Blogging is becoming bigger and bigger across different industries. To stand out, you need to know exactly what you are doing and not just throw yourself into it. Gone are those days when posting a couple of sentences online will get you ranked and celebrated. You need to tap into the wisdom of expert bloggers and their blogging tips.
With millions of blog posts published everyday, you also must do things differently to stand out and be noticed.
In this post, I want to share with you 11 expert blogging tips to help boost your blog ahead of others and make it more intriguing and appealing as an engine to help you grow your business.
1. Begin with the blogger
A blog is simply a reflection of the blogger(s) behind the blog. As a blogger, you can’t give more than you have. There is absolutely no way you can stem from nowhere and become the blogger with the most powerful blog.
That’s why investing in yourself as the blog owner is crucial if you want to be successful in this competitive blogging age. Many successful bloggers are versatile and expert in some field. We have been told that anybody can create and own a blog. That’s absolutely correct but not everyone can own a successful blog.
It’s not important to be the creator of the next big blog on the Internet. Don’t rush to get your blog up and running. First, get proper training and be fully equipped with the skills and knowledge required to create and run a successful blog.
There are two key aspects of blogging you must take seriously if you want to take your blog to the next level:
Content Creation:
This is the focus of blogging which is all about producing the content to be consumed by readers. Therefore if you don’t get enough training on how to create content that’s useful and result-driven, you are not ready to move forward with your blogging.
Content Marketing:
No matter how useful and powerful your content is, if it doesn’t get found by its consumers, it will be as useless as not having written anything. Marketing of your content is as important as creating it. While a well written piece of content can begin marketing itself, you will be required to be able to get the content out through different channels to the market where it will be consumed.
Everyone can buy web hosting and use templates and plugins to set up a blog within a few minutes. But that won’t give you anything without good content creation and marketing.
There are lots of free training materials and platforms out there, but they are mostly just introductory courses that teach you the basics of the business. If you want rock-solid training to build you up to be successful in blogging, sign up to a premium training platform or hire a coach.
When I got into blogging back in 2012, I didn’t know my way around until I read a couple of articles about the importance of following a well structured training program. After a few months, I was fortunate to meet some awesome pro-bloggers who helped me out as well.
2. Choose a template that reflects your business
One of the beauties of blogging is how easy it is to pick a premium template with little or no investment. However, today it is easy to come across several blogs that look exactly the same because their owners used a popular theme but failed to add a personal touch to it.
I have no problem with using an already existing theme. Most of these templates have been optimized to give the best results when it comes to aesthetics and SEO. As a matter of fact, many of my clients use Wix’s free website templates. I don’t know about your blogging platform but whatever template you choose to work with, my recommendation is to customize and personalize it.
Make it different and give it an image that creates a unique feel and experience. Don’t be like everyone else when it comes to your blog’s design.
3. Don’t compete with the big guns
In blogging, competition is allowed but you must measure your strength and that of your competitor. Don’t begin a blog or content in an area where competition is fierce. With good content marketing tools, you should be able to weigh competition in any niche or topic before deciding whether or not to embark on it.
Rome wasn’t built overnight, and your competitors have built up authority over time and publishing tens if not hundreds of blog posts. Use keyword research tools like SEMrush to find areas to outsmart your competition and implement these blogging tips to follow.
Further reading: 37 Tools for Blogging That Will Improve Your Writing and Increase Your Traffic
4. Publish content that’s well researched and result-driven
Now that you are going to blog, it goes without saying that you need to create high quality content.
Earlier on, I mentioned content creation as one of the pillars of blogging. As long as blogging exists, content will still be key. But for your content to be sticky and viral, for it to attract both human readers and search engines, it has to carry something unique.
While long-form articles generally win the game, length doesn’t necessarily mean top quality. Don’t just use words to fill spaces. Ask yourself what is the usefulness of your content. What do readers take home? How helpful is your content to consumers? What problems are you solving?
One of the reasons people fear competition is because they don’t want to go a step ahead of others. If you make your work better than that of the neighbors, there won’t be any competition. Sometimes, we can’t reinvent the wheels. You can pick a topic that has been covered by many but take it from a different angle and add more flesh to it.
That’s the exact idea behind Brian Dean’s skyscraper technique. While fresh ideas are powerful and highly recommended, don’t completely discard picking a relevant and evergreen topic and making it more outstanding.
Adding facts and statistics to your content makes the article relatable and more genuine. This is a character of a well-researched article.
Further Reading:
5. Pay attention to SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is everything you do (on or off your blog) to get it indexed and ranked by Search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc. Though SEO on its own is a complex topic, you cannot take your blog to the next level without some reasonable understanding of how Search engines work and how to make your articles rank.
As a blogger, I’m not asking you to become an SEO expert but you should get some working knowledge on how to handle the technical, mobile friendliness and content aspects of SEO. This includes things like:
- Keyword research
- Content optimization
- Website Load speed
- Page display on mobile devices
- Link building
- Etc
If you are new to SEO, you shouldn’t be confused or frightened by some of these jargons. Do a bit of research and you will soon be familiar with the topic.
Further Reading: 10 Top Tips to Increase Your Blog Post SEO
6. Add video content to your blog
While blogging is all about textual content, adding video content can also boost your blog.
You don’t need to know the exact stats to understand how quickly video is taking over content on the Internet. Outside of the video consumed on social media, according to Alexa, YouTube is the second most visited site in the US (after Google.com). Tapping into this content type to promote your blog will definitely give you an edge over your competitors.
Neil Patel, Syed Balkhi of wpbeginner and several other top bloggers constantly publish videos for their blog posts. This of course has a huge impact on their marketing and brand.
You don’t need to be a big video expert to do this. Like Syed, producing simple slides for your content may just be enough. As this helps to drive traffic from video platforms, it has a positive impact on your SEO by keeping your readers longer on your blog thereby increasing dwell time.
You may not want to start organizing events. But take advantage of any event around your area and be an active part. Connecting with people in real time has more lasting effects than online.
Now let’s look at some blogging tips as to what you can do outside of your blog to help it grow.
7. Build an email list for your blog
One of the ways I recommend to build a solid and reliable marketplace is to create an email list for your blog. While list building is a big topic that needs particular attention, as a blogger you don’t need special expertise in email marketing to create an active list.
Basically, you will need to work on two things:
- Ways to collect email addresses from your readers
- An Email Service Provider or Email Marketing Tool to store the addresses and manage your email marketing campaigns.
If your blogging platform is powered by WordPress, using list building plugins will help you in collecting email contacts from your readers in an effective way. While placing lead capture forms on your sidebars or after the content zone still works, you need smarter ways to get your visitors into submitting their contact addresses.
Further reading: The 17 Most Useful WordPress Tips and Tricks to Blog Like a Pro!
8. Don’t neglect social media
Social media has given the Internet a new phase and has become one of the fast ways to build a marketplace. It’s useful for you as a blogger to drive traffic and network with savvy marketers. You don’t need to be a social media expert to tap into the values of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
But social media can be so confusing, distractive and time wasting if you don’t have a blog promotion strategy. At the same time, I don’t advise that you should be on all social media platforms at the same time. You should pick a few platforms, focus on them and build an active presence. Here are more useful tips:
- Make it easy for your readers to find you on social media by adding the follow buttons to your blog
- Share your blog posts regularly (not in a spammy way) on your profiles
- Join relevant groups and communities and respect group’s rules:
- Engage with your followers through commenting, likes, replies, etc
- Be polite and respectful.
- Promote other bloggers on your social media profiles.
Unlike your blog and email list, Social media platforms do not belong to you. Facebook and the rest can at any time bring some changes that will affect your blogging business. That’s why I advise my readers to find a way to capture their social media followers to their email list where they are sure to be reached at any time.
9. Connect with other bloggers in your niche
Successful bloggers are networkers. You can’t take your blog to a certain level if you stand alone as an Island. Connections bring exposure and open up channels for growth. Here are some quick ways to network and maintain healthy relationships with like-minded bloggers:
- Join relevant blogging groups on social media platforms and interact with other bloggers
- Read other blogs in your niche and promote them through sharing their contents on social media
- Drop relevant and engaging comments on other blogs in your niche
- Offer help where you can to bloggers in your niche
- Link out to relevant articles on other blogs in your niche. Reach out to the blog owners and inform them about the link to their content.
- Etc
10. Guest posting will help boost your blog
Guest posting is in two phases:
- Allowing guest authors to submit to your blog
- Submitting guest posts to relevant blogs
While becoming a guest author and opening up your blog for guest posts will help you build relationships with other bloggers, it has other powerful benefits. Publishing well researched content on other blogs exposes you to a new audience and increases your credibility. Mentions and links you get through guest posts impacts your search engine and referral traffic.
Guest posting is being abused by link building firms. However, you as a genuine blogger should not focus on the backlink benefits which obviously is inevitable. Let your submissions be centered on adding value to the blog that accepts your posts and you will be rewarded.
11. Give yourself time
Of all of the blogging tips, this is the one that might be the most important as well as hardest to follow.
Time is an important factor in growth. It requires time to create and publish compelling content. As you apply those other expert blogging tips to give your blog enough energy to stand the competition, you may need to work for months or years to have a stable and successful blog. You have to be consistent and refuse to be discouraged. If you roll out the time factor, you may not be patient enough to see the success of your blog.
Many leading and popular blogs today in any industry have been existing for the past 5 to 10 years. Blogging is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s a business activity that requires time.
Blogging tips conclusion
Blogging has shifted a lot from the position of the average guy. As it becomes a real business for many, it’s demanding serious attention. These are just some of the tips to help you stand out and be found. I hope this post has been helpful as I look forward to your engagement.
Hero Photo by Vardan Papikyan on Unsplash
Blogging Tips FAQs
Here are some tips for starting a blog:
1. Choose a topic that you are passionate about.
2. Find your voice.
3. Be consistent.
4. Engage with your readers.
5. Have fun.
These are the things to avoid in blogging:
1. Avoid self-promotion.
2. Avoid being negative.
3. Avoid writing purely for yourself.
4. Avoid plagiarism.
5. Avoid using offensive language or making personal attacks.
A successful blog typically has a clear focus or niche, provides useful information or insights, is well-written and engaging, features high-quality images, and is updated regularly. Additionally, a successful blog will often have a strong social media presence, which can help to attract new readers. To achieve all of this, it is important to put in the time and effort to plan and execute your blog strategy. However, if you are passionate about your topic and committed to creating quality content, you can create a successful blog.
A successful blog is one that appeals to a wide audience and is updated on a regular basis. To achieve this, it is important to write on a variety of topics that will interest your readers. In addition, your entries should be well-written and free of grammatical errors. It is also helpful to include photos, videos, or other visual content to break up the text and add variety. Finally, be sure to promote your blog through social media and other channels so that people are aware of its existence.
There are a few different ways that bloggers get paid:
1. Affiliate marketing – This is when a blogger includes links to products or services on their blog, and if a reader clicks on the link and makes a purchase, the blogger gets a commission.
2. Sponsorships – This is when a brand pays the blogger to promote their product on the blog.
3. Selling advertising space on their blog – usually done through Google AdSense, which places targeted ads on the blog based on the content of the site.
I also appreciated the amount of writing and resources that were provided. It made the information easy to understand and follow. I will definitely be sharing this article with my friends and family.
Appreciate you Russell!
Great article! I found the blog to be both informative and well-presented. Bravo.
Thank you Deb!
Everything evolves, and you’ll find tactics that don’t work the exact same way as they did right before. Affiliate marketing, of course, is no exception to that rule.
Of course!
Excellent blogging tips, Enstine. I wish I knew these when I started four years ago. Nonetheless, i like that you added creating well-researched blog articles. That\s because Google emphasizes more on quality over quantity. The more value-added blogs you produce, you tell Google and other search engines that you’re a thought-leader in your niche. But to create such content, you need to develop a sustained content creation strategy to write posts that drive results consistently.
Thanks for sharing, Enstine, and thank you too, Neal, for publishing!
Hey Clement,
Thanks for stepping over to Neal’s blog and leaving a comment here.
You know we all began by struggling to figure out what worked in those early days. It was easy to hit Google page #1 but the story now is all different except you are in some less competitive niche ;) I believe the difficulty curve is still upward with the average marketers being filtered to the bottom. But you are one solid guy I know will keep soaring. Keep it up bro
I hope you are set for a beautiful holiday season
Cheers