Blogging Niches: Know Your Celebrities?

Do you know the difference between Lindsay Lohan and Lindsay Buckingham? The difference between Britney Spears and Britt Eklund? Jessica Simpson and Jessica Rabbit? Wilmer Valderrama and Wilma Flintstone? (Okay, you get the idea.)

The celebrity gossip niche is super hot. Somewhere online I read that the Lindsay Lohan blogger at b5media earns US$50+K/yr. That implies a massive amount of traffic, and for just a single celebrity.

Approach

Ryan Caldwell’s celebrity blogger job listing (filled) for Celebrity Cowboy states that blogging 15 posts per day about celebrities can really pay off. So if you know your celebrities well, or know how to hunt down information, even start believable rumors, this might be a niche to consider.

Question is, how can you write 15 posts per day. Here’s a secret I discovered over a year ago. Buy yourself a TV capture card – external or internal – and blog while you watch. (Many new computers will have a built-in capture card.)

If you have cable, you can buy a splitter from your fave electronics parts store. Run your coaxial cable into the splitter, then run another length of coax into your TV capture card. Install the software that comes with the card.

Having a large monitor (19″ or more) helps. Run the TV software and your fave blog editor. Type while you watch one of those multitude of celebrity gossip TV shows. Write the content you see on TV in your own words, supplement with photos, and post to your celeblog.

Some elements of celeb blogging

I will tell you straight off that I don’t have a celebrity blog and I’m only speculating here based on what I’ve heard from people who do have them, plus my own general blogging experience.

If you blog while watching TV shows, it’s actually really easy to come up with lots of content every day. You need to learn to type fast with few mistakes, but that comes with practice if you know touch-typing. This works whether you’re celebrity blogging or reality show blogging – both of which can draw big traffic if you’re timely. And big traffic about something very specific can monetize well.

You don’t have to write really long posts, but try to have at least 150 words in each. A few other elements that help:

1. Celeb names.
   Don’t use generic titles without keywords. In this case, your desired keywords are celebrity names. Use them in the article title and first paragraph. A lot of celeb bloggers forget this and wonder why they’re not drawing traffic and monetizing.
2. Pictures.
   I’m not sure exactly what shock performer Marilyn Manson is saying in his song “The Beautiful People” (warning: offensive content), but as a society, we’re obsessed with the “beautiful” people – who as of late do a lot of ugly things in public, like flashing their coochie, driving drunk, and just generally being stupid. And we want to SEE this behavior. We love it. So what’s a celeb blog without pics? However, I have no legit advice for you about obtaining pics. This is an excercise left for you. (You could try Flickr.) But without pics, don’t bother celeb blogging.
3. Juicy details.
   What are you saying about celebs? Anything worthwhile? Normally I wouldn’t suggest this for other blog niches, but rehasing what you see on TV or read in newspapers or the blogosphere is fine. But do try to add some value that readers can’t get elsewhere. Ideas:
   1. Utilize IMDB to get TV and filmography details of some celebs.
   2. Do an indepth of review of every film an actor has ever been in. This could be major linkbait. Then link every actor in each review to their own profiles on your site.
   3. Do the same with musicians. E.g., review every album/CD David Bowie has ever appeared on.
   4. Publish profiles about select celebs, not just gossip.
   5. Apply the concept of Six Degrees of Separation. When you write about someone, mention their degree of connectedness to other celebs you’ve written about.
   6. Draw graph of working relationships between celebs. This extends the six degrees idea into an actual visual.
   7. Is a celeb part of a Hollywood dynasty? Write about their blood relations. This used to be common in print mags, but I don’t see it a lot with blogs.
   8. Dig out unknown facts. Did you know that President Bush likes to go for bike rides? He had one today in Quebec, Canada, while meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. But it wasn’t Harper that accompanied him.
4. Crystal ball/ foresight.
   Found out about a relative unknown actor, singer, musician, athlete? Think they’re going to go big? Write about them now, to build search engine authority for them on your blog. Mention everything you can, shows they’re in, events, tours, signings.
5. Timeliness.
   A new study suggests that offline media channels can drive search queries. So if you’re capable of watching TV and blogging simultaneously, you have a big opportunity. But you have to be timely. You can’t blog tomorrow morning about something on the news at 5 pm today. Blog it immediately, even if you only type 200 words. Add a few external links, and if you’ve written a related article already, link to that. (Deep linking is very important for building authority.)

My concluding advice: be unique with your new celebrity blog and do something not already being done. Give readers what they want, and you can earn a living online.