We have 400 blog posts on our site now. This is the 401st. It didn’t happen overnight. We’ve been blogging consistently for many years. Looking back at the blog posts I’ve learned a few things. I’d like to share that with you today and hope it inspires you to start blogging or keep on blogging.
10 Things I’ve Learned After Posting 400 Blog Posts
1. The More You Write, The Easier It Becomes
Blogging gets easier with time. The more you do it, the easier it becomes to sit down and write. It becomes easier to think of ideas, believe me. You start to know where to look for inspiration and where to find great sources to link to. And most importantly, after time you learn that a blog post takes around 45 minutes from start to finish. Or at least that’s my timing. 45 minutes is not a lot of time to invest into something to see great results. Keep on keeping on.
2. Not Every Blog Post Will Take Off
Not every blog post will be a masterpiece. But the truth is, the more you blog, the more blogs will take off. It’s a numbers game. The more blog posts you write, the more chances you have for something to do really well and resonate. Don’t get too down on yourself if something that you thought was great didn’t hit the mark. Maybe you didn’t share it to the right people, maybe the timing was wrong. Get back out there and blog some more. And reshare your old posts. 🙂
3. Internal Linking Is A Good Thing
The more you blog, the more posts you have to link to. This is a good thing because it keeps people on your site for a longer period of time. It also takes people down the funnel. The more they stay on your site and the more your readers feel connected to you and your business, the more likely they are to end up as a customer.
4. External Linking Builds Relationships
One of the best things about blogging is realizing that blogging is a community. Other bloggers are generous and considerate just like you. In fact, they have a lot in common with you. They too are trying to get their words to resonate with their readers. By linking back to others you are building relationships within the blogging community. Think about it, what do you do when you get a pingback to your site or you see traffic coming in from another blog? You go and check it out. You share that post. You comment. You start communicating. Communication builds relationships. Marketing is about relationships. Marketing is about communication.
5. Images Can Tell Your Story
Images are crucial to your blogging process. Not only are they the first thing people see when you share your blog posts on social media, they are also a communication tool in themselves. The image alone can cause someone to share your post. Sharing equals more traffic. It’s something we like. I like to include at least one image per 500 or so words if I can. I use Canva, BigStock and PicMonkey for the most part to create my images. But there are tons of online sites that you can get creative with.
6. Your Voice Is Important
Your voice is what makes your blog stick out from the rest. It should represent you. Don’t be shy about who you are. Make your voice shine and that will keep your readers coming back for more.
7. Talk To Your Audience
A lot of bloggers and writers write for other writers. This is fine if your audience is writers. But most likely if you are blogging for your business, it isn’t. Write to your audience and no one else. By the way, your audience consists of your customers and future customers.
8. Length Isn’t As Important As You Think
You’ve probably read that Google likes your blog posts to be this long. No, now it is this long. No, no. You need x amount of blog posts this long and x amount this long. Don’t listen to it. Write good high quality content and length shouldn’t matter. Your blog posts should be as long as they have to be good.
9. Share, Share an Share Some More
Sharing is a key component and can dictate your success. Share your blog posts over and over and over again as long as they remain relevant. Once they start to die down, share them again. Honestly, you can’t over share your blog posts if they are getting in front of the right people.
10. SEO Results Will Follow
Lastly, write for your readers and not for the robots. If you focus on good high quality writing, the SEO results will follow. If you focus on SEO, the readers will not follow.
What would you add to this list?
