Last updated on March 24th, 2021 at 05:18 pm
You might remember last year, I was thinking of starting a new blog and I did! Some say blogging is dead, I’d say…it’s very much alive right now. So, if you’re looking for some great blogging tips to really grow and start a new blog in 2021, here are the things I’ll be doing differently this year to grow my new baby blog!
So, what I’m thinking is: I want to keep Beauty Bites only for food, recipes and healthy lifestyle and to share my personal development stories, blogging, productivity and business tips and ideas in my new blog.
You Don’t Need To Be A Writer Or An Extrovert
I understand blogging is not cool anymore, it wasn’t cool when I started this blog in 2015. But to me, it makes me happy. It’s fulfilling to see I’ve built something out of nothing. See the progress I’ve made from even just a month ago.
Did I tell you that I never thought blogging would be for me? Never in a million years. All the writing and promoting content is so not in what I considered my nature. I did not like to write. Being the introverted extrovert that I am (aka very shy) promoting something I had created also sounded pretty terrible. Yeah, just go, dig a hole in the backyard and hide somewhere. Who do you think you are?
But after doing this hundreds of times, you kinda get used to it. You kinda know it’s going to be okay and you start trusting yourself. Because it’s true what they say: Nobody’s perfect. Something else they say: You live and you learn. They know things.
So blogging in 2021. Let’s talk about it. What’s going be different if I were really to start a blog all over again?
Blogging In 2021: Things I’d Do Differently
1. Start Social Media Before The Blog
The one thing I’d definitely do before starting the new blog is to start social media even before I’ve started the blog. No secret I love Pinterest, so that would be my first choice. Then I’m thinking Instagram since it’s easier and a more personal way to connect with your audience (even if small).
The reason I want to do that is that it takes time to build trust with these platforms. You might remember I started social media about 2 years after starting this blog and because of that, during those 2 years I didn’t have anyone come around. Now it’s grown into something that brings me so much joy and helps me connect with others and serve those who need it.
So by starting maybe two, three weeks in advance I’ll have the basics covered and I will have build a small audience. So that when the blog is actually ready, I would have people to show it to.
I also don’t want to wait more than 2-3 weeks to start, because I kinda lose motivation when I put things off and I get less excited.
Of course, with starting social media – I’ll focus on saving and sharing content that’s relevant to my blog niche. So for personal development, blogging and business I won’t necessarily be saving a pin about how to dry tomatoes, even if I might want to do it. Always think what your ideal reader would like to read.
2. SEO Everything.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it’s what people do to get found on Google. You do it by using specific keywords and by formatting your blog posts properly.
Still, SEO is a mystery to me. I try to do it, but then I’m too slothful to go and start guest blogging and building backlinks. It just doesn’t excite me, it makes me want to run away and hide somewhere. But I have found that choosing the right, more niche keywords and writing really helpful articles really helps.
3. Write Helpful Content That Isn’t Perfect
Whenever I write content now, I always keep the end in mind. Start with the end in mind they say. And this is so very true. And it makes things so much easier and the content so much more helpful.
The end I keep in mind when I’m writing content now vs in the past is that I want my content to be useful, but not overwhelming. I don’t want to go into too many details. I want people to come, get the information or inspiration they need, really understand why this is important and then take action. Like actually take action.
Too much information, too many details aren’t empowering, they can be debilitating. Too long of an article can give your audience an excuse to not do what they want to do. To put it off for later when they do have time to read it all. Most of us, don’t have that much time. I still bookmark all these amazing blog post with 3000+ words, graphs, and super helpful content that can probably solve all my problems, but I never actually read them. A video that’s longer than 5 minutes? Don’t actually watch it. People want solutions fast. And I want them too.
So keep it straightforward and focus on the essentials. Keeping the end in mind has helped me create better content a lot faster. I’m not wondering what this blog should include and what it shouldn’t. Not trying to impress anyone. I’m quite aware I’m not writing poetry and I’ve let go of the desire to be unique or to make content about how special I am. The only thing I want when someone stumbles upon my article out of all the articles on the internet is to make them feel good, understood and to help them take action.
4. Get the Technical Stuff Right!
I won’t go into too much detail here, but here I’ve built a foundation that really works for me at this point so I’m thinking about using the same things on the other blog:
- Hosting: Siteground (absolutely recommend, get 60% off!)
- WordPress Theme: Genesis and the Divine child theme (the one I’m using now), although I really love the Cook’d theme as well, so I might use that!
- Pinterest Scheduling Tool: Tailwind (!can’t live without it, get a free trial here)
- Pin-Making Tool: Canva!
BTW. if you’ve never made a blog before and need help with that, read my How To Start A Blog Guide, it pretty much goes through everything you need to know at first about creating a blog.
5. Create a Blogging Calendar and Stick to It
2019 was the first year I created a very simple schedule for this blog, that is humane, not overloaded and actually works for me. That simple schedule changed everything. Thanks to that schedule in 2019 I was able to stay consistent with my blog and with social media and I saw the biggest progress and growth. It really makes me happier and helps me breathe easier.
Before that, I’d have weeks when I didn’t post anything, weeks when I’d post 5 times and I’d always have that nagging voice in my head: When are you going to finally post something???? Now I’m calm and so much more productive.
With the new blog, I’m thinking of blogging once a week at first and see from there.
6. Delegate More
I don’t know if I’ll necessarily hire someone to do things for me, but I’ll definitely invest more in scheduling tools like Tailwind, automate as much as I can and create layouts for things like social media graphics and blog posts.
And update: I feel like last year I came to the conclusion I definitely need to hire someone to help me out. Someone help me out, please. Hahaha, I’m kinda all over the place and do not like it. So this year this is one of my top priorities: delegate more!
7. Think of Blogging As A Marathon
I hate when people say this, because running a marathon has never been something I’d want to put myself through. I’ll probably change my mind in a few years when I get a little bit older and have to prove things to myself.
But when it comes to blogging, patience pays off. It really does. Impatience, however, can waste quite a lot of time. Checking stats over and over again has only made me unproductive and stressed in the past.
Now I really want to look at a blog as what it can be not just a year from now, but 3, maybe 5 years from now. What it can become.
I always used to set monthly or annual goals for this blog – how much traffic it should get, how much money it should make, how many posts it should have. And it always created stress, not excitement. But this year, I let go of this and understood that with patience this blog can grow this into something much bigger and better and it’s okay if I don’t “get there” this month or this year.
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