Bloggers Helping Bloggers: 50+ Blogging Tips from the Best

Bloggers are really an amazing group of people. I write frequently, in my blogging tips posts, about the community of blogging, and how important it is to participate. Well, I put my community to the test last week and it came through with flying colors.

I belong to a lot of blogging share and help groups. We share and comment each other’s posts, and offer advice and solutions based on our own experiences. If I’m not sure how to deal with a problem, all I have to do is ask. I am so fortunate that I have access to the knowledge and experience of so many brilliant and talented women and men.

The questions I asked my community last week were, 1) What is one tip that you would give to a new blogger; and/or 2) What is one tip that you would give to an experienced blogger?

This post is a compilation of all the feedback that I received. These bloggers are from a wide variety of niches, with different levels of experience, but all of them want to help other bloggers get better. I hope that you will take a moment to check out their blogs. Aside from cleaning up the comments a bit, I didn’t change anything, so read, learn, and enjoy.

Bloggers Helping Bloggers: Blogging Tips from the Best

Shauna from Best Kept Self: Piggyback off of other audiences by guest blogging or inviting other guest bloggers to contribute to your blog. Social media is great, but a much more efficient strategy to grow a following quickly is to leverage pre-built audiences.

Billie from Growing My Blog: Always have a plan and hold monthly business meetings with yourself.

Elena from Elena’s Travelgram: Build traffic by pitching your stories to different online media websites and getting blogging/contributing author’s accounts e.g. Huffington Post, Matador, Lifehack and more. Also, sign up for relevant categories on HARO (Help a Reporter Out ) to connect with journalists and land quotes/mentions on major news websites.

Kimberly Erin from Walkaboot: Schedule your social media once a week, so no matter what you have something active happening.

Claire from Volta Fitness and Claire by Reverie: Don’t feel pressured into writing a certain way or adopting a certain image just because it works for other bloggers. You’ll stand out more if you’re true to yourself. People don’t need another carbon copy anyway.

Malika from Association of Food Bloggers: If writing about an event, recipe or any sort of recap of experience, start a draft within 24-48 hours with all you thoughts. If you wait, you’d be surprised at how much harder it is to write the post.

Joanne from Joanne Greco and Life with Joanne: My advice to a beginner is to have fun with it, have a voice and tell your story. Give people something to connect to.

My advice to established bloggers is to remember why you started and get back to that every so often.

Fran from Freeborboleta: Community is more important than high traffic. You can have all the pageviews in the world but if no one is engaging with your content, something is off. Make genuine connections with readers and fellow bloggers – and stop thinking of bloggers in your niche as competition, they can be your biggest allies.

Zen from Happiness Wherever: New bloggers: get a few posts out before your blog goes live!!

Experienced bloggers- not sure I’m qualified to advise 😛 , but here goes (from a reader’s perspective) – remember why you started your blog and keep doing what you love- it’s very obvious when bloggers start trying to “sell” affiliate products and the blog becomes a lot less interesting!

Samantha from Feeling Fit: Keep in mind that at some point soon you may want to change hosting services or domain names, when possible use cross-platform methods to manage your comments, RSS Feed and other services so you can easily transfer your existing audience to the new platform. (I am not sure I explained my tip well… I started on Blogspot and moved to self hosted wordpress. I used Google+ for my comments and those did not transfer as comments on my old posts, I used Feedburner for my RSS feed and Mailchimp for subscribers and both of those easily transferred. If I could re-do it I would have used something like Disqus for my comments in hopes that it would be easier to transfer (the comments were my only issue as I did well in that everything else transferred well).

Lisa from Life with Lisa: When naming your blog be mindful that you want your blog/social channels to grow with you. You might not want to name your blog Mom of Babies or 30 Something Mom – those things are bound to change and you don’t want to have to rebrand every few years. I did my social channels using my name for almost everything and when I made the mistake of being “Mom of 2 Boys, Wife of 1” and outgrowing that to become “Life with Lisa” luckily I didn’t have to change any of my social.

Marilyn from Mom’s Dizzy and Product Gab: Don’t stress on numbers, it’s not an overnight success. You Can get to googles 1st page within 6 months, I did it! Write for the reader, then you. Own your own email list and comments! Don’t stay stuck in the planning, implement. Always follow FTC rules please.

Joe from My Dad Does: The biggest tip that I took to heart is read a lot, I bought and read a book (the link to it is on my blog front page).

Amanda from The Road to a Healthy Life: Be yourself! People like to read about real people, who have ups and downs and everything in between!

Beth from Sublimely Fit: Be patient!

Tamara from Fit Knit Chick: This is one I’m working on. With over 600 posts on my site, I keep a spreadsheet of the ‘evergreen’ ones (posts that will still be valuable and relevant for a long time to come). I make sure to share these older posts regularly on social media and sometimes re-visit the topic and update it in a new post. There are only so many ways to spin fitness and with new readers arriving daily, it’s good to address topics a second time.

Erin from Erin’s Inside Job: To work on honing your voice and being true to yourself. Copying other bloggers leads to comparison and can leave you burnt out after awhile if it’s not how you naturally write or present a topic. Be original!

Amanda from Run to the Finish: My biggest tip is to write about a topic you’ll never get tired of. If you can talk about it for days, you’ll love talking about it for years and never run out of ideas.

Whitney from He and She Eat Clean: Same answer for both (beginners/experienced): Do not over-promise and under-deliver. I see so many bloggers say “I’m going to post on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday” but they don’t. Don’t state a commitment like that because it’s hard to keep up and create quality content. For all bloggers I think that just posting consistently, even if that’s only 1-2 times per week is better than posting 6-7 times per week for a few weeks and then disappearing.

Kaila from the Healthy Helper: Write for you first! If you’re not passionate about and excited by what you’re sharing, it will show through in your writing. Your audience will come when you’re authentic and open.

Kymberly from Well Fit Curves: Be consistent by blogging regularly. An editorial calendar helps you stay on track.

Suzi from Confessions of a Fitness Instructor: Don’t expect it to blow up overnight. I see so many new bloggers aggravated when they don’t get paid opportunities or lots of interaction immediately. It takes time to build an audience, find your niche and to get good at what you do! As with anything, give yourself time to learn and improve. The rest will follow.

Lyndsey from Fit Life Pursuits: For new bloggers I would recommend that you focus on being yourself instead of trying to do what everyone else is doing. There is only one you!

For experienced bloggers I would recommend that you pay attention to what your readers are engaging with the most and do more of that!

Michelle from Fruition Fitness: For new bloggers, I would say don’t try to implement everything at once. The amount of blogging tips are overwhelming, so prioritize and spend quality time on each.

Nicole at Fitful Focus: I would say for both new and experienced bloggers: Write about what you love and always be yourself. Honesty, authenticity, and passion shine through and are what will keep readers coming back.

Deborah from Confessions of a Mother Runner: Visit, comment and interact with as many like minded bloggers as you are able. This really helped me and still does help me build my following.

Marlessa from Mar on the Run:  For new bloggers – embrace the passion you have that prompted you to start blogging in the first place and be patient. Don’t worry about numbers and growing and emulating other blogs. Just write from the heart/be authentic.

Rica from Yoga Mat Monkey: On those days when you don’t feel like writing, write anyway. I got so many great posts from the process of just sitting down and faking the feeling. Don’t wait for the inspiration. It will come. It’s a bit like fitness. Some days you don’t feel like climbing on the treadmill, but you do anyway and you always feel great afterwards.

Jessica from Ahjummacted: I would tell them not to get sucked into the “need” to get posts out – basically, don’t let the blog take over your life. Even if there is a huge amount of content being pushed out every second by others around you. Remember to enjoy life and the little things, and they’ll inspire you and breathe YOU into your writing – which is what readers want to see. They can smell the lack of interest, and that can be the death of your blog. And of course, do your best and know your worth isn’t in blog stats!

Patricia from Idea Crib: Stick to a blogging schedule, whether it be daily, weekly, or biweekly. Always attribute sources. Mention if a particular post is a sponsored one. Sticking to a blogging schedule is important because it shows consistency. Mentioning if a particular post is sponsored shows transparency. Attributing sources is really just the right thing to do. Thank you!

Mo from Adventures of a Novice Mum: Pace yourself, give yourself time to grow and find your blogging skin. Don’t let the moves of others around you rush you. Following your blogging time, not that of others. In time, you’ll have your blogging voice, feet, and dance. Tag @aNoviceMum in the post for a share on Twitter.

Jena from Brand Dot Blog: Simplify, narrow and hone your brand image early on. Saves time and far more easy to get picked up by sponsors.

For experienced bloggers…be honest.

Linda from A Labour of Life: To a newbie, Clear, quality pictures sized the same (PicMonkey) it is so important for your pictures to be large and the same size. To a more senior- never compare yourself to anyone else, your blog is your voice no one else’s.

Brita from Belle Brita: Newbie: You can read the best advice from the most authoritative bloggers, but nothing teaches you how to blog quite like blogging. No matter how prepared you are, you will still experience trial and error along your blogging journey.

Veteran: There is always room for improvement. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. On a similar note, be willing to help out newer bloggers. You were a newbie once upon a time!

Britt from Sunshine Mama: Start a schedule as soon as you can and stick to it. If not, blogging can take over your whole day! With a schedule you can sit down and knock out the things you need to get done before doing the things you want to do.

Samantha from Sammy Approves: Newbie: Verify your blog with Google and Bing in the beginning. You don’t want to miss out on any traffic you could be getting from searches.

Chaithu from Aim for Big: First things first after you install WordPress in Cpanel protect your site from being attacked or hacked by others. This is because WordPress is so easy so everyone installs it with one click without coding. So you need to protect your site from threats. Write your Bio, Privacy policy and Contact us because if you don’t have these you will not get approved by Adsense. Install only the plugins you need. Don’t install unnecessary plugins because you found it useful. It will impact your site performance. Start writing articles Don’t leave your site without any content and once you have some good posts try to share it using social networking sites. Don’t be afraid of your competition. It actually helps you a lot in learning new things.

Elizabeth from Train with Bain: Don’t try to learn it all at once–you can’t make the “perfect” first post. If you wait until you know how to format text, add links, edit photos, put in video…your first post will never happen. Do you best, make the content good, and just GET IT OUT THERE. Bloggers are generally really nice, so hang out with the bloggers and ask your questions. I’ve learned everything, or found a tutorial, or gotten a tip, by asking all the stupid questions. I still have a ton to learn, but I’m not stressing about it. One thing at a time–this is supposed to be fun!

Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC: I advise both new and experienced bloggers to regularly look at that blog while they are not logged in – to look at it the same way their readers see it. My other tip is to find your own voice – don’t spend so much time reading other blogs that you forget who YOU are.

Courtenay from Running with Perseverance: For new bloggers, know why you want to blog and be true to that purpose. If you want to encourage others, focus on sharing your story and connecting with others (commenting on other blogs, networking on other social media platforms). If you want to make money, focus on the technical side from the start (self-hosted WP, SEO, blogging schools, etc.)

Holly from the Coconut’s Head Survival Guide: Years ago when I was a Spinning Instructor, they told us that if you get bored with your music, that your class has been bored for a month. Same with blogging – write with passion and keep it fresh!

Lauren from Holistic Fit Fam: For a New blogger, be consistent and original with your posts…as you get more consistent your audience will know when and where to find you.

For experienced bloggers, pay attention to what your audience is liking and not liking and adjust content accordingly!

Gigi from Gigi Eats Celebrities: RELATIONSHIPS. RELATIONSHIPS. RELATIONSHIPS. Build those relationships. Blogging is NOT ALL ABOUT YOU! I have made some of my very best friends through my blog. I actually call blogging “online friend ‘dating'” – because you can easily weed through the ones you relate to and the ones you don’t!   😉 When you build relationships, you build traffic, and when you build traffic, more eyes are on you (including brands who may potentially want to work with you, Ahem $$)

Julie from Girl on the Move: Don’t forget about creating quality content. It can be so easy to get caught up with growing your social media, having a gorgeous site design, etc but if you don’t have anything worth reading, people won’t come.

Sue from Sizzling Toward Sixty: Tip for beginners: Quality over quantity don’t be tempted to publish just for the sake of publishing a post. Make sure you put the effort into your writing because if you don’t feel the passion or rush the post your readers will see through this.

For experienced bloggers: Don’t take you readers for granted. Let them know you appreciate them supporting you and respond with genuine replies not just a quick response which sounds as if you have written the same reply 100 times before.  Relationships matter.

Sarah from Fresh, Fit and Healthy: Quality over Quantity — seriously! it’s always said but quickly forgotten, which only leads to getting burnt out and putting out sub-par quality posts.

Grace from Heartful Habits: Post meaningful content regularly even if it seems like no one is reading it. Get onto social media as much as you can. Don’t be discouraged by the slow start up, it takes time.

Kathleen from 60-the New 40: #1 New Bloggers: Starting out, try to define ‘why’ you want to blog, you may have more than one point to your ‘why’.  Knowing this will always bring you back to purpose when the down times come. Even knowing ‘why’, don’t be surprised if your interests and subject matter change. Likewise, don’t be afraid to change as you find your writing strengths. It may be best to change slowly as these strengths emerge. I like to call it morphing from one to the other.

My weekly linkups! Please stop by and check out all of the great recipes, workouts, and information that all these awesome bloggers share every week!

Sunday Blog Hop with Jenn
Meatless Monday with Tina and Deborah
Meatless Monday with Annmarie 
Inspire Me Monday with Janice
Anything Goes with Marilyn
Bonnie, the Pin Junkie
Tip Tuesday with Debbie in Shape
Wild Workout Wednesday with Annmarie, Michelle, Sarah, and Angelena Marie
Wednesday Wisdom with Nanna’s Wisdom
The Blog Booster Party with Kathleen
Friday Fitness with Jill