October 3, 2007

How to blog in a saturated niche

This post is part of the Problogger 24 hour giveaway.

While I haven’t been blogging about celebrities long, I have picked up a few helpful hints that I’d like to share.

Starting out with a celebrity blog is tough, due to the fact that it is a very saturated niche. It helps to narrow down the niche by selecting a target audience. There are a lot of celebrity sites out there looking for some attention, so you have to figure out how you can compete with or befriend them.

Ask for help
A tip that I was given by DailyStab is just to reach out to others in the same niche, via email. In doing so, make the subject of your email “Link exchange”. Her reasoning is that so many celebrity bloggers receive so much mail that they think is spam, so you don’t want your email overlooked.

Make your site special
If your site is using the same old theme (think MistyLook) and looks like everyone else’s, chances are, it will get passed up. You don’t have to be popular yet to have a great looking site. So, even if you can’t afford to have your website professionally designed, if you know a little about CSS or design, then add some spark to the look of your site.

Be reputable
Reputable bloggers always link to their sources. Whether it be for pictures or story snippets, it is always a good practice to link up to your source. This is good for traffic, as well. Once you send a trackback, that’s a link to your site placed on the source site. People click on those, as well, they are curious.

Zero in on an idea
When I wanted to start a celebrity site, I had no idea of the range of topics that I could cover. They are truly vast. This could’ve been a site dedicated to general celebrity topics, that reports on everything related to celebrities. Or, as I’ve done here, narrow the niche down to something more manageable. At tragicomical, my niche is basically stupid and funny things that celebrities do.

What are you waiting for? If you have an idea, go for it! You never know how many new friends you can make.

October 2, 2007

Celebrity Tidbits!

Britney Spears has lost custody of her kids…now what? [DailyStab]

See what Trudi got Sting for his birthday! [SOW]

Is Pam Anderson pregnant? [DListed]

Shakira is shaking it at the Apollo! [Celebrity Gossip]

Amy Winehouse needs to get rid of Blake! [Pop On The Pop]

See the custody document in the Spears Vs. Federline case! [ICYDK]

Beyonce won’t be booty shaking in Malaysia anytime soon! [Earsucker]

Is Jennifer Aniston dating Orlando Bloom? That’d be hot! [CelebDirtyLaundry]