10 Tips to Tell Yourself about Blogging

Been exploring my own blog lately and realized there were some real gems that never saw the light of day.  AKA means they were most likely never read at all.  There were also a lot of thin duds, yikes. The downside of jumping into blogging without any real plan posts that made no sense or saw no eyes.  So that had me thinking over the holidays what would I do differently.  Or summarizing. What 10 Tips would I Tell myself  before I started Blogging.  

Flash back to when I started, as a fun example, I had been blogging for about 14 months and I had learned a ton and still had a long way to go.  First up was a media kit, I followed this great tutorial on Helene’s blog and created a Media Kit but then I realized, now what do I do about this? So my lovely media kit has still been sitting in my documents and has never seen the light of day. I did take it to a few conferences and hesitated about handing it out ( hang head in shame) and I did email it, when requested.  Some day I guess I will learn ” Pitching” and not the baseball kind.

1) Pictures matter as does size, yes ladies ( and gents) contrary to what you may have been told SIZE matters.  Pick a size and stick to it. Make it consistent and BIG, like I said size matters.  Personally I finally worked up the nerve and sent a blogger I admire an email and asked her how she got her pictures to look the way they do. She explained what to do and I did it.. size 682 ( today 735. That is what I use on pic monkey, always the same width ( well except for the occasional Gif). So thank you Shanna for being so kind to this gal.

4) The importance of your Name. Oh so very very true, I felt like I was having an identity crisis for awhile there trying to re-establish my self.  “This is My Life, Really”, to ” My Life” ( yea how original) to where I am now, something that says to me what I am and hopefully catches your attention a little bit. Also remember re-branding is so tough and time consuming.  Try and get it right from the start.

5) Networking, it is not enough to read other blogs, this is a social community and you need to be engaged.  I now have my regular blogs that not only do I read them daily but I always try and comment, this way I am hopefully not only attracting them as a reader but I am developing friendships.

As of today, 2020 I still have so much to learn and shameful secret sometimes my alt tags suck.  I am still going back and trying to make them more actionable.

Next need to know Blog Tips

7) Giveaways – very important to start this early.  I do not care what anyone else tells you if you are blogging and want people to read your blog then you need to find traffic somewhere. Ironically this also use to say Sponsoring.  Remember that, pay another blogger to get on their sidebar?  That is how I actually use to find new and exciting blogs. This has been replaced with Intagram shoutouts.  

For 2020, I think sponsoring is better served through working together to achieve valid Backlinks.  Check out the bloggers that you have been following and engaging with. See if you can guestpost or maybe be included in a roundup thy are doing.  Please do not email random bloggers and ask for links or guest pots.  Even little ole me gets too many of those requests every day. Guess what I do, DELETE.  Contact people that know you have been actively engaging with.

8) Bloggers are friendly and caring-  if you have a question send an email, bloggers no matter who they are, respond and are willing to help.  Remember they have been exactly where you are scared, unsure yet excited and keen, it is not a competition it is a family and they will help.

Final Tips for Better Blogging