TIPS AND TRICKS: Blogging Tips #8

This is the second one of these I’ve wrote this month, much better than not posting one for months on end, ey! As usual, bit of a disclaimer, I’m not telling you how to blog (you’re probably doing it better than me anyway), I’m just sharing a few tips that help me in the hopes that it may help you.

Tip One: Make Sure You Link Your Blog | Following on from the second point in my last blog tips post, it’s so important to link your blog. There’s been numerous times where I’ve clicked on someone’s name in the comments, only to find that it leads to a Google+ page with their blog nowhere to be seen or a Blogger page with a list of blogs they follow (minus a link to their blog).

So, if you’re using blogger, make sure you go to Settings > Basic > Privacy > Add Your Blog To Our Listings > Yes .. and your blog will appear when people click through from your name (and by this I mean here, which I haven’t updated in two years, oops). This is really important to do, otherwise you could be losing quite a lot of traffic by not realising this wasn’t selected. It’s worth mentioning that if you’ve got a blog that you stopped using a year ago, remove it from the blogger list that’s visible when you click through from your name. Otherwise, readers may be put off by searching through four different links to try and find the one you use today (I know I’ve given up before!)

If you’re using Google+, make sure you’ve associated your page with your blog, and select if you want to publish your new blog posts automatically or via a prompt after you click publish. Note that if you’re scheduling posts, you’ll have to share (which you can do easily via the option under each post in your ‘posts’ section) your posts manually, as google won’t post scheduled posts if you’ve selected the ‘prompt’ option. It’s important to share your latest post on Google+ (if you use it), as you want anyone clicking through to read that instead of a post you published a month ago. 

Tip Two: Utilize Your Social Media | I talked about social media way back in the second installment of this series, but want to discuss it in a different way. When I put up a new post, I always tweet the link as soon as it’s live (and throughout the day, see more on scheduling here), upload a photo from the post to my Instagram and share the post on my Google+ pages. It’s automatically shared on my Bloglovin and Facebook (which I need to use more!), so I don’t need to worry about them. This way, it’s shared with all potential readers across all platforms. 

This is a quick way to gain additional traffic, as some of your readers may only follow you on one platform so it’s great to include as many as you can. I only tend to repeatedly promote a post on Twitter, as it’s the second top traffic source for my blog and a great way to share posts. I always include the Twitter handle of the brand I’m including in the post (especially if they’re beauty/fashion ones), as they may RT or promote your post in some way, which can drive more traffic, and maybe some followers, your way. I also do the same on Instagram, as some brands do regram photos, which can gain you more readers, as it has done for me in the past. If a brand has a certain hashtag, be sure to include that too, for eg. ASOS has #asseenonme, which they check and often include bloggers OOTD’s on their site or on their Fashion Finder Instagram, so it’s worth including.

Obviously don’t get too spammy with it, but I’ve found including these things (and featuring a picture alongside my tweets!) has really helped the traffic on my blog and it doesn’t take much time at all. Doing these really helps with engagement too, especially if you include any other conversational hashtags (such as #fbloggers, #bbloggers, #fblchat etc), as you’re opening your post up to discussion in other ways than just blog comments.

Tip Three: Being A Copy-Cat Isn’t Flattering | This is only really half a blog tip but more so an expression of my discontent with this particular topic. There’s been a lot of talk in blog world these days about plagarism and people stealing ideas. Whether this is someone trying to pass off an idea as their own, or in some more extreme cases, literally copying and pasting a post on their own blog and claiming it to be an original. There’s even been outright (but denied by the accused, even though it’s super obvious) blog design theft, which is made worse by the thief being up for a Cosmo Award… but I digress.

How would you feel if you put your heart and soul into a post (for example), everything from painstakingly putting the photos together, to writing up the content and engaging with your readers… for someone to just regurgitate the same idea and sit basking in the credit? It’s an awful, completely lame thing to do to someone and it honestly makes me sad that someone is so original that they can’t come up with an idea themselves.

For me, my blog is a very personal thing. It may not be amazing, but it’s something I’ve created from scratch and I’m proud of how far it’s come in the 2+ years I’ve been jotting down my words online. I’d feel so disheartened that someone had such little respect for my time and effort that they’d outright copy my blog. Luckily, it hasn’t happened to me yet (or that I’m aware of), but it has happened recently to some of the most lovely bloggers and I know some have been, naturally, very upset. Especially when a blogger is gaining a following by passing off someone else’s posts or design and gaining recognition for it. If the original bloggers’ content is good, it’s because they’re a good blogger and they deserve that acknowledgement, not for someone else to disrespect them and detract from that.

If you really like a post on a blog, take inspiration from it and mold it into something you can call your own. Find a different way to present the post, or a way to tweak the topic to adapt it to fit your style. You’ll grow as a blogger through this and I think it honestly makes you more of a creative person, resulting in post ideas coming to you more easily in the future. That’s just my opinion, however.

Oh, and while we’re on the topic of trying to get ahead through essentially lying, can we all be more aware of how many bloggers buy Twitter followers? I know you can usually see right through them, but using a fake follower checker (here or here) helps to weed out the liars, so you can give more support to genuine bloggers, not those who are in it for the wrong reasons.

Apologies that tip number three was more of a rant, but it’s quite a prominent topic and one I find the most irritating when I see it happening to fellow bloggers. It’s just plain unfair, and I think insulting, so that persons creative talent to just rip off something they’ve done. But anyway, hope you found the eighth installment of my blog tips series helpful, and if you want to read through all the previous ones, you can right here.

Oh make sure you enter my cute Dahlia trench giveaway! It ends midnight tomorrow!

helen x | twitter | instagram | bloglovin
ps. Check out the lovely The Blossom Cart, Beauty Gabble and Loulabeth this month!

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