My 20 Best Tips for Blogging

MY TOP 20 TIPS FOR BLOGGING WHEN STARTING YOUR BLOG

1. Start with SEO Keyword research to inform all of your writing with low competition SEO keywords

2. Understand how to optimize your content for your target SEO keywords and the searcher’s intent

3. Master keyword research to accelerate your blogs’ success and maintain low effort performance in the long run

4. Use the WordPress platform hosted on your own domain and hosting (not WordPress.com, WordPress.org, Wix, or Blogger) to create a lower cost site with more control over design, SEO, and functionality

5. After starting your blog and gaining momentum, optimize your site for Technical SEO by making the page as fast as possible using the Google Pagespeed Insights tester as your benchmark tool.  Settle for minimum speed scores of 50+ and aim for 70+

6. Structure your site’s overall “content map” to guide users through all of your content using well organized topics, links in the site menu, “Start Here” posts, and “Pillar Posts”

7. Utilize “content benchmarking” when creating content to ensure you are 1) creating something better than what already exists on the topic and 2) you’re targeting the appropriate searcher intent

8. Create a constantly updated content plan detailing each post to be written, topic, keywords, and dictating essential metrics and traits (length, searcher intent, related links, monetization strategy) with a content mix conducive to sharing, ranking for keywords, and monetization in line with the strategy of your site and brand

9. Forget Facebook, Instagram and other Social platforms for marketing your blog posts…unless you already have a large following with high engagement (10k on Instagram or Facebook).  Focus on building a tribe of readers, organic traffic via search (Google and Pinterest), forums (Reddit, Quora, forums, etc.) and emails for enduring relationships

10. Use “low-algorithm dependent” forums and communities often to connect with audiences, build rapport within “tribes”, share content valuable to the respective tribe and  jumpstart SEO

11. Learn which marketing channels are most effective for your site and content and which channerls are conducive to your desires and personality – then invest most of your marketing efforts in those channels(80% minimum)

12. Monetize your site immediately via affiliate marketing, in the mid-term (10k to 25k sessions) with ads, and with your own products (info products, software, courses) in the long term.  Steer clear of providing services as a monetization strategy if you intend to scale or focus income that is more passive than not.  Avoid trading time for money.

13. Aim to create an evergreen “content catalog” that will endure as an ever-growing resource, and refresh each piece of content on a quarterly bases for changes in SEO, searcher intent, and knowledge on the topic

14. For the first 6 months on your site, focus solely on 1) Writing good content and 2) Building rapport in and sharing your content with your target “tribes”.  Don’t worry about guest posting, linking building, building social media accounts, or selling sponsored posts in the first 6 months

AFTER 6 MONTHS

15. After 6 months, begin refreshing and “re-optimizing” posts for SEO, relevance, and monetization.

16. Analyze the traffic, traffic sources, and SERP keywords for your top 20 results once per week. Optimize regularly for user experiences (UX), freshness, internal links,SEO, and monetization opportunities

17. Analyze your SERP results in Google Analytics to identify your “authority areas” recognized by Google and plan your content and refine your niche accordingly to expand on your authority topics progressively targeting more competitive keywords.

18. Revisit the business model for your site and overall strategy.  Reassess your content catalog, niche, highest performing content, lowest performing content, email marketing strategy (including lead magnets and opt-ins), highest performing marketing channels, lowest performing marketing channels, and site content flow and site structure.  Apply the Pareto Rule (80/20) to what you learn to create a new strategy for your site focusing on everything that works and eliminating everything all tasks that don’t show a history of success.

19. Begin planning for an owned product (eBook, digital tool, course) that you can deliver on your site as an additional revenue stream

20. After you have scanned this entire book, come back and re-read this list.