5 tips to grow your blog

Recently I received more and more emails about how I organize my blog, how I manage to blog daily and what is important to have write a regular blog.  So I decided to write a little post to answer these questions and some personal thoughts from my side.

I started to blog more frequently in March. Actually I started to blog five times a week on a Friday in March, on March 21st to be exact with this post: You have to dare to change.

In the beginning it was hard. I didn’t have a blog planner and I didn’t know how to keep track of all the posts. So I set up a strategy about the content I wanted to post which should be  a mix of photography, personal posts about Conrad and me, business and photography tips for small business owners and photographers and just fun and inspiring posts. After one month I had developed a good planning and I developed and designed my very own blog planner that helps me each month to plan my posts. If you want to get the free printable of my monthly blog planner head over to this post: How to plan your blog.

With the help of the blog planner and a little notebook that always travels with me in my bag I managed get into my blogging routine. I see more and more page views every month and I receive heart warming emails from people that read the blog. Blogging has becoming a daily routine, a huge part of my to-dos each and every work day. And instead of feeling forced and obliged to blog I mostly see it as a gift to be able to write and to actually have people who read my words and like them.

Here are my three tips for you to grow your blog.

1. Have a plan. You should decide first what you want to blog about. Do you want to inspire people daily or three times a week? Do you want to write about recipes and food or do your want to inspire people with your photography and your personal posts traveling the world? Your blog should be unique and you are the only one who defines the content of your blog. Decide on the topics you want to blog about and make it your very own blog recipe each week to share posts about those different topics. Think of it like a cocktail: A great combination of ingredients makes a great (cocktail) blog!

2.Be consistent. Well this sounds very obvious doesn’t it? When you decide to blog each week day you have to make it happen. Don’t just blog one week 5 posts and the other week no post at all. Your readers will quickly know when to expect a blog post and you don’t want to disapppoint them coming back several times with the expectation of a blog post and there is no post to find on your blog. Think of it as a train: Don’t you hate it when your train is not on time or cancelled at all? Your blog readers don’t want to wait on the platform waiting for a post of you that never arrives.

3. Be subjective, be a person. Well this is just my very subjective opinion but I think a blogger should have a voice and an own opinion. People come to read your blog because of you. What I write here is my very own opinion. People that like my opinion read my blog and come back regularly and vice versa. Think of it as a magazine: you will only read the magazines that offer you something unique. You wont read a dull magazine that doesn’t have an opinion.

4. Don’t be afraid to do the work. Writing a regular blog will be a part time business. It is not just a Facebook or Twitter message that you can post every now and then it will take you a lot of time to create content but never forget: it will be worth it. Think of it as a sport: You have to practise a lot to win the match and you will have to write a lot of posts and put a lot of work into it to get the readership.

5. Don’t forget your social media. Publishing your content on Facebook, twitter, Google+ and other social media platforms takes a lot of time but you need to bring the content to the people who will read it and share it. Get the conversation started and bring your content to the people! Think of it as your supermarkt: you need to find a way to distribute your message to the people so they stay brand loyal and come back to get your product.

Creating, growing and maintaining a blog is a ton of work but even if your first posts are only read by your mom and best friend it will be worth it in the end to do the work and continue.

I am curious: What are your tips to grow your blog?