How To Be a Better Blogger

Let's just get this truth out in the open: the idea of making money with a blog is very cool. I believe that every blogger is somewhere on a spectrum between "eh, I guess making money with my blog would be nice, but I'm good either way" and "my blog is my business/life/everything". I sit somewhere in the middle, but even from that vantage point, I sometimes have mini-meltdowns about just how much information exists out there on how to be a successful blogger.

I recently listened to this podcast episode from Joy the Baker which really digs into how the blogging industry (if we can even call it an industry) has changed over the last few years. I highly recommend giving it a listen. Apparently in the golden days of blogging, long before my time, bloggers were compensated in accordance with their Clicks Per Minute, or CPM. That means if you had a really viral post that catapulted you into success, or if you developed a devoted following over time, there was a chance that you could be making BANK (or at least some pretty decent money). In today's blogging universe, that is just not the case. CPM is still monitored, but it hardly accounts for anything, and the same is true for most click-based stats. If you have Google AdSense on your website, you know this to be largely the case.

True story on this: My blog first came to be known (by people other than my mom) because of this post I wrote about wedding do-overs. It was shared a lot on Pinterest because I guess people don't want to make mistakes at their weddings, who knows. Anyway, there was one day where my page views just SKYROCKETED. 17,000+ hits in a single day (what the helllll?!). I went to click the "Earnings" tab on my Blogger account, my hands rubbing together like Mr. Burns from the Simpsons, and do you know how much I made from Google that day?

$8.01

That's roughly $0.00047 per click. Definitely not mogul money, but make no mistake, I did buy myself a Big Gulp that evening.

I earned it.

The point is you can get thousands of views in a day, but if you're not leveraging some other side of your business (ad spots, sponsors, affiliate links, product reviews, merchandise), you're not going to make a lot of money. The good news is that there are people out there who are able to make an excellent living off of their blogging earnings. The bad news is that getting to that point can be a colossal pain in the ass.

As someone who has been taking this blogging game pretty seriously over the last year, I've developed a bit of insight (mostly by making mistakes) into what it takes to get readers, keep readers, and yeah, make a little money. No matter where you are in your blogging journey, whether you are Joanna Goddard-level famous or your only follower is your mom (hey, go say thanks to your mom), I believe there are a few key areas we should always be focusing on as people who make stuff for the internet. Some of these pieces of advice may help you grow your readership and some may just help you to see yourself as an artist. Take from it what you will.

Oh, and keep in mind that these are all things at which I've failed, and I probably will again.

#1. Just, like, stop trying so hard.

You know how they say a watched pot never boils? Well, we all know that is garbage. I watched a pot the other day while I was making ramen, and you know what? It boiled. But you know what else? I wasn't any better for having watched it.

That's kind of how blogging works, and probably life, I don't know. Much like the inevitability of water boiling when heated, your blog will grow if you keep at it. It simply will. Unless you don't touch it for months on end, it's likely going to get some traction at some point.

But it takes time, probably more time than you'd like

In the waiting stage, it's so tempting to make desperate moves to get more followers, more likes, more retweets. This is the time where you are most likely to look over into the yards of other, more successful bloggers to try to see what they are doing that you are not. You start making lists, adding more pictures, talking about coffee.

But here's the truth -- readers can smell desperation, and it makes them uneasy. I mean, you know this from personal experience. You've been to that blog before where every post is riddled with cliches and the "About Me" seems like it was written by an alien studying human expression. You didn't stick around long, did you?

Look, I agonized over who was following my blog and how to make it more shareable until one day, I wrote a post that I assumed only my friends would enjoy, and it took off. Things really do happen when you stop trying so hard. Stop obsessively checking your stats, stop using vocabulary you don't really understand, and start writing about the things that matter to you.

#2. Love on other bloggers.

Okay, you're seeing your page views go up, so obviously someone is reading your posts, but no one is leaving any comments. This can be super discouraging. I used to get frustrated when I would post my blog on Facebook, get tons of comments there but no comments on my actual blog. This taught me something, though: social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have an ingrained interactive (social) component. That's not necessarily the case for blogs. If you want people to interact with your content, you have to create a commenting culture. 

Here was my problem: I was sharing posts on Facebook with people who were, for the most part, non-bloggers. Non-bloggers usually won't want to leave comments on your blog because it's not a platform with which they are particularly comfortable. They'll read, and then they'll bounce off to something else. 

You know who will want to leave comments on your blog? BLOGGERS! 

But how do you get them to visit your blog? Easy. Leave comments on their blog! The very thing you want, do it for someone else. And do it genuinely. Find some blogs you're really into and leave relevant comments. I say relevant because "Hey cool post follow pls" probably won't cut it. It doesn't for me anyway.

Oh, also, link to these other blogs that you like. Tweet at them. Make them feel like a million bucks, and I promise you, at least a few of them will return the favor.

#3. Express yourself with your design.

A beautiful layout...ah, a blogger's white whale. Like the clothes we wear or the apartment we decorate with throw pillows from IKEA, a blog layout is the world's first impression of what you are all about. I feel like this is an area with which we can get a little too obsessed, but then again, I'm not a design-centric blogger. There are always things that can be improved upon, but as far as I'm concerned, here are the only criteria with which you should judge your blog layout:

Is it eye-catching? Is it acceptably clean? Can I find all the things? Does it reflect me?

If the answer to these questions is yes, then you are golden! Once again, it's about putting your stamp on things. I am positive that there are some people who come to my brightly-colored blog, thinking to themselves that it looks like a muppet just barfed all over their computer screen. But you know what? These clashing colors and giant glasses do a good job of expressing all of the whimsical nonsense I want to share with the world. 

#4. Make it sharable. 

This is a rule you can feel free to break if it doesn’t work with your style, but I believe that graphics are the single most important aspect to any blogging success I’ve had thus far. Back to my wedding do-overs post -- this was the first of my blog posts that I ever pinned. I took a picture from my wedding, slapped a title on it, shared it on Pinterest, and to this day, that post is still spreading like crazy

If I had not created a graphic, maybe someone would have pinned one of my pictures instead, but I genuinely believe that taking 5 minutes to make a title image in Pic Monkey made all of the difference for me. And when I say 5 minutes, it really is that easy, easier even. I just made this picture in exactly 2 minutes and 45 seconds.

Now, not every image you pin is going to go viral, but the point is that images are effective. Don’t assume, however, that graphics are a substitute for quality writing. They are not.

#5. Write what you want and wait for someone to like it.

I may have already said something similar to this (or exactly like this) before, but that’s because it really bears repeating. Writing is a practice that has the power to shape lives, most notably your own. If you are blogging what you love – at best, you will make a career out of it. At worst, you will have a collection of writing that you can be proud of. When you write what you love, you simply cannot lose.

Anyway, for preaching sharable content and graphics, this sure has been a wordy post with very few images. Still, I hope it's at least brought some clarity and hopefully some comfort as well. The main point of all of this, as cliche as it might sound, is to be yourself and allow wonderful things to happen naturally. There really is no good in waiting for that pot to boil. 

Bloggers, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. What are some of your tips?