The horizontal expansion of the Upstart Blogger empire continues with three new blogs. Blogs that I will pump traffic into but not author. This presents an opportunity for a small number of bloggers to hit the ground running in a unique way. Unique because they will, even though they are fresh, have an abundant supply of readers from day one courtesy of prominent and authoritative sidebar links on every blog I own.
Here’s how the deal works. Don’t blink because this will be quick and, hopefully, easy to understand.
I provide a large and sustained ground level of traffic. You write the content. The traffic grows as the content builds up. We both benefit from that increasing traffic, syphoning it back into your and my existing blogs.
It’s that simple.
Writing for a blog with existing traffic, particularly when you can grab that traffic and link it back to a project that you can monetize is as close to a blogging free lunch as it is possible to get.
Interested? If so, you may well be wondering what topics I am planning to cover as the empire grows.
At this stage I’m only launching three blogs. There will be more. How many more depends on how successful these three are. Because of that I’ve decided to pick three topics. One that I am passionate about, a second that I enjoy but know little about, and a third that I know absolutely nothing about.
Here are the working titles, which are also the domain names, with simple one word descriptions.
Indie Music Juice. Music.
Atari Loves You. Gaming.
Z List Critic. Celebrity.
I’m passionate about music, I enjoy gaming, I know nothing about celebrity.
If these three blogs succeed then I will launch another three, thirty days after their debut.
Still interested? Any questions? Leave a comment below and let’s get the ball rolling.
Man, I’d love to do gaming, but I’m not sure I could dedicate the time… dangit.
I happen to be looking at starting a blog soon, and not just as a bit of fun but also as something I’d take seriously and be professional about. I can’t deny that this is something I’m interested in. Just some questions:
Is the gaming blog going to be aimed more at retro gaming? And what are you looking for in a blogger? Is there going to be an application process?
Sign me up for the music blog, Ashley! I would love to write about what it takes to make it as an independent musician!
sure – I’ve a question, since I’m on the lookout for a new virtual soapbox for my opinions ….hopefully I doesn’t come across as inflammatory, but I am curious ……if blogging is about the personality behind the blog, and (to paraphrase you) people like to read about other people, why are you confining each blog to a niche?
John, it’s more important to me to have regularity and quality rather than speed and quantity. I’d be more than happy for you to write an article once a month, or once every two months, as long as you would be happy to set a schedule and stick to it. I like your writing and I think we could both benefit from you being part of this expansion.
Ashley, the gaming blog will cover all aspects of gaming. Reviews, culture and stories from the latest cutting edge developments all the way back to the golden years. I only used Atari in the title because it was, being a child of the seventies, my first gaming brand.
I’m looking for someone who can write with personality and professionalism whilst sticking to some sort of schedule. I don’t mind how often you contribute, whether it be daily or monthly. Regularity is the key. This is necessary because I need to build teams of bloggers for each blog and I need to make sure that there is a good flow of content. For instance, if I can find five bloggers who can each post once a week, that is all I will need. If I can only find bloggers that want to post once a month I will need considerably to maintain the blogs momentum.
There is no application procedure as such. I’m going to hand pick the people based on what I know of their work, and, in some cases, what I know of them personally. If I don’t know you and you don’t have a blog where I can see your work then simply write an article and email it to ashley@ashleymorgan.com.
Jason, you’re in. I was hoping this post might catch your eye.
ex-underdogblogger, I’ve just checked out your blog, prompted by your ex prefix. What happened? In answer to your question, which isn’t coming across as inflammatory at all so don’t worry, I don’t feel that writing within a niche necessitates a suppression of personality. Conversley, I feel that having a ready made source of traffic may allow people to blog more freely and let their real, as opposed to constructed to deliberately bait traffic, personalities come to the fore.
As someone whose writing I enjoy I’d be very happy for you to set up a virtual soapbox on one of my new blogs. If none of these niches interests you let me know. The next three are already being planned.
I’d love to get involved in some shape or form. I’m obsessed with playing games, owning almost every console ever released since the Master System. If you don’t already have someone lined up I’d be very eager to jump in. I’d also have my sister to guest post as she’s a games development student – and I’ve got another friend who’d be interested in guest posting who works for Krome Studios and worked on Spyro and the Star Wars games.
^_^
Ashleigh, consider yourself part of the team. And please extend this invitation to your sister. All I need from you is some idea of how often you want to post and we can get things moving.
Hmm, I think I’m interested in the Z List Critic blog, although nobody else seems to be yet. I’m hardly obsessed with celebrities, but there’s definitely fun to be had from mocking them. I’d be happy to do an occasional post. I assume that, if my fancy is tickled by any of the further blogs you launch as part of this scheme, I’d be allowed to have a bash with it too.
hi ashley! please sign me up for the music blog! i’ve been perusing through your site recently, and the content you provide seems genuine and excites me as i’m diving into this blogging world. please allow me to clarify though, i’m trying to do 2 things here:
1) personally i’m new to this blogging thing, but i have a current blog page set up for my indie music shop site that my partner and i run at http://www.mobileunderground.com/blog (homesite is at http://www.mobileunderground.com.). we cover topics that range from handpicked new artist releases to the latest happenings in the music industry.
2) just a few months in, i’ve been posting up my covers of acoustic remixes on youtube (i’m a musician too! and you can check out one of my clips at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g73k3oNvWjM or my channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/bustedkeys) and i am signing up with AN Hosting this weekend to get this all started (i look forward to your 30-day course as well!). on this blog page, i may double up some content i have on our MobileUnderground site but i will use this blog to expound upon my videos as well include original songs i have recorded.
i hope this sounds good to you and we can make a good fit!
Let me help you out with the z list. It’s an interest of mine to see what useless information I can gather on the over-worshiped celebrities.
This is interesting indeed. Especially the gaming blog, where my interests lie.
Cheers Ashley!
I think for the first fortnight we’d be posting daily, then move to every second day for a month and after that post two to three times per week.
I’m very interested in this opportunity. A friend of mine passed the link along.
I could definitely help you out with the celebrity blog. I’ve been blogging for years on a personal level and I’ve been blogging about celebrities for over two years now.
At the moment I write for the following blogs:
http://pittwatch.com – Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie news and gossip site.
http://britneygroupie.com – Britney Spears news.
http://aguilerabuff.com – Christina Aguilera news.
http://splendicity.com/celeblook – Where to find the styles of the stars.
http://style.popcrunch.com – Celebrity fashion lines, models, anything style-related in Hollywood.
(Whew!)
I’m definitely experienced and I’m all ears about anything I could do to get a foot in on this venture!
Hi! I left a comment over the weekend and I think it may have been flagged for your spam filter because I left several links to examples of my current work. I’m interested in the celebrity blog, I hope you can find my comment amid the real spam!
I e-mailed some writing but didn’t hear back, hopefully it got through. Let me know if it wasn’t any good! Cheers.
Cheers Ashley!
Though I am a new BLOGGER! But I wish to dive in deep. Today I can’t contribute in your current fields, but if you could sign me up for the GAMING field, may be in future I could contribute.
I’ll be waiting your next month planned BLOGs! wish you execute your plan accurately.
Hi Ashley,
I’m still eager to jump on board with the gaming blog.
My email is ashleigh@ashtralmedia.com if you’d like to fling some info/login details my way we can go from there.
Cheers.
- Ashleigh
I am interested in the gaming blog, if you still need people please reply back or email me with further information.
Thanks
If you still need someone to gather celeb dirt, let me know. I’ve been thinking about starting a tumblelog around the subject, but it’d be nice to have the outside motivation.
Either way, I’m excited to see more stuff coming out from UB. I’ve been following you forever, but the recent smackdown on Twitter spammers won my heart completely. I am now your fangirl.