99 Tips for beginner bloggers – The ultimate beginner bloggers guide
Starting a blog is one of those baby steps that many of us take into the unknown! We do so for many different reasons but whatever the impetus, or whatever your passion, check out these 99 Tips for beginner bloggers that are sure to give you the kick in the butt you’ve been looking for!
We got together with some of our favourite bloggers to create this mega list just for you.
Bloggers from Austin to Arizona, Italy to Ireland, Sweden to San Diego, Denver to Dublin, New York to New Zealand, and everywhere in between!
We’ve asked all kinds of expert bloggers for their top tips. Including, Travel bloggers, Food bloggers, Content Bloggers, Lifestyle bloggers, Fashion bloggers, Beauty bloggers and more!
There’s gold dust in this list! Have a read through and keep a few of these tips in your back pocket!
Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links for which I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase.
99 Tips for beginner bloggers
1. Build a strong foundation and don’t rush your growth
It may sound weird because we all want to grow as fast as we can, right?
But, at the beginning, there can be lots of overwhelming stuff like the technical side of your blog (platform, hosting), traffic, monetisation and so on. It’s important to remember that blogging is a marathon, not a sprint.
So, the longer you feel inspired, the more consistent you are, the more fun you have and the more content you create in the long run.
What we recommend is building a strong foundation: get to know your platform well, make sure you have your backup process set up (nobody wants to lose their content), understand the basics of SEO, start writing regularly.
When you succeed in this, move to other things like monetisation, guest posts, traffic growth, affiliate programs and other amazing things.
2. Use Facebook Groups to find ideas for blog posts
Facebook Groups are a gold mine for blog posts ideas! You can search through groups using keywords that your business focuses on.
Whenever you see posts where someone has a problem that you can help with, make a note in a spreadsheet or document.
Keep a list of these issues that your ideal customer is struggling with and use it as a resource to come up with blog posts topics.
If the group allows it, make sure you post your blog post in the group to share your solution to their problems! As questions arise in facebook groups, share your blog post as a solution to their problems (if links are allowed!).
This will not only increase your website traffic, but present you as an expert within the group on that topic.
3. Let your baby blog grow – don’t sweat all the things
Don’t sweat your page views for the first 6 months! Set up analytics but don’t add the dashboard to your WordPress site, just let it be. Don’t stress about it.
Concentrate on writing good content on a consistent basis, making sure it’s is clear and easy to read (I would also not sweat the readability score).
Focus on developing authority in your niche and confidence in yourself. That is what will take you far. The page views and DA score and so forth will come.
In the first year or so your blog is still a baby. Google and your audience is getting to know you. I think the most important thing is to establish what they can expect.
4. Organize your thoughts
The one thing I wish I knew before I started my blog was how time-consuming writing one post could become if you are not organized.
Having a content calendar and at least one-month worth of blog posts ready to be published is a MUST-HAVE to keep the overwhelm at bay and stay consistent for your audience.
5. Pick your primary platform
There are so many options for promoting your blog and business on social media, and it can sometimes be a challenge to show up on each and every one of them, every single day. That’s why you only need one.
Of all the social media platforms you promote your business on, pick your favorite, pick the one you love to show up on and show up there, every single day.
Even if it’s just showing up in stories on Instagram for a few minutes, pick one place to make your presence heard.
6. Lead the way
It’s easy to follow but great people don’t follow they lead. You can get caught up in seeing what many bloggers are similarly posting about but ditch the desire to do the same.
Your blog has a bigger capability to grow when you speak wholeheartedly about your passions and interests rather than the ‘ideal norm’ that can be ingrained in the blogging community.
7. Don’t invest your life savings in themes before considering free options!
I’ll admit, I was overwhelmed by the thought of customizing my own blog theme. I had a vision of what I wanted my blog to look like because I had scoured a number of other blogs to gain ideas, but I had no idea how they had achieved their look.
I spent a few days testing out different free WordPress themes before I found my current theme, Overlay.
Unfortunately, what you see in the descriptions for free options aren’t always accurate. With this theme, I’m able to customize SO much! I had one font issue that I couldn’t figure out by myself, so I emailed the theme creators and within 1 day they had an answer for me.
Not everything in the blogging world has to cost you an arm and a leg …
Just take the time to look around!
8. Choose fresh content over more Pins per day
Many people think pinning upwards of 50 pins a day is necessary to obtain Pinterest traffic, followers, shares, etc. While this sometimes works, it is not recommended.
Accounts that pin more than 50 times a day are at higher risk of being considered spam by Pinterest. Based on current best practices, the best way to get better traffic on Pinterest is to upload fresh pins with keyword-rich descriptions.
A fresh pin is a new pin that has never been on the platform. You do not need to up your blog count to do this, you just need to create multiple pins per blog post. Try creating 5-7 different pins per blog post. This way you will have fresh pins without having to create new content.
9. Utilize productivity strategies
Get into a good habit of using a calendar – either paper or electronic. Two great electronic tools are Trello or Asana (both free) but Google Docs/Sheets will also work.
Plan out the topics you want to cover over the month (or if you’re super organised, the year!) and the frequency you want to publish.
Keep a note-taking book or app handy so you can capture ideas on the fly. I use the notes app on my iphone.
Write and prepare your posts in advance of publishing. Doing this takes the pressure out of having to write and publish in the same day. Also, if the majority of the blog post is written, you can choose to add or tweak the post to reflect either your current mood or the news.
Keep a backlog of blog posts. If inspiration strikes and you just want to write, write, write, generally that writing will make great blog posts! Have those on hand in a drafts folder in case you need them.
10. Take time picking your blog name
The hardest part about starting is actually starting, but really it should be the easiest. When you first go to start your blog I’d said the hardest part should be picking your blog name. The rest will fall into place as you blog more and grow.
You won’t have a style or theme your going to love a year or two from. Maybe even just a couple months from when your first blog post launched. You can tweak everything as you learn more and go back and edit any past posts.
But what you don’t want to change once you get a couple posts on your blog is your blog name. You can even tweak your niche as you learn more about what you like blogging.
So, back to picking your blog name. It will never be 100% unique but the best way to make it as unique as possible is to include something no one else might have the same as you.
For instance your first or last name. You can then include anything you love with part of it (pets, children, area you live, hobbies, etc). But don’t make it too complicated or long. Keep it easy to remember and easy to type or google.
11. Learn from other seasoned bloggers
Learn from people who have been doing it longer than you. Join facebook support groups (there’s tonnes!), look at other bloggers, check out pages and listen to podcasts. You might hear one tip that can save you hours down the road!
12. Remember why you started!
Don’t forget why you started blogging in the first place! It can be so easy to let yourself get unmotivated or burnt out. Keep a journal of your visions and goals for your blog and your life, and go back and reread your entries often.
Keeping your eyes set on why you’re doing what you’re doing can help you move past the hard moments when they come.
13. Don’t rush
We all want to start our blog from the ground, running! But, you want to plan, and then plan some more. Watch videos, buy courses, do your research!
You want to know what is going to work (& what isn’t going to work) before you choose your blog name! It’s costly to change it.
Take the time to design; and really have an understanding of how to blog & how to write for SEO! If you can start off writing your posts to get ranked, do it! The biggest tip I can give is to slow down, and take your time!
14. Network and connect
Network and connect with other bloggers, especially if they are in the same niche as you. Don’t think of others as competition.
Connecting with like-minded people will open opportunities to collaborate and friendships. There will be more experienced bloggers who can guide you through the know-hows as they come.
15. If it feels like a burden, take a break
Don’t feel guilty for taking breaks. Presumably you started your blog because you’re passionate about the content you create, if it starts to feel like a burden then take a break until the passion and inspiration comes back, trust me it always does.
Don’t feel you have to churn out content you’re not proud of, focus on quality rather than quantity.
16. Make it as easy as possible
Most of your readers are skimmers. They actually scan your content very fast to get the overall gist. They aren’t reading every single word. Keep that in mind when you write your blog posts.
Short sentences, sweet and easy terms, and highly practical ideas that can be applied right away will make the difference.
You might also like: 6 Simple content tweaks you’re readers will love you for
17. Write about topics that people are searching for online
Over half of all website traffic comes from search engines. For a blogger, this means that if you want to get a decent amount of traffic to your blog, you need to write about things that people are searching for online.
There are loads of free tools to help you find popular search topics and trends you can use to help with your keyword research. It is very tempting to just write about topics that you want to write about, but you really should be writing about topics that your audience wants to read about.
You might also like: Easy keyword research tactics for beginner bloggers
It’s not just about picking the right social channels, because you can make a connection with people anywhere you go really! It’s about HOW you choose to connect with people.
It’s about truly getting to know your audience, who they are, what their passions are, and what they need from you on whichever platform you choose.
It’s important to engage with people with similar interests, but it’s even more important to be open to connecting with those who want to learn and continue learning from you. Most importantly, be authentic and unique!
Share your passion everywhere you go and don’t feel pressured to be like everyone else on social media. Be inspired, but don’t forget who you are and what you can offer to someone that others haven’t been able to.
You never know when there’s someone out there looking for answers and you just might end up being the story they want to connect to or even share with others.
This applies not just to your regular audience, but to clients, customers, partner brands as well.
19. Start immediately and keep going!
As soon as you have an idea jump on it while you have momentum. The difference between someone turning their idea or topic into something successful is usually just working on it, rather than let it slip away and be forgotten about.
Once you’ve started, just keep going with whatever it is that you’re doing. It will take a while to build it up and get people talking about it but if you keep at it eventually you’ll start to see results.
You can’t expect people to get excited about something that disappears before they’ve gotten to know it.
20. Don’t quit too early if you enjoy sharing your experience
Like any business that is being built from scratch, blogging requires hard work and dedication. Most beginner bloggers get discouraged when they put long hours into writing and nobody is reading their posts in the first few months.
Don’t be one of them! It takes time to build solid traffic and blog authority until Google starts to pick up your posts. Just continue to share what you know and provide as much value for your readers as possible. It will pay off sooner or later
Do you know what is one common trait among all the successful bloggers?
They never quit!
21. Decide why you went into blogging
I’ve got 2 blogs. One’s a women’s health and lifestyle blog, where I talk about being the authentic you and how to live your best life. The other is a marketing blog, where I help people get more traction with their online businesses.
The Lifestyle blog is not a money earner. It’s a passion project. And I don’t sweat about traffic or stats.
The marketing one is both a passion AND an income … so, I need to run it as the business it is, even on days when it feels like far too much fun to be work!
Be mindful of what you want to achieve with your blog.
- Are you a hobbiest?
- Do you want to make it a full time careers and earn a great income?
- Or are you somewhere in between?
And plan your strategy accordingly.
Pick the best platform and strategies to move you closer towards your goals, whatever they may be.
22. Make your post layout easily readable for everyone
Your blog is about your readers first, not about you. As much as your personality and voice is important, you have to think about usability and readability at all times.
Fuchsia might be your favorite color, but it’s better to keep it for branding and logos. Don’t choose it as your main text color or, shudder to think, as a background.
Also, add more air to your posts! Nobody likes to read long sheets of text. If your page looks boring and text-heavy from the first glance, nobody will stay.
Add some space between paragraphs, have a good structure with appropriate headers, use images to illustrate your thoughts and bullet points to summarize.
Don’t jump from one thing to another, create a flow that is easy to follow.
Your readers will appreciate your efforts and stay longer!
23. Create high quality visual content
In times of Instagram and YouTube, there is no surprise people prefer visual content over more old-fashioned text. It doesn’t mean you have to switch to Insta completely, but you have to make sure your blog is visually appealing and you have great imagery to complement your posts.
There are 2 ways of making it work: start taking pictures yourself or use stock images. As a duet of a professional photographer and a journalist, we always create our own content and don’t use other people’s work.
But it is definitely not an easy job to take pictures and make them look high quality (especially with such high competition).
So while learning how to do that, you can use stock photos to accompany your texts.
There are plenty of websites like Unsplash and Freepik with thousands of great images you can use absolutely free of charge. We also recommend learning the basics of photography like light, composition, colours etc.
You don’t even need to invest in expensive cameras to create good content. Your phone is more than enough. Always clean the lens before taking pictures and download a couple of editing apps like Tezza, Snapseed or Lightroom.
24. Sell from day one
You’re the expert, that means you get to sell. There is no such thing as an audience that is appropriately nurtured, no threshold that you have to meet before you’re allowed to start selling.
Whether it’s an ebook or a service, all you need is one person in your audience before you get to start selling.
Selling comes from confidence, so be confident in your offers, in your expertise, and get your audience used to seeing that you not only have free content that is amazing, but you also have something to sell to take things to the next level.
25. Invest in yourself
Whether that be a course or finally buying your own domain, or investing in a scheduling program like Tailwind or a graphic creation app like Canva (which the pro paid version comes with quality stock photos).
26. WordPress.org is totally the way to go!
Self-hosting with WordPress.org is easily one of the best blogging investments I’ve made thus far.
I’m comfortable with my computer, but I’m definitely not a technical guru.
With the help of WordPress forums, I was able to easily learn the ins and outs of what I could accomplish with my blog.
After I realized how easily I could manage the back end of my website without needing help, I was quick to upgrade my free WordPress site to a self-hosted one. I was able to upload my free website to my paid one all by myself because their directions are so easy to follow. I’ll never have to worry about needing to switch to another platform.
WordPress offers such a user friendly platform that I recommend it to bloggers of all types.
27. Link to other relevant blog posts to keep your visitors engaged and on your site longer
When you write your blog posts, use the opportunity to link to other relevant posts on your own site that the reader will also find helpful.
There are 2 ways you can do this:
- You can link out actual text on your blog post:
When linking to another post on your website, use text that describes the article, and then link that directly to the post.
You do not just want to see “click here” – instead say something like “to read how to create an SEO friendly blog post read this post”.
This helps your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as it lets google know what keywords are important for showing your blog post in search engine results.
- Add a “related posts” summary at the end of your post.
- Use category tags to display related posts at the end of your post for the same category of the post that the readers are viewing. In Squarespace, you can do this manually or by using a summary block at the end of your post, or you can purchase a plugin that will do this automatically.
28. Strive for progress, not perfection
I spent about a year trying to perfect my blog before it was even launched. I just wanted everything to be perfect before the world sees it and guess what it is still not perfect for me.
I wasted so much time and energy on the littlest of things. So, don’t spend a lot of time stressing and worrying about how perfect you want your blog to be and put that energy and time into creating content, building an audience, and providing value.
Over time as you learn and grow you can always adapt and make changes.
29. Use 5, 10 and 20 min tasking
If you have children (or other distractions) at home while you’re blogging, sort you to-do list that is sorted by time.
When I schedule out my week, each item is sorted into 5-minute increments; all of the things I want to accomplish are sorted and/or broken down into segments of 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and 20 minutes.
Then, as I have breaks between things with kids, I can get things done quickly.
I also like to keep an ideas list to the side of 1 minute and 3-minute ideas. These include things like responding to emails, update a Pinterest board description, etc. These are also things I can do on my phone while sitting in the car at a drive-through (don’t judge!) or even while in the bathroom.
30. Set up CDN to make your website load faster
When you first start your blog, most likely you’ll choose a cheaper hosting platform to cut down your upfront cost. Be mindful though that unfortunately, cheap hosting may come with its own limitation — speed.
The good news is you can set up Cloudflare CDN to speed up your website for free.
A CDN is a network of servers located all around the world. Each of these servers will cache static content from your website and deliver it to users based on the geographic location.
Without a CDN, your web hosting server will need to handle all the requests coming to your server that may slow down your website.
With CDN, the static content of your website will be delivered from servers closest to your users. This reduces the number of hop and latency needed to deliver the files and make your pages load faster.
You can use popular tools GTMetrix or Pingdom to measure your site speed.
31. Protect yourself from scammers and hackers
Make sure you protect your social media accounts and blog from Hackers. I got hacked, and I panicked! But you can prevent this from happening to you by doing a few simple things to help protect yourself.
First off, always use two factor authentication on all of your accounts.
Secondly, do not click on unknown links!
32. Plan ahead
I use a Kan-Ban to plan my posts in a certain order;
Plan = If I’m writing a post on a product I’ll do some research and make notes in a notebook, as well as brainstorming ideas and phases, and thinking up the title if I hadn’t already.
Draft = I then create a draft by typing up my notes and bulking them out.
Edit = This is where I do my final touches on the draft, fixing typos, making sure it reads well, and creating the final product.
Photos = Time to take photos for the post, just make sure to not overdo it
Edit = I always edit my photos the exact same, and try to make sure that all my photos on my site look similar.
SEO + Tags = SEO can be really intimidating, but I use Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress, it makes it so easy to change the meta description, alt text for photos, and I also add internal and external links at this point.
Pinterest = Pinterest is such a great thing for blogging traffic. At the end of every post, I have a pinnable photo, and I always upload it as a pin as soon as the post is published.
33. Visualize your motivations
We all need a strong reason to take on something as challenging as blogging. Without something to aim for, it becomes difficult to maintain focus when the chips are down and motivation is required to overcome challenges.
Try to identify what your real motivations are and visualize them.
Write them down so you’re clear and when you encounter darker moments in the blogging lifecycle, you’ll find it easier to get through them.
34. Self host your blog
There’s a tonne of advice around about which platform you should use when starting out with your blog. Wix? Squarespace? WordPress.com? WordPress.org? So confusing right!
The one thing I would say is that if you’re planning on making a business out of your blog, then go with a self hosted option. WordPress.org is where you want to be and the hosting services I recommend are Siteground, Lyrical Host or if you want a cheaper option to start, Bluehost.
35. Use strong verbs
Concise writing is the cornerstone of every successful blog. To keep your content short and snackable, omit auxiliary verbs, or “helping” verbs, where possible.
These include be, do, may, have, could/would/should, etc. When editing your blog posts, swap out auxiliary verbs for stronger verbs wherever it makes sense.
This won’t be possible every time. Just use your best judgment. When in doubt, read your content out loud to test whether it sounds natural.
36. Don’t get discouraged
Being a new blogger and seeing other blogs that are established can be extremely intimidating, but you have to remember, they were once in your shoes as well. It takes time to build a brand and your business.
37. Make friends and help people, blogging friendships are special
Make friends, help people, not because you expect help back, but because blogging friendships are special and they are the people who will understand.
They are the people who will support you when you have a crisis.
38. Understand SEO
As a marketing professional, I’m constantly learning and staying on top of new updates and algorithms from search engines. Google just released it’s May 2020 core update and it’s already affected many.
As a blogger, not having the right SEO practices in place will be detrimental.
From having the right long-tail keyphrases to optimizing for voice search, there’s always something new you’ve got to learn and incorporate to rank higher on search engines.
You might also find this post helpful: SEO for bloggers- A beginners guide
39. Know how you’re helping your audience
Know how you’re helping your audience. Whether you’re entertaining them or teaching them something, you’ll want to figure out your purpose before you get started.
Having this clarity will help decide what to write about and how to better connect with your readers. It will also help your blog stay focused on your niche; and will help you make decisions along the way.
40. Know that everything is easy, once you know how
I once had a chemistry instructor tell me that everything is easy, once you know it. The same applies for blogging.
Blogging is definitely a marathon and not a race and it will take time to learn all of the things you need to know, build momentum, and then finally make that money you’ve been dreaming of.
Try not to get frustrated with the process, it’s all a part of the journey.
Instead of comparing yourself with others journeys, use it as a chance to strengthen your own path to success by looking up to their accomplishments and striving to achieve more every day.
41. Build a website you own
Start your blog the right way and actually own your website. Don’t use a free service.
Free services have different rules than prevent you from doing thinks you might want to do like placing ads on your website. Using a free service also makes it a hassle to transfer all your work once you’re more established and want to own your website.
Owning your website means you own your domain and you have a hosting provider that runs your website. Not sure what hosting means? Don’t worry there are plenty of tutorials that walk you step-by-step through the process of starting your blog.
42. Research & explore all platform options
Before starting my blog I did very limited research and immediately started out on blogger (dot) com.
After getting it fully set up and posted a few blogs I realized how outdated blogger can be and decided to switch my blog to a whole new platform which took me a few days to do.
So my suggestion is to really look into your options and pick the one that fits your needs best! It will save a lot of time an frustrations.
43. Batch your content creation
Sit down at a specific time each week and write content. Take a few hours and write several blog posts at a time and then schedule them to be posted through the week, or even month, depending on how often you want to post.
This will help you to have consistency in your posting without having to write 24/7.
44. Learn when to walk away
Also known as ‘look after you’. You’ve got big plans for your blog, and there is so much to do. Social media graphics, captions, writing posts, finding pics, the list goes on and on.
You have to know when to give yourself a break. Too much staring at a screen won’t help you in the long run, and you could burn out entirely.
Learn to recognize when you are getting overwhelmed and what works for you to combat that feeling.
Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint people!
Whether it’s running or reading, take time to figure out how to reboot yourself when your head feels like it’s about to explode. Your blog posts will be all the better for it, as will your mental health.
45. Make your titles catchy
The title is the one piece of information you are giving to your readers and it will either make or break their desire to read the article.
A short, simple, eye-catching title that encapsulates exactly what your blog post is about but also leaves the reader asking questions, will draw the reader in.
An example: “How to live a healthy life by following these five tips” is pretty boring.
The “how to” might draw in a few, but overall it’s not catchy.
“Healthy living: Five life-changing health tips” is much better. It is slightly longer, but much more eye-catching.
It is telling the reader the nature of the article (a listicle article, which are popular formats due to being easy and quick reads), and the use of a colon is handy because it means you can break up the title by adding two useful pieces of information.
46. Define what it takes to make your blog successful
Blogging, just like anything, takes time, discipline, and sacrifice. My recommendation is to define these three elements before you begin.
- How much time are you able and willing to put toward your blog each week? – It is important to be honest and accurate here. If you set a realistic time frame, you can expect realistic results. If you do not set realistic time frames, you will be overwhelmed from the start.
- Be disciplined to do what you say you are going to do – If you tell your readers you will post once a week, twice a week, or daily then stick to it. Consistency is key.
- What are you willing to sacrifice for your blog? – Writing a blog and maintaining it takes work. What are willing to give up in your current schedule to provide the dedication it will need?
You might also like this post: How to set meaningful goals to achieve outstanding results
47. Use time blocking and task batching
These are different but can be used together! Time blocking is setting aside a period of time to work on one topic ie. you set time aside from 08.30-12pm every Monday and Wednesday to work on all things related to your blog.
Task batching would be the list of tasks you need to get done for your blog ie. deciding on the topics you are going to blog about, content creation, collating the photos you are going to use relevant to said topics, researching keywords and hashtags, deciding if there is a sequential order to your topics and when is best to post, and creating promotional posts on social media.
If you’re wondering how to make your content more clickable and shareable on social media, you need make sure your content is displayed properly with Open Graph tags.
Open Graph tags will make your content stand out on social media sites and encourage people to see and click the shared content.
Use Canva to create beautiful social media images that’s optimised for Facebook and Twitter.
You can use tools such as OpenGraph or HeyMeta to quickly check how Facebook and Twitter display your website.
49. Join some like minded Facebook Groups
A lot of people don’t realize the power of Facebook Groups – heck, some think Facebook is long past its popularity time! – but, I’m here to tell you this is not true!
If utilized the correct way, Facebook Groups can be a huge traffic source for your business – whether that is blogging or social media (or both).
You might also like: How to use Facebook Groups to grow your blog
50. Enjoy it and take pride in it, but never let it define you
And I think the most important one: Enjoy it and take pride in it, but never let it define you. Otherwise every negative comment you get will feel like a personal insult.
Blogging as a job is just that, a job. It is okay to want it to be the best, it is okay to love doing it, but don’t let it affect how you feel about yourself. Or those awful comments will cut you deep.
51. Don’t compare yourself to others
When I started my journey, I keep looking at other bloggers’ results and thinking they were much better than me. Each one of us has a different journey, and other people’s success will not take something away from you.
Focus on your blog and work on it, keep believing you can do it, and track your progress.
Just because your traffic doesn’t skyrocket in the first months, or it takes you longer than the others to make money, it doesn’t mean you will not be successful in the long run. Hard work always pays off.
52. Expand your online presence
If you’re just focusing on one traffic source, for example, your Facebook business page, it’s time to diversify!
There are many great platforms out there that are worth a try if they are going to bring more qualified traffic to your website.
Take a look at Pinterest if you’re a regular blogger. People confuse Pinterest with a social media network, but it’s really a search engine. So start pinning your posts on there and keep an eye on your analytics.
Look at Reddit and Quora for ways to jump in on conversations and see where you can help people. People are naturally going to check you out, and if you drop a really useful link, it could get traffic for years!
If you’re in a B2B industry, try your hand at LinkedIn. The opportunities are endless, you don’t need to follow the herd.
53. Write down your blog ideas as soon as they come to mind
It can be hard to sit down and simply come up with a blog title there and then. To solve this problem, I have found the best thing to do is either take a little notebook everywhere you go or dedicate a note page on your phone to this.
Every time you think of an idea for a blog post or a possible title, write it down! It’s essentially long-term brainstorming and it mean you have lots of ideas to write about when you come to writing.
54. Do a course, or two
You’ll find tons of free (and paid) online blogging courses around the internet. Some of the most popular free learning platforms include Coursera, Skillshare, and edX. They offer an array of courses on SEO, copywriting, content writing, and more.
It’s also a good idea to learn by example. Read other blog posts in your niche and take notes on what you like and dislike about their style and format. This is purely for inspirational purposes, of course — don’t copy anyone’s content!
55. Don’t be scared of stock photos
I used to only want my own photos, but honestly it gets exhausting trying to take quality photos (especially with kids in my case) all the time and getting the right images for every single post and sometimes multiple photos per post.
Sometimes stock photos just make it all look nice and cohesive.
56. Use Google Analytics
I love Google Analytics. In fact, on my other screen, I have Real Time on all day.
I like to see my high traffic hours and use that to market more on Pinterest or update my Facebook page. But I also use Google Analytics to check out my most popular posts and create more posts around those topics.
This is also a great strategy if you have a lifestyle blog and you want to niche down.
Go to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages to view your top posts.
57. Find a community of bloggers in your niche
Finding your community is key to making meaningful connections that are mutually beneficial. When you participate in share threads, you will want to be sharing content that matches your blog content.
Your readers will be confused if you all of a sudden start posting tips on how to purchase your next cell phone on your photography blog Facebook page, for example.
58. Brain dump to avoid overwhelm
There are a lot of tasks to do when you are first starting a blog. A lot. It can be confusing as to which tasks to do first. Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint.
Do a brain dump and get everything on paper that you think you need to do.
Organize the tasks into meaningful groups and then prioritize them.
- Which items are necessary to do now?
- Which items would be nice to have?
- Which tasks will increase your bottom line?
Put a few tasks on your calendar every day/week and put the rest in your drawer where you can’t see them.
59. Do it now, perfect it later
If you’re anything like me, you’ve been getting all your ducks in a row before you launch your blog. Maybe you’ve been perfecting your website layout, or puzzling over the right title or brand colors that pop.
After all, it’s got to look professional to garner a following, right?
Wrong!
What will get you engaged visitors to your site is useful content that serves your audience. Sure, cute colors and an amazing name are great, but they are the icing and sprinkles on the cupcake.
The absolute essential thing you need to do as a blogger is to get your content out there! Visitors can’t read and engage with your posts if you aren’t posting them.
Stop procrastinating and pursuing perfection and start writing and publishing blog posts that help out your audience.
You can always go back and fix the SEO, add the alt text, and replace the images once you are up and running.
After all, practice makes perfect!
60. Plan your posts ahead of time
My number one tip for bloggers is to plan your posts ahead of time. Take some time every week and plan out what you will write about.
Pick different topics you want to cover and decide when each of these posts will go out.
This will prevent you from feeling stuck and not knowing what to post and when.
61. Build your email list ASAP
I was lucky enough to build an email list when I first started blogging, and this is a must if you want to turn blogging into a business in the long-term.
And it can help you connect with your target audience on a personal level.
You can easily start building up your email list by using websites such as Mailerlite or Convertkit.
62. Choose a profitable niche for your blog and business
One of the most important things you can do is pick a profitable niche. It positions you as an expert and establishes you as an authority figure in your industry and niche.
There are three primary components to the perfect profitable niche:
- Your ability to make money from the subject
- Your passion for the subject
- Other people’s passion for the project
Without those three pieces, it will take you longer to find your real audience and make money.
63. Learn your audience early on
Learn your audience early on. If you have a post that does well write more posts around a similar topic, and include internal links to them all. Make it easy for a reader to get to those posts.
Become an authority on that subject.
Take all advice with a pinch of salt.
What works for one blogger may not work for another. Want to change something?
Test it out and monitor results.
Never give up, but if something isn’t working don’t be afraid to change direction or adapt it. Keep pushing and working hard.
64. Invest in your Blog
Your blog is a business; as soon as you treat it that way, you will start gaining traction.
I used to roll my eyes when someone said I needed to invest money in my business to succeed because when you’re new, you don’t necessarily have the money to invest.
But as soon as you do, purchase some courses to boost your knowledge in the areas you’re less familiar with.
As you increase your knowledge, your confidence will grow and you won’t feel as much like an imposter.
65. Join a Blogger Facebook Group
Take advantage of Facebook groups. I suggest that as soon as you have created content for your blog, join a Blogger Facebook Group. This will help you reach more of your target audience, by participating in daily threads, as well as adding credibility to your blog posts, through blog comments.
66. Reach out
If there’s someone you want to feature on your blog, or someone you want to collaborate with, just reach out to them!
Most people are more than willing to help others out on their blogging journey.
Even better, write the blog post ABOUT someone you find inspiring.
They’ll be flattered that you asked and you can strike up a relationship with them.
67. Put the real you out there
It’s super scary to put yourself out there right? But, wait!
The world needs your voice and your unique gifts! You were put on this earth for a reason and no one is like you.
You have a set of characteristics like no other human and it’s these that make you super important and super interesting. There is someone else out there who is waiting for you to put your thoughts out into this universe. Trust me!
68. Set up rich Pins on Pinterest
So, you’ve probably heard that Pinterest is a super way to get your stuff seen and noticed, right! Pinterest is a powerful search engine and you want to make the most of that. Rich pins basically add extra detail to your pins from your site.
This extra data is super helpful for Pinterest to sift out quality content. Rich Pins also help by providing a CTA (call to action) on your Pinned articles.
There’s a tonne of great articles around about how to add rich pins, but in my experience the easiest way (if you’re using WordPress) is by using the Yoast plugin.
69. Work harder on promoting than publishing posts
One of the best pieces of advice I can give any beginner blogger is to start with a solid promotion strategy as soon as they have a few posts up on their blog.
If your posts are amazing but nobody can find them, what’s the point? You could be writing and publishing a new blog post every day, but people need to be able to find them in order for those posts to be worth your while.
Make your hard work be seen by as many people as possible using Pinterest correctly as soon as you have a few blog posts up, and later on learn about optimizing your posts for SEO.
I suggest starting with Pinterest because it’s faster and brings instant traffic in many cases. A good promotion strategy will help you even in months where you don’t publish any new posts.
You might also like: How to promote your blog posts
70. Get to know Google
Starting my first blog I knew nothing at all about SEO, SERP’s, or had any clue as to how Google identified blog posts to show in search results.
As I started to learn about SEO and what it takes to be successful on Google, I decided to look into other ways to promote my content.
While waiting for Google to discover your articles for SERP’s, how else do you build traffic?
Time to get social! A blogger favorite is Pinterest. For most blog niche’s Pinterest is great for promoting. You should also try Facebook, Twitter, and even Instagram. My recommendation here would be to focus on one social platform at a time to maximize your efforts and stay focused.
As a blogger you want to make sure your content is found and read by your audience.
You might also find this post useful: Pinterest content strategy 2021- How to stay relevant on Pinterest in 2021
In my case, I like to factor these keyword variations in my title, my H2’s and the article itself. Using braided hairstyles as an example. If I’m writing an article on box braids, I’ll scroll to the bottom and check out the keywords that are available.
I can already see that picking box braids hairstyles would be a good idea.
However, there’s probably 50,000 more people who have written about box braids hairstyles so my goal here is to offer something different. I’ll then pick a mixture and go with something like Box braids hairstyles: Price, Sizes & Colors or Type of hair used.
This way, whenever someone searches for these keywords whether jointly or separately, I’ll rank for one if not all of them.
72. Engage with other bloggers
Comparing yourself to others can demotivate you. We all tend to be hard on ourselves and measuring your efforts and results with those of others is not sustainable.
Everyone’s blogging journey takes a slightly different route… and the route one blogger takes might not be a good one for you.
However, you can study the journey of other bloggers and try to learn from them. Successful bloggers who’ve gone before you, have done much you can learn from.
Engage with them and try to understand how they did what they’ve done… but try not to draw negative comparisons with what you’re doing.
73. Stick to your branding
Branding is so important to make sure that all of your content mixes together well, it also helps your subscribers and followers to recognize your content whatever the platform is.
I make sure to have the same brightness and saturation on all my photos, along with a watermark. On my blog posts, all of my headers are in the same font and size.
Another way to do this is to have a signature or a phrase. at the end of all my blog posts, I have a signature in a specific font, I also end all my posts, comments, and emails with the same phrase ‘All The Best, K x‘
74. Utilize FAQ Schema to rank on Google
More often than not, whenever you type a keyword on Google, you’ll see a collapsible menu that features common questions associated with the keyword and their answers. These are what we call SERps – Search Engine Results Pages.
When you’re writing a blog post, factor in the questions people ask in your layout. Click on the questions and look at how people are answering them. Try to find how you can give a different view or be more detailed than they were and include that in your blog post.
For example: If I’m writing an article on braided hairstyles, the first thing I’ll do is narrow down to one specific hairstyle. If I’m going for box braids, I’ll type that on Google and see what comes up. I’ll then pick some of those question and use them in my blog post.
If I end up picking ‘Do braids damage your hair?’ I’ll try to be more specific than the featured answer.
My answer would then look something like, ‘If your stylist braids too tightly around your edges, braids can damage your hair. Too prevent this, opt for styles that are knot free like knotless box braids or ask your stylist to avoid braiding too tightly around your edges.’
I’ll then repeat the same for at least 3 other questions.
After following all these steps and publishing your blog post, go to your Google search console and submit it for indexing.
You should see results of the number of people who’ve seen your FAQ’s in no time in your search console performance section.
75. Understand that an imposter is just an expert in disguise
So many new bloggers and business owners struggle with imposter syndrome. They think that they couldn’t possibly be knowledgeable enough to share their information with the world.
But you should be always looking at it as if your point of view or your twist on the same scenario that others may have is entirely different. Your personal spin or experience makes you the expert on how you chose to overcome that obstacle.
You are your own expert. Carry that with pride and share the information you know with others. You never know who might need to hear it from your perspective.
76. Upgrade your photos and videos
My biggest mistake was not utilizing the best photography possible. Take the time and the money to invest in the best set up and practice. I’m still going back through to do better.
You will also want to have an attractive graphic that will lead people into your article, especially on Pinterest. Even more now, the new trend are videos. Take a short video of what your doing whether it’s cooking, craft or health and wellness.
77. Research how to take a great photo
Do a little research how to take good photos so they stand out. There’s tons of free tutorials for bloggers. Your content may not be to point but you can go back and easily tweak that. You can with photos too, but it’s easier to fix your writing style than all the photos you’ve ever used.
Start with stock photos if you need to. Most of us do. But make sure they are free copyright ones. You don’t want to have an illegal blog. Avoid using images straight from Google or Pinterest.
Some of my favorites were from Pexel or Unsplash. If you use Canva to create your photos they have free ones you can use also. If you plan to take your own.
Keep your background as clutter free as possible. You can easily use a white $1 poster board for solid bright backgrounds. And with a few simple edits or presets in the free Lightroom app you can make them pop.
Try to not over think them. The simpler, the better.
78. Create an editorial content plan and stay consistent
Create an editorial content plan for your blog, social media, emails/newsletter, and promo content so you can have a strategic plan for your business.
An editorial content calendar will help you to stay consistent, organized, increase website traffic, and visualize your content in a calendar format.
This will help you post strategically and bring value to your audience vs just posting with no intention. I recommend starting out by planning a month of content and once you get the hang of it try out 3 months and before you know it you will be planning 6 months to a year of content.
Grow that business in an organized and strategic way!
79. Don’t post just because you feel the need to
Only post when you are 100% happy with the quality of the content you are posting. If you get behind on content, don’t just whip up a half decent post. Keep your standards high. In the long run, this will show an overall high quality oversight of you and your brand.
80. Start writing
Start writing! With how much there is to do with blogging, you can get so caught up in it all that you never even begin. Just start writing and worry about everything else later.
Your blog needs time to be found in the search engines, so you have time to create an email list, a more specific niche, and a product. If you do not start writing now though, those things may never come.
81. Write about a specific topic instead of targeting a specific keyword
A common mistake made by new bloggers is writing articles by targeting specific keywords and adding lots of LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords.
Instead, try to write content that covers a specific topic.
Adding LSI keywords is a good way of SEO optimization but it’s not the ultimate goal. SEO has shifted from keywords to specific topics.
Even Google prefers in-depth content. So, instead of choosing a target keyword to write about, choose a specific topic related to your niche.
82. Use Pinterest to grow traffic
Invest in Pinterest at the very beginning of your traffic growth process. This is a fast and proven way to get your content in front of people and make them visit your blog. And it’s fun as well!
Of course, it’s great to invest in things like online courses to understand the process better and get a subscription to Tailwind to get the most out of this method.
But if you are not ready to invest (which is totally fine), you can do everything for free.
Try apps like Canva to create beautiful designs (there are templates for Pinterest), make sure they look appealing and high quality, start adding these Pins to all your posts.
Be active on Pinterest, create different boards for the topics of your blog, find similar blogs on the web and add their pins to your boards.
You can also participate in Facebook groups where people do help each other growing their presence on Pinterest. This is one of the most powerful growth tools available.
83. Draw a line between work time and family time
When you blog and/or work from home, it’s really easy to blur the line between work time and family time. It’s easier in an office – when you leave, you’re done for the day.
But with blogging there is always “one more thing” you need to get done, and that will eat into family time. Set strict time limits.
84. Create small goals
When starting a blog, the amount of work needed to get done and the learning that needs to take place can become very daunting and feels nearly impossible.
Make small goals daily or even weekly. For example, focus on creating a social media account for your blog one day and learn about different plug ins on another day.
Eventually your knowledge will grow you, and you will become more comfortable with the process.
85. Don’t be paralyzed by SEO
Stop being paralyzed by SEO. Put what you would search into Pinterest or Google and see what comes up.
Adjust your blog title based on that and try to include that phrase within your post a few times. You can get lost in SEO, but it really can be simple.
86. Invest in an email automation tool
For email I recommend ConvertKit all the way! Also, definitely take some online marketing courses, master SEO, get on all forms of social media, INVEST in yourself, and most importantly stay positive! It doesn’t happen overnight.
87. Save time by sorting SEO up front
Get clued up on the basics of SEO and incorporate them from the very beginning, you’ll save a lot of time by having correctly titled images and descriptive link text from the start.
SEO can seem daunting at first but the basics are pretty easy to pick up. Pinterest is my go-to resource for posts about SEO for bloggers.
88. Do your research
I can’t say this enough when people ask me about my experiences when it comes to blogging, homeschooling and writing.
Research is everything. There is a lot of information out there. Get to know your niche, your competition. Look to see what works and what doesn’t. You’ll always have your own spin and experiences to add.
89. Ask for feedback
This is a tough one because after working so hard, the last thing you want is any kind of feedback that isn’t positive. Getting outside perspectives is so important because other people can point things out to you that you didn’t see even though you proofread your blog a thousand times.
You can ask family, friends, co workers, and even other bloggers for tips and feedback. This is one of the best ways to grow and implement new creative strategies with your blog to create more traffic.
90. Always consider your audience
Always consider your audience. They are constantly thinking, ‘what’s in it for me?’ so, tell them how your content can benefit them!
Always make your content about your audience and your audience will come back over and over again.
91. Perform basic on-page SEO to improve search rankings
On-page SEO helps to optimise your blog content so that it will rank higher in search results. Everybody wants to get to page one of Google search results and this will help with that.
The best place to start is to download Google’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide.
Work your way through the document and start implementing the suggestions. Google literally wrote the book on how to rank higher in its search results.
92. Write what excites you
One thing you’ll hear a lot of when you start blogging is “be consistent” or something along those lines, but you’ll find it really hard to be consistently creating content that doesn’t excite you.
As you go along, you’ll find yourself creating a lot of content and it does get tiring trying to constantly come up with new stuff and to stay relevant so it makes a huge difference when you’re excited about what you’re writing about.
It also comes across in your content when its something you’re passionate about and you will attract passionate people in return – those are the people you want to attract!
You’ll hopefully end up with a nice community of people, both readers and other bloggers in your niche, caring about the same stuff.
93. Discover your writing tone
Finding your tone is an important part of having a blog. As a writer you need to establish your self with your audience so that they are attracted to your writing, and feel confident in what you produce.
Having an audience that believe’s in you and even looks forward to learning from you is important. How will you will you discover your writing voice?
I believe writing a blog is like having a conversation with a friend. Your usually informal in your conversations with friends and you connect on a human level. Consider this- sitting in a classroom lecture is boring and can easily put me to sleep.
When talking with friends your more enthusiastic or into the conversation, I never fall asleep or lose interest in a conversation with a friend. Your writing voice will be important when it comes to connecting with your audience.
94. Stick with it
Some days when you’re looking at Google Analytics and your traffic stats are looking woeful, it can be really easy to feel like packing it in. It’s important that you don’t!
Take those feelings and channel them into writing some new content.
Consistency is key.
95. It’s never too early to monetize
Something I’ve learned to help me make over a thousand dollars within my first 6 months of blogging is that it’s never too early to start, as long as you’re writing quality content.
One easy way to make your first few dollars is to send pitches to affiliate managers in affiliate programs like Share-A-Sale, Pepperjam etc.
Many times, they may be willing to work with you even if it’s sending you a free product or service in exchange for a blog post review.
Although this is not cash, you are still able to then put affiliate links throughout your blog post, while building your collaboration portfolio!
Don’t be afraid to get out there or think it’s too early to start!
You might also like:
The 3 Best ways to make money blogging
Affiliate marketing for bloggers – The ultimate guide for beginners
96. Outsource the task you hate or aren’t knowledgeable in
Outsource things you hate or don’t know well. I’m tech-challenged, so I get someone to help me on that side of my business. It’s less expensive than you think.
For example, if you calculate the amount of money you make each hour, you probably make way more than you would pay for a VA to help you with administrative tasks.
That allows you to focus on the money-making aspects of your blog.
97. Take your time
Do extensive research and take notes on what other bloggers are doing, and don’t hesitate to ask for advice!
Set goals for how often you’d like to post and be realistic. Use this time to seek inspiration from other and find what sparks your interest.
Decide on your target audience and the ideal content you’d be producing.
One thing I wish I knew before starting my blog was to have 3-5 blog posts already live on the blog. You don’t want to open shop with no inventory, therefore take your time and produce your website and content with detail.
98. Find affiliate partnerships
One way to find affiliate companies to work with is to contact companies who make products you use regularly.
- Have a favorite shampoo? Contact the company.
- Do you only use one brand of pens? Contact the company.
- Is there a blog you read daily? Contact the blogger.
Contact these people/places and tell them how supportive you are of their company/business and ask them if there is an opportunity to promote their products for a commission.
I would estimate that around 1/2 of all my affiliate partnerships are from companies I reached out to on my own.
People don’t typically think of this, but to me, it’s simple: promote the products and people and businesses you love the most!
Easy peasy.
99. Learn as you go
You don’t need to know everything from the start. Don’t be afraid to just start. There is a lot to learn in the blogging world, but you won’t need to know everything from day one.
Focus on creating quality content and bringing traffic to your blog.
You will learn all of the other things in the following months, and you will implement things as you go. Trying to learn too many things at once will only make you feel more confused.
Wrap up
And there you have it! 99 tips for beginner bloggers!
I hope you find something useful in here to help you on your journey.
My favourite tip? # 37 Make friends and help people, blogging friendships are special! By Claire at Sprinkles and Sprouts. Bloggers ARE a special breed! And finding a community or tribe to call your own really is something special.
Blogging can be so rewarding and also profitable! Keep at it! We’d love to hear your tips! Comment below and let us know what you’ve found most useful.
thanks for sharing these useful tips, it means a lots for the beginners, however, I also being benefited too
Wow! This is a load of information! Very helpful for aspiring and beginner bloggers- and can be a reminder for the veterans 🙂
So many amazing tips for amateurs. Love this post!
Must read tips for every beginner. I just love few tips so much that I am going to try them… sharing this gem too.
Thanks Shristi! I learned a whole heap outta this experiecne too. Always something new to learn. x
These are amazing! I wish I’ve read this before! Not a beginner blogger but some I’m not familiar with. Thanks for sharing these!
I know right! So many amazing bloggers with so much wisdom to share, That’s why I love this industry! So many talented people who are always willing to help others x
I am definitely saving this for future reference! These tips are amazing ❤️
Thanks Lauren! xxx
These tips are a must read for new bloggers. Wish I would have had the chance to read this before I stared my blog!
So much knowledge right! These bloggers are a very clever bunch!
Blogging world has so many changes that keep happening on a regular basis. You made some valid points in this incredible blog.
This post is filed with so many awesome tips! Thanks for your time and energy putting this post together.
Excellent list of tips for new bloggers! I especially like the one about taking your time and watching your baby blog grow. So many people think that blogging is an overnight get rich scheme, when it’s the complete opposite!
It’s so hard to be patient right!
Wish that I knew a lot of these when I started out. Thanks for sharing!
For 10-years of blogging so many changes happened but the foundation of blogging still works. You made so much valid points here!
What wonderful tips for any type of bloggers. I am not new at blogging but I learn some new things!
Wonderful! thank you … I learned something new too!
These are really good tips for all the bloggers, mainly patience is required.
Gosh! yes, patience is definitely required!
I totally agree with #15! I do not want any part of my creation process to feel like a burden, which is why I haven’t planned a year’s worth of content, like I know some bloggers are able to do. By the way, how do you add the Google Analytics dashboard to your WordPress site? I didn’t even know that was possible!
True! I like to be a littel bit fluid as well… When it gets to be a burden it’s not adding to your life! xxx
Amazing tips, I agree. Creating new pins and posting fresh content is better than pinning 50 pins per day. I’m trying to collect as much as I can and post it throughout the week.
These are great tips. The best tip for me is not to quit (94 Stick it out) as long as you enjoy what you’re doing. Don’t quit and don’t compare yourself to others, especially if you have a full-time job or young children at home.
This month will be my 3rd month blogging, these tips are still very helpful to me. Great list to refer back to on my journey
So many amazing tips. Love this post. Thank you for including me 😊
Thank you for contributing! xxx
Amazing! Although I’m not a beginner. I still learned something new from your post. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Wow, these are such good tips will definitely help people at the start of their blog, for me I think having fresh pins for my content really increases traffic 🙂
So many amazing tips for newbie bloggers! I think it’s important that you focus on providing valuable content from the start and connect with other bloggers especially those who are in the same niche as yours. And enjoy your experience! Thank you for all these tips!
These are really good tips. I wish I would have read this when i started.
This is a very thorough list of tips that will help new and experienced bloggers. Thanks
Great post Lou… thanks so much for including me in this roundup!
My pleasure! Thanks for your contribution!