Whether they blog as a fun hobby, or as a professional business, there are six things that successful bloggers do. These work regardless of which blogging niche you choose to stick with, or even if you decide to keep your content general.
Create an Editorial Planner
Editorial planners and calendars have been used for years in the publishing and marketing world, and play a key role in the blogosphere. As a blog owner, having an editorial planner will make it a million times easier to track your blogging schedule, post ideas, and any major events and/or holidays that may influence the topics of your posts. Editorial planners also help when it comes to developing a blogging strategy that will boost your site traffic, build relationships with your readers, and get them to share your content with others.
It may serve a lot of different functions, but it’s pretty simple to put together. There are five basic steps to creating an editorial planner:
- Determine your blogging schedule: Remember that consistency is key.
- Figure out your blogging niche: Some bloggers argue that this isn’t entirely necessary, but most successful bloggers have carved out a niche for themselves. Blog on something you are passionate about, as that will prevent burnout and “blogger’s block.” Write for your readers, and they will keep coming back for more.
- Determine your blog categories: Start out with a list of 5 to 10 categories, then narrow down the list to the most critical 3 to 5 categories. For each category, try to come up with 10 post ideas. This will serve as a great starting point for filling in your planner.
- Any holidays coming up? Write down any holidays or exciting events coming up that may influence your customers and blog topics.
- Create your planner! Schedule your blog posts 2 to 3 months out. This will give you enough structure to work with and stay consistent, but enough flexibility to change up your blog post schedule if you need to.
Pay Attention to SEO Techniques
Research shows that roughly 75% of all internet users never go past the first page of search engine results. Making sure your blog is search engine optimized will help ensure your blog gets on that first page.
SEO can get pretty involved when you get more into the advanced techniques, but there are some basics you can implement on your very next blog post.
- Optimize the title: Don’t just stuff your title (and tags) full of keywords, use interesting adjectives to make your headlines more shareable.
- Craft efficient content: Make sure your content is valuable to your readers. Include your important search terms and keywords within your content.
- Get the most out of your images: Eye-catching images are a great way to attract (and keep) readers on your page. Employ SEO techniques by optimizing the image titles with keywords. Include the same keywords within the image alt tags as well.
If you need a bit of extra help creating an SEO-oriented landing page for your blog, consider going through a professional company for help. This will help you sell your service or product, and promote your blog easily and effectively.
Use Social Media Effectively
Social media is the best tool you have for blog and brand promotion. From Facebook to Instagram, there are numerous platforms on which to promote your blog. Just remember to keep your content relevant and valuable. A good ratio to stick to is 80% content, 20% site promotion.
Re-share some of your old posts to bring them back to life. They will reach a new bunch of readers, and it will extend your views. Learn the best times to post on each platform you use, and make sure to share your best (and most recent) posts during those times.
Comment on other pages, blogs, etc.. Not only will this establish connections, but it will also bring you some new viewers.
Make Connections
One of the easiest ways to build blog traffic and form connections is to comment on other blogs. Make sure your comments are insightful, helpful, and valuable, and show that you have actually read their post. Don’t leave promotional comments, but you can include a link to your blog in the signature of your comments.
Ask to guest post on other bloggers’ blogs. Pitch them with some ideas for posts that would be relevant to their site and audience. See if they will guest post for you, as well.
Share and link to the posts of other bloggers, and let them know. They may return the favor!
Promote Your Brand
Your personal brand says a lot about what your blog is all about. Promote your brand – and your blog – through various ways: Business cards, stationary, office supplies, bumper stickers, etc. The possibilities are endless! Well…Nearly.
Monetize Your Blog
Most successful bloggers do not gain their success simply because of the high traffic numbers they get. It’s not just because of the size of their social following, or because multiple people share their work. While all of this helps, the most successful bloggers are successful because they have managed to monetize their blogs.
How do you do that? There are a wide variety of options:
- Advertising (Banner ads, sponsored posts, Twitter promotions, Facebook ads, etc.).
- Affiliate marketing (Amazon has a great affiliate program.).
- Selling your own products and services (eBooks, web seminars, blogging courses, etc.).
One of the best ways to go about monetizing your blog is to set up a landing page that is integrated with payments. Not only does this make it easy for customers to find your blog and services, but it makes it easy to keep track of the payments you receive.
There are many other things you can do to increase your blog following, but these are some of the top six habits of successful bloggers. Make sure you are doing these things, and you will see your blog traffic grow in no time!
Author: Alexia P. Bullard
Courtesy: www.digitalinformationworld.com
