Let’s do another blog tips post, shall we? As the title already spills, today I’m sharing the much requested topic of tips for beginning bloggers out there. From getting your name out there to having the right mindset and skills, read on to see how you can reach your best potential.
SEO
Learning the basics of SEO is absolute key if you want to make it online and that’s why I’m mentioning this before anything else. Sure, if your website has killer content it will eventually make its way out there regardless of your SEO practices, but why not make the process go 10 times quicker? If you want to learn more about SEO, I highly recommend you to read these articles on Kissmetrics. Also make sure to read one of my previous posts with easy SEO tips for bloggers that you can start implementing today.
Share ability
Write cohesive, original and informative content. Your readers are much more likely to engage with your blog and come back when you give them something fun to read! These days I see too many blogs (especially fashion) that only show images or just one line of text. Don’t be afraid to show some personality, there are so many people who will be reading your blog that will want to know where you’ve taken the photos, why you’ve taken them and with who, just to give some examples. Something else to remember: blog posts consisting of 300+ words generally speaking get more attention of search engines than posts with less words do!
Lists
When you’re just starting out blogging, it can be really smart to write some strategic post that involve lists (“top 10: best Australian fashion blogs, 10 signs that you’re an Instagram junkie), tips (“how to treat your blog as a business“) and clear topics (“how to wear Birkenstocks”). Such post are most likely to get more exposure, not only because of their SEO friendly-ness but also because of their share ability. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but People LOVE sharing lists on their social channels!
Audience
Make an effort to understand and define the audience you’re writing for. What kind of person would be reading your blog? Think about what age they are, what hobbies they have and what they’d like to read about. Keeping this in mind makes it easier to find a consistent voice that your readers will love and engage with. Of course the first and foremost reason to start blogging is because there’s a topic you’re passionate about, but staying consistent is so much easier when you understand who your readers are.
Patience
I personally have this problem of making things easier in my head than it actually turns out in real life. And you know what? I know that I’m not the only one. When I first thought of blogging and eventually making it my full time job, it kind of went something like this in my mind: I’ll write posts, people will comment and love it and then the blog will grow. Yes, in an ideal world. Let me paint you a picture how it really goes. You have to prepared to write for yourself for a very long time before anyone will start to notice you at all. This shouldn’t make you doubt yourself, neither should it discourage you or worse: stop whatsoever. Trust me, this is part of the process and it works this way for just about anyone taking their chances in the online world.
Engage
To get your blog noticed, one of the keys things to do is to get yourself out there and engage with the blogging community. Leave comments on blogs that you think have a similar target group as yours, participate in online forums and reach out to blogs with a similar size as yours to do some cross promoting or write guest posts. Doing all these little things on a daily or weekly basis add up and will start paying off eventually.
Is there anything you wish you had known when you first started out blogging? What are your best tips?
