There are no rules when it comes to blogging. You can do what you want when you want. Of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t things that will improve your blog and help your productivity.
Sometimes we all need a bit of a kick up the arse, those things we know we should do but don’t because we’re a bit lazy.. a lot of these things in this list won’t come as a surprise, but it’s nice to be reminded.
Not sending out newsletters.
As soon as you start a blog, set up a newsletter list and have it in a place easy for people to see so they can sign up if they are dying to keep up with you because you are so awesome. These will be your most loyal readers, so take care of them, they are awesome, too.
Ensure you don’t send an email spamming with a link to every post, the best way to do newsletters is so send a weekly or monthly update.
This is a piece of advice that I really need to take myself!
Not linking to previous blog posts.
Interlinking to relevant blog posts in your new post is a great way to get people to stay on your site longer and increase your SEO.
A lot of people miss this trick. So the next time you write a post, think about which blog posts you’ve written in the past could be linked back to.
Not replying to Tweets and comments.
Another one I’m not great at – replying to Tweets and comments.
If you struggle to reply to comments, just take 30 mins once a week or so to go through your comments/Twitter to reply to any that you have something to add to. If your readers are taking the time to reply to your post, it’s only right to respond to them.
Not getting involved in the community.
It’s obvious that the blogging community mostly lives on Twitter. So if you don’t have a Twitter account, or you don’t use Twitter, it’s time to change your mindset.
I didn’t use Twitter for the first 18 months of starting my blog and as soon as I did, I discovered things like Twitter chats, hash tags and other ways to network with other bloggers. That’s where I met most of my friends through blogging.
You don’t need to be the most popular person on Twitter, just handful of people that you talk to on a regular basis can really help you stay motivated and interested in blogging.
Not making the most of your time.
It can be hard to sit down and write a blog post all in one go, but if you’re trying to stick to a schedule or you are low on time, you need to make sure you are making the most of your time and be as productive as possible.
You sit down to write a blog post and how distracted are you? One of the most common way to waste time is being distracted.
Related post: Productivity tips for bloggers.
What do you think are the most common mistake bloggers make?
I try and reply to every blog comment! I do need to look into newsletters though as I’ve been meaning to do this for years! 🙂 Tania Michele xx
I really need to utilize twitter more. I just get bored with it – there is so much going on in my feed that I get bored scrolling through
Sarah
I find Twitter so confusing! I’m really not as active on it as I should be, I mainly just schedule posts and article/blog post shares through Hootsuite. I do reply to comments though, I’m always happy to come back to blogs where they respond to my comment, and have a little conversation going. It’s easier to strike up friendships with bloggers when you connect through comments IMHO 🙂
I don’t have a newsletter – I guess I think nobody will read it! I need to get better at using Twitter too – I’m fine with replying to comments/tweets but in terms of taking part in chats etc I’m not great!
Amy xx
http://www.callmeamy.co.uk
Good tips. I find Twitter hard to get into! x
I should make a newsletter! I don’t reply to comments though unless they ask a question or I feel like I can add to the comment, I did for a while but found myself saying “Thanks!” in various ways lol
Erin || MakeErinOver
I keep debating about starting a newsletter, but I always end up talking myself out of it. One of these day, I’ll get to it, ha ha.
I know I have some of these bad habits, but it takes a while to change them. Twitter is the main issue for me, but I’m working on it. 🙂
I think I’m pretty good with all these, apart from newsletters.
I need to get on with newsletters..
I started to look into it more, but then read something conflicting that it wasn’t beneficial. Oh what to do!
Since I only post twice a week, I wasn’t really sure what my newsletter would consist of..
Food for thought.
Caroline.x
I try my best to reply to comments and be active on Twitter but honestly I just don’t have the time to juggle everything. I log onto Twitter and IG once maybe twice a day and just a quick scroll to catch up but I still miss out a lot.
well said. there are definitely things all of us are guilty of doing at some point or another. mine is definitely setting time apart to simply write with no distractions. I also need to set up an actual newsletter!
I’ll need to look into this newsletter malarkey too! Glad to see I haven’t picked up many of these bad habits. Yet.
My worst habit is not writing…..
Ha, I’m guilty of all of these!!
I really need to take your advice concerning newsletters! I haven’t sent one since December – eek! I’ll send one out for my blog birthday in May though 🙂
thank you this post is very use full