Are you new to blogging?
Are you thinking of starting a blog?
Have you been blogging for long and fallen victim to some of the blogging traps out there?
I recommend thirteen quick blogging tips to get you started, become a better blogger, and avoid those traps.
1. It’s all about me
Do you like to know something about the person behind the blog? I do, as it gives me an idea of what to expect when considering whether to follow a blog.
Every blogger and blog should have an ‘About me’ page.
Why? Because not only do most new visitors to your blog want to know a little about you before deciding whether to follow, but it’s also one of the most visited pages of the majority of blogs.
Take a look at how many times my ‘About me’ page has been viewed.
Yes, over 12,000 times! Check how often your blog’s ‘About me’ page has been visited. You may be surprised!
Tell visitors a little about yourself and at least give them a name by which they can call you. If you don’t want to use your real name, use one you’d like to be known by.
Ensure your blog does not have the original template for an ‘About me’ page. It will say ‘This Is An Example Of An About Me Page’ and contains no other information. How bad does that look to new visitors to your blog?
My blog post, ‘Why Every Blogger Should Have An About Me Page On Their Blog‘, gives lots of information about what an ‘About me,’ page should include.
I also recommend reading James Lane’s post, ‘How to Write the Perfect About Me Page For Your WordPress Blog.’ It gives essential and excellent information about the ‘About me’ page.
And remember to update your ‘About me’ page at least every 6 to 9 months or sooner if anything has changed.
2. Make some journeys outside of your blog
I’m always amazed by the information in the blogging world.
I’ve learned how to self-publishing a book, how to use social media and make it work for me, how to bake gin & tonic cupcakes, how to take great photos and, of course, picked up lots of blogging tips.
Reading other blog posts often ignites ideas for new posts.
Make sure to also check out the comments section, as this is another place to discover new bloggers and get ideas for future blog posts.
Even if you can only spare a few minutes a day, make sure you visit, read, and comment on other blogs.
3. Get talking to other bloggers
When you comment on another blog, other visitors will read and see it and may come and visit your blog. However, ensure your comments are always relevant to the post and prove that you have read it.
Comments of at least ten words or two sentences long show that you enjoy interacting with other bloggers and your audience.
Don’t overload comments with emojis, as they can appear spammy. Using emojis in blog posts is also considered a bad habit that can affect your blog’s ranking with SEOs like Google and Bing.
Avoid leaving lazy comments such as ‘Great Post.’ These types of comments add no value whatsoever.
Instead, tell the blogger what it was that made you think it was a great post or why you enjoyed reading it. They will appreciate your thoughtful comments far more and may visit your blog and become your next follower.
However, never feel obliged to leave a comment if you’ve nothing of value to add. Instead, click the ‘like’ button on the post. After all, that’s what the ‘like’ button is for.
4. Treat others how you’d want them to treat you
Don’t ignore anyone who has taken the time to read and leave a comment on any of your posts.
Most importantly, never ignore anyone who has taken the time to leave a comment on your ‘About me.’ page.
Think about it like this. You’ve invited a guest around for a coffee and a catch-up and completely ignore them. That’s like ignoring comments left on your blog.
Try and respond to comments promptly. However, responding a week later is far better than not responding at all.
Treat everyone who visits your blog as a guest and ensure they are made to feel welcome. After all, with millions of other blogs out there, they can always go elsewhere.
5. Not all links and pingbacks are seen as friendly
Never leave any links in a comment unless you have been invited to do so.
If you want to leave a link to one of your posts or to another blogger’s post because you believe it’s relevant, ask for permission first.
When I started blogging, I quickly learned from other bloggers that leaving uninvited links was frowned upon and seen as spammy.
What would you think if you owned a coffee shop and, without your permission, somebody from a rival coffee shop came in and left a lot of promotional leaflets about their coffee shop without your consent?
It’s not your blog to leave links on unless you have been invited or asked for permission to leave them.
Not sure how to deal with uninvited links or pingbacks left in comments on your blog posts? Edit them out by editing the comment first before approving it. Whoever is leaving uninvited links or pingbacks will soon get the message.
6. Take a challenge
There are lots of writing and photography challenges in the world of blogging.
Don’t be shy, have a try.
It will help you with your writing and photography skills, and other participants will come over and read or look at your entry.
It’s a great way to make new friends, have fun, and gain more followers.
Most challenges are held weekly, but some may be held monthly.
Here are details of some blogging challenges I’ve participated in. Click on the links for more information.
- Sunday Stills Photography Challenge
- Thursday Doors
- Carrot Ranch 99-word Flash Fiction Challenge
- Writephoto challenge
7. Link-up parties
Link-up parties are a great way to introduce your blog to many other readers and for you to discover new blogs to follow.
This is where the host will invite you to leave a link to one of your own blog posts.
I’ve participated in many link-up parties and have always found them successful.
Most link-up parties’ rules are that you must at least visit some of the other participants’ blogs if you leave a link to a blog post.
If the host features your blog post the following week, you’ll get an increase in traffic to your blog.
It’s a great way of promoting your blog and discovering new blogs.
Here are details of two link-up parties I participate in. Click on the links for more information.
8. Make sure you’re contactable
Can you imagine a TV or movie producer, an editor of a magazine, or another blogger wanting to contact you to invite you to write an article, and they can’t find a way of reaching you privately?
Many bloggers dream of making some extra cash with their blog, so if you don’t have a ‘contact me’ page and they can’t find a way of contacting you, they’ll probably move on and give that opportunity to somebody else.
Not everyone wants to leave a comment that other readers can see, so ensure your blog has a way for visitors to contact you privately.
Click here to learn how to set up a ‘Contact me’ page.
9. Invite a guest blogger
I’ve contacted and asked other bloggers and writers to write a guest post for publication on my blog. Many have accepted my invitation.
Once published, the guest blogger may reblog the post. Some may ask you to write a guest post for their blog, putting you in front of a brand-new audience.
Don’t be shy. Ask other bloggers and writers if they want to write a guest post. You’ll be surprised by how many bloggers and writers welcome guest blog post opportunities.
10. Take up an invite
On the other side of inviting guest bloggers, consider accepting opportunities for writing guest posts for publication on other blogs.
Remember what I said previously about being put in front of a brand new audience? Time for the spotlight to shine on you.
However, don’t fall into the trap of accepting every invite.
11. Sharing is caring
I no longer use the WordPress ‘reblog‘ button but, instead, use ‘Press This.’ to share other bloggers’ posts. I also share their posts on my social media platforms, especially if I have enjoyed reading them.
In return, many bloggers will share my posts, putting me and my blog in front of thousands of new readers.
By sharing blog posts, you are putting yourself in the position of the possibility of having your blog pushed to the front, where you may be discovered by new followers.
The more you share, the more you and your blog get noticed.
12. Social Media: The highway to your blog
Using social media to promote your blog is free and can help bring your blog lots of extra traffic.
But don’t take my word for it; check the following screenshot to see what additional shares social media brought to my blog in 2021.
Want to follow me on social media? Click on the buttons below.
13. Get ready to land
Do you know what the first thing new visitors to your blog see when not clicking on a specific post is?
What’s the first thing you’d like a new visitor to your blog to see when they visit your blog?
Click on the home button in the menu at the top of my blog to see what new visitors see when they arrive here out of the blue.
Make sure your landing page is something that will persuade every new visitor to stay rather than leave and never come back.
Do you have other tips for bloggers you’d like to add to my list? Please leave them in the comments section.
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Hugh's Views & News 
Your tips help me a lot really appreciate you work ..you are giving real advice no trash talk… Huge respect
Thank you.
Today is 3/27/22. I have kept this since you posted it, have referred to it many times, and am using it this coming week to update my blog . Thanks, friend.
You’re welcome, Rae. I’m glad it is helping.
thanks for sharing these awesome tips Hugh
You’re welcome, Sophia.
Loved reading this! Do you care if I reblog it?
Please feel free to reblog it.
Hi Hugh,
What tool gave you those social media shares? I had no idea you were so active on Reddit. Thank you for linking to my linky party! [Spoiler alert: Congratulations on your win for the most popular post at tomorrow’s Inspire Me Monday Linky party!]
Janice
Hi Janice,
The social media shares tool is something WordPress provides. I have a business plan with them, so it may only be available to that plan, but it’s useful information.
I’m not active on Reddit. Those shares are from other readers who have shared my posts on their Reddit account.
That’s great news about winning the most popular post on the inspire me Monday link party. Thank you for letting me know.
Have a great week.
Thank you for answering my question. You have a great week too!
As always you offer very sound and practical advice Hugh. In the spirit of your point number 2 about learning and being inspired by other blog content I went in search of my own referral stats. Mine look very different to yours so now I’m wondering whether you have a presence on all those social media sites (Pinterest, Linked in etc). If so, that must take up a fair amount of time.
I’m intrigued by your comment “I no longer use the WordPress ‘reblog‘ button but, instead, use ‘Press This.’ That would make an interesting post particularly since I’ve had technical issues with the reblog option
Thank you, Karen.
When I first started blogging, I was told to have a social media account on all the social media platforms. It was one of the worse pieces of advice I took because by spreading myself too thinly, none of the sites worked for me because I couldn’t give them the time they needed to work. Hence, I cut it down to two (Twitter and Flipboard) and saw a gradual success rate. The figures for all the other social media sites are from other readers sharing my posts on their social media platforms. I’m a bit mystified by the statistics for Skype, though. I can’t explain why anyone would share blog posts on Skype, but maybe I am missing something?
I haven’t done an updated post on ‘Press This’ because WordPress are aware that there is a problem with ‘Press This’ for some users (including me) where a link for the post is not being copied over when the button is clicked. It’s easily rectified by simply copying and pasting the URL address of the post you want to share, but I am holding off doing another post until it is fixed.
That advice runs counter to what is now advocated by the “experts” to focus on just one or two platforms. I heard a podcast from one of these people last year which said he takes a year to fully understand how a platform works before considering expanding to another.
I agree with what he says. It does take time, but so does building up an audience on our blogs. Of course, it also involves lots of hard work, of which some will try and piggyback on the back of.
Thanks Hugh. As always, even I have read and seen some of these before, it’s a good reminder to review them all again and make sure to implement them. @Esmesalon #SeniorSalonPitStop
Yes, I often see these posts as a reminder, especially to those bloggers who have been blogging for more than a year, Esmé. I sometimes surprise myself by reminding myself that some of the tips are something I need to do via updates.
Great tips. I will try some of them if not all the tips. Thanks!!
Thank you. I hope they all help.
Thanks Hugh for including my ‘About Me’ page advice in this list.
Something that has really peaked my interest is your diverse range of social media referrals. Are you active on a lot of these or are people sharing your content?
I’m particularly curious about the referrals from Telegram, Reddit and Pocket as I haven’t seen any talk from bloggers how to use these platforms to increase awareness.
All the best
James
Hi James. I’m only active on Twitter and Flipboard. Other social media shares are other readers sharing my content on their social media platforms. Who’d have thought that people share blog posts on Skype?
Reddit is a platform I do have a little experience about. Not a very friendly place, and you get into a lot of trouble if you self-promote your own posts there. Let’s just say that you have to be very thick-skinned to stay on there.
I used to be on many other social media accounts. However, it was a big mistake because I was trying to spread myself thinly by being on too many, so social media didn’t work for me. When I cut back to just using Twitter and Flipboard, I got much better results.
Your post about the ‘About me’ page is excellent. So much vital information on it for all bloggers – hence the share to it.
Thanks Hugh for your response- yes the Skype one had me scratching my head, I know wordpress isn’t always the best with social media to tell you who is sharing what and what they were saying, if it was me I’d love to know who is discussing my content on Skype!
I joined Reddit after one of my posts was shared in a community, so it got me curious and did see you can’t self promote so was seeing if you knew something I didn’t 🙂
My personal worst is pinterest- I still post headers on the off chance someone might see it, but I hear bloggers say about posting 50 images a day! I don’t have time for that and it just feels like spamming a platform to me!
I’ve been focusing only on Twitter due to time limitations but may stretch my online presence a bit more.
I’ve tried out Pinterest but never got the hang of it, James. It never seemed to work for me, but it could be that I didn’t give it enough time.
And talking about social media spammers, I know of at least one blogger who seems to tweet at least every two minutes – mainly, other bloggers’ posts. I’ve no idea how she reads them all and tweets them all within a few minutes of each other. Can you imagine if one of those posts was controversial? In the end, I had to mute her.
There does seem a few social media spammers who share the posts but don’t read them. I suspect this is similar to the lazy commenters going for quantity rather than quality going the wrong way to get attention!
Reblogged this on Kim's Musings.
Thank you for sharing these blogging tips. I’ve been blogging for more than a decade, but I picked up several good bits of advice in your post. You’ve prompted me to work on my “About Me” page. I’m considering revamping my “About Janet” page and adding a separate “About Janet’s Blog” page.
You’re welcome, Janet. I’m so pleased that even with a decade of blogging behind you, this post could still provide you with valuable information.
I’ve never thought of having a separate ‘About Hugh’s blog’ page. It sounds like a great idea.
Reblogged this on The Reluctant Poet and commented:
Don’t Miss Reading This From Hugh!!!
Hi Hugh, you always have the best blogging info. I have a suggestion for what it’s worth as a non-blogger. For bloggers that are on Pinterest it would be nice if they put a title with the photo. Many do but lately I’ve noticed that more and more bloggers aren’t doing this. As a reader even when I like what they’ve blogged about and would love to pin it without a title on the photo it doesn’t always make sense.
For example, if Mary blogger writes a tutorial on how to grow healthy tomatoes upside down, I’ll know by looking at the photo that it is about growing tomatoes upside down. But if Mary blogger writes a post about a healthy veggie green drink without writing what the drink is on the photo it’s just another green drink in a sea of many green drinks. If I were to pin it and went back later to find it, it will simply get lost. I’m going to open the one that makes it easiest and fastest for me to get to what I’m looking for. Maybe it takes too long for a blogger to do this and it’s not worth it to them to take the time?
Another little thing I’ve run into not so frequently, but it does happen is when I try to unsubscribe bloggers still send posts and don’t stop. I just mark them spam and that ends it but every so often one will sneak through to my inbox.
So, for what it’s worth there’s my two cents, Hugh.
Thank you for the information, Lea.
Pinterest isn’t a social media site I stuck with. The reason was that I had too many social media platforms and found myself spreading myself too thinly between them all – hence none of them was working for me. When I cut back to just a few, things got much better. But thank you for the tips about titling your photos on Pinterest, mainly because it’s something every blogger should do with any images and pictures they use on their blog.
As for the unsubscribing issue, companies and people who do not unsubscribe those who request it can be threatened with legal action; I know it does seem drastic, but (speaking from experience) it does work when a company or individual does not carry out your requests after numerous requests.
Your advice posts are always so helpful, Hugh. I try to take my cues from those bloggers who have hung in there a long time like you.
Thanks, Pete. I’m glad these posts help. I enjoy sharing the knowledge I have picked up during my blogging journey.
Oh yeah, it took me a while to start discerning between the pingbacks I was getting. At first I was glad. A share is a share, right? But then I realised that some of these sites were straight up spam, and it benefitted me NOT to approve them in the comments on my end. Anyway, thanks for this useful post!
You bring up a great point about other unfriendly pingbacks, Stuart. If I’m not sure, I check out the site where the pingback has come from first. If it’s not to my liking, because it’s a spam site or one that sells services or stuff nobody wants, I delete the request.
I’ve also had other examples recently, where somebody will leave a comment, and after I approve it, start leaving other comments that include links and demand that I share the information in the post they have linked. I mark those types of comments as spam and delete their original comment.
Hugh, I forgot to ask if you are on Linked In?
Not anymore, Terri. It’s one of the social media platforms I deleted after dwindling down how many social media accounts to concentrate on. Was there a reason why you asked?
No worries, I shared it on LinkedIn yesterday (I normally don’t share much there), but sometimes posts are relevant. Then another blogger shared your post from my share, LOL. I’m not sure why I’m still with LinkedIN, it doesn’t really do much for me other than I have quite a few work colleagues that I enjoy keeping in touch with. Besides, Twitter, which is your second fave SM app?
Thanks for the shares on LinkedIn, Terri. I also stopped using it after retiring. Plus, like you, I’d never been able to generate any traffic from it. Probably because I wasn’t giving it enough of my time.
I now concentrate on Twitter and Flipboard, although I give Twitter much more time than Flipboard. I’ve had great success with Twitter.
Really a great post, chock-full of excellent advice that any blogger can use, new or veteran, Hugh! Thanks so much for the shout-out to Sunday Stills (had a couple of new folks comment and link-up today! I’ve gotten into the habit of sharing posts on social media especially once I get to know the blogger and their SM preference. Sadly, I see the sharing list on a blog and as I attempt to share for Sunday Stills, Twitter is not connected, for example. In turn, I see my posts get re-tweeted and shared, which is amazing. Link parties are really one of the best ways to promote a new blog, as well as participate in blogging challenges. I know we’ve all moved on from the WP weekly photo challenge with our own, but I can easily say that participating in it once a week really built up my followers–those thumbnails really helped too. Your last #13 is big because if the theme, layout and colors are inviting, it makes a difference to stay and poke around their blog. Your blog tips are always spot-on and I’m sure have helped many bloggers!
Thanks, Terri.
The Twitter problem with users not linking their Twitter account to their blog has been mentioned many times in posts. These days, if a blog is not connected to a Twitter account, I don’t share it on Twitter. Sometimes, I’ll let the person know how to fix it, but some still don’t bother connecting the two.
It was a pleasure mentioning Sunday Stills on this post. It’s a great example of growing your blog and getting to know other bloggers with similar interests. You’ve done a fantastic job with the challenge. I’m glad to hear you’ve had some new people join this week. I like to think that some may have come over after reading this post.
The landing page is something that I see some bloggers take little care of. It may be a case of them not knowing that they have control of what visitors see when they land on their blog. I’ve chosen my ‘About Hugh’ page, but connecting a favourite or popular post are also great examples of what I’ve seen when first landing at a blog I’ve not visited before. This reminds me that pingbacks to the home page don’t work, so careful consideration needs to be made as to what a landing page looks like. Your points about it being inviting are spot on.
Now you’ve reminded me that I need to look into my own landing page. I do keep my about me page up to date. I’ll have to check out what my theme provides.
As always brilliant tips
Thanks!
A friend of mine had a link up party and ended up with over 90 links! But it seems to have really worked. You’re always so generous Hugh! Hugs!
I don’t see as many blogging parties these days, but I did host one way back in 2016, and it was a great success. Links were still coming in over a year later.
I’m glad these types of posts help so many. I’ve learned a lot and love to share the knowledge.
I love your tip posts, Hugh. Since taking your advice about link parties and commenting, I’ve seen a nice jump in my website views, interactions, and newsletter sign-ups. Thank you so much!!
Gina, I’m delighted to hear about the success you’re having with your blog after participating in link-up parties and commenting on more blogs. I’ve always had great success with them.
Keep on doing what you’re doing.
Happy blogging.
You included every point. Great post!
Thank you.
As usual, great blogging tips Hugh
Thank you.
You’re welcome
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
Great tips from, Hugh 👍