So I Started a Music Blog

AdamMcDonald · Jan 2, 2015

On October 14, 2014 I started my own blog. At first I had no clue about where the blog was heading (I know this is a mistake, now), but eventually I realized I should write about what I'm passionate about, not just high C P C content. So I love music, listening, reading about it, artists and the whole industry (and no I don't have any talent for music, sadly). And since I wasn't clear of what I was going to write about, sadly, the domain name doesn't have the relevant keywords!

I didn't even know how to post on the website until a friend told me to install Wordpress, and I am quite familiar with it now. I have very little knowledge on SEO and I rely on Yoast SEO plugin to get SEO right on each article. So far I have posted 148 articles. I don't know if this is a good or bad number for the two months I have been in operation. But with studies and other personal stuff, this is all I managed to do.

As of now I have gone passed the 'daily 100+ views' goal and the blog reaches around 150~ on average. Most of the traffic (around 70-%-80%) comes from Google and the rest from various bookmark sites I have created (Facebook (only 30 likes), Tumblr (400 followers), Pinterest, Twitter (maybe 200 real followers), G+, YouTube.)

Music is such a competitive industry to rank for, looking at all the websites in operation. It will be probably impossible for me to beat any of these websites considering that those websites have been in operation for decades and have a lot of authors. I'm an university student and I'm the only author of my blog (for now at least).

Maybe I don't want to beat those websites, but rather develop a steady stream of AdSense and Amazon Affiliate revenue from the website. I already have both of them setup on my blog, although I don't know if they are optimized or not. Amazon sales are very low considering most of it (all) are from selling songs ($1.29 a piece at 4% commission).

SEO Quake Plugin shows following details for today:
PR: n/a
I: 529
L: 0
LD: 1
I: 1,040
Rank: 7186185
I: n/a
Tw: 2
l: 6
G+1: 286
Rank: 6285898
Density Diagnosis Links: 71 | 30

The website is indexed by Google (shows 764 pages indexed). Content keywords as per GWT is as follows;
View attachment 58905

True, most articles are about Taylor Swift since she is the hottest topic in music for 2014. SEMRush shows 8 keywords, and Traffic Travis shows 10 keywords.

Total backlinks (around 90%) of them bought are 270 (per GWT) and 613 (Traffic Travis), the latter should be closer to the accurate amount.

So there it is, full report of the blog performance for the two plus months in operation. I think I did quite well given the circumstances. But I want to grow-a lot more than this.

So is there anything I'm doing wrong? anything I should do more? any new things I should try? Any sort of advice will be highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!!!

Madhat27 · Jan 2, 2015

Taylor Swift? I thought you said music.

Seriously, though, just because she's the hottest topic doesn't mean you should focus on her. There are a wide range of artists to blog about, and the more you include the more fanbases you cover.

Try covering stories that bigger sites may be overlooking, or find a new angle. Successful blogs need to have something the other outlets don't.

AdamMcDonald · Jan 2, 2015

Madhat27 said:
Taylor Swift? I thought you said music.

Seriously, though, just because she's the hottest topic doesn't mean you should focus on her. There are a wide range of artists to blog about, and the more you include the more fanbases you cover.

Try covering stories that bigger sites may be overlooking, or find a new angle. Successful blogs need to have something the other outlets don't.

It is not your place to decide my music tastes. Just because you don't like her or her music doesn't mean you can talk smack about her. And NO, I'm not only focusing on Taylor Swift. I have written about a wide variety of artists.

I do agree with trying to cover what bigger sites are overlooking aspect, but I got to find something first.

ushadeep · Jan 3, 2015

If you want to start music sites, first of all you need more money to popular the site and after you have good income, all the best for your new site

PrivateCube · Jan 3, 2015

You may target more music styles. Good luck mate!

nobodyelsein · Jan 3, 2015

Speaking as a musician of over twenty years standing I wish you all the best in making money from music

In all seriousness writing about music is a great skill to develop, few people can do it well and with passion (I wrote for music publications for many years).

MartysW0RLD · Jan 3, 2015

AdamMcDonald said:
On October 14, 2014 I started my own blog. At first I had no clue about where the blog was heading (I know this is a mistake, now), but eventually I realized I should write about what I'm passionate about, not just high C P C content. So I love music, listening, reading about it, artists and the whole industry (and no I don't have any talent for music, sadly). And since I wasn't clear of what I was going to write about, sadly, the domain name doesn't have the relevant keywords!

I didn't even know how to post on the website until a friend told me to install Wordpress, and I am quite familiar with it now. I have very little knowledge on SEO and I rely on Yoast SEO plugin to get SEO right on each article. So far I have posted 148 articles. I don't know if this is a good or bad number for the two months I have been in operation. But with studies and other personal stuff, this is all I managed to do.

As of now I have gone passed the 'daily 100+ views' goal and the blog reaches around 150~ on average. Most of the traffic (around 70-%-80%) comes from Google and the rest from various bookmark sites I have created (Facebook (only 30 likes), Tumblr (400 followers), Pinterest, Twitter (maybe 200 real followers), G+, YouTube.)

View attachment 58906

View attachment 58907

Music is such a competitive industry to rank for, looking at all the websites in operation. It will be probably impossible for me to beat any of these websites considering that those websites have been in operation for decades and have a lot of authors. I'm an university student and I'm the only author of my blog (for now at least).

Maybe I don't want to beat those websites, but rather develop a steady stream of AdSense and Amazon Affiliate revenue from the website. I already have both of them setup on my blog, although I don't know if they are optimized or not. Amazon sales are very low considering most of it (all) are from selling songs ($1.29 a piece at 4% commission).

SEO Quake Plugin shows following details for today:
PR: n/a
I: 529
L: 0
LD: 1
I: 1,040
Rank: 7186185
I: n/a
Tw: 2
l: 6
G+1: 286
Rank: 6285898
Density Diagnosis Links: 71 | 30

The website is indexed by Google (shows 764 pages indexed). Content keywords as per GWT is as follows;
View attachment 58905

True, most articles are about Taylor Swift since she is the hottest topic in music for 2014. SEMRush shows 8 keywords, and Traffic Travis shows 10 keywords.

Total backlinks (around 90%) of them bought are 270 (per GWT) and 613 (Traffic Travis), the latter should be closer to the accurate amount.

So there it is, full report of the blog performance for the two plus months in operation. I think I did quite well given the circumstances. But I want to grow-a lot more than this.

So is there anything I'm doing wrong? anything I should do more? any new things I should try? Any sort of advice will be highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!!!

From my experience working with big hip hop sites and blogs, you're going to need social media juice. The traffic you're getting isn't going to shoot up by much unless you either: A. Develop some EXTREMELY unique content that goes viral. B. get a social media guru (like myself) to blast your links via thousands of accounts on twitter, because let's face it in today's competitive world 200 twitter followers, is not going to cut it. You need thousands. I'd also suggest one or many instagram pages posting pictures that relate to your blog, with the url in their bios being your website. C. hire a professional SEO guy (like myself) to get you ranking for certain keywords you write about often, because let me tell you everyone and their mother has a music blog. I work with a guy at the moment who doesn't listen to my ideas, his site has been stagnant for a year now, no growth, thousands of dollars invested. Don't be that guy.

hope this helped you somewhat.

Zwielicht · Jan 3, 2015

You don't have to worry about the domain name not having the keyword (EMD or PMD), as long as the domain name at least alludes to what the website is about (or it's a business or brand name), you should be fine.

SEO Quake shows a PageRank analysis, although you can ignore this factor since PageRank hasn't been publicly updated since December 6, 2013. In your search queries image, I see that your website was ranking in the 6th position for what seems like a very good keyword (I researched it, although you might not want to display your keywords on a public forum in the future; people might steal them

), although when I tried searching for your website based on the information you provided, I couldn't find it in the SERPs. I also noticed that your blog was starting to do quite well starting on December 14th, but then suddenly dropped down to where it was before, so I'm assuming it's attributed to the rank fluctuations that new blogs and posts suffer from.

If you want to expand your blog, I would suggest targeting lower competition keywords related to music (which may be difficult, but not impossible). Additionally, since you have a music website, you should try promoting headphones and music equipment from Amazon on your website.

somedevil · Jan 3, 2015

Martym0ndays said:
From my experience working with big hip hop sites and blogs, you're going to need social media juice. The traffic you're getting isn't going to shoot up by much unless you either: A. Develop some EXTREMELY unique content that goes viral. B. get a social media guru (like myself) to blast your links via thousands of accounts on twitter, because let's face it in today's competitive world 200 twitter followers, is not going to cut it. You need thousands. I'd also suggest one or many instagram pages posting pictures that relate to your blog, with the url in their bios being your website. C.hire a professional SEO guy (like myself) to get you ranking for certain keywords you write about often, because let me tell you everyone and their mother has a music blog. I work with a guy at the moment who doesn't listen to my ideas, his site has been stagnant for a year now, no growth, thousands of dollars invested. Don't be that guy.

You do realize you lose all credibility by writing the highlighted parts?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OP- you are off to a good starts and for a couple of months, you have posted a good number of articles. I think what you have learnt in this time is totally worth the effort. Here's my two cents in the topic.

1- You will not make a fortune selling songs on iTunes. Can you sell them something else ? Headphones- vinyl players- hi-end monitors- protective earbuds for concert goers etc etc. Those are high priced and will land you a nice commission.

2- Are you creating viral content with catchy titles that will be shared on FB/Twitter? Titles are very very important. It's on a grey ethical ground but the buzzfeed model works. Go here for title ideas.

3- Social media. Period. Get on it ! thankfully there's plenty on this forum to guide you.

4- Guestpost on others blog. Easiest way to get new audience.

5- Youtube? Channels like Majestic Casual are huge.

I wish you luck with your site mate. Don't give up !

AdamMcDonald · Jan 3, 2015

The issue is I don't have that kind of money. I barely manage hosting fees. The only resource I have is my passion for music and writing skills. But thanks for the input.

AdamMcDonald · Jan 3, 2015

Zwielicht said:
You don't have to worry about the domain name not having the keyword (EMD or PMD), as long as the domain name at least alludes to what the website is about (or it's a business or brand name), you should be fine.

SEO Quake shows a PageRank analysis, although you can ignore this factor since PageRank hasn't been publicly updated since December 6, 2013. In your search queries image, I see that your website was ranking in the 6th position for what seems like a very good keyword (I researched it, although you might not want to display your keywords on a public forum in the future; people might steal them ), although when I tried searching for your website based on the information you provided, I couldn't find it in the SERPs. I also noticed that your blog was starting to do quite well starting on December 14th, but then suddenly dropped down to where it was before, so I'm assuming it's attributed to the rank fluctuations that new blogs and posts suffer from.

If you want to expand your blog, I would suggest targeting lower competition keywords related to music (which may be difficult, but not impossible). Additionally, since you have a music website, you should try promoting headphones and music equipment from Amazon on your website.

First of all thanks for the reply.

The problem with 'that' keyword is, I believe it is going to be a temporary keyword. Rankings and everything will be high when the dates get closer and even higher on relevant dates and will continue for a year or so. But then it will drop. Is that the way I should approach to keywords in the music industry? Or should I target for more long term and general keywords such as 'new music', 'music review' etc.

There are highs and lows in traffic depending on how fast I am able to get an exclusive news and publish it. It happened twice or thrice.

I am targeting at some lower competition keywords. But the frequency of their usage is very low for some obvious reasons. And thanks for the idea to promote music equipment. It will be better than songs.

AdamMcDonald · Jan 3, 2015

somedevil said:
You do realize you lose all credibility by writing the highlighted parts?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OP- you are off to a good starts and for a couple of months, you have posted a good number of articles. I think what you have learnt in this time is totally worth the effort. Here's my two cents in the topic.

1- You will not make a fortune selling songs on iTunes. Can you sell them something else ? Headphones- vinyl players- hi-end monitors- protective earbuds for concert goers etc etc. Those are high priced and will land you a nice commission.

2- Are you creating viral content with catchy titles that will be shared on FB/Twitter? Titles are very very important. It's on a grey ethical ground but the buzzfeed model works. Go here for title ideas.

3- Social media. Period. Get on it ! thankfully there's plenty on this forum to guide you.

4- Guestpost on others blog. Easiest way to get new audience.

5- Youtube? Channels like Majestic Casual are huge.

I wish you luck with your site mate. Don't give up !

LOL. I did feel like its a marketing effort from him. But thanks to both of you for taking time to reply.

1- Thanks for the tip. I should focus on vinyls and some hardware then.

2- I'm not sure I'm creating viral content. I'm not sure how to too.

3- I am on quite a few social media sites, but they need growth. Since I don't have a big budget, I keep on posting on them and hoping for them to go viral at some point.

4- Yes, I'm looking for sites to do this. I guess Billboard would be a good place.

5- Created a YouTube channel, but still need growth.

Thanks again!

Pwnageboy · Jan 3, 2015

Maybe you could write some articles about artists that are up-rising. I guess it's pretty easy to rank with them and if they break trough you will actually get lifted on their success. I remember hearing the Arctic Monkeys on a radio station while i knew them before but they never got played on the radio. If i did write some articles about them before their break trough i could just hop in on their success i guess?

It's just a idea but i have to warn you i'm far from a expert about blogging.

AdamMcDonald · Jan 3, 2015

Pwnageboy said:
Maybe you could write some articles about artists that are up-rising. I guess it's pretty easy to rank with them and if they break trough you will actually get lifted on their success. I remember hearing the Arctic Monkeys on a radio station while i knew them before but they never got played on the radio. If i did write some articles about them before their break trough i could just hop in on their success i guess?

It's just a idea but i have to warn you i'm far from a expert about blogging.

Thanks. That's an awesome idea. I was thinking about doing little bios on artists that I write about. Do you reckon I should create Pages for artists? 'Cuz that's my thinking right now/

MartysW0RLD · Jan 3, 2015

lol I don't expect him to hire me, many people lurk these threads if you didn't know. I understand most people with websites don't have a budget, but if someone lurking does and wants to hire me, then they can easily reach me. It's not like the information i gave him wasn't helpful anyway, he can just lurk and find more information on the ideas I gave him.

Regardless hiring me would help his site and I guarantee it! So I don't see the problem with my advice / extending a helping hand.

MartysW0RLD · Jan 3, 2015

AdamMcDonald said:
Thanks. That's an awesome idea. I was thinking about doing little bios on artists that I write about. Do you reckon I should create Pages for artists? 'Cuz that's my thinking right now/

I think you would be better off contacting underground artists directly and working out a deal where you cover their newest music video for instance, and in return they send fans to your blog post about it instead of just the youtube link. Benefiting the artist by making him or her look more professional, and befitting you by getting their fan bases traffic! You could then continue the relationship if all goes well, you're going to need a nice looking site to convince artist so send their traffic to you though, but if you have a nice site, and good writing skills, you should be able to convince a couple artists.

AdamMcDonald · Jan 4, 2015

Martym0ndays said:
lol I don't expect him to hire me, many people lurk these threads if you didn't know. I understand most people with websites don't have a budget, but if someone lurking does and wants to hire me, then they can easily reach me. It's not like the information i gave him wasn't helpful anyway, he can just lurk and find more information on the ideas I gave him.

Regardless hiring me would help his site and I guarantee it! So I don't see the problem with my advice / extending a helping hand.

I appreciate every bit of help. If I had any sort of budget I would hire someone like you. But alas!

AdamMcDonald · Jan 4, 2015

Martym0ndays said:
I think you would be better off contacting underground artists directly and working out a deal where you cover their newest music video for instance, and in return they send fans to your blog post about it instead of just the youtube link. Benefiting the artist by making him or her look more professional, and befitting you by getting their fan bases traffic! You could then continue the relationship if all goes well, you're going to need a nice looking site to convince artist so send their traffic to you though, but if you have a nice site, and good writing skills, you should be able to convince a couple artists.

Where am I gonna find such an artist?

somedevil · Jan 4, 2015

AdamMcDonald said:
Where am I gonna find such an artist?

Soundcloud.com
beatport.com
hypeem.com
Also you should be reading hypebot.com and musicthinktank.com

When it comes to viral articles- read stuff on buzzfeed, Huffingtonpost and try to replicate it for your articles. Look, you can easily do it- it just takes some effort. I already gave you a title generator above, all you need now are some viral articles.

'6 90's songs that could still rock a nightclub'
'4 great live performance that you missed out on in 2014'
'3 life lessons i learnt from Eminem songs'

You get my drift ? Now this will take some work but rest assured that if you are capable enough to write the opening post above, then you have it in you to do this yourself.

AdamMcDonald · Jan 4, 2015

somedevil said:
Soundcloud.com
beatport.com
hypeem.com
Also you should be reading hypebot.com and musicthinktank.com

When it comes to viral articles- read stuff on buzzfeed, Huffingtonpost and try to replicate it for your articles. Look, you can easily do it- it just takes some effort. I already gave you a title generator above, all you need now are some viral articles.

'6 90's songs that could still rock a nightclub'
'4 great live performance that you missed out on in 2014'
'3 life lessons i learnt from Eminem songs'

You get my drift ? Now this will take some work but rest assured that if you are capable enough to write the opening post above, then you have it in you to do this yourself.

I wish I could click "Thanks" button twice for this.

The links are very helpful. I love hypebot already.

The titles are very impressive. All this time I have kept the titles toned down. The ones you gave scream of excitement, and I didn't feel like doing that thinking I might disappoint the readers.

Say I did manage to write some articles like that, how do I get the attention of readers? Sharing on social networks works but it has never got the exposure I want.

So I Started a Music Blog

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