100 Blog Posts Later: My Top Blogging Lessons Learned
This is my 101st blog post on my SFI Blog! I started this blog over four months ago and I could have never imagined how much it would grow. I earn over a couple hundred dollars a month from this blog, I have been able to share blogging tips with many readers!
Starting a blog was definitely one of the best decisions I have ever made. If you want to start your own blog, I highly recommend just going for it! I spent years putting it off and waiting for “the right time” to start a blog. My only regret now is wishing I had started my blog sooner!
I’m writing this post today to share the top lessons I have learned after blogging for nine months and publishing 100 blog posts on this blog!
I’m writing this post today to share the top lessons I have learned after publishing 100 blog posts on this blog!
1. Consistent traffic takes time.
Publish more frequently (10-20 blog posts per month) and built up your content, and start to grow your traffic. Having more posts circulating out there on Pinterest, Google, Facebook, etc will help you grow faster.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with starting slow like I did, but if you want to see more traffic right away, I recommend having at least 20 blog posts per month published. That way you’ll have more content to promote, in turn driving more traffic to your blog.
2. There’s no “perfect” length for blog posts.
You’ll get conflicting answers if you try to figure out the perfect length for a blog post. Some sources will say under 1,000 is best because readers have short attention spans (which is true) while others will say long-form posts with 3,000+ words are most valuable for ranking in search engines (also true.)
Personally, I have popular blog posts that are short and long. Having blog post ideas series is really popular and brings a lot of traffic to my blog.
So I would experiment with different blog post lengths and figure out what works best for you. I know that for me personally, writing super-long blog posts is hard. Most of my posts max out at 3,000 to 4,000 words, and that’s fine with me. I don’t want to feel forced to write blog posts of a certain length just because I’m “supposed” to.
3. Social media isn’t always worth your time.
When I first started my blog four months ago, I signed up for every social media platform out there. I thought I had to be present EVERYWHERE in order to build a successful online presence for my blog.
I soon realized I was making one of the biggest mistakes new bloggers can make on social media: spreading myself too thin.
I took a look at all of my social media platforms and determined what was and wasn’t working for me, based on data from Google Analytics. I noticed that Instagram was bringing me less than 1% of my traffic, despite the fact that I was spending hours on it every day. So I post to Instagram less often.
Now I only focus on social media that has a good ROI. For me, this is mainly Facebook and Linkedin. I only have to spend a few minutes per day on them and I am able to automate the rest. And in return, I was getting 60% of my traffic from both Facebook and Linkedin! That was worth sticking with.
4. Don’t neglect SEO.
When I first started blogging, I only had a vague idea of how SEO (search engine optimization) worked. I knew that it was important for bloggers, but I wasn’t exactly sure how to use it.
Now, search traffic from Google is my second-highest source of traffic after Facebook and Linkedin, and it’s growing every month. The easiest way to get started with SEO is by downloading a good SEO plugin.
SEO’s helps you optimize your blog posts so you can rank in Google for your selected keywords. It’s really important to do keyword research for your blog posts. I use Google AdWords Keyword Planner to help me with this. Basically, I pick a keyword phrase that’s a few words long (like “social media tips for bloggers”) and check to see how many potential monthly searches that phrase will get.
I try to choose keywords that are pretty specific and still return a relatively high number of search results, but not so many that it would be impossible for my blog to rank.
There are more advanced paid tools for doing keyword research (SEMrush is one that I have tried) but for now, the Google AdWords Keyword Planner method works for me!
5. Some of your content just won’t be popular
I have spent hours working on what I think are AMAZING blog posts, but they never seem to take off with my audience. No matter how much I try to promote them, some of my blog posts just aren’t that popular.
Meanwhile, blog posts that I feel pretty mediocre about will suddenly take off and bring a ton of traffic to my blog. It’s really unpredictable.
As a blogger, you just have to learn to deal with this and focus on creating content that you KNOW will be popular. Remember, you are writing for your audience, and not just for yourself. I check Google Analytics every month or so and view my most popular blog posts. Then I brainstorm a few similar blog posts and work them into my editorial calendar for the next month.
This way, I know I am creating content that WILL be popular with my audience. As time goes on, I feel like I’m learning more and more what my audience wants to read.
6. Write blog posts that solve a problem.
If you want to make money as a blogger, you need to write problem-solving content.
The “problem” you’re solving can be any query someone might do a Google search for: tips for saving money, how to organize your home, what to pack for a trip to Iceland, etc.
Types of problem-solving blog posts that always seem to do well are list-style posts, tutorials and how-to guides, product reviews, and product round-ups.
I make most of my money as a blogger with affiliate marketing, and it’s because I include affiliate links in the kinds of posts that I just mentioned above. These posts drive traffic and sales by providing valuable, helpful information for my readers.
So those are my top blogging lessons learned after 100 blog posts!
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