perez Sez" 2007-2008
• Many small TV appearances as himself (mostly 2007-2008)
• Expanding website since 2010

Issues

• Major reporting errors 
• Castro 2007
• Michael Jackson's death 2009
• Multiple lawsuits for copyright infringement and defamation of character
• Especially by photo agency X17
• Multiple public feuds with celebrities, often accused of bullying
• Criticism in the gay community
• Outed Lance Bass and Neil Patrick Harris 2006
• Criticized for misogynistic and racist comments
• Post-MMVA 2009 incident in Toronto
•    Miss USA 2009
• Inconsistency
• 2010, Hilton posted a video on YouTube called "I'm Going To Be Doing Things Differently," in which he apologized for bullying celebrities and vowed to change

February report claimed he makes $200,000-$ 400,000 annually
Over the last few years the popularity of his blog as declined significantly. 
As of April 2014, PerezHilton.com was ranked by Alexa as the 1,287th most trafficked website on the Internet (442nd within the United States) with 2/3 of users being American and strongest demographic being females between the ages of 18 and 24.


Take Away: Lost credibility because of misreporting, inconsistency and incidents of cattiness. Has no real community. Neither committed to being a villain, nor to being a saint. Though his site may be profitable, his brand as a writer itself can't cross platforms.

Dan Savage

• 1991: "Savage Love," Dan's love-advice column, first appeared in the The Stranger, Seattle’s alternative weekly.
• The column is now syndicated to more than 50 papers across the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia.
• 1994 - 1997: Weekly three-hour call-in show called Savage Love Live on Seattle's KCMU.
• 1996: Launched the Savage Lovecast, a weekly, call-in advice podcast. 
• It is now one of iTunes top 50 podcasts.
• 1999: Savage Love became a blog.
• 2008: started Savage Blog about current events.

He also has published several books and regularly appears on TV and radio shows.


2003 – Santorum event
2010 - Dan and his husband Terry Miller founded the It Gets Better Project- viral campaign on YouTube following a teen suicide
2014 - Dan participated in Do I Sound Gay?, a documentary film by David Thorpe about stereotypes of gay men's speech patterns.

Take away: Build out from a niche, gain the support of community, and use controversy with an organized purpose. A successful writer's brand can cross multiple platforms.