Photo by Georgia De Lotz on Unsplash
Have you been blogging for a while, but looking at taking your blog to the next level? Whether you are a hobby blogger, or you have been trying to create a business with your blog, there are small steps you can follow that will help you to take your blog to the next level. These tips will help you whether it is to increase blog traffic or monetising your blog.
1. Start Guest Posting
If you are not sure what this is, in a nutshell, where you write a blog post for another blogger’s site – you are their guest! There are so many benefits to this practice. Firstly, you are able to make great connections with other bloggers – which is something I love as I have made so many friends trough blogging. It can also improve your DA (Domain Authority). By writing relevant guest blog posts on other higher DA websites of the same niche, you can increase the Domain Authority of your own website. Once you have increased your DA score, you will be able to work on gifted or paid campaigns with brands. This is such a simple, yet effective way to build a money making blog, I have recently started guest blogging; I really enjoy it and it has definitely helped to improve my own DA score.
2. Invest In Your Blog
I don’t mean that you need to part with hundreds or thousands of pounds (of course, there is nothing wrong with that if you want to), but making small investments in yourself and your blog can lead to a great outcome later on.
You can invest directly into your blog by going self-hosted, which allows you to be fully in control of your website; you can have a custom domain name as well as plugins. If you are not able to fully commit to a self-hosted site, then you can purchase a professional theme to help make your blog look sleek and professional. When you want to be a more productive blogger, you need to be able to manage your time and there are certain apps that can help you grow your blog’s success.
Scheduling apps like Hootsuite and Buffer help you to schedule social media posts ahead of time, which frees you up to work on other areas of blogging. Canva is a great app, where you can design your social media and blog graphics. If you are not too good at designing, there are templates that you can utilise.
There are also courses and e-books that you can purchase to grow your knowledge and confidence of about the business side of blogging. Investing in your blog in whatever way you desire is going to grow your brand and will push your blog to the next level.
Investing in your blog also includes investing in a good internet provider to ensure you can run your blog effectively. After all, fast internet speed will be essential for you to post or stream content, download, and send files. You should research high speed options such as satellite internet providers, that will show you huge positive benefits to ensure your blog is running smoothly.
3. Update And Optimise Old Posts
If like me, you have been blogging for a while, you may not have known much about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) at the start, so going back and updating and optimising old blog posts will improve your DA score as well as making your older content more relatable to your audience. As you blog, you grow in knowledge and confidence, but your writing style will also change and develop.
I have been updating older posts and almost cringing at them! However, it is great to see how my content and graphics have developed. There are so many other benefits to updating old content such as: you can develop more back links, improve your SEO, improve blog traffic and can make your content more relatable, which will give you reader loyalty.
4. Create A Blogging Schedule
It sounds like a boring task; it could sound stifling, or that you are dampening your creativity and the spontaneity of writing when you feel the inspiration.
Creating a blog schedule means that you know which days/dates you will post content thus enabling you to be organised and able to build a loyal audience. In order to improve your DA, you need to post consistently to rank on Google and an effective schedule will do that. Having a blogging schedule will have such a great impact:
- Improves your writing because you have set aside time where you can research and think about what you are writing rather than last minute words muddled together
- You will publish consistently
- You will have strategic content as you have more time to learn about the best keywords and titles that are going to attract your readers
- Your readers will expect your posts and grow audience loyalty
If you make the step to create a solid blogging schedule that is achievable, you will definitely see a positive impact on your blog.
Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash
5. Make It Easy For Brands And PR To Get In Touch
On your blog and social media it is important that you make it easy for PR contacts or brands to contact you about possible collaborations or ask questions. Utilise your bio on all platforms and have your blog URL and email visible to reach out.
Taking your blog to the next level for some can mean monetising it, so you will want to be accessible. However, if you want to take the step to monetise your blog, you do not need to wait for brands to come to you, you can pitch to them. Get your brand name out there and seek those great opportunities.
6. Advertise Your Blog
You can simply reach out to other bloggers, who offer advertising packages especially if the blogger has a higher DA; it is really going to benefit your blog. Not only will it help your DA as you will gain high quality backlinks, but it is putting your blog content out to a larger audience. I have recently started advertising with other bloggers and it has increased my DA.
I offer advertising, so email me if you would like to learn more!
7. Build Connections
The blogging community is a huge online group full of hugely talented creators that are supporting one another. When you are focusing on building connections with other creators, you can learn from one another and give each other support. You also need to take time building connections with your readers as this will enable you to create a loyal audience. When you communicate back, it shows appreciation of their support. When you start selling a product e.g. an e-book, having that community that trusts you will be helpful for your sales. I love the friends that I have made through my blogging connections.
8. Treat Your Blog Like A Full-Time Job
If you want to take your blog to the next level and start a business, you need to be in the mindset of treating your blog like it is already your full time job. When you have that mindset and that energy, positive things will be attracted to you – you are manifesting success. If you want it to work, then you need to take is seriously. For example, if it was your full time job, would you take weeks away and not work? No, so you cannot do that with you blog wither. You must be present and consistent in order to grow.
These are 8 small but mighty ways that you can take your blog to the next level as well as grow your business and become successful. You should always remember to enjoy the fun and creativity as your passion will shine through your content.
Thank you for the advice, I will definitely consider some of them. I don’t use my blog as full time job, but a way of letting potential coachees getting to know me, so it reflects who I’m as person, so they can have an idea of, if I’m the right coach for them.
Also therefore, I’m thinking that advertising isn’t the right option for me, but are still a little unsure about it.
All fantastic and important tips. Thank you for sharing! 💖
I definitely need to go back and look at some of my older posts. When I was in the limbo stage of waiting for Evie to arrive, I did this loads, but haven’t done anything since. Eeep! Fabulous post my love. X
Thank you lovely! I have a lot of posts I want to update! X
Great post! I love guest posting and it’s really helped me meet some lovely bloggers. Thanks for sharing Lauren x
Me too! Thank you for reading and commenting.
I like these steps to help take your blog to the next level, I definitely need to update older posts, I have started doing it but it’s such a mammoth task! But it’ll definitely be worth it in the end! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
These are good tips, Lauren. I just started advertising my blog on other bloggers’ blog. I need to spend some time to update my old post. Because some of my new readers are reading my very old post. Btw, I’m now welcoming Guest Writers old my blog.
Guest posting is great. Advertising with blogs is great. If you would ever want to advertise with me, you can DM me on my own.
My blog is a side hustle for me currently. But it has gotten me through some tough times when I was between jobs.
I agree with you about investing in your blog. Whenever I make some money on my blog, I put some of it back into promoting my blog and my business. Great post 🙂
That is great your blog has helped you. Thank you for reading and commenting.
These are great tips! I must admit, I am terrible at updating my old posts and find it difficult treating my blogging like a full-time job while I’m juggling so much. But these practices are so necessary for a blog to grow its audience. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for reading and commenting.
These are great tips! I started a blogging schedule and it changed the game for me.
Thank you!
Great tips, definitely need to take care of the blog as full time job and optimize more old content. Thank you for sharing these awesome tips!
Great tips here! 😀 I will try to make use of them and you’ve made an easy to follow list! Thanks!
Awesome tips here. I plan to do a lot more guest posts this year and advertise with other bloggers as well. I want to make blogging a full-time job in the near future.
These are great tips – I definitely need to start updating some of my older blog posts
It works so well to increase your DA!
Great, thought-out points of reference. A few tips I can benefit from using. Thanks for sharing.
Great tips! I appreciate the insight from someone who’s not only been there but is still doing it. It helps to have a framework to work toward as you’re building your blog. I am grateful and appreciative of the blogging community. Not only for the diversity in niches and approaches, but for the support people offer one another. It’s nice to see people root for the success of others.
~Cassie | https://letsgrowmom.com/
Good tips! We all need to know stuff like this.
Great tips! 🙂
What are your thoughts on guest posting if your DA score is low? My score is very low and wouldn’t qualify for the scores we need to work with brands. At the same time, I’m in limbo because I don’t know how to increase it without collaborating with other bloggers.
If your DA is low, guest posting is a great way to increase your DA. You just have to find bloggers who don’t mind what DA you have.
Thank you, Lauren. This is great advice! 😇 I would compare myself to bloggers who had a DA of 20+ 😆
Fab tips! I really need to go back and update some of my oldest posts; I think my writing style has improved since then as well as of course making them a little more SEO friendly. I really want to guest post on more blogs this year too! Thanks for sharing x
Great post! I really hope to grow my blog this year and make some extra income from it.
Oh yeah. I do this as a hobby, and already I treat this like a full-time job. It’s actually more labour intensive than many people would like to think. Anyway, great points here. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for these tips! I am definitely bookmarking for my own blog studies 🙂
I am currently blogging as a hobby, though one day I would like to earn a bit more from it! It definitely feels like a full time job to me aha x
That’s great! Good luck with earning more from your blog. X
I always forget to update old posts- definitely need to be better about that! I’m starting to think about pitching to brands, though it’s so nerve wracking. Thanks for sharing these ideas!
I have posts about how to pitch if you need that! Thank you for reading and commenting. X
Some great tips here, these will be so useful to any newer bloggers or anyone who wants to perhaps take it part-time or full-time! x
Thank you so much Jenny x
I love these tips. I have a question, when you update an old post, do you mention that in your post? that this is updated? I really like the idea of guest blogging too. I used to participate in a blogger group on FB, but I didn’t really see any benefit so I stopped participating. Thanks Lauren for these great tips xo
No you don’t need to say. You can either update it and repost it on that day (in that case you can mention it when you promote it) but if you are just adding content and updating graphics just hit update. Guest blogging is great. If you advertise on Twitter plenty of people will take you up on it xx
All of these are such amazing tips! I’ve started going through old posts, but I’ve been blogging for so long now, that I have a lot to go through haha xx
Hannah | https://luxuryblush.co.uk/
Yeah me too! I wish I knew about SEO and everything when I first started.
Really good tips Lauren, and definitely some that I need to take notice of….especially going over old blog posts! My keywords are terrible, I don’t have any ranking keywords and I know I need to re-work a lot of old stuff and be ready to continuously update it. Not interested in the brands aspects etc. but I want to make my blog work for me so I’ll be bearing some of these in mind!
Keywords are definitely where you can boost your Google searches. I am working on increasing mine. Thank you for reading and commenting.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I’ve been going back over my old posts and gradually bringing them up to the SEO-century. 😘 As a book blogger, I don’t get as much traffic as lifestyle blogs but I still want Flora’s Musings to be the best it can be.
Flora’s Musings ¦ Book Blog
Definitely you have a niche but having the best SEO will help with traffic! Thank you for reading and commenting.
This is a great post. I need to do many of these tips. Going to save this post and work on them this week. Thank you for sharing.
These are great tips to do! I do not plan on being a full time blogger, but I do want to make some money on the side with my blog. Last year I went self-hosted & bought a new theme & I definitely recommend it! I’m also slowly updating my older posts.
I would like to go self-hosted eventually. Thank you for reading and commenting.
I am not a full time blogger and don’t have plans to be but I do invest a lot into my blog! I have guest wrote on a couple of blogs but do want to do more. Also I agree about going back and updating old posts, I am trying to make my way through any spare time I have and it is definitely funny how I used to write 🤣 xx
Yeah it is interesting how I used to write and what I thought was a ‘good’ post. Thank you for reading and commenting. Xx
Great and insightful post! We definitely agree that taking anything, including blogs, to the next level involves dedicating full energy and time into it. Thank you for sharing this!
Thank you for reading and commenting!
Love the actionable tips packed into this post! I have yet to start guest blogging as much as I want to, but I am working on narrowing down the posts that need work on my blog, as well as continuously unlinking broken links and updating my pages. 🙂
Sounds like you are on top of everything! Thank you for reading and sharing a kind comment.
Awesome tips. I love the part where you said “treat your blog like your full-time job”. Since I started taking actionable steps to treat my blog like a full time job, my traffic has increased. I need to update old blog posts as well
That’s great you have seen a change in your traffic! Thank you for reading and commenting.
These are great tips! I will definitely try to consider guest posting to help grow my blog!
Thank you for reading and commenting. I hope these help you!
You’ve shared some amazing tips here lovely. Over the last year I’ve really knuckled down on my blog and treated it like a full time job and I can’t believe the difference that has made. I have a set blogging schedule which keeps me focused and I’ve really fallen in love with writing. Im defiantly going to use some of the other tips you’ve shared to continue bettering my blog. Thank you so much for sharing lovely Xo
Elle – ellegracedeveson.com
The mindset is half the way there! Thank you for reading and commenting. X
Great tips Lauren! Having a schedule and investing in your blog is very important. I’ve been updating old posts since I’ve learned more about SEO and it’s been very helpful. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for sharing these tips, I sometimes find blogging hard to to fit in when everybody else does want you spending ages on the computer, but hopefully these will help 🙂
Thank you for reading and commenting.