New Blog

[SoccerStop]

Hello,

We have an online soccer equipment retail store (http://www.soccerstop.com) that we have been working on to get higher ranking results in many different areas of specific product pages, as well as our general homepage for several years.  SeoMoz has been an excellent addition for us to learn and analyze, etc.

In addition to our current PPC, and SEO efforts, we are going to create a blog as we have many thoughts, opinions and interesting information for what hopefully will be a good sized audience of soccer enthusiasts!  We currently have a person who goes on other soccer blogger websites and offers our thoughts and expressions, but we now want to give our own blog. My thought is to create a subdirectory of our domain something like: http://www.soccerstop.com/blog as that seems what is recommended in many posts here in this forum.

I am also thinking of using wordpress blog as it also seems recommended.  We have a lot of ideas about content, and feel we will bring people to our blog in various ways through our existing and coming customers at the retail online store.  However, it seems to get the best backlink performance possible out of our new blog, we need to join blog networks to get our blogs posted on outside third party websites.  Is this right, and where would I begin to understand and start this process?  I understand the first step is to get our blog started, but I want to foundationally have an idea where we are going with this as we build.  This way it is built in a sound way, ready to be as effective as possible!  Please understand I am a builder and not the blogger, which is why the structure and initial setup of syndication is so important to me!

Thanks for any advice.
James

[eTundra]

I do not think blog networks are necessarily bad but they won't make your blog the most popular on the web either.

Definitely do the subdirectory as you mentioned, and use WordPress.  There are other platforms out there that are just as good but I personally prefer WordPress and you can't go wrong with them.

Continue the engagement with other soccer blogs you mentioned and start asking for guest posts with links back to your blog.

But, above all, write the best content there is to write about soccer!  I just so happen to be a huge soccer fan living in the U.S. and I can tell you that there is definitely a lack of quality content on the web for U.S. soccer fans.

I am assuming that you target the U.S. market, and if so, then you have an awesome opportunity to make your blog the best thing out there for the U.S. fan.

Good content isn't enough to move the SEO needle for your site.  Premium content is a must.  It's a lot of work, but if you do it right then you'll see huge benefits.  Don't think you can just plop a few posts down a week and see a difference.  You need to become the central source for all things concerning soccer, and that will require a concerted effort by an entire team of people.

[ResslerMotors]

What kind of content do you think is missing that they might be able to fill?  The only thing I know about soccer is that you need an SUV to haul your kids around

[eTundra]

Good question (and one I was hoping James would ask so I could start working on him to let me blog for them ; )

Just a few ideas off the top of my head:

1. English Premiere League coverage  - EPL games are getting more and more popular in the U.S. - they even show some games on NFL Sunday!
2. Local Colorado coverage - I also live in Colorado and am a referee here and there are many competitive leagues around the Denver area.  Become the gazette for these local teams and earn tons of local links.
3. MLS coverage - the Colorado Rapids won the MLS cup last year and went to the playoffs (despite many injuries) this year - cover the local team for local links and the league in general as there are few MLS sources outside of the league's own news reporting.
4. U.S. National Team coverage - do you have any idea how hard it is to follow the U.S. Men's National Team???  The only place for regular updates is the U.S. Soccer website.

I didn't even get to equipment and product updates, etc... this is just a start - and plenty more where that came from...

[ResslerMotors]

Do U.S. teams usually have a marketing/Public Relations department?  Do you think you could get interviews with players and coaches?

[EGOL]

Place the blog in a folder... not on a subdomain.

The performance of your blog will be most influenced by the quality of your content.  If you post yada yada yada yada that nobody gives a hoot about then expect every visitor to backbutton out.  But if you post awesome information that the visitors to your blog want to read and share and subscribe to then you will have a chance of success.

If your visitors are not reading, sharing and subscribing then you will probably be wasting your time.

[SoccerStop]

Hi,

Thanks for the detailed answer.  What part of Denver are you in?  Where do you play soccer, and are you familiar with our retail stores in the Denver area?

Yes, I am interested in hearing about your blogging rates.  Please email me at jamesr at soccerstop.com.  We may be able to work something out...

Thanks
James