I remember on the business element of of my TT course the teacher ( not Ramaswami thankfully, don't think he wanted anything to do with this yoga alliance requirement), just after trying to get us to do a yoga elevator speech ( I declined, preferring to take the stairs ), it was suggested we start a blog and write posts on something topical, Yoga for the troops in Afghanistan, say.
And recently my company asked me if I'd mind writing a blog for them on repairing woodwind, instruments seeing as I have such blogging experience. Clearly a promotional idea and needless to say I politely declined.
You can tell blogging is being taken more seriously, I'm regularly having to turn down requests to promote products, the only one I think I've actively promoted is Manduka but that's because I use their mats and towels everyday ( as it happens I seem to have upset them recently, I didn't think much of their new range of towels and said so and a little too strongly ). Oh and Tara books, I've posted on them, but that's just because It's a tiny company and I found their books to be beautiful ....and of course Claudia's book over there on the right, but then It's Claudia, she's a friend.
More and more spammers, the worst kind, seeming to comment on a post but just so they can get their link in. Oh and teachers who just happen to drop into every comment how experienced they are and pretty much their whole yogic biography, irritating.
And then there's the advertising creeping into blogs more and more, google adwords, affiliates, shops, boutiques.... a little depressing. I used to love that Amazon box on blogs where the blogger could show which books they're reading or something they had read recently that they thought their readers might like. Was going to set one up here but then realised it was an affiliate, you get a couple of bucks every time a reader buys a book via your link. It's a slippery slope, you start off with a mention of a book your really like and then you end up adding a book to every post and then finally writing a post just so you can add a book link. Which comes back to writing posts about yoga for some poor bugger whole lost an arm in Afghanistan just to increase your traffic.
Obviously I'm not suggesting everyone who has an affiliate on their blog is selling out, some of my favourite bloggers, many who I admire and respect with mat bags full of integrity have them. You can usually tell the dodgy blogs, look a little too professional, too many pastils shades.
I had a Paypal 'donate' button on here once, was adding gadgets all over the place and thought why not, titled it Help me get to Mysore or something like that. Had this idea that somebody super rich in CA who would obviously be into yoga would have nothing better to do with their money than send me off to India. Not proud of it, what happen, of course, was a couple of yogi's out there sent me a couple of little donations, really nice, kind and thoughtful of them. They'd obviously been to Mysore themselves and thought I should go as well. In fact a very famous Ashtanga teacher send me a small donation too, was really touched by that. Felt guilty about it and took the donate button down. If I ever do go to Mysore the main reason will probably be because I still feel I owe it to those handful of generous yogi's.
I shouldn't write this stuff, it's just me, I'm too damned idealistic sometimes and clearly have a hang up about money, I was brought up on Tony Curtis movies, what can I say. I don't know I see the blogs as kriya yoga... wouldn't it be nice, if just somewhere money didn't come into it... at all.
Anyway, here's the depressing niche yoga post in full ( actually I removed about fifty links), I'm hoping the writer won't mind as I'm giving him a plug by reposting it and besides there's about forty share buttons at the bottom of the post.
Yoga Niche: How to Create Your Yoga Niche Blog in Easy Steps
If you want to tap into the yoga niche market, the first step you need to do is do keyword and market research, and in this article I will list down some keyword and market data about the yoga niche. In the end, we will create a yoga niche blog that will generate traffic and leads to your yoga information products. If you don’t have a yoga niche product to sell, we can take a look at some yoga products we can promote, or turn your blog into a product in itself and make money from yoga ads on Google Adsense.
Yoga keywords
Yoga AdvertisersYoga keywords
yoga mat
yoga video
yoga apparel
yoga teacher training
yoga equipment
yoga videos
yoga mats
yoga clothing
nude yoga
yoga accessories
yoga clothes
hatha yoga
yoga pants
yoga meditation
yoga poses
yoga books
yoga teacher
bikram yoga
yoga supplies
ashtanga yoga
naked yoga
yoga certification
yoga dvd
learn yoga
- amazon.com
- inspirationyogainstitute.com
- dharmastudio.com
- downdogart.com
- ashtangayogari.com
- yogabydesign.us
- spiritwinds.net
- zamkara-yoga-shop.de
Yoga advertising
Did you know what the average cost per click for the yoga keywords is between 37 to 92 cents, and “yoga” ads generate 2.8 to 3.5 thousand clicks per day.
Building a yoga niche blog with wordpress
Now that we have made the keyword and market research, it’s time to build our WordPress blog. First thing you need to do is install WordPress and these are the plugins I would recommend:
- XML Sitemap
- All in One SEO
- Askimet
- Insights
Next step is to create your blog categories based on the keywords. Depending on the theme of your blog, your categories can target general yoga niche terms or specific yoga techniques or products.
You could target:
- Thai Yoga Massage
- Yoga DVDs
- Yoga Wear
- Akasha Yoga
- Bare Yoga
- Vinsaya Yoga
- Bikra Yoga
- Ashtanga Yoga
- Yoga Studio
- Aerobic Yoga
Content Sources
The best content for your Yoga niche blog would be original articles that you will have to write. If you do not feel confident enough to write about the topic, you can hire freelance writers on Odesk orElance and have them write 10 articles each targeting a keyword or keyphrase.
You can also get Yoga PLR articles and rewrite them to make them at least 70% unique.
For images and videos, you can go to stock photo sources such as SXC.hu and YouTube.com. If you find good yoga photos on Flickr, you can ask the creator for permission to use the yoga photo for your website.
Yoga Domains
It’s recommended that you build your yoga niche blog on its own domain. You can go to GoDaddy Auctions and search for expired yoga domain that have pagerank or backlinks. Or you can go to your domain registrar and get a new domain name that contains keywords.
Share and Enjoy:
Posts
7 comments:
I hear you and understand you perspective. That blog sounds awfull really like its main target is only to make money and nothing else, but I can tell you one thing, they don't work. I have had people spam me, just like you mention, with links to blogs like that one but I never go, I just spam the spammers and they can never post again.
Once I had a blog in New Zealand strip ALL the content of my blog, even a very personal post about my mother's death that I had to take down cause it was causing me family problems... they were just going at it and taking everything out of me all personal pictures and all, and ALSO of course, selling products, they had links every where etc...
So, the site was hideous and I had to do some research and ask their server to take it down 'or else'
On the other hand, I agree with you that blogs are for our passions, when well utlizied they can help not only us process what we learn but also others on the path... and some affiliates can also be useful, for example amazon does not really pay you. I have an affiliate, what they do is they send you gift certificates, therefore I recommend a yoga book, someone buys it, I get the equivalent of a lunch money in NYC in a gift certificate which only allows me to buy more... well... yoga books, you guessed it. So I suppose it is a win win for everyone, we all end up reading more on yoga anyway...
Gosh, sorry to go manifesto here, I have so many thoughts on this, maybe I should write a post...
Oh and as per reviewing recently I was also approached by a company to review their books. I love the idea of course but it was very clear from the beginning that I would only review the ones that I love, the ones that teach me something. So far they only sent me one which I do not feel would add value to my audience, so no review... but I guess if the rules are clear from the beginning then all is good... not sure why manduka would be upset...you give very fair reviews and they are very VERY valuable to the yoga community, heck! I buy things just cause you say so, example:
pranayama app
yoga makaranda (which then was made free)
Pradipika in the edition by the author Ramaswami recommended...
Anyway, I will stop now
Good read Grimmly, you leave me thinking and thinking
One more thing, I loooooove that strip of sharing there at the bottom of the post, how oh how did you get that?
Hm, I tried to twit your article and it wants to twit THAT article... maybe the strip is from them?
Just a quickie as I'm in the library trying to catch up on comments, finding three blogs and two practices, a lot to manage : )
That strip of sharing is part of the Niche post, I included it to show how he's trying to share the post about. i tried to remove the links but couldn't work out how to do it.
There is a gadget i think on blogger for doing that, dom't you have one of those for facebook.
thank you for you long first comment, will come back to it when i get home tonight.
Horrible about the NZ site that ripped your blog, just don't get people sometimes.
Gift certificates, that's how you can afford so many yoga books : )
i wonder if I've been getting review requests from the same publishers, they send me a link to an online text to review. Haven't sent me one I wanted to read yet.
Oh had another one where they wanted me to interview the author, was going to do that but forgot, oops.
I'd forgotten how much I have reviewed over the years.
thanks for long comment Claudia, was reading it while repairing a clarinet today at my bench, nice distraction .
Hmm... it's depressing to see the yoga that I love broken down into a list of it's marketable elements.
I admit that I have given a thought or two to affiliate offers or putting ads on the blog, but always find it too distasteful in the mouth. I have also considered the Paypal donation button, but again, can't seem to make myself do it.
I take solace in the fact that my blog is very searchable, particularly in the Austin area, so it helps promote me as a teacher. In any case, I started the blog as a way to reach out and share my experience with the practice without any thought of profit, so I'd like to keep it that way.
Nice post, Grimm. It's good to put these things out in the open from time to time.
i'm glad you're writing about this, Grimmly. i'm not subjected to as much spam, but have been. my practice and blogging is not as focused as yours and Claudia's, so my blog is a reflection of my complicated personal life.
cheers,
Arturo
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