Three years ago today I officially launched Blue Kite Marketing.
Although I had been building the foundation for my business months prior to this date, three years ago today marked the launch of the website and this very blog.
Although I’m still working to grow and improve my blog, I’ve definitely come a long way in three years.
It’s been interesting to look back on my blogging journey and examine what has worked and what hasn’t.
I thought you might find what I’ve learned to be useful in your blogging efforts — especially if you’re just getting started.
Hopefully, you can learn some of these lessons much quicker than I did!
Important Blogging Lessons
1.
Focus your topic.
Before I launched the Blue Kite blog, I spent a year blogging at LauraClick.com. It was my first attempt to blog about marketing. But, the topics there were sporadic, at best. I covered everything under the marketing sun without much purpose, focus or relevance.
When I launched the Blue Kite Marketing blog, I focused in on social media and digital marketing. In doing that, I started gaining more traction — traffic, comments and social sharing all improved as a result.
Don’t try to be everything to everyone with your blog. If you want to be successful, determine your audience and get laser-focused on the content that makes sense for them.
2. Be consistent.
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of blogging consistency.
There are many reasons for this. Consistent blogging keeps readers engaged and coming back to read your content. Not to mention, traffic and leads decline with it.
Also, the more regularly you blog, the easier it is to stick with it. There have been a couple of times I’ve taken a brief blogging hiatus. When that happens, it’s always hard to get back in a blogging rhythm.
Whatever you do, pick a realistic blogging schedule and stick with it — whether that’s monthly, weekly or daily. You’ll be far more successful if you do.
3. Write killer headlines.
I’m not going to lie – the headlines for some of my earliest blog posts stunk royally. Don’t believe me? Here are few gems:
You can have really great content, but if your headlines stink, no one is going to tune in. It’s the headline that captures people’s attention — whether in the RSS feed, social media stream or email inbox.
If you have trouble writing great headlines, spend some time working on this. I often write 5-10 headlines for each blog post before settling on the one I think is best.
If you need some help, here are some great resources:
- How to Write Magnetic Headlines
— Copyblogger - 5 Easy Tricks to Help You Write Catchy Headlines
— Jeff Goins - 52 Headline Hacks (ebook)
— Jon Morrow
4.
Optimize your content.
Although it’s more important to write for humans than search bots, Google cannot be ignored. Writing content that answers the questions people are searching for can be incredibly powerful for your business.
I didn’t pay much attention to keywords or optimizing my content for search when I first started. I wish I would have.
If you’re not sure how to do this, here’s a great step-by-step guide on how to optimize your blog posts.
If you’re not writing blog post with search in mind, you’re missing out. Tools like Yoast
or
Scribe make this really easy.
5.
Take a stand.
When I first started blogging, I played it very safe. I wrote a lot of articles that had good information, but they weren’t terribly unique or interesting.
If you want to get noticed and stand out amongst all of the noise, you have to dare to be different, be willing to stand for something and be YOU.
Some of my post popular posts have come from when I’ve voiced my opinion on an issue or answered difficult questions. Why does this work? It gives readers a chance to see what I think and it helps me stand out.
But let me be clear — there is a fine line between standing up for your beliefs and slinging mud just to get attention. You don’t want to do the latter.
6. Discover what works for YOU.
When it comes to blogging, there are no one-size-fits all tips. It’s easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing online. I know I have.
But, you’ll be far better off if you test and try your own approach. You’ll often find that what works for you might be vastly different than what works for that A-List blogger you’ve been following.
7. Promote your stuff.
When you first start blogging, you begin to wonder if anyone out there is listening. The problem is that many bloggers (myself included) start out believing that if you build a blog people will come.
That’s the farthest thing from the truth.
You can’t be afraid to promote your blog content. That means, share your blog posts on your social networks, send posts to your clients and prospects and include a link to your blog in your email footer.
Also, there’s a lot of reciprocity in the online world. If you want to get noticed, be active on other people’s blogging communities and share their content. If you do, more people will be likely to take notice and share yours.
So, happy birthday to the Blue Kite Marketing blog! Here’s to many more years of blogging goodness!
What have YOU learned?
Whether you’ve been blogging for a few months or a few years, what have you learned from your blogging experience?
Image credit: Eliza Adam
20 replies on “7 Valuable Lessons from Three Years of Blogging”
Happy Anniversary, Laura. And, thank you for sharing the valuable lessons you have learned along the way. I wish you and your agency many more years of success and prosperity.
Thanks, Anna! I’ve enjoyed seeing you here in recent months. You’ve added a lot of valuable ideas to the conversation – I appreciate you! 🙂
Laura, your blog has challenged and helped me. I’m making up for lost time but what you have done has provided a practical roadmap for people like me to follow. Thanks for providing clear, understandable, and easy-to-follow information on important subjects — blogging and so much more.
John – I appreciate the kind words and ongoing encouragement for my blog. Even though I’ve been at it for awhile, it still feels good to know my blog has been useful and valuable. That’s the best kind of compliment!
Great post Laura. Would love your input on my first few months of blog posts http://www.sydcon.com/blog
Scott – Just took a very quick look at your blog and it looks like you’re off to a good start. Without taking time to dive into your niche and what you’re trying to accomplish, it’s hard to give you too much solid advice.
But, one quick thing I would advise would be to break up the content in your posts a bit. Make your paragraphs shorter and add bullets and sub-heads to your posts. It will be much easier for people to read and digest the content. Hope this helps!
Wow thanks so much for taking some time to read it, and for the advice as well. You’re the best!
You’re very welcome! If you need additional help, check out Stanford Smith’s site, Pushingsocial.com. He has a blog review offering that might help you: http://pushingsocial.com/get-blog-review/
You are right; his work is very helpful as well. Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll let him know you sent me his way.
Wow, Laura, congratulations on 3 years! That’s quite an accomplishment in the online world. I mean blog years are more like dog years, right? So you’ve been at this a long time!
I’ve learned a lot from your blog and come back to many of your posts as reference material. I find myself referring friends and clients here when they have questions about social media so thanks for making my job that much easier! 🙂
Happy to know you. Looking forward to what year 4 brings.
Thanks for being in my corner ever since the beginning, Sarah! So glad to call you a trusted colleague and friend. Thanks for your ongoing support! You rock!!!
Congratulations Laura! Three years is an impressive milestone in this game.
I’m glad to have been an “early adopter” of the Blue Kite blog and to have watched it grow over the past few years. Onward and upward from here!
Great tips above (with great links) — a good resource for newbies and experienced bloggers alike.
Thanks, Adam! So glad I’ve gotten the chance to get to know you through our respective blogs. It’s amazing how this online world brings people together, isn’t it? Thanks for the kind words and the ongoing support! I appreciate you!!!!
Congratulations and continued success to you my friend:) Cheers! Kaarina
Thanks, friend! So glad this blogosphere has allowed us to connect. It’s a grand place, isn’t it?
It is indeed!
Hi Laura,
Congrats! According to Hallmark, after 3 years the anniversary gift is either “Leather” or “Crystal” depending on whether you prefer a traditional or modern gift. I’ll let you decide : )
Speaking as someone who also writes, I can vouch that once you take some time off– as I did this Summer– it’s incredibly hard to get back on that horse, so my cowboy hat’s off to you for the tenacity you’ve shown with the Blue Kite Marketing Blog, one of the few blogs I bother to keep up with.
I nearly always dog-ear my copies with something worthwhile to come back to later. Good on ya’.
Stephen
Thanks so much for the kind words, friend! As for the gift, that’s a tough choice, but I think crystal is the way to go! Cheers!
You’re right about the consistency. I actually took an unexpected break earlier this month so I can work on some big projects. While there might be a good reason for doing it, it is SO hard to get back on track.
It means a lot that you read and comment regularly, Stephen. I always appreciate your perspective – even if we don’t always agree! You rock!
Well, there’s just that “one thing” we don’t agree on… ; )
Hi Laura,
Agree with all these points, especially Focus. Like you, I was all over the place in the very beginning.
I was also very inconsistent … once a week, twice a week, and taking weeks off at a time. Now I’m dialed in to twice a week and that has really helped with traffic!
Oh … and Congratulations 🙂 Three years is an eternity in the online realm.