6 Blogging Lessons I Learned In 2016

I learned quite a few blogging lessons in 2016. While I had a few months under my belt, I didn’t start taking my blog seriously until October 2016 so I would say I was pretty new. Trying to break into an industry where there are hundreds, if not thousands of people just like you is hard to say the least. Everyone wants a piece of the pie and everyone wants to be the best.

2016 was definitely a year of growth for the blog and myself professionally. Having to come home and teach yourself the entirely foreign world of web development, freelance and self promotion is actually quite hard. Not to mention exhausting.

I’m putting this post together to hopefully teach other new bloggers lessons I’ve learned so they don’t have to learn the hard way. Working for a digital company and being a Social Media Manager means I do get a bit of a leg up when it comes to blogging and knowing digital marketing. That being said I’m still a moron when it comes to website development. Everything you’ve seen on this website I have built myself or at least taught myself how to install.

Move to being self-hosted

When I first started blogging I didn’t want to spend any money on the blog. I thought it was stupid to be pouring money into something that wasn’t necessarily tangible. While I loved blogging and writing and being on social media, I didn’t think I needed to spend money to get the website where I wanted it to be. This was one of the most important blogging lessons I learned. Back in October (2015) I realized that the only way to make the blog look professional or have a shot at monetizing it was put some money into it. This of course started with buying a URL name and then moving to a self-hosted website with Bluehost.  Since then, when it comes to looking at a product or feature that’s going to help improve the blog I’m not so hesitant to spend money.  Sometimes you have to put money into your blog if you want to get something out of it, especially if you plan on working with other brands one day.

Set up Google Analytics

This next blogging lessons wasn’t so much as a new one but one that came later than it should have. As a marketer I already recognized the importance of setting up and having Google Analytics. Having the opportunity to analyze your own data and figure out why people are coming to your website, how and what they do once they get there is incredibly important. This will allow you to pick future topics to write about that people are actually going to read.

Once a month I put some time aside to do a ‘deep dive’ into my analytics. Looking at key things like landing pages, referrers, time on page, average pages per session and demographics are incredibly important. Once I realized how well some of my Iceland travel posts were doing I made it a priority to write more. It’s little things like this that will really make a difference with your blog and propel you forward.

Create a Media Kit

I had put this off for ages. In fact, I only created a Media Kit this December (talk about getting it in under the wire). I’m so glad I did. Already I have seen a positive response from travel companies that I’ve reached out to. If you haven’t yet created a Media Kit I suggest you start. It doesn’t have to be too detailed or in depth, just something simple. It will make your blog and you look so much more professional, trust me this isn’t one of the blogging lessons you want to miss out on.

When creating a media kit be sure to include things like; demographics, number of followers, companies you’ve worked with in the past and how you can work together. Companies appreciate having all of your important information in one file that they can access quickly and easily when needed.

Take Pinterest seriously

When I first started my blog I was obviously starving for traffic. No one starts a website and gets crazy hits right away (unless you’ve launched multiple websites before and know exactly what you’re doing). In fact, it’s still something you work on every day. You’ll likely never reach ‘enough’ traffic and I’m still trying to figure out how to increase my numbers. That being said, one of the more important blogging lessons for me was realizing how much traffic I could garner from Pinterest. I only wish I had taken it more seriously from the beginning.

If you haven’t done this yet, make sure you include branded images in ever post or shareable images. Even if people aren’t pinning directly from your website, they’ll hopefully be drawn to the images from the Pinterest newsfeed and want to check out your posts.

See: The no bullsh*t way to grow Pinterest

Start photo editing now!

One of my biggest regrets that I didn’t do in the beginning of this blog was edit photos from the get-go. Knowing the importance of photography – and more specifically the file sizing was a huge learning curve for me this year. Site speed is SUPER important to Google (they’ve mentioned this being a key factor when looking to rank) so it’s definitely something you’ll want to look into as well.

One of the major things I found that was slowing down my website were the large files (aka unedited or unsized photos). Such a rookie mistake. After looking more into this I realized that not only did I need to size my photos properly (most of them are now 1024 pixels wide), but that I needed to compress them as well. Two websites I’ve found to help me do this, that have been a life saver are Tiny PNG and Be Funky.

Join Blogger networks

I’m a firm believe in trying new things. There’s that old cliche saying where you should do something that scares you at least once a day. I try to follow that in my every day life as much as I possibly can. One of the best blogging lessons I learned this year was join Travel Massive. They actually started in Toronto and host events almost every month. They were setup initially to connect bloggers / social influencers with industry people to collaborate on content.

Through these events I’ve managed to meet some pretty incredible people. When I first start blogging I felt so silo’d. No one else that I knew had gotten into it seriously so it’s not like I had anyone to turn to to ask questions or bounce ideas off of. After joining Travel Massive I’ve now developed a group of friends that have similar interests to me and get what I’m doing. It’s really a nice feeling. Plus it’s a great opportunity to network and co-collaborate on some content.

No matter where you are in the blogging process, there’s always room to improve and more blogging lessons to learn. I have some big goals lined up for me in 2017 and I may or may not reach them (although I obviously will try my hardest).

I would love to hear from you on how you made your goals happen in 2017 and what sort of things you’re also looking forward to achieving in the new year!

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