Tips for Starting Your Own Music Blog

There are tens of thousands of self-professed music blogs out there today. But I stand in shock at their titles. It seems people have blurred the line that divides Music Blogs to Music Piracy Link Dumps. I want to start this Music Blogger Forum off by explaining what a music blog is and defending its current state of ambiguity.

A Music Blog is written by a Music Blogger (also known as an Audio Blogger or MP3 Blogger). And a Music Blogger is someone who loves music, loves to
talk about music, loves to share his/her musical tastes with others and definitely not someone who advocates musical piracy advances. It makes me sick to see blogs that offer lists of dozens and dozens of full-album downloads and to make things worse, they throw dirt in people's eyes by calling themselves Music Blogs.

There are two key elements that make up a respectable music blog:

1. The Blog posts include more than just links to zShare, Rapidshare, Mediafire, Sendspace, etc (also known as mp3 file hosts).

2. When introducing a song or body work, the author provides insight and establishes an opinion about the work.

Sadly, the first criteria of a music blog would effectively rule out about 70% of the alleged-Music Blogs out there. But, if you are serious about starting or bettering your music blog, proving your readers with insight and firmly establishing a personal opinion are key ingredients.

At its core, any web page, from The New York Times' website to the smallest blog; its all Web Real Estate, with one exception. It's not about "Location, Location, Location" but about "Content, Content, Content!"

Alright, this may be a bit biased since this is MY blog, but I work hard on Pretty Much Amazing, and you know what they say, you are your worst critic.

When you visit Pretty Much Amazing, the first thing you notice is the clean-slate design it has. The blog's design is clean, legible, and organized. There isn't an excessive amount of ads (I can only see 3!).

One of my favorite features of the Pretty Much Amazing design is the sidebars. The sidebars make RSS and Email subscription simple by offering easy to read graphics. It also has graphics that link to the different blog post categories.

As for the content, Pretty Much Amazing focuses on alternative or indie music as well as some hip-hop and dance music. This blog would be suited for anyone who likes Top 40 radio but has a taste for the weird and obscure.

[This is just a sample of how the future "Music Blog Stars" will look like. I will feature a Music Blog Star in every one of my Music Blogger Forum lenses.]

Ever since its inception, Wordpress has been the ideal CMS (Control Management System) -- offering its users simplicity, support, and content-mastery.
Bloggers and webmasters have known this for years, but sine the recent rise of music blogs, Wordpress has fallen short and has become second rate among
the music blog community. I can't count the amount of music blogs I see straddling the Blogger horse. How 2003.

Wordpress -- in my opinion -- is the most powerful and effective Blogging Platform known to man. I can't really explain Wordpress' majesty better than
sharing my Blogger-to-Wordpress story.

It was the summer of 2007 when I first moved my blog from Blogger to Wordpress. Because of Wordpress' new technology, the switch took no more than a handful
of clicks and a couple of minutes. The effects of the platform change were quite visible after a day or two. First off, traffic derived from Google (search, images) hit an all-time high. That was probably the most impressionable facet of the Wordpress vs Blogger battle. After doing a little snooping, I came to find out that my little Google-boost wasn't a one-time deal or rare for that matter. Wordpress is designed and customized for search engine dominance in a way Blogger never could.

What this means is that the geniuses working for Wordpress striped the extra code-baggage and maximized your blog's Search Engine Friendliness. Believe me, this is a Godsend. I won't get too into it, but Search Engines (Google), can be extremely picky and temperamental.

Aside from my convenient Google traffic boost, comments seem to flutter in like a torrential downpour. Alright, I may be exaggerating, but compared to Blogger, Wordpress makes commenting effortless and pain-free. Back in my Blogger days, I was lucky if a post was commented at all. Now, it isn't rare it see a post with 10 or 15 comments.
User-friendliness is wholeheartedly Wordpress' motto. It is not only user-friendly to the blogger but to the blog's readers as well. Wordpress' value is innumerable, but the price is beautiful. $0. The best things in life are free.

Your Choices
You have a couple of choiced when deciding to start a Wordpress blog. The first;

* Wordpress.com - WP.com is Blogger's direct rival. It's free, you don't have to worry about a web host and other webmaster details. It comes with dozens of elegant themes,
and provides a huge punch when giving the right content. There is a downside, a big one, actually. Wordpress.com is one of the most strict free hosts out there today. I am
talking about no foreign scripts or codes, period. Yes, that means no ads (not even text links), no flash embeds (they do accommodate for YouTube, Google, and other popular
video services, however), and little to no CSS or theme customization. This option is definitely for those whose Music Blogs are a hobby and are going to stay that way. The
second option;

* Wordpress.org - Wordpress.org is where you can download the latest and most powerful version of Wordpress. This option is for those who have the honor of calling themselves 'self-hosted'. Once you are self-hosted, you will have the freedom to do whatever it is you'd like with your Music Blog, proudly powered by Wordpress. And POWER it is. You will be able to unlock the full potential of your music blog full with plug-ins, customizations, and, if you're up to it, ads. Finding a host is never hard, Wordpress even recommends a few cheap web hosting firms.

The Bottom Line
If you are serious about your Music Blog and don't want it to be forgotten among the tens of thousands of music blogs already in existence, then Wordpress must be the first item on your to-do list. It will open many windows of opportunity for you and your music blog, and it would be a shame to miss out on opportunities that can make your blog special.
They say a frame is almost as important as the picture, make sure your frame is your foundation... and I haven't come across a more powerful foundation than Wordpress.

Step # 1: After installing WordPress on your domain, go to Manage and then Import

Step # 2: Provide authorization to WordPress to Import from Blogger Beta

Click on Blogger, the first option. You will then be asked to provide authorization to allow Wordpress to import your posts and comments from Blogger beta to your WordPress blog. As you can see it says

" To use this importer, you must have a Google account, an upgraded (new, was Beta) blog, and it must be on blogspot or a custom domain"

so check , check and check

Step # 3: Sign into your Blogger account

Step # 4: Once you authorize, press Import and magic starts happening. All your Blogger posts, comments and categories are imported to the Wordpress blog you just created.

Make sure you bookmark this lens because I will be updating it weekly!

Here is a list of new articles that I have in mind:

• 10 Vital Wordpress Plugins for a Music Blog


• 10 Vital (and Free) Tools for a Music Blog


• Why Your Music Blog Must Shine Above the Rest


• How to Establish Longtime Readers for your Music Blog


• How Digg Can Work for Your Music Blog


• How to Handle MP3s With Your Music Blog


• How to Make Hype Machine and Elbo.ws Work For You