This is hands-down the BEST advice I have to give you! The friends you will make from blogging will be an invaluable source of advice, support, and encouragement. They are the only ones who understand why you stayed up till 2 am editing photos, have a ridiculous supply of paper straws, and have no dinner ready for your family, but have the world’s best cookies posted on your blog! They cheer on your accomplishments and often times know more about your day than your real-life friends do. (Thanks Instagram!) So find your blog friends and cherish them!
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Speaking of blog friends, I’m teaming up with 17 of my blog buddies to bring you an AWESOME giveaway coming up on Friday! You won’t want to miss this one : )
I hope I’ve shared a few tips that you can use to help grow your blog and make your blog life a little easier! Now let’s hear some of the BEST blog advice from some other fabulous bloggers!
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Find a Tribe.
The biggest help to me has been to reach out to other bloggers and form real blogging friendships. Find a blog tribe where you feel comfortable expressing your opinions and asking for help. We are all in this together! Blogging when you know you have other bloggers supporting you and encouraging you can make all the difference!
Take good pictures!
Make sure your pictures are big, bright, and clear. You do not need a fancy camera to take good pictures either. I had a simple point and shoot the first year of blogging, and it did just fine. I still don’t own a SLR! Ha! Take your pictures in natural lighting and edit them. I used Picmonkey for my pictures, and it’s awesome. A little effort to make your pictures better can make a huge difference.
Blog with Blinders On.
When it comes to your blog, your stats, and your numbers… blog with blinders on! In other words, don’t compare your blog with someone else’s blog! We are all at different stages with our blogs, we all have different talents, and we all experience blog growth differently. Some blogs just take off and some take more time. It doesn’t do any good to compare your blog with others. Be happy for your growth and successes. Try to do better each day, and make your blog the best it can be!
Invest in a good blog design.
One of the first things I did when I started blogging was enlist the help of a good blog designer. Some bloggers can do all that themselves, but not me! I think if your blog looks and feels professional, you will attract more readers, sponsorship opportunities, and growth.
Have fun!
Don’t take blogging too seriously! Lighten up and have fun! If it’s getting stressful and too much, take a break. It’s OKAY! Blogging is a lot of work with little return on your investment at first. If you don’t enjoy it, you will get burnt out really quickly. So just try to enjoy yourself, have fun, and take breaks.
The best thing I have learned from blogging is to be myself, both on my blog and in real life too. As a blogger it is easy to get caught up in what other bloggers are doing, but the thing that will set you apart is being authentic to yourself. Don’t be afraid to be different and to be a voice for an unpopular opinion or topic.
Something that has brought me great joy as a blogger is having a genuine interest in helping others. Whether I’m teaching a coupon class to help my readers save on their groceries, or meeting with other bloggers to discuss ideas and opportunities, helping others succeed has been very rewarding. Look for ways that you can contribute a solution to your reader’s problems.
Part of it was lack of experience Some of it was camera quality. And a lot of it was that I was focusing on quantity rather than quality due to wanting to jump start my blog. The posts that will give you the best attention and traffic (we all love visitors!) are the posts that you stop and think about. The ones that you go, “Wow! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone do that before!” That’s the most important thing. The second is making it visually beautiful. (See my recent post on how to make your images visually stunning. So stunning that a 5 month old image with only 500 re-pins would suddenly jump to 90,000 in just 3 Months!) A good idea will only get you so far. A beautiful image will get you ever farther!
Catch up on the rest Love Grows Wild Blog Anniversary Week!
How to Decorate Wood Letters & a Wood Creations Giveaway
Ask Liz: Your Blogging Questions Answered & a NoVae Clothing Giveaway
The Best Blogging Advice from your Favorite Bloggers!
Easy Chalkboard Art & a Silhouette Portrait Giveaway
This post has been sponsored by:
The Weary Chef features weekly menus of tasty, quick dinners PLUS kid dinner ideas, bonus recipes, and Friday cocktails! Follow The Weary Chef on Facebook and Twitter to never miss a recipe!
Great advice! Thanks for including me. ๐
Awesome advice!
Thanks for letting me throw in my two cents :). Your advice was wonderful. I definitely need to do better at several of those!
Thanks for including me too! Love you!
Thanks for including me! Love you!
Wow, so much valuable information here! Pinning this page and will be sure to come back and reread it.
Thank you so much for these amazing tips! I really need to find out what that “media kit” is all about!!
Selene @ Restoration Beauty
These are really great tips, Liz! Love this list!
Great tips. I try to do all these things. It’s funny, I think we are OCD with the email. I keep mine clean also, everyday. Thank you for the great advise.
Consider yourself hugged,
http://simpleesue.com/frivolous-friday-bacon-corn-pancakes/
Great blogging tips! So much to do, but it is so much fun!
Great tips! Pinning.
Thanks for all the great advice! I have a question about replying to comments: I always reply to every comment I receive, not because I feel like I should but because I truly appreciate each person who takes the time to leave a comment. I always reply on my blog, but readers might not see my replies if they don’t sign up to receive followup comments. Would you recommend emailing replies instead? I can see the benefit either way because commenting on the blog lets other readers see and join in on the discussion as well. Thanks!
I love this post. So much wisdom and great advice. I think I nodded the entire time I read.(Not falling asleep ;-). The thing that interests me the most is giving my readers, no matter how few, a great experience and inspiration for their lives. This is such good stuff to know. You guys are awesome! Blessings~Wanda
This is great advice! I am a new follower from southern charm. I would love for you to come and check my blog out and hopefully want to follow me back!Have a great day, Nicole
I loved this. I feel like I have no idea how to make blog friends though, lol. I guess I know many bloggers are so busy and I don’t want to “bother” them, and so I have no idea how to make a normal friendship out of it. Lol. Loved this post though!! Thank you so much.
These are all great tips! Thanks so much for putting this post together!
Chrissy
http://www.thetaylor-house.com
I second Kara…I hear over and over how important it is to make Blog friends…but how? Where? @Kara…want to be my friend??? ๐
That’s a great question! The best answer I have is to find blogs you like that are similar to yours, and introduce yourself. Comment on their posts and share them, send them a friendly e-mail… whatever you can do to start a blog “friendship”. I also recommend attending blog conferences you can or doing online workshops. They are great places to “meet” new bloggers just like you!
You have so much great advice for this newbie, glad I found your site! Thanks for sharing.I am a new follower also, I hope you will check out my blog and maybe follow me back too!
Thanks so much for this! I needed to hear all of these. Great tips and reminders. Have a wonderful weekend!
Thank so much for this post! I’m stopping by from Tidy Mom, and I am so excited to check out your amazing blog!
Hi there! I came across your blog through the Inspire Me Please Weekend Blog Hop (yay, link ups!), so I wanted to introduce myself. I love your posts, especially the ones about the DIY elephant bookends and the giraffe print. I have some cool wrapping paper that I have been wanting to use somehow and you just gave me the perfect inspiration!! Thanks again, I look forward to following along with you.
I really enjoyed this – I have been blogging for about 3 years and am just back at it after a break. “Blog friends are the best friends” is so true! ๐
Thank you so much for putting this together. I’ve been blogging for over 3 years but I haven’t really invested the time or energy to grow my blog until recently. This definitely helps!
I’m still a fairly new blogger and I needed this months ago when I first began. Since I’m a Mom of two and I work from home (with my girls here), I rarely have enough time to create what I want…I feel the pressure to post often and that seems like the biggest struggle. Great tips!
Stephanie @ http://www.momneedsahand.blogspot.com
This is such wonderful advice. I feel like I am spending so much time learning the ins and outs about blogging and not actually posting enough. I spend countless hours tweaking my page. Although it wouldn’t take nearly as long if I didn’t have to stop a million times for the kiddos. I’m so bad about comparing my blog to others. There are times, I see a beautiful blog with hundreds of followers and I just feel like I’ll never get where I want to be. I’d love to get the help of a designer but it’s hard to put money into something that may not give you a return. I love to blog. I love MY blog. It just gets overwhelming sometimes. Thanks so much for this post. It’s very helpful.
What a great article! I saw your link on Strut Your Stuff Saturday – thank so much for sharing! I’m trying to grow my blog and have already implemented some of these strategies – can’t wait to try the others!
Kim
[url]http://www.enjoytheviewblog.com[/url]
Great post! Thanks for putting together all this great advice.
Wow! What a great list of tips! I like the one about comments being an opportunity. I could definitely do a better job with that. I popped over from Making the World Cuter! Thanks for sharing!
~Abby =)
Great advice!! One thing I really struggle with is comparing my blogs to other, bigger blogs out there. I have to constantly remind myself that this is something I’m doing for ME and the people I write for–it’s not a contest to compete in. I am also a huge believer in quality over quantity. As much as I want to post every day and keep those pageview numbers high, I know that my blog is much better off posting once in a while. I have four or five posts in the queue that I’m dying to share but I’m intentionally holding back!!
Thank you so much for these tips. I am going to pin it.
Hugs,
Ellya
http://www.curiositaellya.blogspot.com/
Fabulous post! Thank you so much for all the great advice!
~Steph @ Silver Boxes
LOVE this post! I also wish I had more time to read and comment on my favorite blogs. I want to look into a blog planner – thanks for reminding me!
Dagmar
Dagmar’s Home
http://DagmarBleasdale.com
Can I just tell you what a fabulous post this is! Thank you so much. It can be hard to know if you are spending the time in the right areas, this advice is what I need. I am going to print it out and put it front and center in my notebook! Thank you for sharing this. Krista @ A Handful of Everything
Thanks for the ideas! I’ve been neglecting my blog a bit as I concentrate on my Etsy store. There really needs to be more time in the day, lol!
Love all these tips! I’m a newbie and would love it if you had time to pop by http://www.dolendiaries.com and let me know what ya think!
So many awesome tips here Liz! Pinned and featuring tonight!
Such great advice! Loved reading through all the tips and pinning these to help remind me! All so true!
Thank you so much for linking to my blog planner ๐
Found this post really interesting since my own blogisversary is just a month away. Your blog is great, I had no idea you’d only been blogging a few weeks longer than me!
Angela @ A Typical English Home
Thanks all of you for sharing great tips from real life experience!
you can tell you love what you do!
These are great tips! Thanks for sharing them, I’m pinning. Little Bit
Wow! I am a brand new blogger and I found every one of these tips helpful! There is no way I can remember them all and so I am pinning this for sure! I can use some of these tips right away, but things like “media kits” are so far in my future (I hope!)…but the one I loved the most and is most relevant right now, is Emily’s tip about not comparing yourself to others! Have to keep that one front and center as I click through other beautiful blogs with hundreds or thousands of followers and I return to my own with less than fifty! ๐
Thanks for the great advice, I’m going to start working on a media kit!
Visiting from Monday Funday. I’d like to invite you to my Friday Flash Blog, where you can share your best blog entry of the week! The party goes on ALL weekend at thejennyevolution.com. And who knows, you may just get featured next week.
Jennifer
thejennyevolution.com
Great advice! Thanks for sharing!
Lauren
simplyfreeblog.com
Thanks for the valuable tips ๐ Read them all & now about to follow your blog. Sometimes I find the numbers & stats of the bigger blogs quite staggering. I would have thought 500 re-pins a great achievement!
Kate http://www.thecrafttrain.com
This is great!
This is my go-to post for when I feel lost about blogging, thank you!
Hayleigh xx http://www.after-the-vows.com
Thanks for the blogging tips. I need to get back into blogging. I love to write, so I need to make that more of a priority. I plan on using my extra time that I will have this winter to work on it, so then I can create more interesting posts, etc. Thanks again.
Thanks for sharing this great advice!
You’re very welcome! ๐
Great advice all around. I hope you enjoyed SNAP! I saw you once but didn’t get a chance to say hi ๐
Bummer! I would have loved to meet you! Hope you’re catching up on sleep… I still feel like I’m dragging! ๐
Thank you so much for this post, and to all who shared their great words of advice and inspiration. I am brand new to the blogging world, so really appreciate your site and this post.
All the best, from a New Zealand reader!
Congratulations on your new blog, Kerry! It’s quite a journey and an amazing adventure that I’m so happy be on! Best of luck. ๐
Thank you for this great information! pinned and coming back frequently for the encouragement here.
So glad you enjoyed this, Tracy!
Great tips. I am struggling to know if I am doing well with the quality vs. quantity. I know I will figure it out. I am going to try to slow it down but that is difficult being new and wanting to grow. How do you add the Let’s Keep in Touch social media at the end of your posts. I can’t figure it out. Thanks.
Glad you enjoyed this post, AmieJo! I add the social media links at the bottom of my posts manually each time… there’s probably an easier way, but I’ve always just copied the HTML code for the “Let’s Keep in Touch” portion and added it in. Hope that helps!
Loved this post. I do have a question for you Liz. When you mention reply to all comments, do you just reply directly on your site or do you send a personal email to the person that commented?
Thanks!
Great question, Elaine! Yes, I reply to comments through my WordPress site. I hope this helps you! ๐
Such great advice. I especially loved the advice on connecting with other bloggers and having them as a source of inspiration and encouragement. I actually just wrote a post about that called “Connecting-Opening up a whole new world” I haven’t been blogging for very long but the other bloggers I have connected with are so amazing.