Happy Wednesday!! Today’s post is a bit different from my other posts because this one is to help anyone out there that is looking to start blogging or feeling a little stuck with their blogging start. I have been blogging since May of 2018 and let me just say I have learned a ton from some of the mistakes I made. I kind of just jumped into blogging and did not do enough research before beginning, but that is okay because it has taught me what I know now. If you are needing some tips or advice on how to get started blogging or need the motivation to keep up with your blogging, then you will definitely enjoy this post! I have come up with 8 different tips that I have found super helpful for the blogging world, so I hope you will too.
The 8 Tips I Have for Bloggers
The first tip that I have learned from blogging is that you constantly need to be consistent. You always need to be checking emails, engaging with followers that you genuinely enjoy engaging with, making sure that your links are still working, and even constantly adding blog posts to make your blog a place where everyone wants to come. When you are consistent, not only do you begin to enjoy what you’re doing more, but it also shows other people to see that you are dedicated and it will be a place that they will forever want to support.
Stay true to your niche. Often times people try and change their blog identity to fit what is popular right now, but you want to make sure that you are always staying true to your niche. By staying true to the type of content you are creating, you are making sure that you are standing out which is something you truly want. Of course, there are tons of beauty, lifestyle, and even fashion bloggers out there, but by you staying true to your niche you will become the beauty blogger that people tend to love to follow and come to in regards to questions about your niches.
Always DOUBLE or even triple check your work. This part is beyond important because when I first started my blog in May, I did not realize that scrolling part of my blog truly did not work on the mobile version of my blog. I initially created my blog with Wix and being apart of Like To Know It I liked to be able to use the widgets that they provide to us. Well, when I would try to do my fashion posts, half of the content from the widgets would not show up on the mobile version, just a little bit would. Had I realized this sooner, I could have come up with a solution sooner than November of 2018. This is why I say it is beyond important to check your posts, pages, widgets, and everything because this could be a huge reason as to why some people do not visit your blog as often. You want to make sure that your site is user-friendly and not only that, but you want to make sure that it looks okay on both desktop and mobile version. If you are looking for a site to create your blog on, I would highly suggest WordPress because it allows you to customize your blog much more than Wix does. For instance, the text, the size of the text, the resizing of images, centering images, centering the codes for widgets and so much more!
If you are looking for someone to help you prepare your site for WordPress, I HIGHLY recommend Pipdig! They transferred my site from Wix to WordPress and are still there to help with any questions that I have. Definitely invest in them for your brand if you are looking for someone because you will not regret it! My theme is the Firefly theme and everything is customizable, so I truly love everything they offer.
Just be you on your posts. People go to your blog because they want to be able to relate to you in things that you love, but that can only happen if you focus on what you truly love and being yourself. There is only one of you in this world, so make sure that you are using that to your advantage and making it happen.
Be organized. I cannot tell you how many times I have been stuck on what to post, when to post, etc. That is when I decided to create a content calendar and pick up a planner that was only $10 at Target. If you want to be consistent and be successful in blogging, then you have to be disciplined enough to make sure you are having content going up at least three times week or even daily if possible. If you are organized, then this will help you push out certain content in a timely manner. When you start working with brands, then you have no other choice but to push out content by certain dates, so why not start from the beginning? What I have found super helpful is creating my own content calendar via Word or even on a piece of paper. This helps you bring out what you want to talk about at a certain time, figure out when to post, and get a schedule so that you can stay consistent and continue to grow your blog.
Constantly be learning new ideas, new information, and different ways to create your content. What I mean by this is be able to switch up the ideas you put on your feed, how you put them on your feed, and even on your Instagram stories. I like to use Photoshop, Lightroom, Adobe Spark, and even Canva to help make my ideas come to life. When I am making announcements for my blog via stories, I started to use the template I created with my logo at the top just to personalize to go with my brand. Doing little stuff like this is so much fun and is super easy with the help of Google and Youtube. There is so much free information out there on the internet, it is just up to us to make sure that we are utilizing the information out there. There are even bloggers who dedicate their blog to helping other bloggers grow! Check out @simpleandprettyco and @daniellegervino on Instagram because those two alone have helped me grow so much. If you are looking for someone to consult with to get a one on one scoop on how to grow, definitely hit up my girl Ashlyn @whiteafterlaborday on Instagram. She has literally changed my blogging game and because of her and the knowledge she has, I will be either beyond close to full-time blogging or actually full time blogging by the time Baby Griffin gets here in July!
@simpleandprettyco on Insta!
@daniellegervino on Insta!
@_whiteafterlaborday on Insta!
Make sure all of the images that you are using are high-quality pictures. This part is extremely important because you want your pictures to not be extremely grainy, you want them to be some type of bright, and you want to make sure that you are consistent with the filters or presets that you use. For instance, I use the same food preset on all of my food pictures on both the blog and my Instagram stories because it helps create a consistent look for all of the recipes and food reviews that I do. You can buy presets, but I truly suggest downloading Lightroom mobile (it’s free) and work on creating your own preset because this will help you stand out from other bloggers.
Make sure that you are sharing your blog posts on every network possible. We have Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram Stories, Pinterest, and even Snapchat stories, so make sure you are taking advantage. This will help your blog get seen by more people and could even lead to you having more subscribers. I highly recommend making sure that every single blog post is linked to Pinterest because Pinterest has been a huge network that leads so many different people to my blog simply because people are able to save your pin which could then be saved by their followers and so on. Use Canva for your blog and Pinterest photos and you can also end up uploading that same photo to your stories or your feed for people to check out. I love that Canva offers so many different layouts because it allows you to customize your posts and make them stand out in ways that you truly love. Plus, it is free so check it out! Here are some of the pictures I have made for my blog posts!
That is all that I have for this post, so I truly hope it can help someone out. I had so much fun creating this post for y’all and I cannot wait to continue to learn more and share more tips with y’all! Thank you so much for checking this out and see y’all next time!