This post may contain affiliate links. For more information please see my disclosure page.
*This post may contain affiliate links. For more details see my disclosure page.
Blogging really is a journey of trial and error. While it is great to read post after post of how to’s and tutorials, it ultimately comes down to trying, testing, and figuring out what works best for you and your blog.
The reality is, something that worked for one blogger, may not work for you. And, something that works great for you, may not work for someone else. All you can do is try different strategies, and pay attention to what is working and what is not.
BUT, with that being said, it is always nice to read other blogging tips and tricks and things that they have learned to give you ideas of strategies to try on your own blog! That way you can give them a try and see if you have success with them as well.
I love reading other bloggers monthly re-caps or income reports, because I love reading their lists of what worked for them that month, and what didn’t. It gives me new ideas to test out for my own blog, and it is nice to see them being honest and transparent to their readers about the strategies that may have been a flop.
So, with that in mind, I decided to write a fun little post about the 20 things I have learned in my 2+ years of being a blogger. Maybe you can steal a few tips or strategies from my list to try out on your own blog or on your own blogging journey!
20 Blogging Tips & Tricks I Have Learned Over Two Years of Blogging
1 | Be Authentic
So I mean a few things when I say be authentic. First of all, blog about something you are passionate about and/or something you truly have experience with. If you choose a blog topic simply because you think it will be more profitable, you won’t enjoy it, and you will end up struggling to really make it successful.
The second thing I mean when I say be authentic is to make your blog your own and don’t lose sight of that vision in a sea of other similar bloggers by trying to do exactly what they are doing. Sometimes I catch myself on another blog and I start thinking hmmm I like what they did there, or I like how they designed their side bar. While it is totally fine to get ideas and inspiration from other bloggers, you do not want to get sucked into that comparison game, because the result will be that you turn your blog into something that does not truly reflect YOU, and you will never be happy with it!
2 | Let Your Personality Shine Through
Don’t be afraid to really let your personality shine through in your writing. Your readers want to get to know you and you want them to feel like they can. While I think formatting is extremely important in e-books, courses, digital downloads, etc. I don’t necessarily believe that when it comes to a blog post or email to my subscribers. When I am writing a blog post or email, sometimes I throw in a statement in that may not be grammatically correct, or I may use some colorful language to get my point across. I do this, because that is how I am talking in my own head while I write, and I want my writing to be a reflection of me and my personality. I want my readers to get to know who I am!
3 | Focus on Your Email List
I know this has probably been mentioned a billion times to you, but I can say from personal experience, do not put off building your list!
I know believe there are two major things you 100% should invest in as a new blogger, and that is self-hosting, and an email marketing platform. With my very first blog, I threw some sign up forms in my side bar and called it a day. I didn’t work to build my community at all, and it really showed when I decided to launch my first product. Lets just say it wasn’t my best launch and now I understand why. I hardly ever engaged with my email list, and when I did it was not emails filled with value and personality, it was forced emails I threw together.
I learned my lesson, and I realized what an engaging and trusting email community can really do for your blog. I also learned the value of appealing opt-in forms + a valuable lead magnet!
I currently use ConvertKit to build my own email list and I really enjoy their services and features. Especially the automation feature which allows me to plan out and pre-write a sequence of emails and set them up so they send out automatically! It helps to stay engaged with my list and saves me a ton of time!
More resources for building your email list:
+ The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide to Start & Grow Your Email List
+A ConvertKit Tutorial: The Beginners Guide to Email Marketing
+ 10 Opt-in Ideas to Explode Your Email List
+ How to Create a Killer Welcome Sequence for Your Email List
4 | Create Relationships with Your Community
So point 3 kind of leads into point 4, which is building that strong relationship with your community. The people who take the time to read your blog and subscribe to your list are YOUR PEOPLE. You need to show them love and send them awesome freebies and valuable emails on a regular basis.
You also need to answer all the comments and emails you receive from your readers.
These little things go a LONG WAY! Trust me.
5 | Connect With Other Bloggers
Another thing I have come to realize is how important it is to network and build real relationships with other bloggers. They get it! They know how hard it is and sometimes sharing tips and tricks with each other is so valuable.
When you build those relationships, those are the amazing people who will share your posts on social media, and re-pin your pins on Pinterest. They will be the people you can get a second opinion on about your product or course idea, your launch strategy, or any other ideas you have.
These relationships are so beneficial for you and your blog!
6 | Self Hosting + A Great Theme is Worth the Investment
I talk about it a lot, I know. But, it really is so beneficial to your blogging success.
To summarize, Self-hosting gives you complete control over your blog because YOU own it, you can monetize your blog, you can customize it however you want to, you come across as much more professional, and so much more.
I won’t elaborate too much in this post, because I have a whole post dedicated to Why Self-hosting is a MUST HAVE for your blog. Read it Here.
I use Siteground for my blogs hosting if you are in the market for a self-hosting platform! I love Siteground and have been extremely satisfied with them.
Here is some more reading on Siteground:
+ The 3 Reasons I Decided to Switch to Siteground
+ How to Transfer From Bluehost to Siteground + The Reasons Why You Should
7 | Use Free Tools Where You Can
So, while I believe there are some things worth investing in for your blog (self hosting, email marketing, a good theme), there are also so many things that have great free versions, that do everything you need!
A few free tools that I use & love:
- Canva for all my blogging graphics & pinnable images
- Yoast SEO to optimize my blog posts
- Pretty Links to manage and shorten my affiliate links
- Unsplash for free Stock Photos
- Google Analytics
8 | Monetize Strategically
So, I will probably eventually write a whole post on this topic, because I feel like I have a lot to say about it, but I will try and get my point across in a shorter version here.
There are some monetization strategies that you are able to do from the very beginning, as a brand new blogger, such as affiliate marketing. But, there are other strategies that would be better once you have a larger audience to market to, such as a course launch.
So, keep those things in mind when trying to monetize, and don’t rush a launch because you are anxious to make money. If you have patience, you will have much more success marketing your course or product to a larger audience, that has grown to trust you!
I’ve learned this from personal experience.
But, like I mentioned, affiliate marketing can really be incorporated into your blog from day one. If you have a few solid products that you believe in, you can incorporate them into blog posts where applicable, write reviews, and start adding them into your email marketing strategy as you grow.
A great resource to learn how to strategically use affiliate marketing, is the course Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. It is a course created by Michelle Schroeder, who runs the Making Sense of Cents Blog, and she makes over $50,000 PER MONTH from affiliate sales. The course is one of the best investments I have made for my blog, and I quickly made back the cost of the course within the first month of implementing Michelle’s strategies! So the ROI was obviously great! For more details click here.
Related Reading:
+ 6 Awesome Ways to Make Money With Your Blog
+ Affiliate Marketing: How to Start Making Money With Affiliate Links
9 | Have a Variety of Income Streams
As I touched on above, having various income streams is important. The thing with blogging income is that is isn’t always consistent. One month you may kill it in affiliate sales, and then have hardly any the following month. That is why having a few different streams of income to rely on it much more practical.
You can do a mix of affiliate marketing, products, courses, ads, services, or whatever you want! You can strategize so that you have a month where you focus on writing some really great affiliate posts, then the next month focus on promoting a product launch, then the month after that promote the services you offer, etc. That way you are creating a whole bunch of different revenues, building up their success, and setting the foundations for them to become more passive, allowing you to promote a new source of income!
For some more ideas about monetizing your blog, check out these posts:
+ 6 Awesome Ways to Make Money with Your Blog
+ 8 Reasons You Aren’t Making Money From Your Blog
10 | Be Consistent
Try and create some routine or consistency with blog posting, sending emails, posting on Social Media, etc.
This is not only beneficial to your readers, but also to yourself. I find if I make a commitment to myself to post 1 blog post a week, send a newsletter to my list at least bi-weekly (and on Wednesdays), and post on Social Media at least once a day, then I stay accountable.
It also helps your readers know when to keep an eye out for you!
11 | Remember Your WHY
Never lose sight of WHY you want this so bad. Why do you want your blog to be successful? What will that mean for you? How would it change your life?
That is your reminder and your reason to always keep going! Even on the days where you feel like you are getting no where, or when you launch a product and it doesn’t go as well as you wanted. Remember your why & keep on goin!
12 | Maintain Your Content
Something that you should always be doing is interlinking your content wherever possible. This helps keep your older posts alive! It also helps your SEO.
Make sure you are maintaining all of your older posts by going in and adding links to new blog posts that may be relatable. You also can go through and add affiliate links where applicable as you join more affiliate programs.
I like to keep a spreadsheet of all my blog posts by topic, that why I can quickly go through and see which posts would interlink well with other posts and get the most of my interlinking!
One more thing to do, is to make sure you are checking your links every so often to make sure they are still working properly and that they are not broken.
13 | Do a Monthly Review or Reflection
Something I started doing with my newest blog is reflecting on everything at the end of every month.
I review my numbers, stats, income, and what strategies I tried. Then I analyze them and figure out what worked and what did not.
From there, I set goals for the following month and create a plan to achieve them! This has been such a beneficial routine for me. I actually may start creating a post about it every month, so stay tuned!
14 | Invest in Yourself and Your Blog
Don’t be afraid or shy away from investing in your own success. You need to remember that you are worth it! Invest in that course or product to better yourself and your blogging knowledge. Self-investment and educating yourself in any way, is never a bad choice.
I have recently invested in the Course Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing & also the Pinteresting Strategies e-book, and both have been really beneficial to my blogs growth and my own personal blogging knowledge.
15 | Pay Attention to Your SEO
SEO is important, and It can really be a game changer for bringing in traffic to your blog. If you optimize your blog specifically for search engines, you are more likely to rank in searches on Google and other search engines. Obviously that will help bring people to your blog, and isn’t that the ultimate goal here?!
Instead of diving into it too much here, I wrote a whole post specifically to help you with your SEO! Check it out below for lots of helpful tips & tricks to improve your SEO:
+ Learn SEO: A Beginners Guide to Search Engine Optimization
16 | Master Pinterest
Pinterest is SO important. If you can master Pinterest, I promise your traffic will grow drastically. Pinterest is basically a visual search engine, and just like other search engines, by using keywords, you can drive people to your blog via your “pins”. The difference though, is that you can also up your chances of catching people’s eye by creating catchy and appealing pinnable images.
If you utilize keywords + appealing images, you will have others re-pinning your pins and driving traffic to your blog on auto pilot!
One of my biggest recommendations to new bloggers is to focus & master Pinterest. I even created a post that details my own Pinterest Strategy.
I also recently invested in an amazing e-book by Carly from mommyonpurpose.com called Pinteresting Strategies. I only just started to implement her strategies and I am already seeing results. I will most likely create a full review on it once I implement all her strategies and analyze my results.
I definitely recommend it though if you are trying to master your own Pinterest Strategy. It is filled with easy to implement strategies, and contains so much rich value. The price tag is great too! See the details here.
17 | Avoid “Fluffy” Posts
Something I use to do quite often is post a blog post just for the sake of posting. Those were the type of posts that were filled with what I like to call “fluff”. They don’t have any real value for the reader, and are mainly just filler posts.
Don’t post because you feel like you need to post. Post valuable, evergreen posts, ALWAYS! Your fluffy posts will not do anything beneficial for your blog, and it is better to take the time to write a blog post that will help your blog grow and impress your readers at the same time.
Spend the time to write valuable content, create killer pinnable images, research great keywords, and focus on your SEO. Do this for every post on your blog and you will see the positives that come with it.
18 | Make Sure Your Social Share Buttons are Easy to Find
Have you ever been reading a blog post and want to pin it or share it with others, but you cannot find the share buttons??
It drives me crazy! I want to share your blog post, don’t make me search high and low for your share buttons!!!! Make your share buttons easy to find.
I would personally put them at the top of your post AND the bottom, or have a sidebar that follows readers as they scroll. You want those share buttons to be very noticeable so that people are more likely to actually share your content.
Also make sure you have the “pin it” button on all of your pinnable photos, you can install a plugin for that to make it super simple!
19 | Learn From Your Mistakes
As a new blogger, I can tell you is pretty rare you won’t make any mistakes or have any failures. It takes some time to figure out what works for you and your blog, who your real audience is, what type of income streams will work best, and how to grow your blog.
In figuring all of those things out, you will have some strategies that just do not work. The key with mistakes and failure, is learning from it and moving forward more educated and determined!
For example, if you have a launch, and it flops, really take the time to reflect on what didn’t work and why. Then make a list of everything you could have done differently so that next time, you can hopefully apply those new ideas and do better!
Always look at mistakes and failures as learning opportunities and opportunities for growth!
20 | Don’t Lose Your Joy or Passion
Never forget why you started. I LOVE blogging. It is one thing in my life I am truly passionate about, but in the past I was getting so stressed over stats & numbers, that it was taking away the joy I originally had for blogging.
Don’t turn it into something that causes you stress and anxiety. Have patience, work hard, remember your why, and always learn from everything you do. You will get there, but you should enjoy the journey of getting there! Once you stop enjoying it, or you lose your passion, the journey to success will become much harder. You need to enjoy what you are doing to truly want to put in the time and effort to achieve the success you want so badly.
So, there you have it! Those are the best 20 tips I can give you from my own personal blogging experiences. I hope they benefit you in some way, and that you are able to gain even a little bit of knowledge from them.
What are your best pieces of personal blogging tips? Leave them in the comment below!
