Musicians who blog is one of those ideas that has sat comfortably in my collection box for years as more pressing projects have pushed it to the back of the queue. Put simply, Musicians who blog is a blog about, you’ve guessed it, musicians who blog.

Still technically in beta, while content is added and various tweaks are made, this new project is fully functioning and ready to receive visitors who, I hope, will cast a critical eye over the concept and the design.

Musicians submit their blogs along with a press photo and some information about their blogging, what they use their blog for, how successful they have been because of their blog, and anything else that they would like to share. I then collate the information and upload it so that a wider audience can view the blogging exploits of others.

This benefits the musicians who take part because they get exposure. It also provides an interesting collection of blogging case studies for anyone looking to see hard evidence of what independent musicians, or anyone for that matter, can achieve with a blog. Furthermore, it provides a point of reference for music lovers and fans who are looking for interesting and genuine blogs to read.

And, as if that wasn’t enough, screenshots of the blogs will be taken and uploaded so that Musicians who blog can also function as a design inspiration site.

The traffic potential is huge.

A permanent link in the sidebar of Upstart Blogger will kick start the page rank. Inbound links, from the musicians who are featured and anyone else who is kind enough to link, will grow and grow, search engine traffic will develop organically as always and traffic should, if all goes to plan, climb continuously and steadily over time.

If you are a musician who blogs then click here, submit your site and get in on the ground level of a great exposure and publicity opportunity. It’s free, of course, so you’ve got nothing to lose.

And now onto the design.

Voluptua is the new Upstart Blogger Worpdress theme that is currently running at Musicians who blog. Designed to be as clear and clean as possible the theme features large swiss typography, one column content, two column footer and no graphic superfluousness. The muted soft blue background was chosen to provide a less stark look than would have been achieved with heavy black text on a crisp white background. It softens the appearance of the theme and, in my opinion, makes the large text a little easier on the eye.

Once I’ve ironed out a few kinks Voluptua will be released as a free WordPress theme on Monday. If you are looking for a theme for any sort of showcase, a photoblog for example, or if you are just a fan of large clean typography, Voluptua may be exactly what you are looking for.

One more thing. If you are looking for an idea for a new blog, or just an easy way to generate traffic then please feel free to copy this blogging business model. Showcase work in a chosen genre, exchange exposure on your blog for back links from those you are featuring, and link generously to individual blog posts on the blogs you are showcasing to trigger pingback and trackback traffic.

It really is that easy to build a growing source of traffic. And once you’ve got traffic the sky is the limit.