hoohaaaa Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Hello, I'm a senior who just submitted applications to graduate school. I had really great mentors who helped me along the process and also got some priceless information from contributors on this forum, but had to spend a lot of time fishing for information to get there. I'm trying to put together a blogon my experience and condensed information that I found useful so people can get started more easily on prepping for graduate studies in economics. Here is the address: How to Become an Economist I would love any questions, suggestions, or posts from people who wish so. Thank you so much in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanmagic Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Seems pretty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stray4545 Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Cool idea! I've written for two very different blogs - one that already had a built in audience from an affiliate, and one that I put together myself and did not. Based on the failure of the latter, I highly suggest you extensively read ProBlogger.com (the best free blog promotion site I have found) and get some books to figure out how you will make this blog successful (and by that I mean get any kind of reader base). I'm not a web/tech guy, maybe you are, but I was surprised to find how difficult it is to get picked up by search engines, forums, social media, etc., and just to get anybody to website. Good writing and topic selection is only a fraction of getting readers. I realize you may not be expecting a huge reader base, but none the less, you want interested readers to find you. Aside from doing research from the pros, here is what I would suggest: 1. Google Analytics - set up the tracking immediately. You want to know how many people are coming to your blog from this forum post, and from any other outlets it may be getting picked up at. Why? You learn what is successful to getting readers to your blog and what is not. Its super easy to drop into the code - if I could figure it out most anybody can. Even if your blog provider gives stats, install the tracking code - you can do a lot of useful things with the data. 2. Post consistently. Maybe once a day, every two days, twice a week, once a week. However consistency is key. I'll keep a watch on your blog if you write on some kind of schedule. If you drop off the face of the internet for a month, I'll probably stop paying attention to your blog. 3. Posting comments on other relevant blogs works. People read the comments of blogs they like, and if you have something interesting to say they will follow you to your site. In both my blogs this was surprisingly the case. 4. Think about SEO. Use lots of links - even back to old posts on your own blog, repeat key phrases and words, use tags, update often, etc. Again I realize you may not be trying to make any money off this and you aren't expecting a huge reader base, however I do suspect that you want to help people learn about applying to programs, and you can only do this if they can find you. Make sure as much (if not more) effort is put towards marketing your blog as is writing for it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneArmedEcon Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Feature videos similar to this one: ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoohaaaa Posted January 23, 2012 Author Share Posted January 23, 2012 STray4545 and onearmedecon, thanks so much! Stray4545, just out of curiosity what was your blog on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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