Last week had been great for me. I wrote a little and answered a lot. If you are wondering what it is, then it was a q&a session with amafeed.com where I answered questions on a range of blog features which will help you to make your blog rock.
From blog image design to topics that I have handled so far, it is all there!
For privacy reasons (I have not sought permission from the readers either) I have removed the names of the participants.
What you need to do to make your blog rock
here is the entire session:
Great design work!!! Did you make all the images you have pinned in your Pinterest profile? How much time do you invest designing them and writing the content? How is your process?
Thank you for appreciating my designs. 🙂 Yes. I have made all the pins that connect to my blog posts. I dedicate one day to design the blog pics including the pins. Two days I give to write my content, proofread, and do a double-check.
But I post only once a week, preferably on Mondays. Rest of the days I spend on promoting my blog post on various platforms.
Have you seen those brief animations on social media like Instagram that look like flashes? Do you know how to make them or what program can be used to make them?
I do not have an Instagram account. But you can add animation to your Instagram stories with some apps available online. Do check these out:
itunes.apple.com/us/app/inshot-video-editor-music-no-crop-cut/id997362197?ign-mpt=uo%3D8
itunes.apple.com/gb/app/hyperlapse-from-instagram/id740146917?ign-mpt=uo%3D8
And you may get some help from this article:
tabithacarro.com/five-creative-ways-make-instagram-stories-awesome/
Which are your favorite or recurring editing filters?
As such, I do not have any recurring filters because the images are so different. One filter which works wonders for an image, may not be good for another one.
Basically, it is an experiment and you need to check which one enhances the look of an image. And that comes with practice.
Word clouds were very popular a couple of years ago. Are these images still relevant and attractive enough to use in blogs? Do you know any word cloud maker easy to use and free?
It depends. I do not know what the niche of your blog is,
You can create your own styles. Do it yourself. It gives a 14-day free trial.
For creating Word Cloud you have varieties of tools available which you can use:
What are RSS campaigns? How can this boost the visibility of a blog?
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a service provided by marketing automation platforms like MailChimp, Mailerlite and others.
When you publish a new blog post, the automated service will pull that content and send it to your subscribers. So your subscribers are kept informed about the new contents coming up on your blog. You have the option to choose when you want to send this to your subscribers.
This is a great way of keeping in touch with your subscribers and if you offer freebies with your blog posts, there will be more visits to the blog.
You can read my post on creating an RSS campaign using MailChimp:
sukanyaonline.com/creating-first-rss-campaign-using-mailchimp/
Why did you decide to become a blog writer? Has writing always been something you’ve seen yourself doing as a career?
I love to read and have a blog where I write about the books I have read and liked. While creating that blog, I learnt a lot and decided to have a blog where I can share my knowledge with other new bloggers.
Writing has always been my passion and blogging helped me to express myself. When I started I did not think of making it a career, but now I want that!
In your opinion what fonts are best used on blog images?
Fonts that are easy to read and bold. Sans-serif family of fonts are pretty good to use. You may change the font of a particular word if you want to draw attention to that while keeping others same.
Regarding fonts and image editing, you can read my post here:
sukanyaonline.com/6-steps-to-create-awesome-blog-post-images/
How do you monetize your blog?
I have not yet monetized my blog but there are many ways like Google Adsense, affiliate links etc. through which you can monetize.
How important are blog post images? Why do you think so?
I had answered a similar question before. Visuals are a great way to boost traffic to your blog. People always notice an image first and if that one is awesome, they are more likely to visit your blog.
Many bloggers say Pinterest is a great platform to get traffic and I agree with them. And Pinterest is a visual medium. Creating blog post images is as important as creating great contents.
Do you think you will ever click on an image which is hazy, badly edited and has unattractive fonts?
The image is the door to your blog. Keep it beautiful.
What are the goals you have in mind for the future of your blog?
I want my blog to be read and appreciated by the readers who visit my blog.
My blog posts are meant for newbie bloggers. From my own experience, I know they have a lot of questions to ask and need a lot of help in their journey. They also have a lot of self-doubts. I have been through this. So in my blog, I post about things which will help them in their blogging.
And I aim to monetize my blog in the near future.
What mistakes did you make when you first started your blog? What did you learn from those mistakes?
As a newbie blogger, I had so many questions. I searched and came across such posts: What to do to make my blog grow, how a single tool brought so much traffic and so on. I read a lot.
And I believed and tried to follow all the suggestions given by bloggers online.
And then I made the mistakes because I tried to follow everything.
I learnt that not everything is a full-proof advice. Someone has written something which worked for him. It does not necessarily mean that it will work for me too!
I learnt to follow only instructions, how to set up something, how to use Pinterest for traffic, how to use Facebook groups, how to add a pin-it button to your blog image, how to make MailChimp create RSS campaigns, how to use Yoest SEO plug-in, so on and so forth.
And avoided the ones “I did this and it exploded my blog” sort of posts.
What kinds of topics do you blog about on your website? Why do you feel these topics are helpful for your readers?
Mostly I write on blogging tips meant for newbie bloggers and sometimes I write on health and fitness too.
I have visited forums, groups, and other platforms where bloggers unite and try to help each other out. I have seen the newbie bloggers struggle a lot because everything is new to them.
Creating a blog, writing a blog post, using tools, choosing plug-ins for everything they need someone to help them. I decided to do my bit.
And fitness is a concept everyone looks forward to and am personally a fitness enthusiast so that is also a part of my blog.
What are the most important aspects needed to become a successful blogger?
SUKANYA
Persistence. I can say this much.
You need to be at it always. You should read a lot and also observe what people are looking for. By visiting various groups, reading the comments you will get a fairly good idea about the readers’ requirements. Write on that.
And then promote your blog posts. If you are good at it and take steps to be a regular on your blog, eventually you will make it.
Yes, it will take time, but, with persistence, you will achieve your goal.
What kinds of images do you work with? Do you make images from scratch?
No. I collect images from various sources. There are many sites which have free stock images (having CC0 license). I try to pick up images which reflect what I am writing about. I choose images which are bright and colorful. And then I edit those to make it blog-worthy.
Read my blog post to know more:
sukanyaonline.com/6-steps-to-create-awesome-blog-post-images/
What are the most important steps to create good quality click-worthy images?
The steps include:
- Choosing an image which has high-resolution, bright, and colorful.
- Optimize (compress) your image because most images are heavy, i.e. 2 or 3mb and that slows down your page upload speed.
- Edit, if need be, crop your image
- Change brightness, saturation and hue. With practice, you will know what works and what does not.
- Add text. Choose fonts which are easy to read yet attractive.
Last but not the least, if it looks good to you, it will look good to others too!
(Before editing) (after editing)
What little details do you need to pay attention to make your blog rock? Here are few tips in a complete Q &A session. Click To Tweet
What are the challenges of being a full-time blogger?
A full-time blogger is a full-time job holder. The difference is as a full-time blogger you are on your own. You write, you publish, you create images, you do the SEO and in the end, you promote your post. That is quite a task!
These are some of the challenges you need to address. But if you love blogging, these are tasks you will love doing.
Personally, as a full-time blogger, I find it difficult to manage my time. It is a skill I have yet to acquire.
What factors into making an image for a blog great? How important is color, size, or style?
The most important aspect is choosing the right image for your blog post. I like to choose an image which has a colour combination of the predominant colours of my blog. Else I change the color of the fonts of the text I write on the image.
Your featured image should have a specific size which you can check. And in the post itself, it is better to post an image with 600*900 px for pinning. Better still, have a pin-it button on that image.
Do you recommend taking online courses to learn the basics about image manipulation with Photoshop or any other software?
I use GIMPShop and other online image editors, like: Pixlr, Canva (though more for the templates), Fotor and BeFunky. There are others too.
GimpShop has a number of online tutorials, it has users forums, and many experts have given free guides in .pdf formats. I have extensively referred to these.
If you have the passion for image editing, these will be sufficient. However, nothing teaches you better than the trial and error methods and you discover what is great and what is not!
Do you recommend the use of web developing services or do you prefer the DIY approach to it? Why?
Personally, I like DIY approach because I like to learn and develop it myself. It gives me a sense of satisfaction. However, you can choose anything that suits you. DIY approach demands a lot of time and patience. So everybody may not like it!
What are the digital tools that you use to edit your images?
I use Canva and Fotor for the blog image templates. And use Pixlr, Photoscape, and BeFunky for editing.
But I have other pages where I need to upload images with extra features like blending, filters, and layers. For rich image editing, I depend on Gimpshop.
What makes Pinterest a good platform to promote a blog?
Pinterest is a search engine, just like Google. The difference is everything on Pinterest is related to visuals. People tend to remember and react more to visuals than to text. A survey says nearly 40% of the visitors get attracted towards pictures and more likely to click these and thereby, visit your blog.
Therefore, pinning on Pinterest is a good idea to promote your blog, provided you create awesome images that stand out in the melee.
Make sure you use Vertical pins having 600*900 px ratio. And use keywords in the description.
Besides images, what other parts of a blog are essential to make it grow?
To me, the most important aspect of a blog post is the content. People visit your blog to learn something or get some information which is important to them. If they do not get it, they may not visit again.
Next is your communication skill. No matter how great an expert you are in your niche, if your language is poor or full of grammatical errors, people may not be interested in what you have written.
The last but not the least is your blog post promotion. No matter what you have written, if you do not promote it on social media, forums, bloggers groups, and other channels, it is of no use.
If readers are not aware of your content how will they reach your blog? Promoting your blog is essential because after all, you are here for your blog!
I consider these three aspects absolutely necessary for the success of your blog.
What marketing strategies do you use to increase traffic to your blog?
I am a member of various bloggers group on Facebook. I regularly post links to my latest blog posts there. Apart from that I pin and tweet on a daily basis about my different blog posts. I engage with other bloggers on their blogs, commenting and supporting them.
Another platform I simply love is LinkedIn. I post my blog posts there and also engage with others. I have learnt a lot from the fellow bloggers here.
Traffic to my blog posts has come from Facebook groups and Pinterest. But I have earned the recognition as a blogger from LinkedIn and Quora.
Apart from all these, I take help of social media tools likes Hootsuite and RecurPost to take care of my Twitter, Pinterest, and other social media profiles and marketing strategies.
What are the most important aspects of an image that must be taken care of in order to make it great for a blog?
I do not know what your niche is, else I would have suggested accordingly.
Here are a few general tips:
First of all, choose your image carefully. It should reflect your blog post subject. For example: if you are writing about sports, let it be something related to that.
Edit the picture by applying editing tools, like crop, brightness, and saturation. Apply filters if you think it is necessary.
If your image has a white background, make it whiter but not so much that it looks unnatural. The objects should have a deeper hue. With a little bit of practice, you will know what looks good on your image.
Which are the simplest marketing strategies that can be used by new bloggers to start increasing traffic to their sites?
Shout! Yes, shout! I mean, make a lot of noise to make people take notice of you. How to do that? Become a member of various bloggers groups on Facebook.
There are plenty of them. Check and find out which ones are most active, I mean, they post daily and have a healthy number of members.
Apply and be a member. Stick to the group rules else you will be thrown out.
Create a Twitter account and regularly tweet your blog post links with suitable hashtags. Get connected with fellow bloggers and comment or retweet their tweets.
Be a part of bloggers forums. You get noticed there for asking questions and sometimes answering the ones which you can.
You may request group board owners to be a part of their group boards on Pinterest.
And yes, be a regular. Do not post once in a blue moon. Be in touch with your subscribers by regularly updating them about the happenings on your blog.
What, do you believe, are the most common challenges that new bloggers face?
There are plenty of challenges they face.
Here is a blog post I had written on my blog:
sukanyaonline.com/5-difficulties-every-newbie-blogger-faces/
To me, the biggest difficulty is getting a new blog post idea. As newbie bloggers, their knowledge on a specific subject is limited and they quickly exhaust that. Finding a new topic every week (provided they are writing a blog post per week) becomes quite challenging.
As they are new, they have to learn a lot and read a lot.
What are your thoughts about e-mail marketing? Do you recommend specific services?
Email marketing is a superb source of attracting traffic to your blog and maintaining them. These help to create a subscriber base for you.
There are plenty of email marketing services out there. I use MailChimp and am absolutely satisfied with it.
17 Comments
Loved reading your thoughts! I have also found that I don’t have a go to.
Time management is also something I am still develop. It can be hard to be your own boss!
If you set a schedule and stick to it, you will be able to do it.
I am definitely going to have to try some of these tips for the blog (I need to increase my Pinterest game)
This was such an interesting post to read, especially reading about the marketing strategies that really help propel blogs. Definitely some tips that I could use!
Thanks for sharing! x
Michelle
dressingwithstyle-s.com
Great article with a lot of tips. I’m going to implement some of these with my own blog. Thank you.
This post is worth a million dollars. It is so common sense and yet so full of great information and tips. I wonder why you don’t monetise your blog….
I have shared your post on Twitter and will pin it. I am also going to make notes of all the things you mentioned that are applicable to me. Thanks so much!
Thank you so much 🙂
These are such great tips! It’s nice to have such a personal take on this topic
This was such an interesting read! Thank you for sharing!
I totally agree that it is hard to use preset filters as I always find each picture needs to be edited differently.
I’ve been blogging for a year now but am always looking to take tips from others to constantly improve! Thank you for this. x
Thanks so much for sharing this valuable article! I’m not a blogger newbie, but realise I underestimated the blog promotion after the post is written. I only tend to share articles on social media platforms once and that’s not nearly enough of course! I should also use Pinterest more and better. The editing tips are great too, thanks again! 🙂
Very informative
I like the Q & A session. A great blog post idea.
Secondly, I found the answers you gave explicit and very helpful.
If I were a newbie to blogging, these steps would have set me on the right path quickly.
Best Wishes.
Thank you so much. 🙂
Easy to read. Love the use of color!
This is such a cool, informative post! Love how colourful your blog is! (Came from a Facebook group!)
http://www.oxria.com
Thank you so much! It is because of such encouraging comments from friends like you that I keep blogging!