Beginner's Guide
blogging-tips
Ten Things To Try In Your First Six Months Of Blogging
10:30 PMWhat can you achieve in your first year of blogging? A blogger has to wear so many hats! Yes, you have to learn how to write well. But you also have to promote yourself, build your website, design photos, juggle social media accounts, deal with email, decide legit opportunities from people trying to take advantage of you, and so much more.
Okay, here are a few points that I thought might be good to share with bloggers who are maybe struggling or unsure about what level of progress they should be made by now.
One: Get organized! Create or download a planner if that’s your style. Have a blogging bulletin board if that’s how you roll. Just try to contain all of those notes, ideas, and lists in one place.
Two: Follow other successful blogs. Study what they do and how they do it. Participate in some of the socializing aspects to get a feel for it even more. Only commenting, liking, tweeting, or linking can help you network without any cost but time. Sometimes bloggers even share their secrets–keep your eyes out for these posts!
Three: Link Up! Find Linky Parties. Make sure your content is appropriate, follow their rules, and remember you are creating a name for yourself that will follow you everywhere! There are linky parties for content, social media follows, and even giveaways.
Four: Host a giveaway. This will give you a chance to learn how to use Rafflecopter if you so choose, learn how to make nofollow links, and advertise in this format if it appeals to you. At first, you may have to hunt someone down and offer to advertise in exchange for a review and/or giveaway. (I partnered up with people in direct sales.) People love free stuff, so it’s a great way to build the social reach for both of you.
Five: Attend a Twitter Party. As you follow people of interest on Twitter, you’ll find that many of them host, co-host, or participate in Twitter Parties. They are short, and you’ll spend so much time keeping up with the conversation that the hour will be over before you know it.
Six: Be Pinteresting. Follow all of Becca’s tips on using Pinterest. Be Pin Friendly on your site by having “Pin it” sharing options on posts, pages, and images, and think about having a Pinterest area in your sidebar. When adding your pictures to your posts, fill out the alt description, include the URL to that particular post, and hashtag the keywords. Here’s a great article about making your pins go viral!
Seven: Instagram! It’s another fun one because of its simplicity. Follow people. Search for topics by hashtag. Like other pictures. Comment on posts. When you’re about to post something, search through the hashtags first to see what’s being used the most for your topic. Then, Hashtag away!
Eight: Remember Suggestion #2? Well, do the same for Blogging Networks. There are a ton of Blog Networks out there, so if you want to see what’s going on, follow them. Keep up with those feeds and pay attention to what they are doing, offering, and encouraging.
Nine: Not all bloggers care to make money, but some would like to. One of the first things you can do is look into affiliate programs. You’ll have some affiliate links and images in posts and your sidebar, and you’ll start learning about contracts and how partnering with brands and products can work for you.
Ten: Try to contribute to a blog with a larger audience. I was lucky and knew Sara, from Mom Endeavors before I started my own blog. When she offered me the opportunity, I jumped on it. It gives the host more quality content they didn’t have to create and provides the guest with more exposure!
Eleven: What? Eleven? I thought this was a list of ten. Well, guess what? This bonus suggestion is a keeper for new and seasoned bloggers alike. Read on my friend, read on!
Eleven: Take a break! This is very important. Almost more important that every other suggestion on this list. If you are starting this to have fun, make sure you’re having fun. If you find yourself writing about things you don’t care about. Stop. Regroup. Start again. In the blogosphere, you have to create your own limits. Humans are not machines. Once in awhile you need to shutdown and restart yourself.
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