The day you become a blogger, it’s an endless sea of to do’s. The list is ever growing and if you think you’ll ever accomplish everything on your list, think again. If you ever DO get to a point of crossing everything off, the very next day, there will be another 20 things you see you have to do.
This has been for me, one of the hardest challenges of being a blogger. I am a list keeper. I keep lists for everything and my nature just LOVES to cross things off. It’s exciting for me as I run my pencil through that task. I accomplished something. But no matter how hard I try, no matter how many hours I work in one week, I’ve never been able to say, “I’m completely done.”
Once I have one thing crossed off, suddenly there’s 10 more added and it’s a constant balance of adding, deleting, and rearranging my list.
There are so many things that you want to do, wish you could do, or wish you could hire out that would build your platform more. There’s always a new plug in out, social media algorithm to deal with, trials to overcome. It’s a constant barrage of stuff to do.
But over time, the longer you blog, the more you begin to see where it’s worth it to spend your time and where it’s simply not. And while I would love to get everything done on my list (again, that’s my personality), it’s just not feasible. Not even that I have help in running my blog.
For that reason, it’s super important to know what’s working and what’s not. Where to spend your time and where not to. In fact, I’ve created an entire course as a step-by-step road map to help you know where to spend your time on each traffic level that you are at, in order to get to the next traffic level. You can check out the Honest Bloggers Academy Course here.
But today, I’m going to share some secret keys to really focusing on where you should focus your time, the top 5 things most important things you can do today as a blogger, the ways that will REALLY transform your blog instantly! Whatever you’re doing, if you’re NOT doing these top 5 things, STOP immediately, scale back all the unnecessary fluff and make SURE you’re doing these top 5 things. These are non-negotiables if you want to make a good income blogging.
Top 5 Ways to Instantly Transform Your Blog
One of the very first things that most bloggers never do, is to take the time to research their own niche. They want quick and easy answers, so they search around for articles based on what they want to learn, and they get 20 different answers from 20 different bloggers and then pick the one that they THINK will work the best. It doesn’t and they end up getting frustrated and give up….OR they go back and try the other ways they were told and now their blog is a roller coaster, not cohesive, they lose traffic and trust and end up all the more frustrated. Is this you, my friend? If so, take courage.
The very first, #1 non-negotiable thing you MUST do as a blogger is…
1) Look for Patterns
Instead of researching a bunch of other bloggers articles and doing what they SAY….do what they DO instead!
The more you become familiar with your niche, the more you know who the “top dogs” are. Listen, they are top dogs for a reason; they know what they’re doing. But that’s not enough. What if a top dog blogger in your niche just doesn’t fit your own personality style of how you want your blog to be? For me, there are a couple top dogs in my niche who I never watch at all. Because I’m going in a completely different direction than them. Because their blogs don’t speak to me. I don’t relate to them. It’s not what I want my blog to be.
With that in mind, chose 3-5 bloggers in your niche who are the top dogs, but that also fit your own unique path of where you’re going and who you relate to the most.
After you’ve made your list, start studying them. Look for patterns. Any questions you have, go to THEIR blogs ONLY and write down what they DO.
I remember when I first was deciding how many posts to post in a week and what topics to talk about, I looked at my #1 favorite blogger and I made a blank editorial calendar for HER site. I went back and created a calendar for her for nearly TWO YEARS worth of posts. I wrote down the days that she posted on and what the topic was. I still have those calendars and I learned a lot from doing that. I learned her patterns, when she posts, what she posts. I learned all the details, who she accepts for guest posts, even the day of the month she allows guest posts. I learned her topics, what she writes about, I learned what topics got the most shares for her site. I studied it all out in great detail and came up with my answers.
Yes, I could have just asked her, but she wouldn’t have answered me. Although she loves to help, she doesn’t have the time, and honestly, she probably doesn’t have that information just laying around. It was only through going into great detail that I was able to see those patterns and come up with a plan of what I should do.
Now that I am a top pro-blogger myself, I don’t follow anyone. I tend to like to lay low and just do my own thing. I do what I feel is right for my blog and am confident in that, and that’s the goal you want to get to. Knowing so well what works for your blog and then doing more and more and more of that.
In the meantime, research your niche. Know it inside and out. You should spend 1 hour a day doing this one task. This is THE #1 most important thing you can do for your blog period, end of story. I don’t care what anyone else says. Let everything else fall by the way-side if you have to. Do this one thing!!! It will be the best thing you can ever do for your blog!
Have a question and don’t know what to do? Simply look at those 3-5 other bloggers at what they do and go with the idea that MOST of them are doing. After a while, you WILL see patterns. You WILL see them doing the same things, the things that you can be confident, makes them the top bloggers in your niche, and do that. Don’t copy them, don’t copy their style, keep your own personality and change things up, but copy the principle behind things.
The worst thing you can do is be someone else, which leads me to #2…
2) Be Yourself and Never Stop
As a blogger, you will have a myriad of opportunities to sell out, and usually, it comes on subtly. It’s that one sponsored post that you have an incling doesn’t fit your blog, but you do it anyway because the money is there. It’s that one comment to a reader made in haste where you come off rude and everyone sees it. It’s that one blogger that annoys the heck out of you and you answer every email you can until one day, you don’t and they trash your name to the world, not considering all the help you HAVE given them. It’s that one guest post you add an affiliate link in to your own stuff and suddenly, your a monster and they tell their friends and you lose friends who have known you for a long time and should know your character better than that. It’s that one Pinterest board, you delete people off of BEFORE you add them to a new group board you’re creating and tick everyone off.
Listen, we all make mistakes. We all mess up. We all try our best. And no one is perfect. The more you stick to who you are and let everything else go, the better. Be yourself, don’t copy other blogs, don’t copy their post titles, don’t copy their pictures, their fonts, their words. Be yourself. Because no one can do you…like you. And the world doesn’t need another copycat of them, they already have the original of them. The world needs YOU.
I hear it all the time, “I’m scared to start a blog because everything’s already been said before.” And I can understand completely. That was one of my major hangups before I started blogging too. But here’s the thing, I started blogging about 2 years ago and here I stand, 1.7 million in traffic per month later at this point. If everything’s already been said, and no new bloggers can make their way onto the blogging scene, what the heck am I doing?! It’s just simply not true! Don’t let your fears stop you.
YOU bring something new and different to the table that no one else can. Yes, you may end up having the same title or topic, yes, you may just be another lifestyle blog, but you are an original. You say things differently. You have different life experiences. Different morals. A different compass than others. I can tell you right now that I am not like anyone else in my niche. I know exactly where I’m going and I know their goals. It’s nothing like mine at all. And I live in light of where I’m going. I’m not saying where they are going is wrong or bad, just that, I’m not going in the same direction. God is taking me somewhere else…and I know it. What you see now on my blog, no matter how successful you think it is, it’s only 1/10 of where God is taking me. I see it clearly. So, I can’t look around at what everyone else is doing, because their unique path is different than my unique path.
Always remember this, your readers may come to your site for a post or to learn something, but they come BACK for you. Whether or not they like you, can relate to you, feel like you genuinely care about them. They may not remember WHAT you say, WHAT you talk about, but they WILL remember how you make them feel. You HAVE TO treat them like friends, which leads me to #3…
3) Treat Your Readers Like Gold Out of a Sincere and Genuine Heart
One of the biggest mistakes in my opinion is when a top blogger pushes off their emails from readers to someone else. Listen, I get it that as a top blogger, we get hundreds of emails a day and it’s super overwhelming. Hire out the things that you can. Get a good system going for hiring out things like sponsored posts, interviews, and so on to weed through some of that.
My assistant goes through my emails and weeds things out for me. She moves things from spam to inbox, she deletes sales notifications, she deletes spam, she takes care of Pinterest emails, she does a lot of things behind the scenes on my email box that really help me declutter, but she doesn’t touch, I repeat, DOES NOT TOUCH my readers emails or other bloggers emails. They are mine and I’m like a dog with a bone. I won’t let anyone else have them, even though I trust her 5,000% with them.
I learned on eBay that the most important thing online is customer service. Your clients on eBay pay your bills and it’s the same thing with blogging. My readers are my lifeline. They are why I get up in the morning to blog on those days when I want to throw in the towel and blogging is hard or I’m attacked. I think of my readers and how I’m making a difference in their lives and they keep me going. My readers mean the world to me, and I try to treat them like gold. I protect them, I preserve them, I lavish love on them.
In my email newsletter, those are my loyal fans, so I often am a lot more personal in my newsletter than on my site. I want them to feel special and loved. Even further yet, I have a closed Facebook group in which there are 500 other women in there. They are my MOST loyal fans of all. And I show them ME. I share things in there that I don’t share anywhere else. They are my best friends of whom I let into my secret world. I lift them up, I pray for them, I encourage them, I talk with them personally. Nearly every day I’m in that group checking and reading comments, yes, me, Sarah Titus, not someone else on my behalf. ME. Although I will say that my assistant is in there too and helps out a great deal and loves being a part of the “family” as well. 🙂 I don’t hide myself at all. I’m there.
While I can’t humanly answer every single email that comes my way or every comment left on the blog or in the Facebook group, I do set aside 30 minutes every morning first thing to take care of all reader requests. I get through as many as humanly possible and I keep working and setting time aside specifically for this. It’s a habit of mine. 30 minutes every day for my readers personally.
That time gets divided into the most important things first. My Facebook group is first priority. Comments on the blog are my next priority, and third, is all the emails I receive. Doing this consistently really helps me stay on track and remember why I do what I do. I may not always be able to do this in the future, but for me, it’s a priority and I let go of other tasks IN ORDER THAT I be there for my readers. This may mean I miss out on new traffic, and that’s okay. I’d rather have less traffic and have good, solid, and helpful relationships with my current readers, than to have a gazillion traffics and do nothing for them. I want to serve. It’s my heart.
4) Guest Post and Interviews
Many, many bloggers do not see the real value in guest posting or completing interviews and I think it’s a real shame. Or perhaps they see the value in it and dismiss blogs and bloggers who want to interview them or they can guest post on who don’t have a lot of traffic. Recently, I received a couple interview requests from bloggers who don’t get a whole lot of traffic at all. Maybe like 1,000 traffics a month. And while many bloggers would just look the other way, I take the time to go out of my way to answer their questions and be interviewed. Why? Because I feel it’s the right thing to do. Why should I treat someone with a million pageviews a month differently than I would someone with one thousand pageviews a month? Are we not all human beings?!?! Are we not all trying to help our family’s and get ahead? Does the love of Christ differ based on success? NO!
Doing interviews for Yahoo would be the same importance to me as doing an interview for a newer blogger. Yes, I may be more EXCITED to do an interview for Yahoo, I’ll be honest, it’s quite a feat, but that we should not be blowing off other bloggers, no matter how big or small they are, and that’s what I really love about being a top blogger. I get to show the love of Christ to everyone. I get to help newer bloggers and seasoned bloggers, because I just genuinely WANT to help. Am I perfect at this? No. But I do try my absolute best.
Now all that is to say that I don’t currently do Podcasts or video’s or things like that. I’m working toward that stage of getting out of my comfort zone and I’ll be the first to admit, I struggle in that area. But for written interviews, I participate, and going a step above, I then promote those interviews! Every single one of them in some way or another.
The same is true for guest posts. A lot of bloggers just don’t see the value. The trick is really giving your BEST content to the other blogger. Many bloggers have this bad attitude like, “I’ll just give them a post I wouldn’t need on my site. I’ll keep the best posts for my own site.” This is a GRAVE mistake. When guest posting, give them your BEST. Why? Because you have DOUBLE the power of reaching new people and it’s like a first date, you want to put your best foot forward because you’ll never get a second chance to make a first impression….and first impressions are EVERYTHING. People DO remember. Give them a mediocre article and they will remember you as mediocre. Give them the best you possibly can and it will inspire them to get to know you more because what you have to say is GOOD.
Another thing you’ll want to keep in mind for guest posts is to follow all the rules. Be diligent to know what those rules are and to abide by them. Don’t send things out willy nilly. Take your time and do a good job. This goes a long way with the blog in which you are guest posting on. Later on, down the road, they WILL remember you and your careful attention to detail and want to work with you in the future as future projects come up.
Third, if you say you’re going to guest post on someone’s site, do it. Oh the times I can count when someone agrees to do a guest post and they never end up sending an article through. It’s disappointing and it looks bad on you and yes, we remember who they are and take note that we can’t count on them to follow through. It sends the vibe that we are not important enough to actually send the article. Because it doesn’t really matter how busy you are as a blogger, if something is important to you, that’s where you’re going to spend your time. So again, for future projects, we won’t think of them. We won’t ask because we know we can’t count on them to do what they say. It becomes a waste of time. No one likes to pull teeth to get something done. If you say you’re going to do something, do it.
So, how do you get featured as a guest poster on another blog? Simply ask. It’s really that simple (just for peace of mind so I don’t get hit with thousands of requests, my blog currently isn’t accepting guest posts to the public.) How do you get interviews? The higher you get in traffic, the more they will come, but you can always be a part of HARO as well, which I highly encourage.
5) Do One Thing and Do It Well
One of the biggest mistakes I see so many bloggers make is trying to have their hand in every cookie jar…and I get it. There’s a lot of cookie jars out there. When you start blogging, you want to be present everywhere. You want to fly. You want the most amount of traffic in the smallest amount of time. But listen, you don’t want to be a jack of all trades and master of none in blogging.
One of the first things I started on was Pinterest. You can take a look at my account and easily see that I’m a power pinner. I’ve put in over 400+ hours over the past couple years on that platform to get to where I am today. I rock it and I know it. That’s not pride, that’s from a stance that I know it well because I’ve worked it so hard.
But Pinterest could go away tomorrow, along with a lot of my traffic. So, I then began to work on my newsletter. I currently get about 3,000 new signups for my newsletter each month and have worked that so much so, that it’s very high in stats and doing well. In fact, my favorite blogger has the same amount of subscribers that I do and she’s been blogging over 5 years and I’ve just been blogging 2 years. I’m on fire. Why? Because I work each platform until I master it completely. I keep trying and trying and trying and figuring things out until I get it perfect. Then, I set it aside and work on something else. This generally takes me about 6 months to a year for each platform.
In the past 6 months, I’ve been working on my Amazon platform. Many bloggers don’t even realize it’s a platform at all. They tend to think in terms of social media, but I suspect that Amazon is just as good of a platform as any social media and I’m actually doing very well considering how new I am at it. Two of my books hit Amazon’s #1 Best Selling List (WITHOUT me giving any free books away!!!) and I really am loving learning all about it and ways in which it can gain me more traffic and income. There’s a lot to learn still. I don’t feel I’ve mastered it yet, but I can say with confidence, that my books sell better than a top blogger with more than three times the amount of traffic I have. So, I feel like I’m doing really well and on my way toward mastering that platform.
The other thing I’ve worked is Facebook and while I’m no where near a master at Facebook as others in my niche, I feel it does pretty good and I’m at a comfortable place right now. Next, I really want to work on Twitter until I master it. And each platform that I master gets me to a higher level in traffic and my traffic is very stable. Even if I lost one complete platform, I would still be at a million pageviews a month, which is awesome. 30% of my audience is repeat readers, which means that they like me, they keep coming back, and I’m honored to have them. Would I like to get that number up? Yes, absolutely…and I am. Just 3 months ago, it was at 25% and it’s currently what I’m working on right now. My goal is 50%. After that, I’ve been dabbling in raising my bounce rate. I’ve figured out exactly what I need to do in order to raise it, I just haven’t had time to go back and do those things. It all takes time, but each thing I do, I master it along the way.
Spend your time on one thing at a time, like layers of an onion. Build your solid foundation one layer at a time until you have a rather large collective platform.
To recap:
Look for patterns – follow 3-5 of your favorite top bloggers in which you connect with and spend 1 hour a day figuring out what patterns they all have in common. Do not copy them, but find ways in which you can improve your own blog
Be yourself and never stop – Be true to who you are. Never sell out and never get too high in your blogging career where you change your values for anyone else.
Treat your readers like gold out of a sincere and genuine heart – Love on your readers like crazy. Treat them well. They are why you do what you do.
Guest post and interviews – One of the most often overlooked ways to grow your blog that you have to get involved in. Set a goal of 1-2 guest posts per month. You’re not out any posts. Simply do a teaser post on your own site.
Do one thing and do it well – Don’t try to have your hands in all the cookie jars. Focus on one thing at a time to grow your platform and do it well. Master it completely before moving on to something else.
