by xandria

Blogging 101: How To Grow Your Blog

Hello my sweet friends ! I hope you are all safe and healthy, and had a lovely weekend. I’ve been so excited about this post for a while now, sharing tips on what I’ve learned from blogging is something I’ve been planning for a while! Today I’m going to share with you some of my favourite hacks, organizational tricks and quick tips on how to improve your blog and really create a blogging schedule that really works with your lifestyle. So let’s dive in!

HAVE A PLAN, AND MAKE IT WORK.

I’m not going to lie. Blogging consistently is not easy, I used to be the victim of getting too busy with work, or a social life and blogging would fall to the wayside. It was not a priority for me. During my time in quarantine I realized that blogging is never something that’s going to magically fit into my schedule – I have to work for it, if it’s something I want. So I built a schedule, I want to grow this blog to reach thousands, becasue I believe in this voice that I have been given and I feel extremely called to be doing this. So I wrote it all down, if my goal is to reach a minimum of 1000 people before the end of the year, I need to be writing at least 2-4 blog posts a week. I also know that I don’t ever want to have to worry about getting something up on the weekend, that’s my time for friends and family, the worry of not having a blog post up on time was not something I wanted to entertain. So I built a schedule, I am the most productive on weekday mornings between 7:00am and 10:00am, so that’s when I write. Words come easier at that time, I don’t have time to over think. I can get out entire posts in an hour, sometimes two if I’m lucky! I tend to post on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with a book review every Thursday. Set yourself up to succeed, find your strengths and play around that!

BRAIN STORM

Planning ahead will save lives. A bit dramatic – yes, but honestly, planning ahead will save you from giving up. At the end of every month I take a look at my posts from the previous month, what did well, what didn’t? What did I enjoy writing, what did I struggle with? I brainstorm about 40 different topics every month, with the help of Pinterest of course (I have a deep love for Pinterest, & a post on it coming later this month). Your blog will be different, but for mine, I like to write about my thoughts, beauty/fashion, tips and tricks, books and a lot of Lifestyle, so I organize my topics under those sub headings. Once I have them all written down I start putting them in a calendar, making sure I write about each topic at least once every week. I use a passion planner to write everything down, I do not think you need this, any note book or calendar will do, my calendar looks something like this:

GET AHEAD WHEN YOU CAN

As I mentioned before, I write my best anywhere from 7:00am – 10:00am, some mornings I’m on a roll – getting out full posts by 9:00am, with all pictures and links ready to go. Other days, it takes me an hour to write the first two paragraphs. When I do find myself in the writing zone, where everything is flowing effortlessly, I push myself to write ahead of what I have planned for that day or the next scheduled day. I am normally always one blog post ahead of what I have scheduled, but on the rare occasion when I can get a whole week ahead, life is bliss. Blogging really comes down to you, how well you know yourself and how you set yourself up for success.

IMAGES IMAGES IMAGES

I’ve been slowly trying really hard to make sure that all my blog posts contain all my own images. It makes the process a lot harder, becasue it’s an added step, but having images in your posts is so beneficial for your audience! It also draws more people to your page, if you use them through Pinterest (again, another blog post on this soon!). Taking your own pictures take more time, but there are so many benefits by doing this. When I do have to use a stock image, I always am sure to take it from a “Free Images” site, I use iStock & Free Images, they are my two favourite ones. They have the most diverse pictures !

LEAVE ROOM FOR CREATIVITY AND EMOTIONS

Planning ahead doesn’t mean you are stuck within the confinements of a schedule, I always leave room to let my emotions through. Every single post I have scheduled for a week can be moved around, they’re not married to the day they are set to go up. Last Sunday, I was so angered by what I was seeing on the news, regarding Black Lives Matter, that my first instinct was to write a blog post about it and it went up within the next hour of me writing it – you can read that here. In May I realized I almost forgot to write a mothers day post, and bumped a post about hair products to later this month to accommodate. Have a plan, but leave room for yourself to write freely!

QUICK TIPS TO BE A BETTER BLOG OWNER

  1. Engagement – comment, like and engage with your followers and the blogs you follow. I had no idea how rewarding and how fulfilling developing relationships with other bloggers would be! Over the last several months, I have found that what makes me the happiest through this whole process is connecting through the comments section with others, discovering new blogs and having other people discover mine! The blogging world is millions and millions of people all connecting over writing and I think that is so beautiful.
  2. Link – I always, link to my old blog posts in my current blogs. I always try to remember, there is always someone who’s reading my writing for the first time, how can I get them to stay and read my other content? Linking to other blog posts is my way of doing that!
  3. Guest Posts – I have written a couple guests posts in the last 3 months, and I love doing them! Not only is it really cool to watch a wider audience see your writing, and comment on it, but the person who you are writing a guest post for is now someone you know a little more, another meaningful relationship that you make!
  4. Six Figure Attitude – This is my general rule for life, also a phrase I just came up with – but I think I’m going to trade mark it HA! Treat anything you do like you’re already making six figures doing it. When you think of yourself making six figures doing something how do you act? How do you plan your day? How do you prioritize your blog? Do you answer comments right away? Do you engage with people daily? When you are struggling to find motivation, turn on your Six Figure Attitude and GET. TO. WORK.

I hope you enjoyed my post today, I hope that there is something you take from this to help you further develop your blog! Let me know in the comments what your tips for running a blog is.

As always I hope you are staying safe and healthy, sending love across oceans to you all.

33 thoughts on “Blogging 101: How To Grow Your Blog”

    1. I love Google Sheets, and Google Docs in general for organization. Just the idea of being able to access important documents from any device is so exciting. Thank you for reading, 🙂

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  2. Haha I love the ‘Six Figure Attitude’ !! It’s true, blogging consistency is tough. I’m still trying to get into a consistent groove with my content since I’m just starting out. Love how organized you are, and your use of agenda!

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    1. Thank you ! It’s all in the mindset, that’s something I’ve learned recently. I also feel like I’m still learning and starting out so I’m excited to do this together. xo

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  3. Thank you XANDRIA for all your tips, I am a new blogger and have recently discovered about the brainstorm. I really works. And I have tried your favourite feelings post. It really is fun. Keep up your work. You are really doing good.

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  4. Tbh I don’t schedule my content but I know I have more potential if I were to schedule my blog posts. I completely agree with you that engagement is #1 to growing a blog. I managed to accumulate 600-ish followers this way since 2019, which was entirely done through WP.

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      1. Your content is very helpful and I enjoy reading your blog posts. That’s awesome how scheduling content has changed the trajectory of blogging for you. 😇

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  6. I personally, like searching for new blogs and commenting on them. It’s a great method to boost your followers. I’m too lazy to interact with my existing followers. I don’t know why I don’t make the effort to engage with them, knowing that they will be loyal to my posts.

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  7. Love love love this so much doll, I feel the same and that I do the same with a lot of things. I recently cut down my blog schedule to be more realistic for me though, I used to schedule a post for everyday but I could not keep up with that. Now, I feel lighter for sticking to three or four posts a week ❤️ Also love the six figure attitude, yes Queen ❤️

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    1. THANK YOU ❤ You're so sweet. six figure attitude is A WHOLE MOOD. I try and own it as best I can, I never realized how much changing your mindset could do for a person. Hope you're keeping well, xo

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  8. Thank you for sharing this post! Love the passion planner, I don’t actually plan out my posts but I think this truly helpful. Also, I agree with consistency. Love this post! ❤️

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      2. Hey girl, must have clicked the wrong button, you’ll receive a notification that I’m following you again, sorry about that!

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  9. Xandria!! This post was so great and informative, thanks for sharing what you learned. Your blog is so beautiful and I love reading your posts, they always teach me something ❤ Planning ahead in blogging (and in life) is so important to success and reaching your goals. But like you mentioned it is ALWAYS important to have room for your feelings and unexpected events. Life will always throw curveballs when you least expect it but as we grow as people we learn to handle those situations better. As in life, so in blogging!

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  11. I’m loving this post! I super agree with having a schedule but also not letting yourself get pressured. I’m still trying to get in the habit of planning out my posts and I have to admit it’s pretty challenging. 😅 Also, I’m loving the idea of Six Figure Attitude! That’s the attitude of successful people! Thank you for sharing this, Xandria! 💖

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  12. Hey dear!

    I just visited some of your blog and I really liked it.❤️

    My name is Ankita Jaiswal and I love to write my take on Fashion, beauty and lifestyle. It’s not even been a month I started blogging, I am looking forward to make friends here with my fellow lovely bloggers.❤️

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