100 Lessons Learned from 10 Years of Blogging

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Blogging is a lot like learning. You have to learn it and experience different things to grow with the platform. With time, you will see changes in your blog that were not possible before- including how people react to specific posts or topics, what content resonates most with readers, etc. The “professional travel blogger” has been blogging for ten years. He has learned a lot of lessons in that time, and he shares some of those with the readers. On the 17th of December, 2014, I can’t believe I’ve been blogging for more than ten years. It’s been quite the adventure! Overall, I appreciate writing since it allows me to assist others. Furthermore, it has helped generate a significant amount of visitors and money for my businesses. For each of my software firms, it is our primary marketing channel. But if I were to start again with my blogging career, I would do things differently. Why? Because I’ve gained a lot of knowledge through the years. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to a time machine. Therefore I won’t be able to travel back in time and prevent the significant errors I’ve made. I can, however, share my lessons with you so that you might benefit from them. Here are 100 things I’ve learned after ten years of blogging.

Headlines

Following are some of the takeaways from producing over 1,000 headlines:

  1. First, fact-based and data-driven headlines are more likely to be shared within the B2B community.
  2. Keep them concise and to the point; otherwise, your click-through rate will suffer.
  3. The most crucial component of a blog article is the title.
  4. It will chop off your headlines in Google’s search results if they are too lengthy. So keep them to a maximum of 65 characters.
  5. Don’t make the mistake of assuming you know what your audience wants. Always do A/B tests on your blog titles.
  6. Consider what people might type into Google to locate your blog content. Include such terms and phrases in your headlines if at all feasible.
  7. Increase your click-through rates by using negative terms in your headlines.
  8. If you’re going to include numbers in your headlines, go with odd numbers since they receive more hits.
  9. People scan headlines and pay attention to just the first three and final three words.
  10. Within the headline, try to address the readers.
  11. Make sure your title is easy to understand. People will leave if they don’t know what they’re reading.
  12. Start with these formulae if you’re unsure how to create awesome headlines.
  13. Don’t attempt to entice your readers with clickbait. You will lose their faith if you lie to them.
  14. When at all possible, arouse interest. This is also beneficial for Facebook shares.
  15. Using emotions in your headlines is a terrific technique to increase the number of people who read your blog content.
  16. Use publications to get ideas. Their authors have a knack for creating catchy headlines.
  17. You can always utilize a headline generator if you’re stuck. It’s not the end-all solution, but it may help you get started.
  18. Make sure your title isn’t too long to fit in a tweet.

Writing

Here are some writing tips I’ve picked up throughout the years:

  1. First, make sure that your entries are free of grammatical and spelling issues. This has an impact on both your readers and search engine results.
  2. Begin your introduction by posing a question. It’s a straightforward approach to pique your readers’ interest.
  3. Use the words “you” and “I” in your article to assist you in starting a dialogue.
  4. Finish your essay with a conclusion. It’s an excellent approach to summarizing your message and highlighting essential points.
  5. Within your body, use subheadings. They make it simpler to read your posts.
  6. Bold and italicize words and phrases to add style to your articles.
  7. Using bullets and statistics to make your information more consumable is a straightforward approach.
  8. Always plan ahead of time before you begin writing. It aids in the speeding up of the procedure.
  9. Making your material stand out from the crowd by telling a narrative is a terrific approach.
  10. Opening out to your readers is a fantastic method to establish a solid emotional connection with them. With your words, you can easily do this.
  11. Only write about topics that you are enthusiastic about. Those are the articles that will be successful. When you write about topics you like, your followers will notice.
  12. Experiment with various writing styles to see what works best for you. It’s the most effective method for determining your voice.
  13. The most significant moment to write is when inspiration strikes. You’ll be able to blog effectively if you can put everything else aside and concentrate only on writing.
  14. Don’t hurry through your writing. It takes time and practice to create high-quality material.
  15. Don’t put everything you write out there. Some of your postings will be terrible, and you should avoid publishing them. It’s all right… It occurs to everyone.
  16. Make it a point to get to the matter as soon as possible. Fluff isn’t going to help.
  17. If you have trouble writing, you may always hire an editor to assist you.

Generation of concepts

What I learned about coming up with blog subject ideas is as follows:

  1. Most of your most exemplary ideas don’t come from sitting in front of a computer. Instead, allow yourself to be inspired by the environment around you, engage with people, and allow your imagination to run wild.
  2. To generate ideas, use platforms like Buzzsumo. In most situations, what worked previously still works today.
  3. Keep an eye on your rivals. It will be easier for you to come up with subject ideas if you know what works for them.
  4. Analyze your content with Google Analytics. For example, stop blogging about things that don’t get much attention.
  5. Pick up a magazine or a book to get some inspiration.
  6. Allow thoughts to flow to you organically rather than forcing them. Forced ideas usually result in mediocre blog postings.
  7. If you’re stuck, seek assistance from others. Others may provide you with ideas, from peers to individuals in your business.
  8. You may generate ideas from your website visitors using technologies like Qualaroo.
  9. Begin by subscribing to the most popular forums in your neighborhood. The most frequently requested queries are often excellent topics for blog posts.
  10. Google Trends is a fantastic resource for finding hot subjects to write about.

Commenting

Here’s what I’ve learned about leaving comments:

  1. After each piece, always pose a question to your audience. It aids in increasing the number of comments you get.
  2. Removing trackbacks from your site is a good idea. But unfortunately, they obstruct people’s ability to view and read the comments.
  3. To assist with answers, be sure to utilize threaded comments.
  4. Use Facebook comments sparingly. Because the text isn’t crawlable, it decreases overall rankings.
  5. If you aren’t willing to answer each person, don’t expect others to leave comments.
  6. When replying to comments, make sure your replies are detailed. It demonstrates that you are concerned.
  7. Try to react to comments as soon as possible. Your timely answers aid in increasing response rates.
  8. Allow prior commentators to get email alerts when new comments are made. You may do this using the Subscribe to Comments plugin.
  9. Your comments should be moderated. You don’t want a bunch of spammy remarks since they’ll ruin the atmosphere.
  10. Encourage individuals to leave comments using their real identities rather than their website names. Commenting should be a private matter.
  11. It should avoid self-promotion. Your objective should be to assist readers rather than persuade them to give you money. In the long term, this will aid in the development of goodwill and sales.
  12. Most comments are usually made on personal tales and experiences.
  13. People are more likely to remark at 9 a.m. than at other times.

Marketing through email

What I learned about email marketing is as follows:

  1. The most effective technique to attract readers to return to your site is via email marketing.
  2. Readers who arrive at your site by email are more inclined to share it on social media and leave comments.
  3. The most excellent areas to capture emails are pop-ups at the entrance and departure.
  4. Even if you despise pop-ups, they will be tolerated by most of your visitors.
  5. Opt-ins on the sidebar and below blog entries (above the comments) are other good places to gather emails.
  6. Offering each reader an incentive, such as a free e-book, is the most effective approach to gathering email addresses.
  7. Start with the “get quick access” call to action when testing the call-to-action button for your e-book offer since it converts nicely.
  8. Please send an email to all subscribers every time you publish a blog article to let them know you’ve done so. So make sure you send emails two or three times every week.
  9. Limit the number of links in your emails to your subscribers. When you use more than three, your emails are more likely to wind up in the spam bin.
  10. Don’t keep sending emails to those who don’t open them. It is a source of spam. Your email provider should be able to assist you in removing these emails.
  11. Your opt-in rate will increase if your email offer is tied to a blog article.
  12. Make sure your offer is beneficial; otherwise, it may damage your reputation and result in many unsubscribes.
  13. Don’t use an email service that assigns you a shared IP address. A dedicated IP might assist with deliverability if you maintain your list correctly.
  14. Return Path certification can assist you in getting more emails into people’s inboxes.
  15. Maintain brevity in your email subject lines to improve open rates.
  16. Keep your subject lines as informal as possible to increase open rates.
  17. Omit your whole blog article in your email. Instead, to assist bring more visitors back to your site, make sure you publish the opening paragraph or two.

Organizing blog posts

Here’s what I discovered regarding blog post frequency and timing:

  1. If you don’t publish blog content reincreasing your visitors early, it won’ visitors.
  2. Make a blogging schedule for yourself and stick to it. Then, please adhere to the program, whether once a week or once a month.
  3. The perfect days to blog are Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
  4. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will have the least amount of traffic.
  5. The majority of people read blogs first thing in the morning. The second most common time is in the afternoon.
  6. Monday at 11 a.m. is the optimal time to schedule a blog post.
  7. People who blog twice a day create more than double the number of inbound links as those who write just once a day.
  8. Women are less likely than males to read blog postings late at night.

SEO

Here’s what I learned about search engine optimization for your blog:

  1. Use the Yoast SEO plugin if you have a WordPress blog.
  2. When it makes sense, interlink your blog entries to aid with crawling and indexing.
  3. Write material that isn’t optimized for search engines because search engines will ultimately adapt and write material for people.
  4. Posts with 2,000 words or more are more likely to appear on Google’s first page.
  5. Infographics are an excellent approach to attracting new readers and backlinks. These backlinks will help you improve your rankings in the long term.
  6. Avoid jamming keywords into your blog entries; it will only damage you.
  7. Because blogging is a long-tail tactic, don’t worry about optimizing your blog content for specific keywords. Instead, concentrate only on producing high-quality material.
  8. Using subheadings and headers within your blog content can help you rank for additional keywords.

Use of social media

What I learned about social media marketing is as follows:

  1. Scrolling social buttons, such as Flare, can help you produce more social shares.
  2. Each blog article should only have two or three social sharing choices. You’ll get more social shares if you have fewer selections than five or six.
  3. Include social sharing buttons at the bottom and on the side of your post.
  4. During 5 p.m. EST, the majority of individuals are on Twitter. When is the best time to distribute your content?
  5. To receive the most exposure on Twitter, share the same post many times.
  6. At noon EST on Saturday, people choose to share material on Facebook.
  7. A fantastic approach to acquiring more social shares is to ask visitors to share material after each blog article.
  8. Make sure you utilize social meta tags if you want more social traffic.
  9. If you have coworkers, request that they share your postings with them. Every sharing makes a difference.

Conclusion

Over the previous ten years, I’ve learned a lot about blogging. I’ve liked my adventure so far, and I’m looking forward to learning even more over the next ten years as I blog. I hope you can learn from my mistakes and build your site far faster than I could.

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