7 Things Successful Bloggers Do – and so should you!
Writing a great blog post is A LOT of work, so you want to make sure that you get the greatest amount of value from all of your hard labor!
I’ve worked with (and studied) a number of successful bloggers, and what they do after writing their ‘masterpiece’ is just as important as the blog post itself. Here’s the 7 things successful bloggers do – and so should you!
- They make their blog posts SEO rich.
-Besides regularly writing high quality content, there are a few more things you can do such as choosing a post title that uses keywords and short phrases.
-You can edit the meta description to make sure that the most important keywords are read in the description. I use a free plugin called Yoast SEO – it’s great for this!
- They make their blog post images Pinterest friendly.
-Create blog post images in a vertical format. Pinterest doesn’t limit you vertically on image size. Not only do vertical images on Pinterest stand out way more than horizontal images, but they get more repins as well. Here’s an example of one we’ve created:
-Make sure images have keyword rich alt tags and descriptions. Why? If someone pins an image from your post, Pinterest will use what you wrote in your ‘alt’ as your pin description.
- They have a pin it button on their images.
-Having a custom pin it button so readers can easily pin your blog posts is key. This one addition to your blog post will help drive more traffic to your site!
-Want to create a custom pin it button? You can get instructions here.
Photo by Boxwood Avenue
- They create specific content for each social media platform.
-Create different posts/messages for each platform. Perhaps pull a quote from your post, ask a relevant question or create mystery. Variety will keep people clicking.
-Use the correct sizes and colors that drive engagement for each platform.
-Post at optimum times for each platform.
- They engage with others before and immediately after they post to increase engagement.
-On social media, be active before AND soon after you post. By spending some time focusing on other people and engaging with other people in a meaningful way, your newly placed post will tend to have higher engagement.
- They offer a bonus ‘gift’ for email addresses.
-Offering useful content or free printables to readers if they’re willing to fill out an email opt-in form is a great way to turn readers into customers or clients.
-Create a new opt-in form in your email marketing program (Mailchimp, Convertkit, etc.). You can either (1) set the form to re-direct to a new page with the ‘gift’ on it or (2) set an auto responder to email them the link to download.
- They check their analytics/stats on a regular basis.
-It’s important to know what’s working and what’s not.
-I’d recommend checking your email marketing stats every week to see your open rates and fine tune your future mailings.
-For your blog/website, I’d recommend checking your analytics (most use Google Analytics) once a month. This will give you your pageviews (without stressing over them as they go up and down on a daily basis) and most read posts.
Just remember that growth happens over time. If you start adding a few of these things to your blogging process, you’ll start seeing the results. These 7 things successful bloggers do didn’t happen overnight, so don’t get overwhelmed… just make sure you start!