After recently posting a tweet the other day that my stats had doubled in volume in May than my previous January to April stats I was really shocked and honoured that you were all asking for a blog post with handy hints & tips of how I achieved it. If I’m honest I have no clue what the root of it was, but I am more than happy to share some little tips I have been working on recently that may have contributed to it.
1) Some Numbers Do Count
I try not to get too hung up about numbers. Whilst a lot of peoples follower counts rocket mine stay at a nice steady pace. But it’s not necessarily these numbers that I’m talking about. Domain Authority and Page Authority is a great way of checking how reliable and how easy your site is to find. I check these on a weekly basis to see if they are going up at all based on the number link backs and content I have on my blog. You can check your ”DA” and ”PA” as they are often referred to on social media on SEO Review Tools here!
There are a couple of things to remember though; if you are still using a wordpress.com or BlogSpot.com in your domain name the checker works out the criteria based on those platforms rather than your individual site. It is worth investing in the £10-£20 charge to have your own domain like mine, QueenBeady.com, this way it is more accurate and it also looks a lot more professional too.
The higher your domain authority goes up the more brands will want to work with you. I have found that once you are above DA30 more opportunities have headed my way. Keep working on it, it doesn’t happen overnight but once you get there is it is worth it.
2) Get Social
Get Twitter. Get Instagram. Get Pinterest. Get the whole freaking shebang. Get your blog name all over them and make sure you keep updating them on a regular basis. I often worry that I am on social media a little too much, but when I see my husband playing contently on Clash of Clans I don’t feel quite as bad. My main point on this one is, keep it relevant to you and how you want people to portray you and your blog.
I often take part in chats or keep up to date with my blogging friends on Twitter. Its a great source for keeping in the loop about what’s relevant & what’s hot. A lot of my inspiration comes from my monthly chat of #HappySelves. It’s a great way to connect with like minded people. For me the #FBlogger & #LBlogger chats are applicable to my blog too. Don’t be a link whore, share at the end or to anyone who asks for it but please don’t spam!
Also, if you see something you like on a Blog, Twitter or Instagram, interact with it rather than just giving it a favourite or a like! Chat, respond, it goes a long way to be nice. If I see something that reminds me of another blogger I will send them the photo or the link, it’s nice to be thought of. Treat others how you wish to be treated.
3) A Scheduling Service
Some days I am stacked out at work. It’s hard to keep in the loop with the blogosphere when you also have a full time job away from your blog too. Since I signed up to TweetDeck (which is FREE!) I’ve been able to schedule tweets about my current blog posts on a regular (but hopefully not too regular) basis. This way when you are snowed under with other everyday pressures it takes the load off you.
I also use EveryPost on my phone for when I’m on the move too! It works the same way as TweetDeck but you can link it to other various platforms as well.
4) Get SEO Savvy
This is where you kind’ve have to get in to the mind of your every day reader or someone who may just stumble across your site. When you go from a wordpress.com site to a wordpress.org site, a lot of the SEO tracking you had built in to the .com site is no more. Up until recently I had just been adding keywords manually to my post dashboard, however, after a chat some lovely fellow blogger (I can’t remember exactly who it was so I apologise in advance) said to look into Yoast. It is an SEO plug in for self-hosted blog sites. It has been a godsend because it creates all the necessary info for you and gives you suggestion too by checking if your blog title features in your meta description, post, key words etc. It’s brilliant and it also tells you your score on the SEO in your post. I’m slowly starting to get ”Good” / green on my posts now.
So my main point is – think of words that will lure people on to your site!
5) Invest a Little Time
I’m trying not to let my blog take over my life. After all I do this as a hobby and part time too. But, every once in a while work on your blog, tweak areas, learn a bit of HTML to make it look pretty. It sounds awful, but appearance means a lot in the world of blogging. If you are like me 7 only know the basics invest in a pre-made template for around £15. I haven’t looked back since I purchased a template from Kotryna Bass Designs. This means I can concentrate on other things like perfecting my photography skills etc.
6) A Media Kit
If you want to work with brands you need to look a little more professional. My Media Kit is here -> Media Kit for QueenBeady It’s a great way to show off what you are all about and what you have achieved so far. All you need is a little creativity. My blog is black and white, so I kept the theme the same. This was achieved by using Microsoft Word and saving it as a PDF file. See, these things can be created without fancy MACS or PhotoShop. Make sure you get it out there and send across to the PR Companies you regularly work with or if you don’t have those contacts yet get in touch with some by looking on Twitter for the #PRRequest hashtag on twitter. Send a brief but light hearted email about why you would like to work with them.
That is just a few tips & tricks I have learnt over the last 4 years. I’m not one for sharing wisdom, purely because I don’t think I have much going on upstairs when it comes to useful information. I truly hope that you have found some interesting points on here too. Most of it you probably already know but if I can go some way of helping just one person pick up some handy tips then my job is done.
If you liked this post and want similar ones I would love to hear from you! Similarly, if you used any of these blogging tips and your stats increased I would love to hear from you too.
Bee xxx
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