- Content Promotion: Promoting your content is often much harder and more time consuming than coming up with or writing the content. You can blow up Facebook and Twitter all day announcing your newest, most epic post, but unless you have followers and those followers share, you’ll stalemate and that’s frustrating. Since most of us don’t have tons of followers early on, and the friends and family we do have following are there to read, (sorry to say but they suck at promoting in a lot of cases) you will need help! This is where the interaction with other bloggers that I mention later on is so important.
- Keep On Keeping On: It’s easy to become frustrated and sometimes difficult to stay motivated. Remember that stalemate I mentioned, it sucks because you probably entered the blogging realm like I did, excited, optimistic, and ready to share what you have to say with the world. Except the world isn’t paying attention in the beginning and it’s up to you to get their attention. Some days you have a “why did I bother” attitude, but you have to get over it and keep working at it. I haven’t heard of many successful blog stories that occurred in the first few months of taking the leap. Keep working at it, you will make progress.
- Schedules: Time Management is essential. This goes back to one of my very first posts 5 Ways to Stay Organized in the Midst of Chaos. Chances are there’s more on your calendar than blogging so making sure to allocate adequate time to all of your obligations is important. Use the zillions of organization and time management tools that are out there to help. If you don’t you’ll forever be running around putting out fires rather than being pro-active and ahead of the game.
- Notes, Notes, Notes: Write ideas down when you get them instead of hoping you remember them later. I can’t stress the importance of this enough. Use notes on your cell phone, jot it on a receipt, or send yourself an e-mail. Do whatever you need to do to retrieve the information later because chances are when you finally get an opportunity to sit down and work on the idea, or research more information, you won’t remember what it was. Don’t let a great opportunity or epic post get away from you because you can’t remember what it was even about.
- Pace Yourself: Don’t try to be an overachiever, you’ll burn yourself out. For me, blogging isn’t the only thing I have going on in life so setting a schedule to post every day was setting myself up for failure. I know this because I tried to do it for the first couple of weeks. I’ve since realized that my life simply does not allow for that and that’s okay. It’s better to realize it now than get readers accustomed to daily content and then not be able to keep up. I’ve now set a schedule for posting three times a week, if I can add more than that great, if not, I’m doing my three minimum and that is an achievable number for me. Your number may be different, more or less, but do what is comfortable for you.
- Engage: Interact with other bloggers and take time to read and comment on other blogs. (Remember that help with content promotion I mentioned?) Interacting with other bloggers is a great tool for that and it gives you ideas on changes that you may want to make to your blog or to the way you blog. Linky parties and blog hops are your friend and an awesome way to get your content out there and increase your following as long as you actively participate and don’t just wait for people to come to you.
- Don’t Overlook Inspiration – It’s There: New content inspiration is everywhere, you just have to keep your eyes open for it. A great example of this is a couple weeks ago I was looking online for ways to get tree sap out of my husband’s favorite pants. I found a tip that mentioned hand sanitizer and I tried it and it worked. I wrote that in my post ideas notes because it could be useful to someone else too. Did you over extend yourself by volunteering to bake dozens of cookies for the school Halloween party? I did and guess what? Blog content times two ! One post about how I opened my mouth before I thought it through and a second is evolving as I type this about all the cool Halloween cookie recipes I found on Pinterest when I was trying to decide what the heck to bake! If it’s happening in your life, it’s potential blog content.
- Take A Break: If you need to, take a day off, the blog universe will not crumble beneath your feet. Sometimes things come up, sick kids, website issues, or you just need a day off. It will be okay. Hopefully you’re not missing any deadlines you may have, but in general, taking a time out when you need it will be more beneficial than harmful. Taking a step back to refresh yourself physically and mentally will allow you to view your blog, your goals, and what you need to do with a more refreshed, less stressed perspective and that can bring on a whole new batch of ideas.
What tips do you have for new bloggers? What information do you find to be the most helpful? Let me know in the comments below and thanks for reading!
Leslie says
October 25, 2013 at 1:22 pmI think these are great lessons learned. It’s really hard to get content out there for me still. Your blog is great though. I was wondering, do you have a blog button? If you’d like to swap buttons please email me. {{ TheCraftySideOfSarcasm@gmail.com}} I hope you’ve had a great Friday!
4cornersteacher says
October 26, 2013 at 1:52 pmThis is totally me! I was online almost everyday, posting, trying to read other posts and so on. I am trying to just commit to once a week writing something as well as trying to get on a few times a week and find other blogs to comment on. Thanks for the reminder that I cannot expect it to happen instantly!
Alison says
October 26, 2013 at 2:10 pmWell, I figured I couldn’t be the only one! I also think it’s easy to get lost in the thought process that “I need to be present constantly to be successful” meaning constant posting, etc. And there are some that can do that and have awesome blogs, but I think you can still have a great blog even when you can’t be that person. For me pushing myself to do more than I could, or should, would have quickly resulted in becoming burned out and if I don’t enjoy blogging then there’s no longer any point in doing it so I’m glad that I forced myself to come up with a more reasonable plan! Sounds like you have too 🙂
Tiffany says
October 26, 2013 at 5:18 pmGreat tips that I wish I knew earlier on. Thanks for sharing!
Kae James says
October 27, 2013 at 6:25 amI totally agree with you on this post! I started my blog a few months ago and within a month I stopped blogging for a while. Explanation is on my blog. It is time consuming but really fun at the same time. Followed you on the blog hop!
http://Www.wheresmypacifier.com
Lynn@Southern Direction says
October 27, 2013 at 2:34 pmThanks for hosting this blog hop. It’s nice to meet new bloggers and you are so right about the misconceptions of growing a blog and learning the ins and outs and also finding out what kind of blogger you want to be. You have some good info here. Thanks for sharing.
Krista says
November 9, 2013 at 7:02 amI’m at about 9 months, and learning every day. It isn’t as easy as you think, and can be frustrating. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, we can all learn from other and know we’re not alone in this journey.
Alison says
November 9, 2013 at 8:10 amI think that’s one thing I love about blogging, is that there is something new you can learn everyday. It’s a constant challenge and while you’re part of a whole community of bloggers, which is awesome because of the support, it’s also a personal challenge to keep improving yourself.
Glossytweets (@glossytweetss) says
June 11, 2014 at 7:55 amYup, you said it right…It is pretty much what I am going through right now. Even if I know my website is special, because has interactive reviews is well organized and I do my own infographics, I still don’t see too many result after a month….Hope to get to a point where I will get answers back and comment…and of course, traffic and loyal readers.
Miki DeMann says
June 11, 2014 at 1:50 pmI think all these things hold true! Engaging and staying consistent are my best advice to any blogger. A lot of people get into blogging and don’t realize it’s a lot of work. Especially in this millennial age, there is new content in your face every minute, so you need to always have new content upon your blog! Scheduling is a life save, however, I’m still pretty bad at it!
Chelsea says
June 11, 2014 at 5:41 pmAll great points. In my first few months of blogging, I quickly realized that everything would take time and hard work!
Justina says
June 12, 2014 at 12:42 pmGreat tips lady. I often wonder if I would’ve ever even started blogging if I realized how much work it was! lol