For example, I want to attract traffic to my niche blog, àlaFurBabies, which is about pets. So I created a sub-niche Squidoo lens about a popular dog breed, the Bichon Frise, that links back to àlaFurBabies.

Theory Behind Traffic Driving with Mini-Blogs

In theory, A sub-niche mini-blog that reaches a narrow (but avid) audience will rank higher in search engine results because there is less competition. In my example, there are fewer sites devoted to “Bichon Frise” than there are for “Pets.” My Bichon mini-blog still needs to compete for search engine results (there’s always that caveat), but among far fewer competing sites.

The mini-blog that ranks is in position to link interested visitors to the main website. You can create numerous mini-blogs on different topics that all relate to the main website topic, thereby driving targeted traffic to the main site from many sources that you control. Remember, regardless of the competitive standing of your mini-blogs, they are providing topic-related back links to your main site.

Is this traffic-building method effective? I don’t know. I’m experimenting! Undoubtedly, there are many factors involved.

Creating Back Links

With a mini-blog you create a back link for your main site, improving search engine results. Because the back link from the mini-blog is topic-related to your main site, it’s a more valuable link in the estimation of search engines.

In addition, your mini-blog has a different IP address from your main blog. This is important for those of you who have a paid hosting service that allows you to have several blogs, and who might be considering linking from one to another. If all your blogs on the hosting service have a shared IP address, the back links are less impressive to search engines.

By the way, don’t link from your main site to the mini-blog. Cross-linking looks like swapped links to search engines, and reduces the credence they give your back link. Just use your mini-blog to link to your main site, and leave it at that.

More Blogs to Manage

What are the drawbacks with this method? First, you need to create and maintain another blog. Secondly, you now have two blogs to which you’re trying to drive traffic. (Sounds crazy, heh?) If you create multiple mini-blogs, there is even more work to manage.

What’s the up-side? Mini-blogs are relatively fast and easy to set up. Nor do they require rigorous maintenance.

With time being a precious commodity, how frequently should you update a mini-blog? At the beginning you must update often, so that search engines will notice it. Once the back link to your main site is established, you can ease up a bit. TIP: Choose a mini-blog topic that is easy for you to update!

Belong to a Blogging Community

Once you create a mini-blog, such as a Squidoo lens, you belong to a blogging community. The more involved you are, the more attention you can attract to your site. There are always interesting benefits in community, but it does require more of your time and energy to contribute in a meaningfully way.

Many Choices for Mini-Blogging

If you like the idea of mini-blogging, Squidoo is good place to begin. There is a helpful “Health” assessment system that alerts you to pitfalls as you create a lens. You can click the “Health” tab, for instance, to see if the tags you entered for your lens are search engine friendly or if they need to be improved.

But there are plenty of others to check out: Tumblr, Posterous, HubPages, and Vox, to name a few. Each try to offer something unique. Tumblr has a tremendous array of themes from which to choose. Several allow you to post via email. A lot of them let you share in advertising revenue.

Some people create hundreds of HubPages and Squidoo lens. Find the super bloggers at these services and study them. Aside from the benefit of creating back links and driving traffic to your main site, reportedly there is money to make on the mini-blogs themselves from advertising!

Are You Into Mini-Blogging?

If you’re already into mini-blogs, what has been your experience? Do you utilize them to direct traffic to another site? Which services do you use? Have you earned advertising revenue? What’s your best mini-blogging tip?

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Google News allows you to set up a news feed for topics relevant to your blog. Do you write about celebrity gossip? Post about technological gadgets? Blog about cats? Whatever your niche, run a Google News search to zero in on your topic research. Below are examples of how you can research your niche topic in Google News, and even discover unexpected but valuable related news articles.

Google News: Cat Fancy

Let’s say the readers of your blog are cat fanciers. You know people are fascinated by animals dressed like humans, and that it is a controversial topic among animal lovers. You decide to add a new section about cat fashions to your blog.

Go to Google News and form a search query like this: [cats fashion OR clothes OR dressing –football]. (Use Advanced Search to insert query syntax automatically.)

The results include a fascinating article about wigs for cats (Want to Dress Up Your Cat? Explore the Enchanting World of Kitty Wigs), including a delightful photo your readers will love (see above). Bingo! You also pick up an article about Dewey the Library Cat being made into a movie starring Meryl Streep. This one isn’t actually about cat fashions, but it is none-the-less a newsworthy item for your cat blog.

Goolge News: Florida Vacation Rentals

What if you blog about vacation rental properties? Say you want to research for an article specifically on Florida vacation rentals.

Enter the following search: [Florida "vacation rentals" holiday OR renting OR time-share]. (Again, use Advanced Search for ease.) The results include an excellent article about vacation home rentals (A Holiday Home Away From Home). It isn’t necessarily about Florida, but gives readers applicable advice for rentals in any region – information you can use for your blog.

Hmm…better try a new search to snag only Florida rentals. How about the exact phrase: ["Florida vacation rentals"]. It returns an article from Australia (Florida Vacation Rentals Site Offers New Destinations). It’s about staying in smaller historic towns in Florida, such as Tarpon Springs (my hometown; and yes, it’s on the money!) This is a perfect reference for the article you’re writing!

Google News Custom Sections

Streamline the work flow of your Google News research with Custom Sections, a new feature that allows you to turn your searches into permanent news feeds. Very convenient! Once a Custom Section is set up, you can always click on the section in the left-hand sidebar to get the latest news on your niche topic.

Want to drill down to regional news? Custom Sections let you restrict your search to sources from a particular country or U.S. State.

Once you run a Google News search that effectively returns the kind of results you want for your topic, scroll to the bottom of the page. You’ll see links for staying up-to-date on your search results:

• Create an email alert for [your search topic]
• Add a custom section for [your search topic] to Google News
• Add a news gadget for [your search topic] to your Google homepage
• Search blogs for [your search topic]
• Search Google Fast Flip for [your search topic]

Creating Quality Content

Instead of reviewing what other bloggers are saying about your niche topic, go straight to original news sources with Google News. You’ll be ahead of the curve.

Increase your content productivity with Custom Sections. Check each of your Sections fast…boom, boom, boom!

Find news worthy of your readership? Discover something completely unexpected? Start blogging about it!

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Let me share the main benefits (and one possible pitfall) for anyone interested in trying Glow. The information also applies to other designs by Elegant Themes, which share similar functionality even though they vary greatly in appearance and purpose.

Content Presentation Features

Glow has three content presentation features you yearn for:

• Feature Content Slider – It’s huge!
  • Outstanding 3-dimensional look
  • Subtle shading in image area provides place for post text
• Tabbed Sidebar Widget – Holds “Recent” posts, “Popular” posts, and “Comments”
• Drop-Down Navigation – Two navigation bars; one each for pages and categories

CMS Functionality

With Glow, you can have a blog that acts like a website. Set up the homepage with or without blog style post format.

If you choose to forgo blog style format on the home page, you still have a blog page that is accessible from the category navigation bar. There is no need to set up a home or front page the WordPress way (resulting in the mysterious double “Home” navigation tabs).

With  drop-down navigation bars, you can show as many pages and categories as you like, and site visitors will be able to find them with ease. For additional flexibility, the page and category navigation bar positions can be swapped.

Blogging Productivity Features

Elegant Themes now have the new ePanel options configuration. It is simple to use, although at first may seem like a maze. (You know you saw an option somewhere…but cannot find it again!) This is only the case because there are many options, a good thing.

Another productivity plus are thumbnail images that automatically re-size. For best results, start with the largest-sized image you’ll need, say for the slider. It will be magically cropped dead-center and beautifully re-sized, without distortion.

Logo Challenge without Photoshop

There is one pitfall for those who don’t have Photoshop. Creating your own logo for Glow is challenging. It isn’t only a matter of trying to replicate the font and appearance of the original Glow logo, or creating a new logo that coordinates with the theme.  The problem is the distinctive bright star lights on the dark background in the header area.  The contrasting dark and light can make a logo difficult to read.

I created and uploaded 20 different logos before I devised one that worked. The resulting logo is a tad large, but the precise placement of the French accent mark on a star appears inspired. (That was actually a complete accident.) With the logo ordeal now behind, I can see that the stars are friends.

Elegant Themes Membership

The Elegant Themes membership is a fantastic deal. For an annual fee of $19.99, you get unlimited access to all present and future themes, plus support services.

27 themes are currently available, with frequent additions to the Elegant Themes Gallery. Several of the themes fulfill the specific needs of specialty sites, such as gaming, video, photography, or ebusiness sites. The next theme to release will be eStore, geared for ecommerce sites.

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The video is 5 minutes long, clear and concise. There is no product promotion, just pure information.

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The challenge for me will be creating a logo. I may have to forgo the àlaBuzz bee logo. (This would hurt deeply.)

This theme also houses videos in the slider, so I will be experimenting with that as well.

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