You might have heard blogging tips like, “write about your passions” or “write about what you’re feeling.” Well, if these are the only two things you’re doing, your chance of creating a successful blog is slim. The truth is that even if people are interested in what you’re writing about, they can’t visit your site if they can’t find you. And even if they do find you, traffic is meaningless unless you can actually get them to read your content.
So today, I’m going to cover some important blogging tips that have helped us consistently get traffic to our blog.
Now, while there’s nothing wrong with blogging about your passions, creating a successful blog goes beyond just you. You should be a half-decent writer, understand the technical elements of blogging also as social strategies that will assist you to take your blog from nothing to something. So instead of providing you with a popcorn bowl filled with random blogging tips, let’s break these down into three buckets to assist you to get more traction.
- Becoming a Better Writer
- Get Technical
- Get Social
Becoming a Better Writer:
The first bucket is all about becoming a far better writer.
Tip #1
Specialize in a selected part of your niche.
Now, you would possibly label yourself as a food blogger. But by covering the subject of “food” as an entire, you may be spreading yourself too thin. For example, even if you were able to publish two posts per day for an entire year on subtopics like grilling food, smoothies, vegetarian diets, slow cooker recipes, nutrition, and more, it’d be tough to compete with larger sites or those that are just focusing on one of those topics.
So in my opinion, it’s better to focus on being a master of one than a jack of all trades. So focus on becoming the go-to place people go to find smoothie recipes. Become the go-to place where people go for grilling techniques. And after you’ve dominated that niche audience, you’ll attempt to expand to other subtopics to succeed in new audiences.
Tip #2
Create content worth referencing.
Referencing requires attribution. And attribution within the world of blogging equals links. Links from other websites are important because search engines like Google use them to help decide which pages should rank high in the search engines. Now, how do you create content that worth referencing? I’ve got three nuggets of wisdom for you.
1. The first way is to create content that’s unique and interesting to your industry.
For example, we ran an experiment where we spent over $50,000 on podcast advertisements. And to the best of our knowledge, no one had written this kind of post. And this resulted in around 140 unique websites linking to this page in a short period.
2. Another way to urge people to regard to your posts is to incorporate statistics.
Now, we’ve access to plenty of knowledge because we integrated into our suite of SEO tools. But you don’t need anything fancy like this to use this tip. For example, an honest chunk of Backlinko’s links come from stats. And they’re often referencing his own personal results like growing his organic traffic by 111%. And boosting conversions by 785%. And it also works outside of the marketing niche. Nerdwallet has nearly 29,000 backlinks due to a mention of a stat. Naturally, as people blog, they need to supply supporting resources that back up their claims. Make sure yours is in the mix.
3. Include unique images that are worth “stealing.
” Creating top quality images is tough. This means that it’s a point of leverage for those that are willing to put in the effort. Within our posts, we often add custom images whether they be graphs from our data studies or illustrations that help better explain concepts. Not only do they create a far better experience for readers, but they end in links. As you’ll see here, we have got around 820 links pointing at JPG images on our site. And then another 1,600 links to PNG images.
Tip #3
Create your posts easy to read.
“Nobody likes to read. They just want the information. If they could download it to their brain, they would.” And to do that, you need to ensure your posts are easy to read and use. Here are a couple of recommendations on the way to do this.
1. Use short paragraphs instead of big walls of text.
Short paragraphs help readers progress through your article in small and simple steps.
2. Break up long sentences because they’re hard to follow.
Break up these sentences by finding places where you used words like “and,” “because,” and “that.”
3. Use multimedia in your posts.
So whether that be videos, images, or GIFs, they can often help illustrate your points clearer than words.
4. Write in a conversational tone.
The easiest way to check this is to read your copy out loud. If it sounds like you’re talking to a friend, you’re on the right track. But if it sounds like you’re competing ina national debate, try again.
Tip #4
Write click-worthy headlines that aren’t clickbait.
The one thing that separates your website from a user is a click. Fail to get clicks and you fail to get traffic. Now, since most of the people will find your sites through search or social, you would like to craft a headline that accurately represents your article without sounding boring. For example, an article titled: “15 Best Headphones” gets the purpose across. But it’s boring. Something like “15 Best High-End Headphones For Under $100” is more click-worthy because a) it tells the reader that the headphones are of high quality, and b) high-end headphones are usually a lot more than $100.
Tip #5
Write introductions using the APP formula.
The headline’s job is to get the reader to click through to the page. Then, your intro must hook them in, so that they’ll read the remainder of the post. So to do that, we use the APP formula, which stands for “align, present, and proof.” First, you need to align yourself with the reader’s problem. Then you present your post as the solution to that problem. And then you close up with some proof on why they must trust you.
Here’s an example. In the first sentence, we align ourselves with the reader by saying, “Looking to grow your YouTube channel and attract more views?” We then present our solution by saying that “the trick is to focus on topics with search demand.” Finally, we end it off with proof by showing them that we’ve grown our YouTube channel from 10,000 to over 200,000 monthly views in around a year. Keep your intros short, on point, and focus on addressing why the reader is on that page in the first place.
Tip #6
Create feedback loops.
Your first draft should never be your last. The writer generally starts with an outline. After that’s approved, they write their first “final draft.” And no doubt, they should think it’s pretty good. Feedback loop helps you to always put your best foot forward on every post you publish. Now, if you don’t have a team to work with, it’s worth connecting with other bloggers in your space who also want to become a better writer. But don’t just reach out and say, “Hey, can you edit my posts? I’ll edit yours too.” This kind of process can come through relationships, which I’ll expand on later.
For now, let’s move on to the more technical aspects of blogging.
Also, See:👇
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- SEMrush Keyword Tool: How to develop an enchanted content strategy (tutorial)
Get Technical:
Tip #1
Write about topics people are searching for,
more commonly referred to as keyword research. 51% of all website traffic comes from organic search. And if you would like a chunk of that traffic, then you wish to use keywords that individuals are literally looking for. Fortunately, search engines like Google offer you clues through features like Аutosuggest. Just type in a topic you would like to put in writing about, and you’ll see some other closely-related terms.
There are other freemium tools out there like Answer the Public where you can find keywords phrased as questions. Now, the problem with these tools is that you can’t see keyword metrics, meaning you don’t actually know how much traffic you can get. To find this information, you’d have to use premium tools like Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer, where you can basically generate lists of keyword ideas, see important metrics like Search Volume and Keyword Difficulty, and decide whether they’re worth pursuing your site.
Tip #2
Cover your competitors’ best topics.
And by “best,” I’m referring to the pages that are sending them consistent traffic every month. To find your competitor’s popular pages, just enter their domain in a tool like Ahrefs’ Site Explorer. Then move to the highest Pages report, which shows you the pages that get the foremost monthly search traffic. So if I were in the prepping niche, then I would definitely consider going after these topics since they make up around 45% of the entire website’s organic traffic. Plus they all seem pretty relevant to me.
Tip #3
Try and do some basic on-page SEO.
On-page SEO refers to the practice of optimizing web pages to help them rank higher in search engines. So without over complicating things, you should include your primary keyword in your title and URL, and make sure you cover your main topic’s subpoints. For example, if you’re talking about how to make the perfect cup of coffee, you should probably talk about things like finding the right roast, water temperature, grind, and brewing methods. All of those would be relevant, if not crucial to actually cover the subject fully.
Get Social:
And now we’re on to our final category, which is to get social. And I’m not talking about which social media networks you should use.
Tip #1
Connect with other bloggers you admire in your space.
Smart bloggers reach bent forge relationships with each other. They offer feedback, help, and often cross-promo each other’s content. And this is often why it seems like all of the big players in your industry are friends. They started early and they grew together. Now, not everyone is going to want to be friends. But there is a good chance that individuals in your industry want to attach. They just don’t know you exist. At least at this point.
So to get started, think of 5-10 people you admire in your space. These might be people who run blogs and newsletters that you’re subscribed to or maybe people you follow on social. Write their names down on a bit of paper and note something that you simply actually admire about their work. Now, go and email them to just connect. Don’t ask them to share your content, review it, link to you, or invite any quite favor. Just send a simple and genuine email…
“Hey [name],
Just wanted to say that I really admire[whatever you do].
Thanks for [whatever you admire].
Cheers, [Your name]”
Tip #2
Create an email list from day one.
Have you ever had one of those moments where you’re trying to remember which site you were on that had that awesome recipe, or tutorial, or whatever it was? Well, if you had joined that email list, you’d know. Without any kind of email opt-in forms, you’re preventing your readers from getting future content or product updates. Building an email list also acts as a good way to perpetually get traffic to new posts you publish. And since subscribers are warmer visitors than cold traffic, a number of them might share it on social, or maybe link to you if they need their own blog. So bottom line, start building a listing from day one.
Tip #3
Promote your content in online communities.
Now, this is a bit of a touchy subject because you don’t want to spam Facebook groups or Reddit with things that people are going to get angry about. Instead, spend some time integrating yourself into these communities. Become a recognizable name and face. And as you see a requirement, share content that will help solve other group members’ problems. If you nail it, you can get thousands of visitors. If you don’t, it can get you banned from those communities.
So share links sparingly, and spend most of some time just meeting compatible bloggers to create interdependent relationships. Now, I’m wondering if you have any blogging tips that I’ve missed. Let me know in the comments and if you enjoyed this post, make sure to share and subscribe for more actionable marketing tutorials. Thank you for reading this post.
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