So I’ve done a post on how to get started as a blogger, easy SEO tips and bounce rates, so the next in my series of blogging tips I thought I would share the things that I wish someone had shared with me! I feel like theres the generic tips that everyone shares and then there’s the tips that they keep back for themselves! If you have any more questions you want answered I am happy to answer on instagram or twitter or even if you wanted I could do a Q&A on my new Youtube Channel? Let me know!
Blogging Tips
Photography is Key
I feel like people always say ‘photography doesn’t matter’ and it’s right to some extent. You don’t need a fancy camera, it’s much better to take beautiful images on your iPhone than it is to have all the gear and no idea coming out with something that looks like it went off in your handbag.
Your photography is generally what will attract someone to your post, unless of course you have a super duper catchy title (which is also important!). Not only this, but I myself have recently discovered the power of a repost on social media. If you take a beautiful picture, the brand featured or an inspiration page is going to want to repost it, they’re also going to sit up and take notice of you, as are their 1.5 million followers. . . do you see where I’m going with this?
One of my top blogging tips would be to always take photos bearing in mind your instagram and make sure you tag the brands whilst simultaneously crossing your fingers for a re post!
Get Google Analytics & Use it
I got google analytics a good 6 months after I started blogging and it took me until recently to actually use it. I’ve now got the app on my phone which is amazing for motivating you to share your posts on social media. It shows real time figures and when you can see the views going up in response to your networking it spurs you on to keep doing it!
It’s also a great way of learning more about your audience, the time’s and days that your blog is the most popular and the posts that fetch the most views. It’s also the most accurate for stats and the one that all brands ask for.
Be Useful
When using my Google Analytics (another reason why you need this!!!) I noticed that my posts that were helpful in some way shape or form were doing the best stats wise. I was shocked to see that my outfit posts weren’t doing all that great in comparison, however, I’ve now taken this on board and I make sure that every post has something interesting that the reader can take away. Whether it’s a tip, my opinion, a review, just something that isn’t just “hey look how good I look, I know” or “I got sent this top and I like it”. I learnt a lot of this from reading A Pair and a Spare‘s blog, she inspired me with the way that every post she does is so useful and it’s never purely about the product or the brand.
Use Bloglovin’
If you’re already using this then you’ve clearly got more sense than me! I got Bloglovin‘ when I first started my blog and just magically expected my account to grow whilst left alone. This didn’t happen and several months later with a measly 17 followers (meanwhile with 15k on Instagram) I was in shock, why hadn’t it sorted itself out?
Now I actually use the app and regularly promote and share my page my following has gone up to 450 in just 3 months time. I know that doesn’t sound like a lot but I’m super proud of myself for sticking to it and making the effort.
I not only share my Bloglovin’ account but I also follow all of my blogs on there and save and share other people’s posts, how can you expect others to do it for you if you don’t do it for them? It is actually the easiest way to stay up to date with all of your favourite blogs after all! There’s also lots of other great posts on there for more blogging tips!
Bloglovin’ have actually just brought out a new platform called Activate where you can collaborate with brands as an influencer! Make sure your one of the first to sign up! You can sign up here!
Make Contact
There is absolutely no shame in contacting brands yourself. When I first started blogging there were so many brands that I wanted to work with but I felt that contacting them first was embarrassing and that it didn’t count the same as if they contacted you.
Ok, so nothing beats the feeling of being picked from the over saturated cloud that is the blogging world to work with a brand, but that over saturated cloud is precisely why you should be contacting them! Think how hard it must be to keep up to date with all of the new up and coming bloggers and identify who they want to work with, have you ever considered you may be doing them a favour?
Collaborate Free of Charge
This is a bit of a touchy subject when it comes to blogging, some are happy to work for free and some won’t do it full stop. I recently came across a post in a forum where a new blogger was asking for help in a situation where the brand was asking them to do a post for no freebies and no charge, just the promise of exposure across their social media platforms. The majority of replies were telling her to go to the brand and tell them where to stuff it.
In my opinion, and this is just my opinion and experience, I would say there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing posts for free. Some of my most sucessful collaborations and best relationships with brands have begun with me doing a ‘free’ post. I say why not? Your helping them out, your getting content, it gets you exposure and best of all? If they link back to your page then you’ll get a good quality backlink which is a massive brownie point in the world of domain authority!
These are just a few blogging tips that I think would have helped me a lot if I’d known earlier rather than having to learn through experience, trial and error and all that jazz! So let me know what you think and as I mentioned before if you want me to do a youtube q&a or if you have any questions pop me a tweet or a comment below!
Make sure you’re following me on Bloglovin’ for the next post in my blogging tips series!! Also make sure you’re following me on my new youtube channel, just because you’ll make me smile, A LOT!
Great tips, these posts have been really helpful, thank you! x
This was super helpful- thanks! 🙂
This is one of the best blogging tips posts I’ve read! Glad you have been actually honest here. I’ll definitely be taking these on board – I’m guilty of neglecting Bloglovin’ too!
http://invocati.blogspot.co.uk
Glad you found it helpful hun and thats such a compliment!
Totally agree about some of these. Particular photography. I feel like to tell new bloggers that photography doesn’t matter is to let them down. People will 100% judge your blog on your pictures, and if they aren’t up to scratch then they won’t read your stuff as much!
Rachel | http://www.currentlyrachel.com
Exactly! Some people say it’s not about that it’s about the writing but you need something to draw the reader in initially and lets face it, we all judge a book by the cover!
I love this series. As a relatively new blogger I’m finding it very helpful. Particularly the Bloglovin’ stuff in this post as I’ve been using the site for 9 months but only have about 70 followers. I’ll definitely put your tips into action to try and boost my following on there! Thank you 🙂 x http://www.aimeeraindropwrites.co.uk x
You should! I’ve gone up to nearly 500 from just under 200 in January!
Great tips Sinead. I find photography is so so so important when it comes to blogging these days. I’ve been really trying to up my game recently. Hopefully it will pay off soon. Thanks for sharing these tips x
Lauren | itslaurenvictoria.blogspot.co.uk
Photography is definitely a huge part of blogging!
Great tips. Like you, I could of definitely done with knowing more when I started..
Even as a blogger of near 4 years, I’m still learning! As you know! Haha! :p
Working for ‘free’ is something that is definitely a touchy subject and one that seems to creep up on blog posts quite often.. I completely agree with you in that, as a newbie blogger, although not taking every opportunity coming your way, relationships start somewhere. Plus, if you’ve got into it for freebie reasons, then that’s wrong, really.
Caroline.x
couldn’t have said it better myself! So true! Sometimes it’s good to prove yourself and go above and beyond what a brand asks!
Great pos! these are all really great tips. I think photos are really important when blogging as it is what will make people notice it and want to read it!
Paula | http://www.namelessgap.blogspot.com
Definitely! The words make them stay but the pictures draw them in!
Firstly, HELLO FELLOW SINEAD! I neveeeerr meet people with my name haha!!
Really well written post here, I’ve definitely noticed my ‘tips & tricks’ posts always seem to get the most traffic/engagement! You’ve also inspired me to download the Google Analytics app, I don’t look at my stats nearly enough!
Sinéad
The app is uh-mazing and hello! I don’t know any other Sineads and I feel slightly intimidated when i know my friends know other Sineads – I’m the only Sinead around this town!
Haha I’m totally the same! I get constantly asked if I’m named after Sinead O’Connor too!
don’t even get me started on the people who think it’s funny to start singing nothing can compare everytime I say my name!
ohhh the struggle is REAL! why haven’t there been literally any other famous Sineads?! And what is it with people pronoucing it as ‘sin-eee-ad’?!
oh god don’t even get me started on THOSE people
I love posts like this one, with blogging tips! I happen to be following most of them! 😀 I recently started using google analytics and it is such a great tool to find out what your readers enjoy the most or what brings more traffic to your blog!
Definitely! I try to post all of the time now but when I was only posting a few times a week it was great for understanding the days I get the most traffic and the times that get the best response!
One thing I really need to do is start using and getting to grips with google analytics, I know it’ll benefit me I just never get round to doing it!
With regards to the doing free posts I completely agree with you! I think if you’re taking your blog seriously, exposure really is the best thing you can get – especially in the early stages. If you have a passion for blogging and enjoy creating content, then what have you got to lose?
Isabelle | http://www.isabellekategm.co.uk ♡
Exactly my thoughts!!! Google analytics is like a foreign language but once you understand it and learn to use it it’s your best friend! I still have so much to learn about it !
Hi lovely! Love your blog, & really enjoy all your tips about blogging. Very helpful for a newbie like myself! Was wondering, what program did you create your header? Love the design!
Hi hun! My friend did it for me on photoshop! He’s a computer wiz!!!
You definitely should! I’ve seen such an improvement! my blog traffic has more than doubled since January!
These are some really great tips for sure! All your blogging tips have definitely helped me out a lot, there is a lot more to blogging than I thought at first so I love posts like these! I have google analytics but I have no idea how to use it, for me it all looks so confusing! I think you should do a Q&A on blogging, I feel like that would help a lot of people too 🙂
on youtube or here? Thats a great Idea I’ll make sure I do one actually!!! Thanks lovely!
Bloglovin is something I was really focused on a year or so ago but I’ve since lost interest as my followers grew very slowly. I really do need to start using it properly again as it is great to have all the blogs you read in one place.
http://www.raisethewaves.com
It’s so handy and if you promote it enough it really works!
Love your tips always good to know! I have blog lovin but haven’t really bothered with it. I tend to focus on other social media platforms.
I think its good if you can to do them all, it’s hard though when you are working as well!
Loved these tips and wish someone had told me about Google Analytics, Bloglovin etc… a year ago as I knew absolutely nothing before I actually made my blog!
http://everylittlethingblog.weebly.com
Me too! I feel like the tips people give you often are carefully selected and not quite as helpful as you would hope!
Hi Sinead. I use WordPress too but I can’t work out how to get Google Analytics for my blog. I’ve read some WordPress help saying it is ‘t available – do you have any advice?
Do you have your own domain or is it .wordpress.com? I’ve heard it only works if you have your own domain!
Thanks for the reply 🙂 I’m not self hosted but I do have my own domain. I’m stuck!
Oh right!!! Maybe you should google it to see if there is something you can do? I find the website stats aren’t as accurate as google analytics!
Great post, quite helpful I really need to start properly using bloglovin
http://www.zekalin.com