Effective Digital Writing Through Music Blogs
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Blogging in the Music World

Currently, a number of music blogs are setting the bar—and mind you, that bar is high—for what constitutes a successful site, as far as popularity among an audience and in the industry go. It’s important to remember that while it may be easy to create a blog, the same can not be said about managing one that has festival’s approaching it asking to be a sponsor, and hundreds of thousands of people causing traffic on the website monthly. But, these things do not come easily; it takes a business savvy, artistically understood, hard-working individual, who above all else knows exactly what they’re talking about. In fact, they are so knowledgeable about the topic at hand, that nobody would begin to question them. In our case, and as mentioned previously, that topic is music. So, more specifically, what exactly does it take to create a music blog that can withstand the test of time?

Know Your Stuff

It goes without saying that if you are going to begin a music blog, you must really know what you are talking about. Rather than hitting music as a whole, pick a specific genre, or a few genres that go together. For example, ThisSongSlaps.com has the tagline “Bringing Bass to Your Face.” As one can assume, they dig up the latest electronic dance music, dubstep, and even a little hip-hop, and feature it on their blog. The site’s creators chose to blog about the music that most interested them, because it was the music that they knew the most about. But as many of us have seen in life, it’s easy for people to act like they know what they’re talking about. Without supporting your claims, readers will be left with a feeling of uncertainty about the information they’ve been presented with. They’ll respond to each posts with questions like, “How do you know that?” or, “What makes them one of the best new artists?” Therefore, you as a blogger have to establish your credibility, and show your readers that you are a reliable source for obtaining information on the newest music of today. Take a look at the “About” section of music blog The Music Ninja:

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Here, the creators of the website take a satirical approach to the discussion of music blogs, their importance, and what they specifically stand for at The Music Ninja. They successfully establish their credibility as a reliable source for new music information, and in a way that is more creative than those at other blogs. That said, those at ThisSongIsSick as well as the previously mentioned ThisSongSlaps.Com do this in a more straight forward way. For example, when talking about a music festival, the blogs' writers will incorporate previous experiences. Similarly, in discussing the success of a certain artist, they will tell stories they've read on said artist, or mention performances they've attended where that specific artist may have done something that would be of interest to a reader. Above all else, and something that comes with time and hard work on one's blog, the three websites collectively use artist interviews as often as they can in an attempt to show their close ties to the music and industry which they discuss.

Dedicate Time to Your Blog

As a rule of thumb, you must make sure that your blog remains fresh. It must constantly feature new posts so that people may visit your site every day and continue to see new music. After so long, they will start to do exactly this—making daily visits to “John Doe’s Jams”—and will become avid readers of the blog. It will subsequently allow your blog to gain popularity, and you will begin to experience large amounts of traffic and growth of your site. On a side note, but no less important, you must remember to take the time to organize and design your site. An aesthetically pleasing layout is more inviting for a reader, and without this, or with a dull looking page, it is likely that users will go elsewhere for their information. Put in the extra hours to ensure that your users have a fulfilling and memorable blogging experience with your site.

Head here to better understand how layout impacts a blog, as well as how to effectively design your own blog.

Have A Long-Term Plan

Lastly, it's important to have a long-term plan. After you have established your blog as whatever it may be—once you have made a number of posts, generated traffic, developed a work ethic, etc.—you must begin thinking and incorporating new ideas to your blog (remember, keep it fresh!). As mentioned previously, the blogs that we've discussed have become so popular in their years, that they now have festivals approaching them asking to sponsor their events, and artists frequently scheduling interviews with the sites.

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Beyond this, you must begin to market your site. Incorporating social media like Facebook and Twitter into your website is a necessary way of drawing in readers, and providing them with the "news" of what is going on on your website at a certain moment. On top of this, and more recently, artist's have begun incorporating free downloads into Facebook pages. If a user likes their Facebook page, they have permission to download a song. This is something that ThisSongSlaps.com and ThisSongIsSick have both started doing, and is one of the biggest reasons we find ourselves frequenting them.

Now You're Ready!

As long as you keep these things in mind, you'll be ready to start your own blog in no time! Or if you already manage a blog, you will now be better prepared to continue running your blog, and will know the tricks you need to make it as successful as the ones that have been mentioned here. So, what are you waiting for? Get out there, and good luck!

Bibliography

The Music Ninja
ThisSongIsSick
ThisSongSlaps.com

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