Ego Thieves – Filling The Gap
First off like to thank Max Blog Press for the plugins, the Ping Optimizer is exactly what i needed and i learnt a whole lot about it.
Well my blog/website is Ego Thieves. We are a young blog and our ethos is to cut the crap. The Internet is over saturated with nonsense and regurgitated news and information. When there is original content its usually very low brow, very poorly created and with no effort or love, with the soul purpose to try and get as many pound coins off you as possible. We have decided to change all that. I strongly believe original content is the new currency in today’s E-World. Everyone nearly has a blog now, but who cares right? I know myself if i have not heard of you, seen your works or efforts etc then i have no interest in what you have to say. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but does your opinion count? Most I’m afraid, don’t.
Our first love as a site is Music. But we also love Fashion, Gaming and Gadgets. We didn’t want to just cut and paste from other blogs so i decided that the music would be our first focus and concentrate on getting that right. I wanted to created a set of podcasts. But not the norm were its just a DJ mix, single MP3 with a link to iTunes and most are inconsistent and usually give up in the end. I decided to create ‘glossy podcasts‘ as i like to call it. I decided each podcast should be split into several tracks (as i have an iPhone a single MP3 mix is a nightmare if you want to listen to a certain track in the mix!). I love Electronica music from Dubstep to Glitch, Fidget House and more. This genre and this new generation of music is very well produced and the usual export of MP3s with 192kbps compression means you loose allot of the tracks umph. So i again decided to up the levels and do only 320kbps as a new minimum!
- An Example Of Featured Artwork To Attract People
The next problem i have always come across is artwork. I love my iPhone/iPod and of course my Macs. We all love to scroll through our iPhones and see beautiful artwork. Most podcats/DJ Mixes have none and if they do, just awful cheap and tacky photoshop mock ups. This had to change! Im no designer, i have never studied any sort of design (I did forensic computing at university!) but what i do know is what i like. So i went online, had some small photoshop experience over the years so had a decent understanding of the program. I sat in for hours at a time and hit up the vast online tutorials. I know in my head what i want each cover to look like and then make sure i research until i have my desired result.
So i have my ‘glossy’ podcasts lined up, a draft of what i wanted to do, now all i needed was a platform. I would say im very web savvy and have been playing around with WordPress for a while so decided it was perfect for what i wanted and a very underestimated piece of software. I went through many designs and themes for a while. I did not want just a straight forward blog layout. Half magazine/half blog was what i was looking for. I came across One Theme. It was ok, but not perfect. So i got to modding. Everything i do is self taught, which usually means trial and error. If you dont know something, Google it. If your not sure just try and see what happens. Its an ever evolving process but keep to your desired finished product that you have laid out and you will get there. My site has been through many transformations, but i always try to keep to a theme. Which includes the same color scheme, easy navigation, and simplicity in order not to over endulge the reader in information on first glance.
To date we have 13 podcasts (in just three months may i add!) over six series of music genres, 9 of which i mixed myself and others have started to draft in special guest DJs. We have had over 15k downloads with very little promotion and have now set up a dedicated podcast page for people to gain direct access to our collection without having to search the site. Since the start of March when we officially launched we have had over 30k unique visitors and always on the rise (so much so we have just had to upgrade our hosting bandwidth!), no gimmicks, no promotion, nothing. I chose to do that just to test the initial interest before i wasted my efforts in promotion and advertising.
Another idea i had to help the podcasts grow is avoid iTunes, i can hear some of you gasp lol. Im an avid Apple fanboy, i have only ever used iTunes podcasts to download the 1Up gaming show which is now no more. Im 25 and people my age and under are not interested in iTunes, to buy music, listen to podcasts or anything else. iTunes it seems has a target audience of 35 and over. So my problem was how to get my podcasts noticed? My first idea was creative branding. Give my podcasts names that are relevant but non existant on google. Allot easier said than done. My first was a Dubstep mix which i named Dubfluencial a name that did not exsit on google at all. It fit in with the music and was perfect. I have also come up with MDMA Sessions, Eleczilla and so on. Not all are original as i try to keep it relevant as possible. But even the name Ego Thieves i came up with a soul purpose of making sure there was nothing like that online, which there wasnt. I believe this has helped create a strong brand and become very recognizable.
We are growing from strength to strength and as music was our main focus but we also love other stuff such as Fashion, Gaming etc. We are now enlisting other up and coming blogs to cross blog with us. They get to use our blog to promote stuff we love and dont have time to post up and in return they gain extra traffic and also access to stuff like interviews, meeting artists/designers and going to events we have invitations for on a regular basies that we also do not have time to attened. That way we get relevant content published on our site without the effort of doing so which leaves the owners like myself more time to concentrate on original content. Its a win, win situation and is really working out. Done are the days of ‘my blog is the only blog’ mentality.
Maybe im one of the only people ever to have written on here to not go on about adsense or advertising but for me i use my blog/website as a platform to create a brand that people will by into. We have our own events launching, i have a vast amount of people asking me to start DJing out, we have our own clothing brand and vinyl toys coming soon as well as our own exclusive video content with sponsorships from major but relevant companies. I have also had design work even though i am no designer and produced websites for people like Opposite Worlds and model Reem Kanj as well as established media company Switched On Productions which all use the experience i gained from created and modding my WordPress website.
I am looking into increasing our traffic now, maybe adding advertising but again keeping very relevant to our readers and offering them something that is linked to our content without cheesy Amazon affiliate sales/links. I believe a blog is the best source of power in creating a real brand and product from home. I saw a gap of consistency in real upto date, highly produced music podcats/mixes and decided to go alone and create something first and foremost i would listen to and download myself.
Future plans as mentioned is our events, clothing line and online TV with the exact same love, care and professionlism along with consistancy to further grow the brand and prodive people with the same amount high produced content they can already expect. The hardest bit right now is just keeping up the pace lol… the pressure is on to do better mixes and more original ideas, but this is a fun challenge and one im ready to take on head first. Hope this helps anyone interested in the music side of bloggin and we are always eager to hear from anyone and everyone.
Jenai & The Ego Thieves Team.
Vey interesting blog you have my friend. I’m also into music, fashion and anything related to designing. Unique and origanility play the important role in our success. Keep it up
I like your approach. It is good to see someone trying to create new content. Thanks for your input toward the problem.
Yes I would have to agree fresh and original content is the best way to get rankings. Copying content may help in the short term but once the spiders figure it out your ranking will drop off.
Walt AKA All Sports on the Web
I like your approach. Thanks for your input toward the problem.
That’s cool!!!
You have a blog with an interesting blog name that is sure to attract readers in the first place.
Good try..
But sometimes unique content is just one way ..
There’s many blogger success using copycat writing..
One of the problems with coming up with totally new content is that in many niches, most of the things to blog about are already covered. Putting your own unique spin on it helps, but it is not necissarily news worthy.I agree that we should focus on high quality content, but what out there is really original? not much unless you are the one to break a major news story which is hard to do.
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Interesting post, thx.
Be careful not to paint everyone under 35 with the brush that is you. If you don’t eat burgers, does that only mean that older people do. It’s crazy to say that 25 yr olds don’t use iTunes. And statements like that crush your credibility.
Just trying to help you out!
Hi all,
Wow i completely forgot about this i wrote this maybe in May/June lol? Thanks to all for the nice comments. Just a lil update, we now hitting 60k pageviews a month, have had well over 200k downloads and been blogged about by hundreds of amazing blogs. Lots of fans and we have been playing out. But with regards to the website the last month has been slow due to use launching a brand new version of the site and really upping our game. We are trying to keep the content unique and fresh without reposting what 90% of other blogs in our categories seem to do. We want to create not imitate.
To @Kevin, i agree with you and i just worded that wrong. I should of added that its not that 25 year olds dont use iTunes its just in my sector of style of music and audience we dont use iTunes simply because the music and or mixes are not on there. We use others like beatport etc. Of course my target audience use downloads to buy music as to be honest its the only format most of it is available in. But iTunes is too generic for music styles such as Dubstep etc, so when planning to do my mixes and like most for House or Hip Hop etc would use iTunes as an outlet for pushing their podcasts for me it would of been a waste of time so tried to create my own avenue. But thanks for the feedback good and bad, im learning every day and just trying to think outside the box.
@James Pruitt: I agree indeed. With us though its not really about breaking news, its about breaking new music. I know my Dubfluencial series has exposed allot of now up and coming producers and artists as well as our other mixes. We plan to extend this and get exlucsive mixes off them and interviews etc as when you break peoples new music they remember it and return the favor with even more exclusives. Plus like i said my blog was never intended to generate an income like most, it was used to build a brand that can then generate revenue through reputation and DJ gigs and merchandise etc.
Thanks to all and again watch this space we plan to push things further
i dont know how to thank you for bringing this subject up. it is so sad to see this many copied blogs and websites one after another. why do people think if they copy something that has been written many times already, traffic is going to go to them instead of the original writer. as you said freash and quality content is what readers are looking for.
i am a webmaster an I own a small company providing a webdesignming services and high end web content for buisnesses. I have found that many people think that if they see something on th net they can copy it freely. UInfortunentely, kawsuites are too expernssive…
בניית אתרים היא עסק מאוד רציני ואסור להניח אותו לידי אנשים חסרי ניסיון