Presenting Your Blog Network
If you want to go the route of starting a small network of bloggers, eventually leading to higher recurring monthly income, you’ll need a way to get word out about each of your blogs, no matter how many you have and to cater each to their intended audience. This can be a difficult task, especially if you have just recently started your blog network, and you don’t have many visitors to each individual site yet.
In some cases, you’ll want to keep some of your sites private, or are not related enough to the other sites to promote them together. For example, you don’t necessarily want to place your personal blog if you are writing on a serious subject, in that others don’t necessarily want to read about your personal life.
The First Approach – Create a Separate Domain
Much like a “portfolio” website, you can create a separate domain, perhaps under your company’s name or a blog network name, one that is associated with all your blogs, making it easy for others to find all affiliated sites you publish to.
You want to market this single site much like you would market your portfolio (photography, sites, work, or otherwise). Rather than having to include links to all your sites in your email signature, you’d simply need to spread word about this single site, which contains links, information, and business statements to draw in new readers, members, and visitors to your site(s).
Rather than requiring you to post privacy policies, comment policies, and terms of service on each of your sites, you could instead include this legal information on your main network website, then link to these pages from individual network blogs.
Make sure this site is as creative as the line of websites that you’ve been creating. While it isn’t necessary, include thumbnails, logos, and more to complement blog descriptions on this page, or individual pages for each website profile.
Second – Include Links on Each Site
A large number of blog networks have certain pages with the links to all blogs in the category that the blog is listed in. Otherwise, they are somewhat creative, and have drop-down menus, links in the sidebars, or other methods of linking to posts from a more trafficked blog to the smaller blogs in the network – mainly to create a more uniform blog network.
There are several sub-methods to doing this, explained below. While there is no best method, as everything depends on how your network is already set up and the amount of work that you want to put into networking them together.
- Drop-down Menus – In the header/sidebar/footer, you can design a drop-down navigation menu, which links to all your blogs, assuming that you don’t have more than ten to twenty. However, you must make sure that this menu is placed in a prominent area of your site… likely your header.
- Sidebar Links - Should your network focus on different niches/categories, you’ll want to categorize and alphabetize them, according to how you think visitors will best be able to find them. In many cases, a subscription link should be placed next to the title.
- Special Areas - Depending on your time “budget”, one of the best ways to showcase content from each of the blogs in your network. This area is typically placed in the footer, so it doesn’t reserve the respect or views that it should; however can also be extremely helpful for people that are new to your network, or for people that want to stay updated on the sites in yo
Finally – Be Creative
Again, I cannot stress enough the importance of strength in your network. The closer you connect your sites, the more likely it is that readers will continue to come back and subscribe to your blog. The leading blog networks, whether they started as a company, then expanded by building blogs, or started with a set of blogs and created their network from that point, all have a method of connecting blogs to each other.
For this reason, you should use the best practice for your blog and break from the current mold of what a blog network has been defined as. You should create the network similar to how you run your blogs, yet adapting along the way to create the brand that you wanted to create from the very beginning.
One main similarity between many blog networks is that each site appears similar in design, with minor tweaks, and each contains links to different blogs in the network through the sidebar or header, along with a main page with “popular articles” from the entire network.
How the Big Guys Do It
Listed below are a few examples, although not the best practices, to create a well-designed collection of your network blogs and methods for having people find your blogs.
9rules – Although not technically a “blog network” per se, 9rules contains members and uses a drop-down list, member list, and displays recent posts when you view each category individually.
b5 Media – On the b5 Media home page, you’ll find a horizontal bar in the top portion of the page, with links to each blog, plus quick links in the sidebar, directing to main categories of blogs, plus links to “top” blogs in the footer. Because there are more than 300 blogs in the network, each is also connected (except certain ones) through a header bar and list of blogs in the sidebar with associated RSS feed link.
451 Press – List of channels is displayed in sidebar, redirecting to archive pages, along with links directly to articles found on the blogs in the network.
Splashpress Media – Main page consists of a “Network” link, containing images placed under distinct categories, making it easy to browse all the sites, simply by their logos. Clicking on a link will direct you to an “about” page for each site/blog. A list of bloggers is also included as an off-shoot of the main list.
BNET – Recent news from all blogs is included on main page; related blogs linked to in navigation bar and main page (as it is now owned by CBS Interactive).
Gawker – Links and logos to each blog is placed in the sidebar (below fold) to each of the network blogs.
GigaOM - Blogs linked to in header, with links to blog posts, and related content throughout the main website. In addition, each blog contains a universal header, with a favicon/blog link duo, about, advertise, and contact page links on each blog in the network.
Mr. Bloggy – A rather basic landing page brings you to a list of blogs listed under “Our Blogs”, with main sites also listed on the main page, including the services that are offered.
TechCrunch – Main sites listed in the “page” header, with links to other blogs in the network dispersed throughout the sidebar and related pages.
Web 2.0 Workgroup – Main page contains recent posts from each of their blogs, as well as a feed link.
Creative Weblogging – Main page contains list of blogs, listed under categories, along with the language the blog is in. Also contain a corporate blog.
Shiny Media – Sites listed in the sidebar of main network page, again listed by category – articles discuss topics its authors have written.
Know More Media – Blogs listed in sidebar, with links to subscribe, view larger network list, and news is also posted on main network page.
Gothamist LLC – This “city” network’s main page consists of popular articles from the network, along with a simple drop-down list of the sites in the network.
Blorge – A tech-oriented site, it is more of a small “category” site, consisting of a main page and sub-domains covering different aspects – sub-domains each have a link back to the main network page, along with a search box.
Bloggy Network – Under “Our Blogs”, you’ll find links/logos of the blogs in the network, along with blog categories to the sidebar.
