Learning how to be a successful blogger can be a long and painful process if you start from scratch.
From the dawn of time, people have been passing on their expertise to others. Yes, you can learn how to be a successful blogger without any advice from others.
Welcome to your free blogging course.
Okay, it’s not really a blogging course, but it’s advice straight from the experts who have learned all the hard lessons and want to help you skip the hard parts of the learning curve.
Don’t underestimate how valuable these blogging secrets from the pros can be.
These blog owners have been through the trenches and have figured out all the important aspects of a blog that should not be ignored.
They’ve learned how to make great content and how to make a content marketing strategy that gets results.
I reached out in one of my Facebook groups to ask if anyone with high traffic would be willing to let me conduct an interview to help my readers learn more about blogging.
Sam commented saying “I’m up for it and I have over 8 million views per year.”
My immediate reaction was ‘Oh my god. Be cool. Be cool, Kristi.”
I was totally fangirling.
A good friend of mine saw the message and immediately said: “I can’t believe Sam Milner wants to do the interview, she has a crazy successful blog!”
I kept thinking she was going to flake on me and it was too good to be true, but she was so cool and helpful.
I will spare you the biography and just let Sam tell you all about her and the success she’s had.
Get your pen and paper ready and take notes, people!
Right now I just have RecipeThis.com. I used to run at least 3 at once, but I found that the quality and my time got stretched.
I can give my heart and soul to just one instead.
We have owned just one blog since early 2016 and it feels so good to just have one focus.
**Sam wanted to show you that her blog traffic has seasonal spikes, from December to February her blog gets tons of traffic, then it slows down for the summer. You can see that trend repeated each year.
Food.
I love to write about food. I dream about food, I want to read about food, and I love to research about food.
Though my second love is frugality and I imagine if I didn’t live in Portugal and I lived in the USA I would run a frugal blog instead.
As a blogger, you have to love your subject matter and that is why food was always top of my list when I mentioned to my husband Dominic back in 2015 that I wanted us to concentrate on just one topic.
Many people call it a long term game but if you signed up for Tailwind and the Tribes feature you can get your Pinterest content in front of a lot of people fast.
I experimented with this recently and in the first week of July just through Tribes I generated an extra 8 million reach that I wouldn’t have had usually.
**Sam provided me with this screenshot to show the impact of Tailwind Tribes has had on her blog.
There are many places that you can use to pay for ads. There is a lot more out there than just Facebook and Google.
My favorite is Microsoft Ads and they are a lot cheaper than what you pay on either Facebook or Google.
Take a blog post that did okay before that the traffic has died down on.
Update the graphics, check for errors, add in new affiliate links, add some extra information, add a sign-up box to join your mailing list and republish.
Once you have done this share it everywhere like you would with a brand new blog post.
Focus on social media and your mailing list and not only will you get a good boost of short term traffic but long term SEO traffic too.
Jealousy.
Nobody ever really talks about it but it is everywhere.
When you start out in your micro-niche you will have lots of people wanting to be your friend and be friendly with you. But once you have a blog post that does better than theirs, or when your traffic exceeds theirs, then you will experience jealousy from others.
Just like it is easy to get jealous yourself when someone grows faster than you, or uses your ideas and makes more traffic or money from them.
You just have to keep your head down and get on with it and not worry about what others are doing around you.
Find all kinds of resources for bloggers, writers, and more on our RESOURCES PAGE
I love Aweber for building my mailing list, Tailwind for Pinterest growth, and Canva for designing graphics. I use Rackspace for hosting emails and screenshot monitor for managing your virtual assistants.
Away from the classic tools, my number #1 tool for the job is Excel. I use it all the time. It has my content calendar, my accounts, my passwords, my ideas and so much more.
**I later asked Sam what keyword tools she uses. She only uses Google.
Find out how to update an old blog post to get more traffic in my article here (with printable checklist)
New bloggers should focus on SEO, Pinterest, creating great content, and being consistent and patient.
I truly enjoyed this interview and talking to Sam. She is a really genuine person and she loves her craft.
I love meeting people who love this work as much as I do, and Sam definitely fits that category.
Thank you so much to Sam for giving us some fantastic advice on how to be a successful blogger.
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Bloggers tell all is a course that is recommended by Nicole Johnson, a very successful blogger, in her interview here.
Deposit photos is where I get all of my photos from. They have high quality images and when you purchase from them, you are purchasing the rights to use the images.
Make sure you read the disclosures to be sure you are using the images in a way that does not violate their terms. For instance, if you intend to sell their images on merch, be very careful you do not violate their terms.
ConvertKit is an incredible program that is very user-friendly. When I was learning, I went from not knowing the program at all to setting up an email sequence, sending out an email blast (they call them broadcasts), and setting up forms all in the first session.
It does have a monthly fee, but it is worth every penny. As a newbie blogger, you don't want to pay for a lot of extras and I know it can be tempting, but this is by far one of the best investments you will make.
Siteground is not just a service for me. They have been a sort of partner and IT helper. when I was a newbie blogger, I didn't know how to do anything. They have a chat function as a help resource that I used almost daily to figure out how to install certain things, or figure out the backend of WordPress.
They have saved me hundreds of dollars on services. You can set up your site, buy your domain, get privacy for your information connected to your domain, and get all kinds of help if you need it.
Tracy Lynn is so knowledgeable. She has created this awesome calendar for bloggers. When you are first starting out, it can feel like something I call "information soup."
You are bombarded with information and you have no idea where to start or what you should be focusing on. Tracy Lynn breaks it down into manageable steps.
What should you be doing and when. It is an incredibly valuable resource and it's a great price.
Tracy Lynn came up with this lead magnet ideas resource that can really help if you are trying to figure out how to get traffic for your blog.
This is a fantastic resource to have in your library to refer back to when you need to figure out what your next steps are.
If traffic is low, pull it out and see if you can find something that is a good fit. With that many (100+) in there, you are sure to find something.
Grayson Bell is the man you want to talk to when you have an issue with your tech. He knows his stuff and is incredibly quick. Every time I have sent an email, I get a response within minutes. I LOVE that kind of service. I know a few other bloggers that swear by him. He is professional, quick, and knows what he's doing.
This quick fix one service is exactly what it sounds like. Click through to read more about it.
Elna is the BEST!!! When I first started writing, I followed her blog because she has all kinds of free resources that are incredibly helpful. I took one of her courses and signed up for all of her groups. She never stops pumping out valuable content and her paid resources are packed FULL of valuable information!!
Grayson will do an evaluation of your blog for speed. Speed is a huge factor when getting people to stay on your site longer. Having a quicker site can lower your bounce rate and increase your dwell time. I've seen people get a traffic boost as soon as their site speed increases.
Site speed is not to be taken lightly, it is a huge factor for SEO. Grayson can help you get your site speed up in no time.
This inexpensive and quick tune-up is perfect for the beginner blogger.
You've spend hours and hours working on your blog and getting all the plugins, widgets, themes, builders, and more set up on your site. But now you've read that plugins can interfere with each other and you may have issues with security.
Send Grayson Bell a quick email and he will get you fixed up in no time. He responds quickly, is an expert, and will get your new blog up to snuff in for you so you can stop worrying.
Elna knows her stuff. I have not taken this class, but I highly recommend anything from Elna. She knows her stuff and grew her business while raising small children. She is an invaluable resource of information and very relateable.
Image on Pinterest are so important. These templates can help you crank out attractive and clickable Pins quickly. I have not purchased this service, but I know others who have and they are very happy with it.
Learning how to design in Canva is a crucial skill if you are going to make quality images for your blog. Unless you know photoshop, or another design program, you need something like Canva to make images.
This is a crash course on how to learn Canva and will help you make better quailty images for your blog.
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