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Looking for more blogging tips? Everything But the Posts, my new book, gives tips about setting up a blog, connecting with your community, and monetizing. It’s available on KindleNook, and iBooks.

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I am so excited to introduce you to Anna from Learn Like A Mom. Anna is a client and friend, and she even contributed a chapter in my book! When Anna started her blog, she had so many questions. She was always thinking ahead to the next step, and had very small learning curve because of that-she’s a natural. Because of this, she is a valuable resource for new bloggers. I’m excited to be posting her list of 10 things to try in your first 6 months of blogging (but I think all bloggers could benefit from this list)!

Ten Things to Try in Your First Six Months of Blogging

Ten things to try in your first six months of blogging

One: Get organized! Create or download a planner if that’s your style. Have a blogging bulletin board if that’s how you roll. Just try to contain all of those notes, ideas, and lists in one place.

Two: Follow other successful blogs. Study what they do and how they do it. Participate in some of the socializing aspects to get a feel for it even more. Simply commenting, liking, tweeting, or linking can help you network without any cost but time. Sometimes bloggers even share their secrets–keep your eyes out for these posts!

Three: Link Up! Find Linky Parties. Make sure your content is appropriate, follow their rules, and remember you are creating a name for yourself that will follow you everywhere! There are linky parties for content, social media follows, and even giveaways.

Four: Host a giveaway. This will give you a chance to learn how to use Rafflecopter if you so choose, learn how to make nofollow links, and advertise in this format if it appeals to you. At first, you may have to hunt someone down and offer advertising in exchange for a review and/or giveaway. (I partnered up with people in direct sales.) People love free stuff, so it’s a great way to build the social reach for both of you.

Five: Attend a Twitter Party. As you follow people of interest on Twitter, you’ll find that many of them host, co-host, or participate in Twitter Parties. They are short and you’ll spend so much time keeping up with the conversation that the hour will be over before you know it.

Six: Be Pinteresting. Follow all of Becca’s tips on using Pinterest. Be Pin Friendly on your site by having “Pin it” sharing options on posts, pages, and images, and think about having a Pinterest area in your sidebar. When adding your pictures to your posts, fill out the alt description, include the URL to that specific post, and hashtag the keywords. Here’s a great article about making your pins go viral!

Seven: Instagram! It’s another fun one because of its simplicity. Follow people. Search for topics by hashtag. Like other pictures. Comment on posts. When you’re about to post something, search through the hashtags first to see what’s being used the most for your topic. Then, Hashtag away!

Eight: Remember Suggestion #2? Well, do the same for Blogging Networks. There are a ton of Blog Networks out there, so if you want to see what’s going on, follow them. Keep up with those feeds and pay attention to what they are doing, offering, and encouraging.

Nine: Not all bloggers care to make money, but some would like to. One of the first things you can do is look into affiliate programs. You’ll have some affiliate links and images in posts and your sidebar and you’ll start learning about contracts and how partnering with brands and products can work for you.

Ten: Try to contribute to a blog with a larger audience. I was lucky and knew Sara, from Mom Endeavors before I started my own blog. When she offered me the opportunity, I jumped on it. It gives the host more quality content they didn’t have to create and provides the guest with more exposure!

Eleven: What? Eleven? I thought this was a list of ten. Well, guess what? This bonus suggestion is a keeper for new and seasoned bloggers alike. Read on my friend, read on!

Eleven: Take a break! This is very important. Almost more important that every other suggestion on this list. If you are starting this to have fun, make sure you’re having fun. If you find yourself writing about things you don’t care about. Stop. Regroup. Start again. In the blogosphere, you have to create your own limits. Humans are not machines. Once in awhile you need to shutdown and restart yourself.

Still need some tips? My book, Everything But the Posts, might be just for you! Learn how to create an eye-catching blog that people want to read, build your blogging community and monetize your blog! Check it out on Amazon, iBooks, or Nook.

If you’re looking for more Blogging Tutorials, you can find them right here! 


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149 Comments

  1. Hi Thank you for such an informative post. I am new to the world of blogging and i started my blog since Jan 2016. Since then i have written and published 8-10 posts on varied topics. But I have been struggling for blog traffic. Is there any way i can increase my blog traffic so that i can use ad sense?
    Also, I want to be connected with my fellow bloggers, but dont know exactly where to start. Are there any specific websites where there are blogger’s groups?

  2. Love this, Anna! The bonus tip is especially important. I’m slowly learning how to relax. Relaxing seems more tedious than working on some days.

  3. Ruby Douglass says:

    I have thought of a blog of my own for over a year. I have the name, the brand ,the content and even a target group. I have been told throughout my life that would be a great writer. And a blog would fulfill that creative desire.
    Which brings me to why haven’t I done this already!. We’ll as much as I love to write, I stink when it comes to the internal making of a blogger site, links etc. I dont know how to set a blog up. HELP! Is there any hope for me to blog?

    1. Don’t stress, Ruby! There are so many people out there who set up blogs for people like you who don’t want to take on such a task. I recommend Carol Jones at http://allmommywants.com. :)

  4. These are some great tips. I have been doing some of these, while I have missed some. Even though I am struggling a bit in getting consistent trafffic, but I am seeing a rise in it.

  5. This is a great post! Thank you so much for all of your ideas. This is super helpful to someone like me who is just starting out.

  6. Great tips! Still in my first 6 months and have been promising myself I’d get organized! I am downloading the planner and doing it tonight!

  7. Awesome post. Will surely do this once my blog is up

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