HOW TO TAKE YOUR BLOG TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Blogging is all fun and games, until you find yourself trying to keep up to date with emails, post publishing, photo taking, editing, proof-reading and not abandoning your social media too much. I took some time away to concentrate on being a new mother and found myself in a bubble that I did not want my blog to burst.  Yep, I have lost views, followers and have probably been dropped off PR lists, but I don't regret a thing.

So, here I am almost 6 months later. Finally hitting the publish button once again. And wanting to really put my all into blogging again. I want to make it better than ever. Forgive me if you thought I fell off the planet though... I'm still here! Just about publishing this with an 8 month old climbing all over me.

Disclaimer: Collaborative post. Stock images sourced from Pixabay.

Everybody knows that the most important factor for a successful blog is to fill it with mind-blowing content. There are lots of things that you can do besides that to level-up your blog. By implementing the following tips and tricks, your blog should see a massive increase in traffic. I imagine you are reading this tips post because this is your number one goal.

Outsourcing

There are lots of things you can do on your own to improve the quality of your blog. If you are extremely busy or a little bit unsure about how to go about it, you can outsource some work to a freelancer. By using staffing agencies or recruiters you can find great freelancers or Virtual Assistants. These options could be an easy way to level up your blog; although not always the cheapest.

Strategy

Having a strategy is the most important thing you need to think about when considering how to grow your blog. A blog with 100 subscribers will need a completely different plan to one with 100,000, so be wary of following generic plans on the internet. 

Email is one of the easiest places to start, as it is free and requires little knowledge. You can send soft emails or newsletters to your subscribers reminding them to check out a new post and to share it with their friends. You can also create cold-email campaigns, sending your blog in an email that convinces new readers to check it out. 

Social is Key

Social media is another easy and mostly free way to grow your blog. Create a page for your blog and begin interacting with other pages and readers. Reach out to them and see if you can do content swaps or promote your blog on their page in exchange for writing them a free article. Don’t forget to implement as many social media profiles as you can - you would be surprised at how many there are. Using LinkedIn and Pinterest may feel unusual, but they can reach a whole new group of readers who might not have seen your blog otherwise. Remember to make it easy for them! Place your social share and follow buttons in clearly visible locations around your site.

Engagement

The more pages your readers visits, the longer they spend on each page, and the lower their bounce rate = the higher quality they are to you as a reader. High volume can be misleading, as sending lots of traffic to your blog is pointless if they are not engaged by what they see. Make sure you spend time creating engaging content, as this will not only raise engagement levels, but also help you rank higher on search engines. A good way to check what people find engaging is to stake out your competitors, find their popular posts - discover what your audience want to read.

That’s it!

Focus on the 3 factors above and you should see a massive rise in your followings. Blogs are essentially very simple. Create engaging content and promote yourself in a strong way and people will come back to your blog. It’s just a matter of education and perseverance.