Having a successful blog has many perks: as a freelancer, you can get new clients from your blog readers, as a business owner, you can promote your products or services but besides these, there are many other scenarios when having a blog can help you. Therefore, let’s talk about how to get serious about blogging in 2018!

You might’ve read similar blog posts with tips along the lines “treat your blog like a business”, “create schedule”, “write many blog posts” and so on. In this post, I’d love to give you several more actionable tips on the steps you should take to get serious about blogging. I hope this inspires you for your new adventure!

Actionable steps to get serious about blogging and grow your blog faster

IDEA #1 Add Yoast SEO to your blog

This was one of the most exciting steps I took when I decided to get serious about blogging. Yoast SEO is a free WordPress plugin. If you don’t use WordPress for your blogging just yet, make sure to read this article on how to start WordPress website on Siteground.

Yoast SEO is a tool that’ll check your blogs SEO rate. If you don’t know what the hell that SEO is, here’s more about that. For each blog post, you will see either red, orange or green light – meaning that your post has either bad or good SEO ranking options.

This plugin will help you not only write better-ranking posts but will also inspire you to take a better care of your blog posts, reminding you all of the most important things: write a decent amount of text, include images, add descriptions and good title and much more!

IDEA #2 Use Grammarly to write better blog posts

Oh, Grammarly, what would I do without you! I won’t get much into why exactly I love this addon SO much but it really has saved my blog. Grammarly is a free extension for your browser and it automatically catches mistakes in your text. ISN’T THAT FREAKING AMAZING? It really is.

IDEA #3 Do research for your blog posts

The best blog posts are the ones that provide TONS of value. And for tons of value, it’s not always enough with your knowledge alone. I’m not saying that you can’t provide interesting enough posts. I bet you can! But it’s definitely way more valuable to add in some facts or additional information that’ll help your readers. Make sure to add third-party links, for example, useful resources, other blogger posts or products your users might find valuable.

A decent research can also make your blog posts longer which is important not only for the SEO ranking but also for the value your readers will get from you. Adding your opinion alone might not give the value that facts and proof will!

IDEA #4 Keep your website’s theme updated

Is your blog easy to read? Is your theme up to date? Is it brand aligned? And, after all, is it user-friendly? If not, you should consider changing it!

If you’re on WordPress, I suggest checking out ThemeForest or MyThemeShop for many fun themes to use on your blog. Having a decent theme is important not only for the sake of the design but also because of your readers. It’s always a pleasure to be on a blog that’s user-friendly and easy to navigate.

I have shared more tips on how to choose the best WordPress theme over here

IDEA #5 Add relevant opt-ins

This definitely could be a completely other blog post but let me keep it short. Adding RELEVANT opt-ins to your blog posts will give your readers even more value AND it will also grow your email list. It’s an absolute win-win, especially, since opt-in is always an option so it’s not like all of your readers WILL have to sign up…

Opt-in usually is a free incentive that gives your readers a reason to sign up for your mailing list. Usually, those can be free e-books, free insights in online products (a chapter of your book, a module of your course, etc), stock photos, graphics templates, email templates, guides, courses or literally anything else.

The trick for this one is simple: make relevant opt-ins for your most popular blog posts. For example, my blog post about Pinterest went viral within a week or two and that’s when I added “List of 40+ Pinterest group boards to join” in this blog post. First, I know people are interested in the topic. Second, my advice mentioned using group boards. They get additional value, I get more people on my mailing list who are actually interested in what I have to share!

If you have no opt-ins at this moment, don’t hesitate to make at least one. Check out which of your blog posts are the most popular ones and consider what additional value can you give. It will take a while to make it happen but the range of the work you put into your opt-in varies: it can be a quick cheatsheet or a few module online course. It’s up to you!

IDEA #6 Spice it up with videos and podcasts

Reading is amazing but blog posts with videos or podcast episodes as an addition can reach an even bigger audience! This is not something you should push yourself for if it’s just not your jam but it’s definitely a great approach if you’re into these things.

One of the best ways to get serious about blogging is to add your unique personality to your blog. And what better way there is than video or audio to let people know more about you and get to know you better?

There are many different approaches to this. For example, if you already have a video made for your Facebook page, Youtube or any other platform, you can use it and write a blog post based on this video. Afterward, the video can be added to the post and voila!

Another approach would be to write a blog post and then create a voiceover for it from which you can make a podcast episode. 2 in 1 solution! There are many different people around us and while someone definitely prefers reading, you could reach a new audience with the option to listen to what you have to say!

IDEA #7 Add “click to tweet” and/or shareable quotes

There’s an actual plugin called “Click to Tweet” for WordPress that can be used to create excerpts from your blog – ready to be tweeted! They’re not only a great way to get your content more shared but works also as an interesting blog element.

Another approach to get your message more shared is shareable quotes! You can either use Canva.com, Photoshop or Paint to create brand-aligned quote images to add your blog posts.

Read full post over here

Cheers!
Ieva // The Random Passion project