There’s strength in numbers. That’s just one of the reasons that blog networks are so successful. All that traffic swilling around in one great pick melting pot of content. But, trying to build your own network is hard work as I discovered to my cost over the last few months.

Satellite blogging is a great alternative to the standard blog network model, with some similarities. The best part is that satellite blogging will increase your traffic, and with it your revenue, without a significant increase in your blogging workload.

It’s likely that the topic of your main blog will be something that you are passionate about. It’s also likely that you will have other interests that you enjoy but that are less important to you. Whilst your main blog will take up the lions share of your blogging time you could easily start a handful of other blogs about other niches and topics that interest you.

These new blogs could all link to your main blog as well as to each other, forming an orbiting ring of satellite blogs that bounce traffic amongst themselves and down to your main blog. Just in case you think this is something that Google will frown upon, don’t worry. As long as your satellite blogs are legitimate and clearly operated by a human being you have nothing to worry about. Google only gets annoyed when people set up hundreds upon hundreds of new blogs, usually controlled by blog automation software. As I’ve said before, Google isn’t stupid. It can tell the difference between someone setting up a couple of extra blogs and a link spammer churning out junk.

Having new blogs in different niches will allow you to write about things that would not fit on your main blog. For instance, I collect Miles Davis albums, books and all sorts of paraphernalia. It would be nice to have a place to showcase my collection and maybe write a couple of reviews every now and then. Nothing too taxing, just good old fashioned, pleasurable blogging.

I also enjoy digital photography so a casual photoblog would also be a possibility.

Both these topics would not fit here at Upstart Blogger but would be ideal for a couple of satellite blogs. And they would both get organic search engine traffic that would flow back into my main blog projects. The satellite blogs could be monetized in their own right with relevant advertising or simply be used as an extra source of traffic, leaving your main blog to bring in the cash and convert the new traffic.

If your current host doesn’t allow you to host more than one domain, or if you are still using a free host, AN Hosting are currently offering all Upstart Blogger readers three months free hosting with unlimited domains, unlimited blogs, and all the disk space and bandwidth you could ever dream of. Use coupon code UPSTARTBLOGGER to grab your free three months.

Give it a try. I’m taking my own advice and starting a handful of satellite blogs next week, including the photoblog and the Miles Davis collector blog I mentioned above.

Also next week here on Upstart Blogger I plan to roll out the new design that I previewed recently along with a new free eBook a new Wordpress theme, and the first of the Upstart Blogger interviews. Subscribe to the Upstart Blogger RSS feed to make sure you don’t miss a thing.