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I wish I could tell you this title, “My Journey With The Naked Celebrity” means I’m having an affair with Brad Pitt, but no, I’ve started a new blog. Yes, I may be perilously close to having to face my blog addiction, but until then, I thought I’d tell you about it.

The Naked Celebrity Screenshot

This blog, called The Naked Celebrity , is my first attempt at a blog that is designed primarily as a money-generator. I do find the topic interesting and the writing for it fun. What I mean by “made it as a money-generator” is that when I set it up, I decided to do so with monetizing in mind.

Becky, over at Preblogging, has some great tips for to follow before setting up your blog, including choosing your blogging niche .

I would also recommend that before you get started on creating a blog (that isn’t a personal blog) that you check out this article on problogger about choosing your niche . Despite having the same topics, the articles have a vastly different focus.

So when I decided to get started, I took the following steps:

1. Choose the niche.

After investigating what people are searching for using Google Trends and Google Adwords (which shows the popularity and competitiveness of terms that show up on Adsense and how much advertisers will pay for these terms), I decided to go with something in the celebrity vein.

“But, Jayne… you can’t stand celebrities.” That’s right, and so I realised that this could work in my favor. If you’ve been to my humor blog Bitter Women, you know that I love a good rant. So instead of just presenting the news like a thousand other blogs and websites do, I would put my own slant on it, and give it my own voice.

Ranting about how idiotic celebrities are would just never get old for me. :)

In order to create something different, I created a set of characters named Auntie Maude, Cousin Rose, and Uncle Horace who give their own opinions and funny observations about the silly gossip stories that abound.

2. Choose the Title

I chose “The Naked Celebrity” because putting those two words together turns it into search engine gold, but also because I liked the double-meaning.

3. Choose the design

I am so happy with the wordpress theme I chose, called The Morning After. It gives it a magazine feel, which I hope looks professional and slick. I felt that if I was going for the “gossip mag” feel, I didn’t want it to look too “homey” and it even veers away slightly from the traditional blog look. It IS slightly complex, as there are a lot of images to upload in various places for each article, but readers want pictures and eye-candy, so an image-rich layout is great, and I’m very pleased with how it’s turned out.

I’ve also picked this layout because the advertising fits well within it, and doesn’t look sloppy.

So now all that’s left is the final bit…

4. Fill it up with some content so it doesn’t look too bare.

Right now I only have a few articles up, so I need to add about a dozen more within a few days to fill out that celebrity name “category” list on the left.

Since this is my first attempt at a real monetised blog that is set up with SEO in mind, and working for search users, it’s something different for me, so I’m letting you in on my process, so you can learn along with me. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, I’d love to hear them!

*Note: I can report that some things seem to already be going well, even after just two days! I’ve already started getting click-throughs from Technorati on the celeb names. Why is a few clicks a big deal? None of my other blogs get any traffic from technorati at all! LOL

6 Responses to “My Journey With The Naked Celebrity”

  1. Danielle Blogging for Balance Says:

    I just clicked on over there and I am impressed. I think this was a smart move. I don’t believe it is possible to make more than nickels and dimes from a personal blog…I think you have to go full throttle just as you have done. I’m going back over to join the community. Can I make one suggestion without sounding snarky? Do you think it would read better if you put….

    Joining Maude will be Auntie Rose..

    I don’t know…Maude is joined sounds like she is joined at the hip with Rose ;)

    Okay, I’m off to get my first cup of coffee and go back and join your new community ;).

    Kudos to you on taking the first step in this endeavor…many people, me included, can always roll the plan around in their creative minds but it takes a lot to get it actually rolling.

  2. Dana Wallert Says:

    Great post here. If only I had 7 or 8 more hours every day, I have several domains in other niches just sitting around waiting for some content! Oh well, one blog at a time. I have one on reality tv that I might just have not sleep for a week soon and get going!

    One question, where are you getting the photos? That’s been one of my main reasons for putting those sites at the bottom of my to-do list is copyright issues…haven’t researched it much but seems like it might be dicey.

    I love the layout over there too. I just subscribed.

  3. Ben S. Says:

    I like the look of naked celebrity blog. Just based on the name and design you will get traffic. Also if you have some cool angels on content (that differentiates yourself - i.e with your uncle and aunt) then it can be a winner. (Especially if you exploit Digg & Stumbleupon). I agree about the niche aspect. I think picking niches are the key to a successful blog. A good example is http://www.secretarialblog.co.uk which is aimed at PAs and secretaries. it’s niche with ok content. The way forward?

  4. kher Cheng Guan Says:

    Hello jayne, congratulations! new clebrity blog. fantastic! I love the simple title Naked Celebrity. In fact I wanted to write a post called The Naked Blogger sometime ago. Just checking…how do those celebrity bloggers get their latest copyright photos?

  5. Tay Says:

    A few months back I set up my own celebrity blog on a free Blogspot blog because I didn’t want to make a commitment to it; it was sort of like a test (and also someplace I can write great PayPerPost reviews). I have to say, even the tiniest of celebrity blogs get huge search engine traffic. Besides that, the content was easy to write. All I had to do was read other news and rewrite it in my own words. I had a good time doing it, and hope to start up another celebrity blog eventually when I can commit to it and get a domain.

    Anyway, I agree with you. I love your design; it’s spectacular and perfect for the niche! Seems to me like you’re going to have some real success with this. Good luck! :)

  6. Jayne Says:

    Thank you, everyone, for your positive and encouraging comments!

    And no, Danielle, you don’t sound snarky at all! I asked for your advice, and I think your comment is right on target. It’s very very hard to edit onesself. ones self… ones-self… one’s self? Oh hell.. I give up. It’s hard to edit yasself. :D

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