Blog Tips

Surprisingly I have been blogging since 2008! I am in no way an expert and am always looking for ways to improve my site and my reader experience. Here are some tips of things that I have learned along the way so far. I will continue to update this as I continue to learn and grow as a blogger. Blogging is a fun creative outlet for me and something that helps contribute to my family income as well. However, it is quite a bit of work and did take me a while to build it up, but so worth it.

Get Your Own URL and a Website Hosting Site:

I personally use Bluehost and have been with them since 2012. They are very affordable and low/no maintenance and you can set up auto payments and I don’t ever have to worry about it! They very few times I have needed any assistance they have been super helpful!

BLOG PUBLISHER & WEB DESIGN

I use wordpress as my blog publisher, I used blogger when I first started and it was great too, but I wanted to use a custom design and have more control over the elements on my blog, so I used Emily White Designs to design my site and she switched me over to wordpress. They have so many add-ons that make it easy to use for non tech savvy folks like me. Also, Emily is fantastic, she exceeded my expectations and had such great ideas to make my blog user friendly, highly recommend her. She also designed my business cards as well to match my site.

SOCIAL MEDIA/NETWORKING

Get accounts in your blog name on all platforms even if you don’t use the platform right away, snag your user name in case you want to use it in the future it will be there. Also get an email account in your blog name so you can keep all your blog email separate from your personal.

For posting, my recommendation is to pick one social media site to focus on and do most of your networking and posting there. I personally love Instagram so that’s the platform I post all my fun behind the scenes stuff or things I’m loving. I do post all my blog posts to Facebook and have that linked to my Twitter account and post a few other things on those sites from time to time.

Use social media to also network with other bloggers! I have made so many great friends through blogging and so great to get inspiration from them as well as share with like minded people. Do it genuinely though, don’t ask for a follow just follow them because you like their posts and comment and get to know them that way, the way you would a new friend. You won’t regret it, my blogger friends have enriched my life in so many ways!

Find a site that allows you to submit posts for added exposure, Food Gawker and Tastespotting are great for food bloggers and I’m sure there are others for other niches as well.

Contact companies in your genre and asked them to do a sponsored post, or sometimes companies will contact you. Do be choosy about this, I only do this if its something I would be interested in personally using and relates to my content.

PINTEREST:

Pinterest is the main source of site visitors and in the past I haven’t utilized it as I should. I recommend pinning things daily from your own site as well as others. Pin items that are relevant to the season as well.

Use Canva or another app to create “pin worthy” images

Use Tailwind to schedule pins, try it free for 30 days! I am so in love with this, saves me so much time and has helped my posts perform much better.

ADS:

Join an ad program, I use Google AdSense and SHE Media

I also sponsor some local charity events as well as a way to give back and promote at the same time

From time to time, I will boost a post on facebook, I’ve found these do better that their ads and are not expensive at all. Have gotten great results from these.

Affiliate Marketing (I’m honestly still learning on this one, but know it’s a great way to boost revenue)

EMAIL NEWSLETTER:

Set up an automatic email list for readers to subscribe to and set to auto-send your posts, I use MailChimp

GENERAL:
Don’t be afraid to be yourself, readers appreciate authenticity and return for it. I love sharing about my personal life as well as a way to get to know my readers and let them get to know me, especially if I’m doing something I think they will enjoy or somewhere they would want to visit as well. Also, it gives me a great platform to share about my Christian faith in Jesus and hopefully encourage my readers as well. Plus it makes things fun to mix it up between your regular content.

When first starting out, it’s great to stick to a set posting schedule so your readers know when to come to your site, but if you can’t get the post up in time, don’t sweat it! Especially once you build up your readership and email subscribers they will get notified when you post.

Don’t be afraid to take a break if you are overwhelemed, I took the summer off and wasn’t sure I would return and all of my readers were so supportive and were right there to welcome me when I decided to return after my short hiatus.

Do work ahead and plan out your blog posts, and you can write them and schedule them ahead of time (also can do this on facebook page posts as well). This works great especially if you know you are going to be on vacation or have to take some time off. I scheduled out at least 2 months worth of posts when I had both of my babies so I wouldn’t have to worry about posting during that time. I don’t always plan well and do this, but things are so much easier when I do!

PHOTOGRAPHY:

I use a NIKON DSLR with a on a tripod on the manual setting for most of my photos with natural light. I also have used Adobe Lightroom to edit photos in the past. If I am short on time (which is a lot lately) I will use my i-phone on the portrait setting and edit the pictures from there.

Disclamer: Some of these contain affiliate links