If you’re a new blogger who needs blogging help, then I think you’ll enjoy this list of 10 awesome blogging tips to grow your blog! These 10 tips cover the most important things you should focus on as a new blogger to grow your website, monetize, and enjoy the journey.
I began this list by thinking of exactly what I’d tell myself when I first started blogging. Back then I was so overwhelmed, with absolutely no tech skills, a 5-year-old, and a new baby bouncing on my knee. I was sleep-deprived and exhausted!
But, like you, I was also super inspired and excited. I knew blogging was the thing for me and I was determined to make my blog amazing.
I began my blogging journey by reading a million articles just like this on Pinterest. And now, I’m writing this post to offer the blogging help that you need, that I needed at one point, too! Read on for some valuable insider blogger info, gathered from hours of research, and almost 3 years of happy blogging!
**This post contains affiliate links, meaning I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you for products you purchase via this website. For more information click here.**
As Steve Jobs famously said “If you are working on something you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.”
This is so true! If you know intuitively that you are meant to write and blog and create, then do it! As with anything new you will learn, there is a learning curve, but blogging DEFINITELY gets easier.
How to start a blog
If you haven’t already started your blog, you can sign up with Bluehost.
Bluehost is $3.95/mo for the beginner plan. This includes a free domain name and free WordPress which you can install with one simple click. It’s pretty easy to sign up and get your website name, just click the banner below!
Blogging help: my best tips
1. Write and create what you love
This may sound obvious, but it’s probably the most important blogging tip I can give you. If you want to create a successful blog, you absolutely need to write about stuff you like writing about. If not, you will eventually lose your fire and motivation. It may take some time to find what you love to write, and that’s Ok. Just keep writing articles, and if one or a few of them veer left, no one is gonna fault you. You may confuse your audience initially, but you probably haven’t grown a very big one yet, so don’t worry about it. You must experiment to find your happy place.
2. Don’t stress too much about branding.
When I first started blogging, I spent hours trying to make a decent logo and wasted so much time testing color palettes. Don’t worry too much about these things.
You can always go and change your logo, colors, and fonts later, and you probably will.
Create a simple logo using a legible font on Canva, (free) and choose whatever 3-5 colors that feel most like “you.” Look around your home or wardrobe for inspiration.
Here are the most important things to know when designing your blog:
- Choose bright colors for your links.
- Choose a font for your main body that people can easily read.
- Your tile is always H1. Make your subtitles H2, and any subheading under your subtitles H3, then down to H4. This is important for readability and SEO, which we will get to in a minute.
- Use bullet points, numbered lists, and plenty of white space.
- Always make your articles as easy to read or scan as possible.
3. Invest in a professional website theme
What you want is a fast-loading website theme. Loading speed is a factor in SEO. The one I now use and recommend is the Amelia theme by 17th avenue designs. It’s beautiful, too.
4. Understand SEO and implement from the beginning
One of the first plugins you should download is the Yoast SEO plugin, (free.) Learn how to use it and use it from the beginning.
SEO is complex but crucial to learn. It’s fundamental to readers discovering your blog posts.
It’s very unlikely you will rank a first-page spot on Google with a new blog, but you’ll want to start practicing good SEO so that as your blog grows, you have a chance to be seen on Google.
I recommend you do some of your own research on this topic, as it is far too involved to be summarised here. But, if you’d like a quick little cheat sheet, feel free to download this one I created:
5. Learn how to craft compelling headlines
As you hone your writing skills, focus specifically on creating amazing titles for your blog posts. It doesn’t matter so much if your pin was saved 500 times. What matters is that your title was interesting enough for someone to click on it and read your content. Clicks are all that matters because that’s how you make sales and get the traffic needed for ads.
For your blog post titles, use exciting and actionable words to entice your reader. Examples:
- Brilliant
- Awesome
- Amazing
- Sexy
- Free
- Secret
- Quick
- Ultimate
- Proven
- Unbelievable
As far as writing skills go, focus on headlines and the first paragraph of your article the most. And practice, practice!
6. Focus on growing your email list
Every blogger will tell you that it’s super important to create opt-in freebies to grow your email list.
Once you have a list of interested readers, you can reach out and share tips, products, and more.
Even if you don’t plan on sending your readers special emails just yet, it’s likely that you’ll have stuff to share with them in the future.
As a new blogger, you can easily start with MailChimp for free for your email marketing software. But, it’s likely you’ll grow out of it quickly. I upgraded to ConvertKit a few months into blogging.
The main reason I use ConvertKit is that I can offer multiple styles of opt-in freebies. This helps me grow my list faster. MailChimp only allows you one opt-in form.
There are many, many more great features of ConvertKit. Check it out for yourself.
Understand how to monetize your blog
There are a few main ways to make money blogging. Here is a brief description of some of these ways, with some cool tips to guide you in the best possible direction for success with each:
Affiliate marketing:
You can sign up to promote products you love with affiliate networks such as Amazon Associates, Shareasale, Clickbank, Rakuten, CJ Affiliate, eBay, and many more. Many affiliate networks accept new bloggers. My favorites are Amazon and Shareasale.
I recommend only promoting decent, quality products you personally use or would use. Always consider what’s best for your reader when you mention a product, and make sure the product you mention fits in with the topic of the blog post.
Also, consider whether a product you’re recommending is easy for your reader to purchase. Does the merchant accept PayPal? Or does purchasing the product require your reader to fill in their name, address, cc number, etc. Is the vendor well known and trusted? Would you buy from them?
Affiliate marketing class
For an in-depth, affordable affiliate marketing class, I recommend Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers by Carly from blogging like you mean it and mommy on purpose. Definitely check it out, it’s a worthy investment to learn from a pro like Carly!
You will not find the affiliate marketing tips that this course offers for free by reading blogs. Or you might eventually, over many months and months of piecing it all together, but I doubt it. I’ve not heard most of the tips Carly gives in any of the hundreds of blogging articles I’ve read.
Ads:
You can sign up with Google ads with no minimum website traffic, but I don’t recommend it. You won’t make much at all, and your articles will be all crowded with ugly ads, such as t-shirts with dog photos. This can drive readers away. Not worth it for some spare change.
Better to wait until you have higher website traffic and apply for an ad network such as Ezoic or Mediavine. Ezoic only requires around 10,000 monthly views to sign up. Mediavine around 50,000 monthly sessions. (Check your Google analytics.)
Course, digital products, and print on demand:
If you have special knowledge to share, then, by all means, create a course or book to sell! I used to have a free blogging course on my site, but I’m working on turning it into a paid course. Coming soon!
I will be adding ebooks and possibly print-on-demand journals too if I can find a decent company to work with.
I also have an Etsy store.
Sponsored posts:
As your website gains steady high traffic, companies may reach out to you to partner up. Or, you may reach out to them.
Other ideas:
Sell a membership, promote physical products you sell, (check out the original Dream Dash Journal I sell on Amazon,) advertise for your physical business.
8. Become an expert on Pinterest marketing
I definitely recommend marketing your blog on Pinterest. Pinterest is one of the best platforms for marketing a blog. I’d also market on Instagram if my blog were more image-based.
It’s easy to create a Pinterest business account for free.
Create 10 or more boards related to your blog topics and start pinning articles, including your own. Join as many group boards that are relevant to your blog niche that you can, and pin to those as well.
You can also get the pin scheduler Tailwind to pin automatically for you at set times throughout the day to keep your pinning active. That’s what I use, and it helps for days I can’t pin.
Pinterest marketing strategy is a HUGE topic way beyond the scope of this article. The fastest way to learn all the Pinterest marketing secrets is to take a course.
Pinterest Course
The course I recommend is Pinteresting Strategies by Carly of blogging like you mean it and mommy on purpose.
Growing your blog using Pinterest requires understanding how Pinterest works as a search engine. Carly goes way into depth on this. She shares her specific secrets for pinning effectively and getting pins to go viral, and she makes thousands per month.
9. Think long term growth
This is one of those tips that I’d heard before but really took to heart after taking the beginner blogger course Kickstart Your Blog by Raelyn Tan of Raelyntan.com. Her course is amazing and I’d definitely encourage you to take it if you’re looking for a reasonably priced beginner blogger course.
Raelyn strongly suggests you think about what you plan on selling on your blog long term. Will your focus be affiliate marketing? Creating huge ad revenue through amazing traffic? Will you create your own products based on the knowledge you have now or the knowledge you plan to gain?
That’s the beauty of blogging– you can make money in so many ways.
Please do let yourself accept that things do take time. You cannot do it all overnight, or even in a few months, usually. Think long-term and commit to the journey.
Get super clear with yourself over time about what you think you can create. What’s doable, and what do you truly want to create? There’s so much you COULD create.
10. Keep your mindset right
Through your blogging journey, it’s crucial to keep a positive growth mindset, (PGM.)
A PGM means that you are gentle and kind to yourself as you learn and grow. You work hard and take action, and don’t give up when you don’t get it right the first time. Most importantly, a PGM means that you believe you can improve, get smarter, and gain skills with effort. This is as opposed to a fixed mindset, which assumes you have a set intelligence level that you’re born with and can’t change.
Concluding thoughts
Since I’ve started blogging, I’ve learned SO MUCH. I absolutely LOVE blogging, and I love sharing what I’ve learned. I hope you found these tips helpful, and I hope you keep with blogging if you love it, too.
Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!!
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