Proven Blogging Tips for Beginners That Work

StephanieCristi shares her top 40 blogging tips for beginners in the hopes of inspiring her readers to take the plunge and start their blog already!

“This post was super informative. I already downloaded Trello and Canva. You have motivated me to start my own blog. Hope to hear from you with some direction. It would be an honor if you would take me under your wing and coach me.”

I got this comment just last week and it really made my day! Fortunately, I have the best readers that always reach out with sweet words of encouragement for me!

I love publishing beginner blogging tips – such as this article on taking your ideas for blog posts to the next level and all the goodies you get when you sign up for my membership resource library below.

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So without further ado, I’d love to share with you all my top 40 blogging tips for beginners!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you purchase any of my recommended products at the bottom of the post, I will earn a small commission at no extra charge to you. Keep in mind though, that I only post affiliate links to products and services I personally love and use myself! Purchasing through my page ensures that I am able to keep writing useful content for all of you.

Top Blogging Tips for Beginners

  1. Be patient. People say, “Everything worth having is worth waiting for” because it’s true.
  2. Blogging success comes in waves. Get used to it. Don’t get comfortable. Don’t rest on your laurels.
  3. Write like you speak. Blog writing is easy. It’s like talking. You find your voice when you speak and when you blog.
  4. Give away your knowledge. Empower your readers. Do what you love and the money will come.
  5. Write for people not for money or Google’s bots. People join your blogging community when they like your articles. Writing robotically for Google will make your content less enjoyable for human readers.
  6. Don’t try to spam your readers. There are 3 ways to write on the Internet: Sales, Story, and How-to. If you write sales content in a blog post, your readers may resent it. They came to you for information, not to be spammed.
  7. Have fun. Your passion will transfer to your writing, and your posts will be more interesting for your readers. Your reader’s experience matters more than your experience. A blog is not a diary, after all.
  8. Use traditional blogging tools. Blogging is time-consuming. Therefore, the more tools you use, the less you’ll resent the time it takes you to blog. Let blogging tools save you time. Many free blogging tools are available to you if you don’t have a budget. You can find some of my blogging tools here and here.
  9. Take your time to do widespread promotion. Do what you can to extend your reach. For example, use hashtags. This will extend your reach on Instagram, Twitter, and even LinkedIn. Promote everywhere. You should also consider advertising your blog on another blogger’s page to expand your reach.
  10. SEO matters. Promote on blogs and forums with a high DA. Doing so will boost your DA and internet visibility. Guest post or hire a company like Link-able to guest post for you.
  11. Comments are an integral part of blogging. I realize many bloggers turn off comments. I also realize why: Spam comments, comments that don’t show evidence the commenter read the post, and the time it takes to return comments can be overwhelming. However, in my opinion, without comments, you might as well keep a diary. Also, blogging is about building a community. Without your own comments, you can join other people’s communities, but building your own will be difficult.
  12. You still need Facebook. Unfortunately, despite the bad press that Facebook took in the news this year, bloggers still need Facebook. Before my work day starts, I promote in Facebook groups that allow daily self-promotion. During my first break, I promote in Facebook groups that have special #promodays. In this way, Facebook is one of my top referrers.
  13. You need an email list. Offer people a freebie they’d find valuable in exchange for their email address. Bam! Your email list and your reader base just grew.
  14. The best freebies are not downloadable. Your freebies have to be extremely valuable to your population and many types of freebies may appeal to your target population so get creative.
  15. Use push notifications. People will not be annoyed when they get notifications in contrast to popular belief. Why would they? They signed up for the notifications! The technology exists so people can receive your articles and not be bombarded by more emails. Use it!
  16. Hashtags help you. People love following and reading the “daily” hashtags. Use ones relevant to your readers and you’ll see your social media reach grow.
  17. Money comes from the most unlikely of places. Be open to the idea of creating a digital product, a course, video series, or partnering with a known brand for some sponsored posts.
  18. Optimizing for mobile matters. Sentence and paragraph length, fonts and so much more
  19. Site loading speed can make or break your success when it comes to search engine traffic. Each time my organic traffic tanks, I check GTMetrix to find my site loading speed has slowed.
  20. Graphics matter. I don’t just mean in your posts. We’re living in a Digital Age. Choose a related posts plugin will put your post’s graphic with the headline. Social Warfare includes your image if you choose to use the “Popular Posts” widget.
  21. You need to be flexible. In blogging, everything changes ( and in life too?) YouTube shows horizontal videos; IGTV shows vertical videos.
  22. As always, white space is your friend. You want traffic. Google sends you traffic if your bounce rate is low. The more white space you have, the longer it will take readers to get to the bottom. This results in them staying longer on your site. Your bounce rate will improve and so will your organic traffic. Also, readability is improved if you have shorter paragraphs. No one wants to read a large block of text. How large is large? Paragraphs should be 3 sentences maximum.
  23. Blogging friends are sometimes the best friends. Blogging friends know the value of a thoughtful comment, blog post sharing, and guest posting. Make blogging friends and your blogs will both grow.
  24. You will get better. Your blogging skills improve with time. I learned so much about how to improve my SEO, I spoke about my methods at a conference.
  25. Don’t just empower others; empower yourself. As a blogger, there is a great deal to learn. Stay cutting-edge. Keep on top of your industry.
  26. Guest posts matter. I thought they didn’t since they never used to give me much in the way of traffic or conversions. So why do guest posts matter to me now? First, they give me backlinks to my site. These links are needed to boost my search visibility and my Domain Authority Ranking. When your DA goes up, people will start emailing you financial opportunities. Second, they give me a diversity of links to my site. If I keep getting links from the same places, my DA won’t grow. Also, I am exposed to a variety of new people. Even if I don’t get traffic or conversions, they might share my posts on social media. And last but not least, if the host blogger has a DA greater than mine, my DA will really increase from getting links from that site. I recommend Link-able (again, because they are absolutely wonderful to work with).
  27. If you want to succeed on Instagram, you need to have quote posts. My quote posts receive more than twice the number of likes my other Instagram posts receive.
  28. If you want to succeed on Instagram you need to use hashtags. I learned to add the hashtags #quote and #quotestoliveby so people liking inspirational quotes can find my post.
  29. Do not think for other people. A blog post idea that you think is dumb might be exactly what someone is needing and searching for. For example, I wasn’t going to write up my blog post on long hair with curly bangs until I was reminded “Don’t think for other people” by a fellow blogger on Twitter. That post alone has been shared over 60 times across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Reddit. Not bad for a blog post I almost didn’t write!
  30. My favorite social media app of the year: Social Warfare. Social Warfare basically builds you the world’s largest marketing team, since it makes sharing your content incredibly easy for all your readers. Who doesn’t want to share a great article on their Twitter or Facebook page?
  31. Be stingy with your blog sidebar, but know how to use it wisely. White space is key but widgets like “Top Posts” (which I just mentioned in tip 20) will keep readers on your page longer, increase time spent on your site and decrease your bounce rate. Also, the more they read and like, the more chances they have of subscribing.
  32. Write when you are alone or people in your home are asleep. This way, you won’t have guilt you’re neglecting the people in your home.
  33. Also, feed the pets before you blog. This way, they won’t bug you for food while you’re trying to write. You won’t be preoccupied that you need to get up and feed them as well.
  34. Save your readers’ comments. They make nice introductions for future blog posts.
  35. Also, save your readers’ questions. You can answer them in future blog posts.
  36. Use internal links. Not only are you boosting your on-site SEO, but when people click those links, you boost your blog traffic.
  37. Hold your guest authors to high standards. After all, your reputation is at stake.
  38. Consistently write evergreen content. That’s the kind of timeless content that gets continual organic traffic from search engines, content that’s always relevant.
  39. Include external links in your posts. You’re boosting your SEO and empowering your readers with the knowledge of experts. This boosts your brand’s credibility.
  40. When you include other companies or people in your posts, send them the post on Twitter. Ask them to retweet. Most will and you will get exposure to their followers.

TL;DR

I hope my top 40 blogging tips for beginners come in handy to people like Antonio and others looking to start a blog in the coming days, weeks, or months. After all, that’s why I blog about blogging!

The key is to just jump in and have fun!

Which one of my beginner blogging tips was your favorite? Let me know below 🙂

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StephanieCristi’s Top Recommended Blogging Resources

With all my love,

SC xo

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