My New Camper Blog - Updated*

[Menard]

Building on a suggestion of Andy's with my drive to increase adsense earnings with niche sites, I have a new blog, actually my first as I have not been into blogging, at http://joecamper.net

It was a good suggestion of Andy's that I start with a blog about camper vans and related subjects considering my recent experiences with an attempted vacation; which probably will provide plenty of fodder for posts.

[Andy]

For Niche sites, it's better to insert eBay affiliate link feeds to related products. Or pick some very well targeted affiliate products to promote. Adsense requires high traffic to make money unless you manage to rank well for a high bid niche such as finance and surgery. Unless you have an authority site you may end up with 10 cent clicks, but with eBay and affiliate programs you can make $ per click.

[Manu]

It look great

[Menard]

I have been making a few posts to the blog; though no more than one a day, and updated the about section.

I am going to add a used vehicles section, for different types of vehicles with a recreation theme, and invite some dealers to post their listings in that section.

[SensoVision]

Bob, I believe you really need to have some sort of logo. Can tell for myself that usually I tend to leave blog which use default or close to default layout as it generally mean that person doesn't think serious about blogging and you'll not see a lot of posting. And since your blog is niche blog, I'm 100% agree with Andy about using link feeds or specially chosen products.

[Andy]

I believe you really need to have some sort of logo.

Good point!

A custom-designed cartoon logo would be cool I think or maybe find a public domain image that could be made into a monochrome photo, tilted with a shadow border for example? Just thinking out loud ...

[Menard]

I've been thinking of either a logo or a header as well, though it may take a bit of time as I get used to working with the template.

I need to put links to the admin area, registration and login areas on the template so others can sign up and contribute. Presently I am thinking more along the lines of dealers who will be contributing to the used vehicles section; new vehicles if they got them.

Another section I'm planning to add is a featured campers section. Speaking with Keith today about contributing to the used vehicles section, I was reminded, because it's hard to miss it, that they have a huge and elegant RV on the lot which they rent out. I'm thinking of getting some pictures of the RV and some basic model information and features, then posting it the the blog as a featured RV; just contribute to this ever now and then to build a mini-catalog of camping vehicles.

[Menard]

I have added a Featured Campers page and a For Sale page to the blog.

The Featured Campers page will primarily be for contributions from me. Ever now and then, like when I see a really cool camper, I'll try to get some information on it, and pictures, and post them to the page.

The For Sale page is for a select few dealers to list used vehicles for sale.


The way I chose to do this was to choose to add a new page in the dashboard. Each addition to that page then will be done as an 'add new page' and selecting the page it is to be added to as the parent under attributes.

That was the only way I knew how to do it where I could have separate pages to which others could add to. If there is a better way, or a plugin with which someone is familiar, please let me know.

[Andy]

Hey Menard, I just had a thought after reviewing my YouTube Stats, why don't you capture some video of your camper vanning and upload to YouTube. This can get you extra free traffic that has nothing to do with SEO and search engines. You can capture video from a cell phone even.

In the first line of your video description on YouTube, put the URL of your site to get a link. Also add keywords to the tags for your video so it gets found in searches on YouTube.

[Menard]

Well...the pages idea is simply not going to work as it presently is.

I tried adding a fiction section, then posting a story to it, but it ended up on some mystery page not linked from anywhere.

I just posted the story to the main blog.

I'm going to have to find a way, or find a plugin, that will let me create separate pages to which I can post to each like I am doing with the main blog page. (yeah, the grammar in that probably leaves a bit to be desired)

[Andy]

I am not sure what you are trying to say.

In WordPress, the Pages are permanent pages (such as Privacy Policy, Disclaimer etc.) and the Blog posts are ongoing diary-style pages. Although we can hack our template to remove the appearance of the time frame of the posts.

[Menard]

The index page is the diary style page to which posts are made. What I'm wanting to do is create permanent pages like the about and contact pages, but be able to post to those diary style as well.

[Menard]

Just changed the theme on the blog to one which seems to be more fitting, and looks a little better, though the content side is a little narrow. I have not integrated the adsense yet.