It Starts With Coffee

In case we haven’t met, here’s the short version of who I am: I’m a country-living, ice tea drinking, good book reading, farming, ranching, Jesus-loving, curly-headed wife of a seminary professor.   He’s a teacher, I’m a writer. He’s a thinker, I’m a graphic designer. You can get to know me a little better here.It seems like everyone’s doing it, right? Blogging I mean. Which makes it more and more difficult to really stand out and “make it” as a blogger. Today I want to share with you Five Must-Have’s to Make It As A Blogger. Not that I’m an expert or anything. But hey, some of us need all the help we can get, right?

1. You Must Have an Understanding of Who Your Audience is

I can’t overstate how important it is to know your audience. Knowing your audience is key for creating your band. For example, if your audience is fashion-driven women between the ages of 18 and 24, you don’t need owls, birds, babies, diapers, or hand-crafted hoop art in your logo and name. Furthermore, knowing your audience not only helps you create content that your readers will want to read (and for which they’ll keep coming back!), it also helps you determine where to advertise your blog, what link-ups will fit your brand, and what blog conference to attend.

 

2. You Must Have Readable Content 

There’s nothing wrong with link-ups, giveaways, and picture-heavy posts. Believe you me, those are all great tools for building your presence online. But there’s a certain aspect of blogging that involves…well…writing. Paying attention to grammar, punctuation, and word choice will help you develop your voice. And being intentional to focus on excellent, readable, and shareable content will provide your audience with a reason to come back everyday.

3. You Must Have Consistency in Posting

If your readers are showing up everyday, you might want to consider being there to welcome them with fresh content. Develop a blogging schedule and stick to it. It doesn’t have to be seven days a week or anything strenuous, but posting the same time each week will allow your brand (i.e. who you are as a blogger) to have a sense of constancy. That way your readers will know that reading your blog is worth their time investment.

4. You Must Have Measurable Goals

Just telling your best friend (or your journal), “I want to make it as a blogger” isn’t enough. First you must define what “making it” means to you, then write out short term and long term goals for your blog. But stay away from goals like “I want to grow my readership.” That’s not really measurable. Instead, set goals that have numbers, that have an end date, that are trackable and measurable. For example, “I want to go from 50 subscribers (followers) to 200 subscribers within the next 90 days.” And don’t get discouraged if you don’t meet your goal – you’ll be eons ahead of most bloggers by even knowing that you didn’t make your goal on schedule.

5. You Must Have Realistic Expectations

While writing out measurable goals is important, it’s equally important to keep in mind that the odd’s of People Magazine picking you up as one of their featured style bloggers after your first month (or year) of blogging is pretty slim. You may never get your own T.V. show like The Pioneer Woman, and your biggest claim to fame might just be that one of your readers recognizes you in Hobby Lobby, and suddenly feels like they have a secret, inside scoop on your next DIY project. That’s okay. Keeping it real helps you look real to your readers. And that can go a long way towards making it as a blogger.

Thanks, Neely for letting me hang out today!

Y’all have a great New Year! And please come say hi some time. You’ll find more blogging tips + tricks in my Tutes on Tuesday series.