Are you an established blogger with a community of followers, looking to take the next steps to grow your audience, improve your search results and market your blog to brands? If so, you’re in the right place.
For everyone new to blogging and looking for tips and ideas for getting started, take a look at our post on Building Your Blog Community: Part One – Blogging 101.
A recent live discussion in The Motherhood with a panel of expert bloggers took us through both the basics of blogging and more advanced concepts, including the best SEO (search engine optimization) techniques and how to build relationships with brands and PR firms to monetize your blog.
Vera Sweeney of Lady and the Blog, Melissa Chapman of Married My Sugar Daddy, Nadia Carriere of Child Mode, Audrey McClelland of Mom Generations, Annie Shultz of Mama Dweeb, Victoria Pericon of Veep Veep, Whitney Wingerd of Mommies with Style, and Megan Crume of Sweet Sadie Marie shared their thoughts and experiences when it comes to taking your blog to the next level.
Increasing Your Blog’s Visual Appeal
Great content will bring you a loyal following, but “visually appealing sites keep me on the site longer,” Ronnie noted. They are also more attractive to brands.
Audrey of Mom Generations said, “an easy (and free) way to bump your blog up a bit … add some extra photos/videos to it.” But if you’re looking for a bigger overhaul, “there are many designers out there who can work with pre-created templates (like studiopress.com) – you might want to see about uploading one of those,” suggested Vera of Lady and the Blog.
The group agreed that WordPress is a great blog platform. “WordPress has so many plug-ins; I recommend migrating to it so you can make things look the way you want without having to know so much of that techy stuff,” said Victoria of Veep Veep.
Paying for Photo Rights
When it comes to using photos you find online, the rules are clear: “Just giving credits is not enough. You need to visit sites where people say it is ok to use their picture,” said Charlene of Charlene Chronicles.
Creative Commons on Flickr is a good photo resource, or you can take and use your own. (The photos in this blog post come from Creative Commons. Click the photo to see the source.)
Using SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to Your Advantage
SEO essentially means making your blog post easy to find with a basic Google search. One simple way to improve your SEO is to write your post title and first paragraph with possible search terms in mind. For example, “Instead of ‘Rockin Restaurant’ title it ‘Burger King Kid’s Meal Review,'” said Annie of Mama Dweeb.
“Google has a great tool – keyword search,” said Vera. “And tag everything! I was told that tags are better than categories. The category should be fashion, for example, and then the tags should be more specific – red carpet fashion, Oscar fashion, celebrity Oscar fashion, etc.”
Nadia of Child Mode noted, “Linking is excellent for SEO, as is linking back to previous posts that relate to the one you are working on.”
For more SEO advice, read these posts on SEO techniques from appledaniels.
Growing Blog Traffic
There are existing tools for becoming known in the blogging community. Nadia of Child Mode suggested participating in “memes such as Wordless Wednesday, Food Friday, etc. There are linkys for these, so not only do other bloggers find you, but you can discover others.” And trading link-ups with other bloggers by “participating in blog hops and blog hop giveaways is an awesome way to gain readers,” said Theresa of Faith and Family Reviews.
“I follow as many like-minded bloggers and experts as possible on Twitter and Facebook and try to retweet and share their links as well,” added Melissa of Married My Sugar Daddy. Along those lines, agreed Megan of Sweet Sadie Marie, “Read blogs, comment, become part of a community. They will follow you, they will read you, they will comment.”
It’s best to start by growing your blog organically, but you can also try purchasing Facebook ads to bring in traffic. “You want to make sure that if you use them you have the ad forwarded to a lead capture page to capture the person’s info… this helps with list building in the long run,” suggested appledaniels.
Teaming Up with Other Bloggers
Above all, your best resource when it comes to growing traffic and finding brands to work with is other bloggers.
“Do you team up with like bloggers and tweet one another’s content out?” Vera asked the group. “Or how about Stumble Upon? Pinterest? Ever thought of reaching out to friends to start this up?”
Annie of Mama Dweeb replied, “That is kind of what Triberr is … I have been a part of smaller group – 5-6 people – and we tweet/Facebook/pin stuff on our blogs almost daily. This is such a huge help.”
Vera suggested creating or joining blogging groups to share information, tips and brand contacts to grow your network of PR reps. Janel of A Mom’s Take agreed, “I recommend joining all the networks you can! They can only help!”
Creating a Media Kit
Networking will get you halfway there, but a media kit is your best tool for convincing PR firms and companies that your coverage is valuable – and worth paying for.
Vera keeps her media kit online, while “I send mine at request and send it as a PDF,” said Whitney of Mommies with Style. “Two pages. Stats, rates, previous advertisers and a bio on me/my work.”
If your blog is relatively new, or you don’t have previous advertisers or projects to highlight, “Your media kit could also show off your best work!! It’s about selling yourself – any way you can,” said Vera.
That could also include showing “how connected you are. Good brands and companies don’t just look for #s but influence too,” pointed out Charlene. “So if you have a FB page, include your number of fans AND your number of monthly FB page views when pitching or responding to a pitch.”
Whitney also added that when she first started out and didn’t have stats to share, her media kit instead included “information from my business plan. Plans for the site, an outline of my intentions with the site.”
Connecting with Brands and PR Agencies
“You can absolutely have success working Blogger to Brand! I have worked with several companies directly as well as through their PR team,” said Nadia.
When it comes to connecting with brands, building blog content should come first. When you are confident in your work, Audrey suggested making a list of the companies you would like to work with – “then actively try and connect with them on Twitter or Facebook or through their sites.”
Vera added, “I do searches on Google. Look for press releases and then on the bottom there is ALWAYS a PR contact. I also reach out to friends.”
Theresa cautioned, “The thing is some PR companies are not willing to pay. They want you to post for free. I got tons of pitches when I was posting for free, but once I started sending my rates those emails have slowed down.”
“Know who you are pitching so you can tell them why you are attractive to them as a blogger,” suggested Rachel Blaufeld.
Overcoming Your Geographical Location
If you don’t live near a large metropolitan area, you might not be in many brands’ “event hot spots.” That isn’t necessarily a problem.
You can always “host your own event with a brand that’s local!” suggested Victoria of Veep Veep. Or offer to “work off the press release pics,” as Vera sometimes does.
Melissa pointed out that you can be “JUST as active and engaged in events and communities via social networking – follow hashtags on Twitter for events and join the conversation!”
Charging for Ads and Content
Most established bloggers charge for sponsored brand content. “Make sure you’re not giving everything away for free,” said Audrey. “When a brand/company reaches out, make sure you’re being compensated some way if you enter into an agreement with them.”
When it comes to advertising, “I decided how much to charge based on what other bloggers with my similar traffic/reach were charging,” said Annie of Mama Dweeb. Vera agreed, “Start with a number and if too many people are biting – you are charging too little!”
Making a Profit
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your blogging business won’t be, either.
“I always like to say to people, instead of opening up a coffee shop on Main St, I opened a blog. Takes the same amount of blood, sweat and tears… but it’s incredible!” said Audrey.
It could take months or even years before you start making money on your blog. When you do start getting checks in the mail, the amounts will vary. Theresa of Faith and Family Reviews is “making $500 on good months,” while Janel of A Mom’s Take earns “approximately $800-1,000 a month.” Annie of Mama Dweeb pulls in “as little as $100 on dry months.”
The keys to success will be patience, perseverance and great content. “It definitely takes lots of time and hard work,” said Nadia of Child Mode. “Make sure you are doing something you are truly passionate about. Your readers and brands will notice.”
Take a Comment. Leave a Comment.