It has been brought to my attention that many bloggers have no clue what to focus on the most. I am going to address the first five things that come to mind for me that I wish I had focused on more when I first started blogging or at the very least when I decided that I wanted to start making money blogging.
Please Pin This Image.Five Things Bloggers Need To Worry About
Content
It’s been said many times over that “content is king.” Here’s the kicker though you have to be strategic with your content. It has to address something you’re readers are going to want to read. It has to give them something. As I teach my kids about “author’s purpose” in their Language Arts courses, I’m reminded that there are really only three different forms of purpose for writing. That is to inform, entertain, and persuade someone to do something. In the blogging world, it’s not much different.
I’ve always been better at inform and persuasive style writing. Yet, I have had to learn to grow into being more entertaining with my writing. (I’m still not there completely yet.) When we write in the blogging world, our readers do not have much time to read. We have to ensure that our writing is done in a manner that is easy to read and also gives the reader what they are after.
SEO
If you’ve been in the blogging sphere at all for any length of time then you’ve heard the term SEO (Search Engine Optimization.) This is vital to success! For almost my entire blogging career, I didn’t pay it a bit of attention. I have over 1300 posts, and I’d bank that less than a 1/4 are optimized for SEO. Since I have started using SEO more diligently in the past couple of months, I can see a vast improvement in my page views and even the loyalty of readership is growing too. Again, they are searching for what I’m offering them.
Time Management
If content and SEO are the two biggies, then you have to have proper time management to do the research for the right keywords and also write quality content. Plus you have to do other “blogging tasks too.” Many bloggers also haven’t figured out how to juggle professional blogging and their home lives. That’s where you have to decide early on what your blogging hours are going to look like and what you can tackle extra beyond the content aspect.
Marketing
Once you have the quality content that is done with SEO in mind, and your time available to work each week for your blog it’s time to ensure you put in some time for marketing. Marketing consists of being active on the social media accounts where your readers are. If you have limited time make sure you’re spending it on the social media accounts where the majority of your visitors come from. Also find blogs both big and small within your niche and be sure to share their content and add quality comments to their posts.
Design
This one is a biggie for me. If you have followed my blog for any length of time you’ve seen how many times I’ve changed the theme by myself for the most part. I never did get it to look the way I wanted until I hired a professional designer. I highly recommend Engine 1 Media designs. As another newer blogger pointed out that if you have a quality design from the word go, it does make a powerful difference. However, if you’re not wanting to dish out money right away, I do suggest that you stick with a clean and easy to manuver website. Also make sure your site is mobile friendly. I HIGHLY recommend you go to WordPress if you’re still on Blogger for a long list of reasons.
If you focus on these five things from the beginning, you’re well on your way to a successful blogging career. Mind you these are NOT the end all of things I suggest you focus on. They are just the “top” five things that I think make a huge difference.
What would you say are the top five things bloggers need to focus on?
Don’t forget to check out Pepper’s BloggingTidbits too.
Those are quite correct. I would add photography since photos are the reasons deciding if the readers will stay or not. Good writing with bad photos will not result in good blogging, ever.
You bring up a VERY important point to!! Photos have become quite important in blog posts. (It’s still a HUGE weakness of mine.)
Excellent points here Crystal! I wish I knew these things when I first started blogging that’s for sure. It’s all about improving and learning! Thanks for sharing this.
Thank you. I just hope it helps others. I did fail to mention that pictures has become a very important aspect of blogging now too.
Great tips. I definitely need to work on time management!
That is a pretty big one. I think with all of the different things available to distract us, that makes it even harder to properly use our time.
Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting.
I really struggle with time management! I would rather spend my time on the marketing section than on writing the content… which I do too often and then I am behind on my posts! Oh and there is also having two kids, and a part time job… 🙂
I know that when I started blogging, I really had no idea how much time it actually took. I thought it was just writing posts and that was it. The writing actually takes far less time than everything else. So like you said in the post, figuring out what your hours are going to be for blogging are very important or it’s easy for it to take over your life without you realizing it.
Hi,
Great tips. Bloggers seem to complain a lot about the lack of time, so I am focusing this week on trying to help them with that.
I feel many bloggers, specifically newer bloggers, are confused by SEO and just hope for the best!
I’m glad you agree that these things are vital. SEO makes a huge difference. It’s not as complicated as some may think.
Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting. I hope to see you again soon. 😉
Hi Crystal,
I will be linking to this post in tomorrow’s Weekly Roundup. I loved your article and the headline as well.
Janice
Thank you for sharing this post Janice. I like how you compared it against another blogger’s post in your own post. Thank you for stopping by and commenting. I look forward to seeing you again soon.
I found you via Janices’ blog http://www.mostlyblogging.com , and I also appreciate your tips! I’ll be back. 🙂
Thank you for stopping by. I’m glad you liked the tips. I look forward to seeing you again.
Even after 4 years of blogging, SEO still mystifies me!
This is a great post with lots of useful info. You hit the nail on the head with your top five. Like someone else commented, quality images are in the top lists, as well. Janice was kind enough to include my post in this roundup, where I also came across your blog!
Thank you so much for this post, I found you on pinterest 🙂
As a new blogger, you are right, time management is so important. The list of things to do besides the actual content is huge, especially when you are just learning. I have to find time to read, research and learn how to do something, plus read, research and learn about what I am talking about.
So far I don’t see my to do list getting any smaller, ha! However I can see this is where time management is important.
Thanks for these awesome tips!
Great tips!! There are so many things that people don’t even know that are important when you start writing a blog. It’s great to have this for them to learn! 🙂 #Home MattersParty
Really great tips! I am working on my old posts before I knew about SEO! It’s tough going back & editing posts, but I know now how important it is. I also plan to invest in a camera!
You are spot on, Crystal! I certainly wish I had more hours in my day. Ha! Thanks for sharing and co-hosting at the #HomeMattersParty – you’re awesome! 🙂
~Lorelai
Life With Lorelai
I agree with all of the above but would like to add call to actions at the end of the post is something I am working on now. Love having you as a cohost on #HomeMattersParty