New to blogging? Learn how to set up your blog for success, increase traffic, and make money with these tips for new bloggers. Whether you’re brand new at blogging or want to increase traffic, setting up a blog can feel overwhelming when you’re just getting started.
If you’re wondering:
- What are the most important blogging tips for new bloggers?
- How to make money blogging + start working with brands?
- What is SEO, and why does it matter?
In this post, we’ll dive into top tips for new bloggers to help your business grow.
This site contains affiliate links. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. Thanks for your support!
My blogging journey
I work with travel, lifestyle, and fashion brands to increase brand awareness through engaging and compelling content – aka blog posts. While I’ve always been a storyteller and have more than 10+ years of experience as a journalist/news reporter, I had to learn how to transition my hobby into a business. That didn’t happen overnight.
I learned all about SEO, created a content calendar to stay organized, and invested in one Pinterest course that helped boost my traffic. Pinterest with Ell Course was 100% worth every penny, and I’ll tell you why a little later in this post.
How to Start a Successful and Profitable Blog
Before we get into the tips for bloggers, I want you to know:
- You don’t have to have a lot of followers to start making money blogging.
- Everyone has their own version of success. Try not to compare your blogging journey to others.
- Consistency is key, but that doesn’t mean you have to post content every day.
- Don’t give up! If you need to take a break, take some time to practice self-care and recharge.
10 Tips for New Bloggers
1. Self-Hosting
If you want to get serious about making money blogging online, invest in self-hosting. It’s one of my top tips for bloggers who are just getting started.
Here’s why:
When you self-host your blog, you own the content and can decide how to monetize it. (Unfortunately, buying a domain is not enough.)
I use Siteground to self-host my WordPress blog because they offer reliable and fast speeds to keep my blog running smoothly. If you only have one website, I recommend choosing the StartUp Plan.
Already on WordPress? Click on Managed WordPress Hosting. You’ll get daily backups, a free email to make your blog look more professional, and round-the-clock help if you have any issues transferring your blog. I’ve been using Siteground for years and recommend it to friends, family, and anyone looking for fast and reliable web hosting.
2. Get to Know your Audience
If you want to take your blog to the next level, you have to know who you’re talking to. One of the reasons you want to get to know your audience is to create content that helps them solve problems.
Whenever I work with a new brand or client, I always ask:
- Who’s their target audience?
- What’s the purpose of their blog?
- Is there “brand voice” conversational, witty, serious?
- Do they have a specific CTA (call-to-action) they want to include?
People love brands with personality. Write how you talk and connect with your audience by showing them the real you.
3. Focus on your branding
Branding is more than just your logo. It’s the colors, fonts, text, tone, images, and the style that keeps your blog recognizable. Create Pinterest graphics that are consistent with your branding to help you grow your blog.
To create a strong brand for your blog, you have to understand your why.
- Why are you blogging?
- What makes you stand out?
- What’s your mission or vision for your blog?
4. Grow your list
Even if you don’t have any content on your blog right now, there is no reason why you can’t start building your email list. Create an opt-in freebie to give readers a reason to sign up. Your freebie can be a short guide that provides instant value.
Here’s mine:
Everyone starts their email list at 0. It takes time to build an engaged community, but once you start getting subscribers, start sending emails to drive traffic to your site. There are no rules on how often to send out an email, just make sure you’re not crowding their inbox.
I use Mailchimp, and send a welcome message with my freebie to every new subscriber. I’m not a fan of popups, but if that helps you get more people on your list, go for it!
5. Quality content is better than quantity.
While you want to be consistent when you’re first starting your blog, pace yourself. It’s easy to experience burnout when you’re publishing post after post and promoting.
To stay organized, create a content calendar filled with long-tail keywords to help you rank on Google. I usually create an outline before I start writing and use Grammarly to edit.
Tip: Before you hit publish, read your post out loud to check for mistakes.
Writing blog posts takes time. You wouldn’t want to create content that no one will read, right? Optimize your content to drive traffic to your blog.
Wondering what to post next? Check out Travel Blog Post Ideas: How To Find New Content Angles
6. Don’t neglect SEO
It’s easy to get overwhelmed with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and keyword research, but whatever you do, don’t skip this step.
When you do keyword research and write an optimized post, it can end up on the first page of Google and increase your blog traffic. If you want people to discover your blog, don’t neglect SEO. Keep in mind that most people use their phones to search for content. Optimize your site for mobile.
Focus on:
- Site speed – If your blog takes forever to load, then people will get bored and go somewhere else. Choose a mobile-friendly theme.
- Properly upload images – Resize your images, so they don’t slow down your site. Before you upload any post, change the name to match your keywords.
- Write Longer content – 1,500 – 2,000 words is good as long as you’re not filling your post with fluff. Make sure it’s quality content that provides value.
- Update your old content – Keep it evergreen and remove anything outdated.
Confused about SEO? Check out Powerful Tools To Grow Your Blog for more tips.
Where to put keywords
To optimize your content for search engines, you’ll want to add keywords in the title, URL, the first paragraph of your blog post, and the meta description. When it comes to pictures, rename and resize your images before you upload them to your blog and include your keywords in the alt text.
How to build backlinks
Backlinks help position your website as an authority for the topics you’re writing about.
You can create backlinks by:
- Guest Posting on blogs with a high domain authority.
- Creating quality content that people want to link to.
7. Promote Your Content + Engage with your Audience
While you might feel like you have to jump on every social media channel out there like Tik Tok, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to promote your content, focus on building your audience on 1-2 sites. Get to know your audience on these platforms and repurpose your blog content to help you grow your blog traffic.
If you want to ramp up your marketing techniques for your new blog, stay active on social media. Join Facebook groups to connect with other bloggers. When deciding what to share on social, don’t forget about your old content. Post it as long as it’s evergreen.
Blogging Facebook Groups:
8. Know Where to Invest Your Time
Most of my blog traffic comes from Organic Search and Pinterest. That’s why I focus my time on writing new content, updating older posts, and creating engaging Pins for Pinterest.
How to use Pinterest to Grow Your Blog
One of the best investments for my blog was taking the Pinterest with Ell Course. Once I started to implement the tools from the course, I saw a significant increase in my blog traffic. The course is easy to follow and packed with actionable tips.
In the course, you’ll learn:
- how to start a Pinterest account and properly set it up to bring you the most reach possible
- Pinterest strategies that will bring you a higher click-through rate
- how to make affiliate sales through Pinterest
- what it takes to make your blog traffic grow!
Sign up for Pinterest With Ell Course here!
9. Set up Goals and Track Your Progress
Google Analytics is a goldmine of information to help you grow your blog. You can learn so much information about your blog, including how people are finding your site, what pages drive the most traffic, what people click on when they go to your blog, and so much more.
Create goals for yourself and update content that isn’t getting any love.
Dive into analytics, but don’t obsess over the numbers. Everybody’s blogging journey is different. If you’re not getting the results you wanted, take a minute to look at the data to understand why.
10. Start Monetizing Your Blog
One of the ways I make money on this site is through affiliate marketing. I write content about products I love, and when someone clicks on the link and makes a purchase, I earn a small commission.
Instead of randomly adding links all over your posts, focus on creating quality content that helps your audience make a decision about the product, or solves a problem. Be honest and transparent with your audience.
Ideas for Affiliate Link Content
- Write a review.
- Create content around products that solves a problem.
- Compare two different products in a blog post.
- Create a gift guide that includes affiliate links.
- Get to know the product better than anyone else and share helpful tips.
- Use email marketing to promote.
To get started with affiliate marketing, you can join an affiliate marketing network and sign up to promote your favorite brands. You can also reach out to brands you love via email or Instagram to see if they have a program you can join.
(To find out if a brand has an affiliate program, head to their website and scroll to the bottom. They’ll usually have a link to their affiliate link program with all the details on how to join.)
Related: Want to work with Brands? Here’s how to Reach Out to Start Collaborating
Takeaways: Tips for New Bloggers
Everybody has a different blogging journey. Whether you write about travel, lifestyle, fashion, or share blogging tips, keep in mind that what works for one blogger isn’t always going to be the right method for you.
These are the tips I wished someone had shared with me when I was a new blogger.
- Self-host your blog. You’ll also get a free email with your domain when you sign up on Siteground.
- Create a strategy for your blog and write quality content.
- Dive into the analytics to check page views and see what posts are driving traffic to your site.
- Use polls/questions on Instagram stories, and your email list to build connections and learn how to serve your audience better.
- Connect with other bloggers on Facebook groups and create a network of support for each other.
- Reach out to your favorite brands and build relationships with the affiliate managers.
- Experiment with new marketing techniques to see what works for your blog.
Searching for more tips for bloggers? Here you go!
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excellent blog
Wow, this was really helpful and it gave me hope because I’m also a new blogger
Hi Nimi, that is so wonderful to hear! Best of luck on your new blogging journey.