I’m going to hazard a guess that you are here at ProBlogger because you want to know how to make a blog a success. With a successful blog, you can make some money, right? With the knowledge you glean from here and other places, you’re hoping to take your blog to the next level.
But I think that’s where a lot of us get stuck. With the knowledge.
We may in theory know what it takes to create great content, find readers, nail social media, and run a much-loved blog. But we may also stop short of actually putting that knowledge into practice. And what is the point of having all that knowledge, if you’re not going to use it to help your dreams come true?
I think we’re all guilty of it to some degree. There have been tons of things I knew I should do, but thought I lacked the time or the skills to do so. One day, I forced myself to sit down and make those small changes on my blog, one at a time. And you know what? They weren’t so hard, and they didn’t take much time. Things like installing a sticky top bar messenger for newsletter signups, revamping my About page so it more accurately reflected what my blog is about, actually testing some Pinterest strategies… my list was seemingly endless. And seemingly endless lists can be overwhelming – so much so that we don’t even get started on them.
What I want you to do (today, if you can!) and pick one thing you’ve learned recently and actually do it.
- Define your niche. Really try to nail it down.
- Narrow your focus. Pick a few things you want to excel at, and put your energies into doing them well.
- Use these tips to boost your email campaign open rates.
- Launch an eBook in the most successful way possible.
- Keyword-optimise your images (even if you just do a few a day until they’re all done)
- Pitch a guest post
You know what those things are that are floating around in the back of your mind. That you’ll get to one day. Well, today is your day! Go! Do!
Which one do you think you will try? I’d love to hear in the comments what’s on your list, or what you’ve done recently that has really worked.
Stacey Roberts is the Managing Editor of ProBlogger.net, and the gal behind Veggie Mama. A writer, blogger, and full-time word nerd, she can be found making play-dough, reading The Cat in the Hat for the eleventh time, and avoiding the laundry. See evidence on Instagram here, on Facebook here, and twitter @veggie_mama.
This is a good post. I work a full-time job, own a photography business, and am a full-time husband/father. My time is stretched thin to say the least. I literally have a notebook full of ideas and tasks that I need to implement…so i guess I’m guilty of procrastination. I’m definitely going to have to take your advice and force myself to do these things. One of my biggest winter projects when I’m not shooting is to rebuild my website from top to bottom and focus on content and SEO. I’m dreading it, but it’s like you said “Go! Do!”
You won’t regret it!
I think I recognized myself in this article. I spend too much time reading and learning, how to create great content and how to improve my website, but at the end of the day I do almost nothing. I think it is time to change something, probably will start optimizing the images :)
Guilty.
I’ve been there many times and actually I am there right now. Been reading and reading and researching stuff instead of gettings things done. Sometimes you don’t notice and sometimes you do but it is still hard to get going.
Thanks for your post. Will get started now.
Best
Martin
Yes I agree, sometimes you really just don’t realise how how long it’s been since you actually did something!
Action without knowledge is better than knowledge without action. Ready, fire, aim. Go for it!
Just about every blog or forum thread DrewryNewsNetwork creates with an image, it’s specifically optimized for search engines and ready to pin on Pinterest. One method really helpful at getting more traffic from Pinterest is to optimize all images on your blog or website with relevant content and hashtags in the alt= “” section of your
If you notice at the end of the image description and hashtags, there is a hyphen, followed by the domain name. This is a good Pinterest traffic building strategy to get the energy of your blog visitors to repin your images and give your blog site free advertising on Pinterest, resulting in more traffic for you from the energy of others.
Have you tried this method yet for driving traffic?
I have personally, yes. I have found that adding the domain name really didn’t have much more of an impact than just writing the name of the blog (or indeed, not having the name on there at all).
It’s funny that I stumbled upon this, because just the other day I was on Warrior Forum where someone was asking the “secret to making money online.”
Of course, we know that there really is no secret. The difference between successful and unsuccessful people is that the successful ones are taking action.
Great post, Stacey!
Ha the secret is “hard work” ;-)
I simply wanted to write
down a quick word in order
to say thanks to you for those
wonderful tips and hints you
are showing on this site.
Thanks for sharing such good content ever! It helps us grow our online business! Sorry for our English .. Thanks again!
Really, thinks of getting kick started and then gets low. Will try to do as much as possible this time. Thanks for boosting with your tips.
thats great article sir, love to read such articles, after reading my time is to start doing something new with motivation. thanks for supercharge me. your content gives me boost to do better than the past. thanks again :)
Stacey while reading this short magnificent content, t’was like you were holding a cane speaking to me! :) Literary, I have built one of the most successful blogs of all time and made a living from it! – all in my head! :D I started reading “how to blog ” articles way back in 2012, followed all the latest trends till date, helped a few of my pals create successful blog. But the crazy thing is I don’t have my own blog! :( when I create one, within weeks I’d get bored and quit! Could it be that I don’t know my passion? :? Well this article sure will help me a bit though. Thanks hun! ;)
All in your head! Oh that’s so funny!
yeah, i try to do it. don’t wait for writing. if you have an idea to write, so write it. and i hope someday, i will be a success blogger. thanks for your article, it helps me a lot.
Indeed you are very right, Stacey. Most people send all their time reading, reading, and reading some more, unaware that they already know enough to get started. Eventually, they get lost in the midst of all the information overload and remain stuck right there.
I like Perry Marshall’s mantra, “if you have to fail, fail faster!”.
Cheers!
Oooh that’s a good mantra!
Its true. The list seems overwhelming. But once u get that out of the way and start adding content you remember just how much fun it is to have a blog!
The title of your article is a thought I have a handful of times a day! Thank you for writing about it! I’m going to tackle a few things today!
Hi,
I have bought Bluehost domain and got WordPress configured. I am using Free WordPress account. My website shows wordpress.com in address, what do I need to get my own domain in website address? Do I need to buy WordPress Premium? Pls help, I am stuck here.
Regards,
Neha
Neha,
Once you secure your host (Bluehost) you will need to install WordPress and have your domain name (once purchased) point to that install. You connect your DNS and your Bluehost blog through the location where you purchased your domain name.
Through your Bluehost WordPress installation, you can import your blog from your WordPress hosted blog.
There are lots of tutorials online to show you how to do that – but if you’d like me to walk you through it, just drop me an email. I’m happy to help.
Gayla
I think I recognized myself in this article. I spend too much time reading and learning, how to create great content and how to improve my website, but at the end of the day I do almost nothing. I think it is time to change something, probably will start optimizing the images :)
Thanks for this!
This is your best blogging advice yet! I daylight in marketing, so I’m constantly reading up on blogging, content and social media strategies to improve my work product – but I rarely manage to roll it out to my own blog in the evenings. I’ve been focusing on the “stop reading” bit lately – I unsubscribed from about half of the blogs I was following and just kept those that I felt were most relevant (kudos for making the cut!), and it’s amazing how much time I have to actually work on the blog now that I’m spending half the time reading tips for it! To all the bloggers out there: just do it!!! Potential is nothing without action, commitment and follow-through.
You couldn’t be more right in this post. My problem is that I just haven’t nailed the foundation of what I want my niche to be. And, probably to get the feeling of motion (even though it’s not actual movement) I spend time looking at info on optimization, or SEO, or email conversion, etc. It’s all important…but none of it matters without that foundational idea. So, yes, I must go DO and establish that niche…and then set about all that other work.