I nearly fell off my chair when I realised that my blog had been going for five years recently. It felt like only yesterday when I first started out and someone literally laughed in my face at a party in a London basement when they heard I was now a “mummy blogger”. If someone had asked me for any blogging tips back then, I probably would have looked back over my shoulder and wondered who they were talking to!
Well fast forward five years and guess what? I’m the one that’s laughing. Being ranked as number 11 in Feedspot’s list of top 50 parent bloggers is no mean feat for a parenting influencer let me tell you.
That aside, blogging has been an incredible adventure which has seen me appear on TV and radio on numerous occasions, enabled me to work with some of my favourite brands, and earn a very healthy income from the comfort of my own home (before the world cottoned on to remote working!). Most importantly, it has enabled me to better juggle work and family by being my own boss, calling the shots, clocking on once my daughter is at school, and clocking off when it’s time for pick up.
In this day and age, as far as I can see, pre-Covid that pretty much seems like living the dream. Sorry Mr PR guru who laughed in my face all those years ago but sadly – you were wrong!
With all that said, for those of you who are hungry for some quality blogging tips, I wanted to share with you the five things I did which skyrocketed my blog.
Be passionate
If I had a pound for every dull blog I’ve read, I’d be a rich lady! Sorry, that sounds harsh, but there are a lot of people writing out there like they are still half asleep – or worse still – dead. Up there with the best of my blogging tips is to find something you are passionate about and write about that. Write about it with passion, grit, humour and personality.
To be successful at blogging, you have really got to love writing, and people have really got to love your writing too. So make sure you know who you are, because if you don’t, neither will others. For me, success has come in an upfront blend of truth saying, chutzpa and a sprinkle of humour and underlying passion to provide valuable insights into parenting, motherhood, and raising little wild ones.
Collaborate, and then collaborate some more!
I know a lot of people say that they don’t want other people writing content for their blog, but I think this is a big mistake. When there is just one of you writing for a blog, there is a limit to what you can do. Other people can really bring in a valuable extra dimension to your blog. One of the best blogging tips I want to share with you and something that I did was to build up a bank of regular writers and columnists who were just as passionate as me about writing fantastic articles.
Time for a big shout out here to my key collaborators du jour Katie P, Katie B, Teresa, Jemma of Jemma’s Health Hub and Melissa of The Parent Practice. I also want to thank others who have joined me on the ride over the past five years including Sandie who was at the helm of our careers column – The Confidence Trick, Kim who was behind our Mum Coach column, and all the other people who have contributed one-off posts, collaborated with me on Q&As and so many other things too. Together we’ve weaved the fabric that is Motherhood: The Real Deal.
Be current and controversial
Maybe something in the newspaper has enraged you over the weekend, or your goat has been gotten because of a profound sense of injustice about something going down in society right now. Perhaps something – or someone – has irked you in your daily life. My advice to you would be instead of shying away from it or shrugging it off, face it head-on, own it and blog about it!
One of my favourite blogging tips is that controversy makes things interesting to talk about, which makes things interesting to write and read about! If everyone has pretty much the same opinion, or worse still – is too scared to voice their opinion for fear of upsetting someone – well that makes life (and a blog) pretty boring! Just look at controversy as the Nandos Piri Piri sauce that keeps people coming back to your blog for more.
Let’s face it, social media can be a total ballache! When we are not being squeezed and hidden by the Facebook and Instagram algorithms, we are having to deal with an army of trolls on Twitter. Still, when it comes to important blogging tips, perservering with social media is right up there with the best of them.
There have been so many times when I’ve just thought, gah! I’ve had enough of social media. But without social media, unless you happen to be ranking on the first pages of Google constantly (which has taken me the best part of five years to do so), then who is going to see you?
Here’s an interesting fact – after Google, my second biggest traffic source is still Facebook. This is the place where people still share and reshare content. So if you’re wondering whether it’s still worth you being on Facebook because only a fraction of your following gets to see your content anyway – yes, it still is (even though the world still seems to be obsessed with Instagram).
Run giveaways
People absolutely love a giveaway! We have had a dedicated giveaways page for the best part of three years, and I see it is a gift back to my readers. I love being able to use my clout to score fab prizes for them, and clearly they love it too because every time we launch a giveaway over at Motherhood: The Real Deal, the traffic goes through the roof.
So in the final point in my blogging tips run down I would say to you – start running giveaways! When you get an email in from a brand, ask them if they would be open to running one. Approach brands you love and ask if they’d be willing to run a giveaway for you. Always think about what perks you can get for your readers. You would be surprised at how amenable most marketing and pr people are to the idea because ultimately, a giveaway is a great way of getting their brand, product or client in front of lots of eyeballs.
I hope you found these blogging tips on how I skyrocketed my blog useful. You can also have a read about some of the strategies influencer Ashley Beougher used to grow her audience too by reading more here. If you have a blog why not share what has been successful for you in a comment below?
Cover picture credit: People photo created by pressfoto – www.freepik.com
These are important ideas any blogger can learn from. My numbers are good but they can always improve and keeping current and passionate helps.
Thank you! I will have to try some of these out. I am always looking for ways to help to grow my blog.
Thanks for sharing these tips. I’m always looking forward ways to improve my blog.
Thank you! I think collaboration is a good way to go, especially when everyone is eager to be successful and pulls their own weight.
These are important tips. Thanks, I will keep them in mind.
The right brand and products for collaboration can really spike up one’s blog. These tips are really important.
Love these tips! Thanks for sharing them! Social Media is so important when blogging!
Great tips for growing a blog! I have thought about a giveaway but haven’t tried one yet.
I love collaborating with brands I like and I agree, it does help grow my blog. I’ve tried giveaways before too. Great tips!
These are all really good tips. I find giveaways work exceptionally well. My views really increase when I have one running.
These are really great tips. My friend just started a blog and needs help getting it up and running.
Great tips! Giveaways sure help a lot. Social media will help you reach more people.
Thanks for sharing these tips! I need to start posting more on social media as well as my blog.
Thanks for these wonderful tips, yes we need to more active in the blog and show our passion.
These are some awesome ideas. Anything that helps the blog grow is worth looking into.
Thanks for sharing these tips! I am going to check out those important resources!