content marketing Archives

52 Instantly usable Blog post ideas to have your year covered [Works for ANY niche]!

December 23, 2019 by Jane Sheeba 15 Comments

A New Year means a new opportunity. And for content marketers this means a lot.

If you are an online business owner or a content marketer, creating content is something you do regularly.

Planning your content ahead gives you an edge definitely. And I’m a fan of planning ahead.

When you plan your content ahead, preferably in bunch, you can batch process a lot – which is an efficient way of doing repetitive stuff and stuff that can be combined to similar categories.

Also, you can be sure you publish consistently when you plan ahead.

So how about planning ahead for a year?

There are many obstacles to publishing consistently. I discuss about some in this video here:

One of the main challenges you face when you plan content in advance is to come up with content ideas!

That’s a big, big challenge. And to help you with that, I have come up with 52 blog post idea templates that you can use to brainstorm for ideas.

Now, when I say brainstorming, I don’t mean you start from scratch.

I’ve done all the heavy lifting for you!

You just have to fill in the blanks, and voila you will have 52 content ideas that you can work on.

Assuming you publish one post a week, this should have you covered for the year.

And yes, before you ask let me tell you – these idea templates work for ANY niche, all you need to do is fill in the blanks!

Go on, plan your New Year’s content ahead and make the most out of your content marketing efforts.

Plus publish content consistently like a pro!

How to do _________ better than the others
How ________________ has changed over the years
Why ________________ is so hard and what to do instead?
_________________ is not as hard as you think if you follow these tips
Why ____________ is better than ___________ and how to choose
____ Ways to __________
How to master the art of _______________
_____ Things to know if you are a _________
How _______ plays a crucial role in _________
Why _______ is so important for your ________________
How to fix ________ before it ruins __________
Advanced guide to __________________
______ Things about _________ no one told you
______ Working tips for busy ________
________ Handy tricks to make _______________ easy for you
The beginners guide to _________________
Simple, yet effective ways to __________________
How to position yourself as a ____________________
How to make _______________ easy for you
_____ instant fixes for _____________________
What is the importance of _____________ in _____________
___________ Tools that will make ____________________ a piece of cake!
How being blind to _______ makes you a _______
How to get rid of _________ in your _________
Why you must learn to _______ to succeed in ______
_______ Inevitable traits of _________________ you need to know about
______ Ways to use ________ to improve your __________
How to eliminate ____________________ from your ________
How can you benefit from ________________
_______________ Vs ______________: A Faceoff
The DIY way to ________________
All you need to know about ____________!
How to be patient and persistent to succeed in _________________
_____ Ways to be a pro in ___________________
How to beat __________ with your ___________________
_______________ Unconventional ways to do ____________________
Why ___________________ is intimidating and what to do instead
A complete guide to _____________: Look no further!
________ Mistakes that are killing your ________________
________ Pitfalls to watch out for to succeed in _______________
How to beat _________________________ with your ______________________
How to develop your _____________? A step by step guide
______________ Handy resources to help you with ____________________
The pros and cons of _______________ you need to know!
How to make the most out of _______________________
________________ Free tools for __________________
Here’s the secret to _______________________
Major ________________ mistakes that might destroy your __________________
How I ___________________________
_____________ Crucial factors that contribute towards _________________
______ Reasons why you should ____________________
______________ Myths associated with ___________ and here’s a reality check!

How to make your guest blogging campaigns a success?

September 23, 2019 by Jane Sheeba 6 Comments

Top bloggers earn thousands of dollars every month. While everyone goes gaga over the money that they earn, no one notices the effort that goes into it.

Successful bloggers work day and night to get more visitors and subscribers. Not only that, success needs proper strategy as well.

The perfect blend of hard work and strategy helps the bloggers gain more and more subscribers by the day who visit the blog frequently to read the latest posts on the blog.

As this gains momentum, profits begin to flow in. And if everything goes well, you can start earning top dollars as well.

The importance of guest blogging for bloggers

If you have just started your blog and want to take it to the top, you need work on several things.

Writing good blog posts only isn’t going to take you anywhere if nobody is reading it.

You need to make sure that you can reach out to more and more people so that they can actually get to know that your blog actually exists.

You need to promote your blog and your blog posts as much as possible. While there are many ways to do this, guest blogging is a technique that offers fantastic results.

It can help you reach out to a much wider audience and help build awareness. Visitors get directed to your own blog and you can get new subscribers and more leads.

It helps build trust and also gives you quality backlinks that improves your
blog’s SEO score. Overall, guest blogging has far-reaching benefits if done the right way.

How to make guest blogging work for you?

Guest blogging isn’t all about writing content for another blog. If creating a backlink is all you want, you needn’t do much.

But if you want good traffic, more subscribers, and actual profits from guest blogging, you need to strategize your guest blogging campaign.

You need a plan and quite a lot of effort and time to make guest blogging click. It may be a difficult path, but not one that you cannot tread. Here is a guide that will help you achieve success with guest blogging.

Set up your goal

Before you do anything, set up your goals. Without a fixed set of goals, no strategy can survive.

If you do not know for sure what you want out of guest blogging, you will never be able to achieve the results, let alone excel at it.

So, the very first thing that you ought to do is decide what you want to achieve using guest posts. Goals vary from person to person.

Guest blogging can be effectively used to:

Drive targeted traffic to specific pages/posts/landing pages, etc.
Build brand awareness
Improve SEO score
Expand email lists
Ascertain oneself as an expert

One or more of these goals can be achieved via strategic guest blogging.

Choose an interesting topic to write on

Once you have decided what your goals are, you should focus on choosing the topic of your guest post. This should be relevant to the services or products that you actually sell or the blog post that you want to link back to.

Choosing a relevant topic is essential because you want targeted traffic to your website and blog and not an influx of useless traffic just for increasing
footfall.

By driving targeted traffic to your blog or website, you significantly improve lead generation and conversion rates. The more the leads you can convert, the more will your profits be.

If you are driving traffic to your blog for more ad impressions and ad clicks, getting relevant traffic will greatly increase the chances of getting more ad clicks, and thus, more
profits.

Choose your target sites

Once you have a topic ready for your guest post, you should start your research on websites or blogs where you want to put a guest post.

Your priority should be authority blogs or websites relevant to your product or blogging niche. The website or blog should accept guest posts and allow backlinks as well.

You can do your research on Google. Make sure that the blogs/websites that you choose engage with their audience via comments, social media, etc.

This improves chances of getting visitors back to your blog/site. Also, ensure that they allow writer credits and author bios.

Get connected to the blog owner

If you send in your pitch (guest post) to an unknown blog owner, your pitch may not be seen at all.

This is because blog owners receive hundreds of pitches every day, many of which are irrelevant or of poor quality.

Naturally, they tend to overlook pitches from people they do not know. So, if you want your guest post published, get to know the blog owner personally.

You can do this by following their social media profiles, interacting with them on a personal basis, and tagging them in social media or blog posts.

This way, they will know who you are, and when you put forward your pitch, they are more likely to publish them on their blogs and allow backlinks to your blog.

Write powerful content

Any guest post that is not well-written is sure to fall flat, even though you may publish it on a high authority website or blog.

If your content cannot engage the readers and offer them useful information, idea, or guidance, readers will avoid reading them, let alone clicking on your backlink to get directed to your own blog or website.

So, writing powerful content for the guest post is essential. You have to research a lot and have a solid draft ready at first.

You can, then, convert it into a full-blown guest post that can impress readers and get them hooked on.

Ideally, your pitch should also contain a stellar headline to capture the reader’s attention, call to action phrases, relevant keywords, and images.

Create a striking landing page

Creating a backlink to your blog/website isn’t enough to get visitors attracted.

The landing page/pillar post where you want to direct the traffic from the guest post must also be well made.

It should be compelling and keep the visitors glued. The better the landing page or pillar post is, the more are your chances of getting new subscribers, leads, and conversions.

Use your bio to build an email list

Your author bio is very important and do not fill it up with unnecessary stuff like your hobbies, etc.

To make the best out of the author bio, add a lead magnet and link it back to your website or blog.

This way, readers who have liked your content will know exactly what to do next.

Clicking on the link magnet would take them to the landing page of your website or blog where you could provide them with some free information, free downloads, or anything you think the user might find useful and interesting.

Use an opt-in form to enrich your email list or use a subscribe button get subscribers right away. This will convert one time visitors to your subscribers or help you reach out to them directly via emails.

Re responsive

Communicating with your audience is an excellent way to convert them into coveted subscribers or leads that convert.

That is why, it is very important that you reply to comments on your guest post, on your original blog post, and even on social media.

Frequent communication increases chances of viewership and subscriptions, both of which are very important for any blog to succeed.

Promote your post

Promoting your guest post is as important as promoting your own blog posts. You cannot leave everything to the blog owner and hope to achieve the results you are looking for.

You have to put in your own effort as well. This means that once your guest post is published, you have to

promote it like you would do with any other post. Use the usual marketing tactics like social media, email marketing, etc. This will draw more traffic to your blog and the website/blog that published your guest post.

The owner will surely like the added influx of traffic and you can become a regular.

Continue with guest posting

Writing just one guest post isn’t enough. The more guest posts you write, the more traffic will you be able to draw to your website or blog.

That being said, remember never to compromise the quality of your guest posts. Quality posts are an absolute must to ascertain yourself as an authority.

And the more you write, the better will people know you and your brand. Try to contribute to more than one blog or website to increase your online presence exponentially.

Using guest blogging to promote your blog isn’t a cakewalk. But with the right strategy and hard work, you can make guest blogging work for you.

Just find yourself a relevant topic, whip up a killer content, and use the right strategy and you will see the difference from day one!

How to stay stress free and create content for your blog?

June 10, 2019 by Jane Sheeba 1 Comment

At times, it seems content writing is sucking the life out of us.

You don’t want to write the next article or blog post because you feel stressed and drained.

Your brain is hammered. But your readers are always impatiently waiting for your next piece of writing. They want more content.

It happens to most content writers – even the best of us.

But content creation doesn’t have to feel like this. There are always better ways to do things.

There are smarter ways you can use to create content endlessly – without feeling stressed.

I create a lot of content myself – articles, blog posts, sales pages, email copies.

So, I have spent a lot of time pondering over my writing process and how I can make it feel friendly and easier for myself.

There has to be a systematic approach.

The demand for more content is only picking up more steam every year. It’s time to step up your game like I did.

So, without much ado, here is a list of tips I have compiled for myself to remain stress-free throughout the content creation process.

If you’re anything like me, you too should find these useful.

Here’s a related video that you might find useful:

Pick a Time and Place to Write

Before you start writing, you need to find a time and place to write.

You simply can’t expect to write great stuff when you don’t feel like writing or sit in place where your thoughts are interrupted.

Variety, as you know, is the spice of life.

When you feel like writing is becoming a routine task you can’t handle anymore, the first thing you should try is to pick a time when your productivity is at its height and a place where you feel fresh.

The best part about writing is that you can write just anywhere. It just has to be a new favorite.

Step out of your home or office and try new places.

You may like to write in a park, library, bookstore, art gallery, bar – or your aunt’s house.

Find out your best hours for writing and try writing in a new place and hopefully, you’ll fall in love with writing all over again.

Set Realistic Expectations

Many time, content creation overwhelms you simply because you set unrealistic limits for yourself.

Evaluate your content writing goals.

If you’re a one-person army, you should really check out whether the writing goals you have set for yourself are realistic.

Creativity is an important part of the content creation process. If you put too much pressure on yourself, you may lose the spark to create great stuff.

So, don’t be afraid to reduce the amount of content you are creating now.

Instead of focusing on pushing out more content, you should pay more attention to the quality of content you create.

Most people believe that users on the web have a great appetite for content, and so the more you give them the better.

Whatever niche you operate in, your audience is looking for content that can change their lives for the better.

If you believe you’re compromising the quality of content in order to publish more, you need to slow down.

Follow a Writing Template

Using a writing template makes the content creation easier and faster. You can create and use a writing template each for blog posts, sales pages, emails, press releases etc.

For example, a blog post writing template will be your base structure to build upon.

Every time you write a new blog post, you can revisit that template and get the job done without getting stressed.

A typical format for a blog post should include elements like headline, hook, image, body and conclusion.

Based on these fundamental elements, you can create a detailed template which outlines all the important parts and points of a good blog post.

Likewise, you can create a writing template for each content type that you create or plan to create for marketing purpose.

Talk (Rather than Write)

Talking is a lot easier than writing. At times when you are in a mood to talk (rather than write), just record as you speak.

Recording is an excellent technique to create all kinds of content – blog posts, sales pages, checklists, courses, quizzes etc. Use a recording app on your mobile phone to record.

Later, when you are done talking, you can easily transcribe the stuff as text.

There are multiple tools that you can use to convert your speech into written content or document file.

Using the recording technique, you can also repurpose your existing content and create new write-ups. It’s a lot of fun.

Hire Professional Help

Sometimes, the best way to deal with content creation stress is to hire someone who is ready to do it for you.

There are plenty of good content writers you can choose from. And the best thing is that hiring a writer is not dependent on location.

While you are in one country, you can hire and work with a content writer from any corner of the world. Or, you can decide to work with a reputable outsourcing agency.

When you work with someone who is open to your content ideas, you can also ask them to share their own suggestions and instructions.

They’ll be more than glad to join in and grow together with you.

Just remember to take the time to look in good places and vet the content writers well before you hire one.

Your own professional circle or group of friends is where you should start the search from.

Keeping pace with the content needs of your audience can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be so.

Provided you make a couple of changes to your approach and apply these tips, the process of content creation will become easier and more enjoyable.

You’ll be able to create more content in less time. And you won’t have to worry about stress anymore.

How to create an editorial calendar that you would use?

March 23, 2017 by Jane Sheeba 14 Comments

Editorial calendar. You would hear a lot about it especially around New Year time – when the enthusiasm is at its peak.

I remember myself hunting for editorial calendar templates around Christmas so I can plan the coming New Year ahead – and blog like a pro!

I’m sure you should also have faced such situations.

You’d download, and print the editorial calendar templates you find online and religiously start filling in the details.

And keep up with the calendar for a week or two and then get back to your usual publishing schedule.

It could be regular, irregular or fly by the seat of your pants.

Here’s the thing – not all editorial calendars are same. And not all bloggers and their blogging schedule are the same.

Everyone is different. So is their business, and its purpose. So is their blogging style and blogging frequency.

I am not certainly against downloading editorial templates. I love them. Especially the one by Co-Schedule, where they have yearly, monthly calendars and idea sheets.

But you should first know what you want and how to make any editorial calendar work for you!

Without that knowledge it is totally useless to download or hunt down for editorial calendar templates, because you could simply end up not using them!

Here are 5 key things for your editorial calendar to work for you.

Clarity

I cannot emphasise enough the importance of attaining clarity before you start doing anything with your blog.

Most bloggers miss out on this very crucial step and end up wasting time and resources; and end up quitting blogging because they don’t get any results.

This isn’t surprising!

Without clarity, anything you do could be easily wasted. Leaving you with no results.

Coming to editorial calendar, you should first get clarity on the following things:

Your content strategy
Your publishing frequency (how much you can handle should be taken into account – this is very important)
Your business goal

Your content should be aligned with your business goals.

Allow for flexibility

I’ve talked about having a strict blogging schedule in this post. While it is super important to have a strict blogging schedule, you should also allow life to happen.

Life happens all the time and at unexpected times. You could get sick, your kids could get sick, it could be a bad day – whatever.

Things never go as we planned 100%. And its totally OK.

You should allow your editorial calendar to be flexible. Remember, it is just a guide to help you avoid procrastination, and beat (the so-called) writers block – and of course, plan your content ahead!

Have a content strategy in place

Without this, you will be writing and publishing random pieces of content that are loosely connected.

And over the time, your editorial calendar will become useless and you will start publishing random content.

Having a content strategy in place helps keep everything in clarity. More importantly, it is only when you have a content strategy, your content marketing will work.

If you want to know how to create great content for your website check out my course without fail!

Include (only) as much details as you require

Simply having a blog post title associated with a date won’t help you much. Well it can say that you have an idea ready for writing. But that’s it.

As you know, creating content has various stages.

Idea conception, outlining the blog post, writing the actual blog post, finding appropriate images, doing on-page SEO, formatting, writing a killer headline, and much more – before you can hit that Publish button.

So a simple blog post title won’t help you, right? That will make your editorial calendar useless.

In order to make your editorial calendar useful this way, you have to include all the essential details in your calendar.

For instance, after fixing on a working title, you should have an option to mark every step as Y or N depending upon whether that step has been complete or not.

Using a spreadsheet for this purpose would be highly helpful since you can have columns for every step.

Example column headlines: Post outlined?, Post completed?, Image(s), Formatting, Headline, Published?

Each of these columns can be either filled with Y or N, or with a deadline, especially if you are going to assign certain tasks like finding images and formatting to a VA!

Don’t overdo in terms of tools

Well, we all are fans of tools, right? We want to work smart with the use of technology.

But using too many tools will actually contribute to waste of time, and chaos – which is just the opposite of what we expect from tools.

At the same time, you must embrace technology and use tools in order to get things done in a smart way.

The same applies to your editorial calendar.

While just a calendar with post titles won’t help, you should also not seek 10 other tools to keep all your ideas, strategies and deadlines – this will lead to chaos and will soon make your editorial calendar unusable.

May be you can use an idea sheet for collecting ideas. Evernote for organising references and writing the actual blog post. And the calendar to give you the dates of publishing.

That’s how I do it.

What are the editorial calendar tools available that you could use?

Yes, there are quite some tools that you can use. Here’s a short list.

Google Calendar

It is a calendar! So it can very well be your editorial calendar. It is not an official editorial calendar tool, but since this is a calendar, you could very well use it as your editorial calendar.

And it is a Google product. All you need is a Gmail account, and I am sure you have one already.

If you already use Google Calendar, all you need is to create a new Calendar and you’re set. It is also much easier to share the calendar with your team mates, if you want that.

WordPress Editorial Calendar Plugin

If you are using WordPress, and if you want to be able to visualise your editorial calendar just within WordPress dashboard, you’ve got this plugin: Editorial Calendar.

Once installed, you can create Draft posts on specific dates. You can drag drop posts to different dates.

And of course your editors can have access to the Calendar too.

Trello

Trello is not exactly a calendar. But if you want to get your team into the picture it is a great tool!

In Trello you can create boards. It is totally up to your creativity on how you can use your tool.

You could have separate boards for your content management, idea list, social media management and so on.

And of course, you can invite your team to the boards. You can also discuss via the comments feature.

DivvyHQ

If you are willing to spend some money, DivvyHQ is something you should definitely consider.

It has quite some awesome features for you and your team. And you can manage your campaigns, ideas, calendar etc. right within a single dashboard.

There’s a free trial if you want to see this will fit.

GatherContent

GatherContent is also a premium solution, but quite effective. If you want you and your team to have and visualise everything in one place, this is a great option.

Again, you have a free trial so you can try out and see if you like it before purchasing!

CoSchedule

I cannot wind up this post without mentioning CoSchedule – another premium solution.

You can manage all your content creation process and promotion process in one place – you and your team that is.

You have the option to go for a solo plan or a plan with a team. You have a 14 day free trial to try it out!

How to make your editorial calendar work?

That’s the most important part here, right? There can be various fancy tools, and you could have hundreds of content ideas.

But executing everything right and in an organised manner is the challenging part.

Using too few tools can make you clueless, and using too many tools can make you confused.

From my personal experience, I’ve found that both these extremes have actually prevented me from using my editorial calendar, no matter how beautifully planned!

I personally use Evernote for collecting/brainstorming new content ideas. And I also use Evernote to write my blog posts.

I create a Notebook for every blog post I write, and put all the relevant images, screenshots etc. in the same notebook and share it with my VA.

I use Google Calendar as my editorial calendar which is also shared with my VA – so he knows when a blog post is due and when he has all the info (the Evernote notebook), he processes the post and schedules it for that day.

So basically, I use 2 tools. And it works.

Apparently I cannot give you 2 or 4 tools to make it work for you. You have to try it out yourself and figure out what works!

It depends on how you actually do it – how you find it comfortable, how you want to bring your team members into picture and so on.

All that said, having a functioning editorial calendar is highly crucial for the success of your content marketing efforts. So you should figure it out ultimately (without forgetting those 5 keys discussed in the post).

35 Blogging tips for beginner bloggers

October 13, 2016 by Jane Sheeba 27 Comments

Blogging is a crucial part of any online business. Both beginner and advanced bloggers actively seek for blogging tips to help them improve their blogs.

No matter whatever you sell online (or offline) having a blog highly boosts the value of your website.

Rather than having a simple landing page that talks about you and your company, a blog gives you a great chance to publish awesome, useful content for your readers.

But without proper knowledge about the stuff involved in blogging, you are prone to fail (not trying to scare you).

The blogging tips I share in this post will not only help beginner bloggers, but will also be useful to experienced bloggers.

Let’s get started with tips for good blogging!

#1. Have a blogging purpose in mind

It really boils down to this question: Why do you want to start a blog?

Without having clarity about the purpose of your blog, please remember that your blog is bound to fail.

I am not trying to discourage you or scare you here! But that’s the plain truth.

Sit down and think about why you are starting this blog in the first place.

Once you get a clear picture, write it down and keep it in a place where you often see it.

From now on, whatever you do with blogging should be to fulfil that purpose. Anything else you do is pure waste of time!

#2. Devise a blogging action plan

Once you have a purpose or goal in mind, it is time to devise an action plan.

Your goal is your destination. Your action plan is the map that tells you how you are going to achieve that goal – to reach that destination.

And this is very important.

Without a clear action plan, you might be wasting a lot of time on doing things that actually don’t contribute to moving the needle towards your goal!

Follow your action steps.

You might want to tweak your action plan as you move and as you learn/measure things – that’s totally OK.

What matters is that you have an action plan in place.

#3. Set everything right so you’ll stick to your action plan

Identifying your blogging purpose and devising an action plan are just the starting point.

But what will make sure that you stick to the plan is the tools/systems you use.

Without a proper system in place and without the use of right tools you will not be able to follow your action plan to achieve your blogging purpose.

And that could be pathetic.

Because that’s what makes most bloggers quit – they don’t have the right tools in place.

They do everything the hard way, and not the smart way.
They lose control of stuff.
They don’t know how to manage things in the long run.

And, it ends…..

#4. Have a content strategy that aligns with your blogging goals

Having a blog means publishing awesome content. Publishing high quality content.

But that doesn’t mean “any” content.

Every piece of content you publish should align with your blogging goals. It should help you with conversions.

You know what you want your readers to do after they arrive at your blog, right?

Perhaps you want them to sign up for your newsletter. Or you want them to buy your ebook.

Or your course.

Whatever it is, every piece of content you publish should act as a funnel to get that goal accomplished.

#5. Use the right tools to get things done

As I said earlier, tools play a crucial role in helping you progress towards your goals.

And if you are ignorant about the tools or refuse to use them for any reason, you will miss out big.

You need to catch up with technology and start using the tools.

For instance, in order to capture blog post ideas you might need a solution like Evernote.

In order to launch a beautifully designed, search engine optimised website, you will need a framework and/or theme like Genesis Themes or Thrive Themes.

In order to place beautiful and highly converting optin forms, you will need a solution like Thrive Leads.

In order to capture emails, segment them, maintain them, send them useful content on a regular basis, you will need an email marketing solution like Aweber.

If you fail to use the right tools, it will be highly challenging and even impossible to get your stuff done.

#6. Outsource mind-numbing tasks

Let’s admit it. Even though you are all passionate about blogging and your business, there are certain tasks that are totally mind-numbing and boring.

After all blogging incorporates a lot of things – you enjoy some. While you do some out of compulsion.

Consider outsourcing those kind of tasks that you don’t enjoy.

You need not do everything by yourself.

By outsourcing a few tasks you will have some extra time on your hands for doing things that you actually enjoy!

#7. Be determined to create high quality content

Never ever compromise on the quality of content! This is my strong advice to you.

It is not the amount of content you publish but the quality of content that matters.

Keep this in mind throughout your blogging journey and only create and publish content that is of high quality.

For the same reason you must set realistic publishing goals.

Don’t promise yourself to publish one blog post every day – as you might burn out soon, or run out of ideas soon or just lose motivation in the long run.

If you have a handful of guest bloggers willing to write for you, publishing every day could be possible.

But if you are the only one creating content for your blog, only take up as much as you can produce without compromising on the quality.

I strongly recommend you to take up my content writing course: How to create great content for your business?

#8. Stay consistent with whatever you do

Just in relation to what I said above, staying consistent is another important factor.

Don’t jump with excitement soon after you launch a new blog and start publishing content every day.

Over the time, you might burn out and might not be able to keep up.

Publishing 5 blog posts a week for 1 month and then going MIA for a few months isn’t going to cut it!

Only with consistent efforts you can succeed with blogging.

Not just with publishing content, but this advice applies to whatever you do with blogging.

Only by being consistent you can scale up results.

Otherwise you might see some spikes (of traffic, subscriptions, sales or whatever) and that will settle quite soon. That’s not what you want.

You want results that consistently grow and scale up!

#9. You must embrace SEO

I totally understand that you might hate SEO altogether. Especially when you are a beginner, SEO can be overwhelming – both to understand and also to keep up!

But here’s another harsh truth – you must embrace SEO.

You don’t have to go for any advanced SEO tips.

Just have an idea of the basic SEO tips and implement them on your blog, right from the start.

SEO not only helps to rank your content better in search engines, but it also helps your readers find your content.

After all you want your readers to find your content, read it, appreciate it and convert.

It all starts with your readers finding your content.

Of course they can find you via social media, email and other means. But those traffic are momentary.

The moment you publish a post and hit a few shares, you will get a spike in traffic. But that traffic usually fades off.

Similarly when you send out a newsletter you will get a spike – but you cannot expect that to be consistent.

Only search engine traffic will help you in the long run.

Initially it could seem hard to understand and implement SEO techniques. But once you do things right, in the long run, you can pretty much enjoy the search traffic (almost) hands free.

#10. Network right from the beginning

Blogging and networking go hand in hand. In the sea of big companies, bloggers and loads of content, you need to have extra hands to help you out.

Be it promoting your blog posts, offering you guest posts and guest post opportunities, helping you with launches – you need fellow bloggers to help you out.

They also help you by offering great suggestion, and motivation and trust me you need these on a regular basis.

So start networking right from the beginning! You will not regret.

Personally, I find networking to be the wonderful part of my business – a stress free thing that I can do on a regular basis.

It is not something tough, or something that feels like “work”.

At the same time it pays off really well!

But just make sure you don’t hit up people for selfish reasons. Build genuine relationships and see what follows!

#11. Start building an email list, right from the start

This is a dumb mistake I myself made when I started out back in 2007.

Somehow I thought that I should only start building a list when I get a certain number of visitors to my site.

At that time, in the first month I was getting about 100 visits per day. And I waited out.

I did not do anything to build an email list for about 2 years! Can you imagine how many subscribers I just left out?

And when I decided to put up an optin form, I got 82 signups within a few hours.

I now realise that mistake and never will make it again.

#12. Design a clean blog

Clutter is dangerous. It can instantly turn people off your site!

And there are numerous beautifully-designed, visually appealing, clutter free websites on the internet.

People are used to visually pleasing web pages – and anything with clutter is going to be a strain on their eyes.

Especially as more and more people are using mobile devices to access the internet, it is very important to go clutter free.

Analyse your website and see if there’s anything that’s annoying – this includes annoying pop-ups (not all pop-ups), ads that are cluttered on the website, unnecessary widgets, use of too many colors – I can go on. But you get the idea.

This post will be an additional help in this context.

#13. Have conversion elements in place

You blog to attract visitors. You get traffic.

But what if that traffic just comes and goes by? That’s wasted traffic, right?

You absolutely cannot afford to waste all your hard work to get traffic and then let it slip by without taking any action.

You got to take all measures to convert your traffic.

So what’s conversion? It could be anything depending upon your blogging purpose.

It could be that you want your visitors to sign up for your newsletter – in which case you must put up sign up forms at appropriate places.

If it is about your product sales, you need to put up call to actions inviting people to check out your product/services at appropriate places in your website.

You get the idea.

#14. Answer readers’ questions

One of the easiest ways to emphasthize with your readers and to make them relate to you and your content is to answer your readers’ questions directly.

And by answering your readers’ queries directly, you also make your blog’s content highly useful.

After all if readers can find answers to their queries on your blog, they are simply going to love that!

#15. Keep yourself in the loop by reading other blogs in the niche

It is highly crucial for you to keep yourself updated.

You should be up-to-date with happenings in your industry, as well as anything related to your online business.

For instance if you run a fashion blog, you should keep yourself updated on the latest fashion trends.

And at the same time, you should keep tabs about any search engine updates, a new SEO technique, a new feature or a theme released for fashion bloggers and so on.

This will help you stay on top and keep up with your competitors in implementing new things.

#16. Be patient. Be persistent

Blogging is not something you do one off and reap the benefits. And it is not something that will give you instant results.

It will certainly take some time for the results to show up (if you’ve been told/promised otherwise, you’ve been hearing the wrong advice).

You must keep this in mind when you start with blogging, because most bloggers have wrong notions about getting there.

They expect results too soon, and when they don’t get it, they become frustrated. And decide to quit.

In order to keep your motivation up and in order to keep working on your blog with focus, you need to be patient – and have realistic expectations about blogging success.

#17. The important pages on your site have to be complete, and up-to-date

Your site should have certain important pages like About, Contact, landing pages etc.

When you launch your blog you should make sure that these pages are complete and more importantly, up-to-date.

If these pages are totally absent, your readers will find it hard to know about you, connect with you and so on.

And as per guidelines for content you need to have some of the pages like Privacy, Disclaimer etc. on your website.

So you must make sure you have these pages always ready and updated.

#18. Use your own voice. Never imitate others

It is OK to monitor and follow your fellow bloggers – to know their strategies, to get inspired and so on.

But if you are going to imitate their voice just because that voice of theirs is successful, you are making a big mistake.

Their voice works for them and for their business. And I am sure it will not work for you.

Why am I so sure about this?

In the sea of sameness, all you have to easily stand out is your own voice.Click To Tweet

Don’t ever compromise on that!

#19. Have a means to measure the results

So you might start a blog, publish a few blog posts, do social shares and network with people.

But how are you going to measure the results you get? How would you know what strategy works and what doesn’t?

Only by knowing what works (and that too by numbers) will only enable you to do more of what works and drop anything that isn’t working.

You can only unveil working strategies and identify non-working strategies if you measure results.

By all means use the right tools that help you clearly measure your goals and results.

Use Google Analytics for keeping tabs on traffic, track your income/sales, and track your signups/conversions.

Without this knowledge, it is pretty much hard to improve in your blogging business.

#20. Have a means to capture blog post ideas

With blogging, consistent content creation comes a crucial thing.

And in order to create content consistently, you should have a list of blog post ideas ready.

Else, you will certainly hit the writer’s block syndrome. And it is dangerous in the long run.

Over the time, this can lead to frustration and even quitting – being unable to create content consistently.

So by all means, have a tool to capture blog post ideas.

It can be a tool like Evernote (which I personally use), or as simple as a notebook and pen.

Just have one tool for idea capture – don’t have your ideas scattered all over the place since that will totally defeat the purpose of idea capture.

#21. Reach out to readers outside your blog

Your blog is your space where you share awesome content and connect with your readers. But don’t stop there.

You should actually be actively reaching out to readers outside your blog since that gives a greater chance of discovering new visitors by actually visiting those places where they hang out.

Examples include other blogs (in the form of guest posts, blog comments), social media (responding to updates, participating in group discussions, sharing others content etc.), interacting in blog communities like DoSplash, Klinkk and so on.

#22. Format your content properly so it is easy for your readers to consume

The internet is loaded with content, and a lot of visually engaging stuff. Now your content should be such that it doesn’t overwhelm your (already overwhelmed) readers; and at the same time stand out and feel easy on the eyes of your readers.

This can be accomplished by formatting your content properly.

Nothing so techy about this – you just have to use sub-headings, bullet points, images, paragraph breaks and the like!

That’s there all to how to write blogs, seriously!

#23. Help readers to share your content

Shares on your content help spread the word, and yes a great source of traffic.

Social sharing not only helps you build buzz and attract traffic, it can help your content go viral.

This is a big plus!

But you have to help your readers to share your content. Of course the first step here is to create awesome content that your readers would want to share.

But the next important step is to make it easy for your readers to share your content by putting social sharing buttons at appropriate places on your content.

I’d suggest both at the top and bottom of your blog posts.

This way your readers can share away just with a click.

I highly recommend Social Warfare plugin for this purpose.

#24. Create evergreen, pillar content quite often

Evergreen content is something that is not news-like. The tip or advice or suggestion or the discussion you make in a piece of evergreen content applies to the current date and also to a future date.

It is something that stays fresh for a long time.

By creating evergreen content you also do yourself a favour – that particular piece of content that you’ve worked hard on can help you bring fresh readers in a consistent manner.

You also do your readers a favour by providing them with such content.

And such content will form pillar content for your blog, that you can often refer to in your blog posts, promote in guest posts, and put up as links in navigation or sidebar.

And yes, evergreen content helps strengthen the SEO of your site in general.

#25. Make time for blogging, no matter what

As a blogger you will certainly have a lot on your plate. It doesn’t matter if you are a full time blogger or a part time blogger, finding the time to blog can be quite challenging.

For a part time blogger, the day job will already take up a lot of time and energy, leaving very less of those for blogging.

For a full time blogger, overwhelm and other challenges (like household chores, screaming kids, people interrupting all the time and so on) make it challenging to work on their blogs.

But here’s the thing –

you have to make time for blogging, if you consider it as a business.Click To Tweet

You cannot find the time, but you have to make it.

#26. Be honest. Don’t fake anything

When you start out as a blogger, or when you have not yet reached your goals, it could be highly tempting to fake it.

Publishing fake income reports, fake success stories etc. are some of the examples.

But here’s the thing – your readers are smarter than you think and they can smell your fake-ness right there.

And being honest never hurts. Your readers will love you for being honest.

In fact honestly letting them know what didn’t worked for you or how you failed terribly on something will be really useful to your readers and they can easily relate to what you are talking about.

#27. Be a prolific writer (a crucial blogging tip!)

Blogging involves lots of content creation. It doesn’t matter what type of content you create, your content creation process will involve a lot of writing.

Even if you don’t publish that much written content and let’s say you are all about making videos.

You still have to write the script for your videos, social media updates, newsletters and much more.

So train yourself to become a prolific writer.

#28. Use a variety of content forms

People need variety these days so they are not bored. Also with a variety of content you can cover readers whose interests are varied too!

For instance, instead of simply publishing text form posts, add videos, podcasts, slides, infographics into the mix.

This way you can make your content highly engaging, visually appealing and entertaining.

Plus you can reach out to audience in a variety of ways/places (like Youtube, Slideshare, iTunes etc.).

#29. Make sure your site is properly set up

This is something very serious. Not setting up your site properly can tamper your SEO efforts, can interfere with user experience and loading speed.

So I highly suggest you that you first make the basic set up totally right.

If you are using WordPress, here is a list of things that you need to do immediately after installing WordPress on your website.

Also please refer to Chapters 3 and 4 of the How to start a blog guide!

#30. Don’t EVER indulge in black hat SEO techniques. Ever.

With black hat SEO techniques you just complicate SEO. SEO is not at all complicated.

It is quite easy these days and you just have to stick to the basics.

You don’t have to spend a ton of money on SEO to build links or whatever. And Google hates being manipulated.

With all the efforts and money spent to do black hat SEO, you will only reap penalties and slaps from Google rather than a SEO boost.

Never ever waste your time and money on that!

#31. Make navigation easy and straightforward

Navigation in a website plays a crucial role in helping both readers and search engine bots.

If you don’t have a clean and clear navigation your readers will be left confused. And yes, they will leave!

Your website should have a clean navigation so any page on your site (not the blog posts) can be reached within 2 or 3 clicks.

#32. Use simple language

Jargons don’t work all the time. Especially when your website helps beginners, jargons are best avoided.

Even for advanced visitors, some jargons might work and some might not.

So keep jargons away and use simple language to talk to your readers.

Do not use too much hype or too sophisticated language on your blog post titles – they can be misleading, confusing and many people simply won’t understand.

And if that’s the case they won’t click through to check out your content.

Even while they are reading your content if the language you use is complex, your readers will simply leave.

#33. Work on your website’s loading speed

A fast loading website keeps search engines and your readers happy.

People are busy and they won’t wait for your slow loading pages to finish loading to read your content. They will simply click the back button and seek the same information elsewhere!

And too many click backs like that contribute to a high bounce rate which is not good for SEO.

Also search engines do not favour slow loading websites in their search engine result pages (SERPs).

#34. Don’t forget to make your site responsive

Many people are switching to accessing the web via their mobile devices.

This includes smartphones (of various screen sizes), tablets, portables and the like.

People read a lot while they are on the go rather than working on the table.

So you need to make sure that your website is responsive – that it appears neat and clean in all screen sizes.

Most solutions like Genesis and Thrive themes offer you with responsive themes.

#35. Know what it takes to succeed with blogging (and develop the mindset)

Blogging is not easy peasy. If you were told so, you’ve been cheated.

It takes a lot of hard work and persistence to get there.

And in the meanwhile you are prone to get demotivated and lose track of your goals.

In order to avoid such negative stuff, prepare yourself right from the beginning.

Know what it takes to become a successful blogger. And be prepared.

Blogging tips for you to succeed. There you go!

Alright, I am pretty sure I’ve covered the essentials here as blogging tips for beginners.

In addition I strongly suggest you to check out the How to start a blog guide.

Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Good luck with your blogging journey and I hope these business blogging tips will help you in the long run.