Blogging for me, right now, is a "spare time" activity, and since my 30 minutes of down time at the end of the day consists of watching an episode of Friends on Netflix and snuggling Crew, blogging hasn't been happening a lot lately.
1. Change up the "popular posts" section on your sidebar.
You should have this on your sidebar. It's an important one. Anything you can do to keep people on your site for a bit longer is beneficial. Determine what a few of your top posts have been, or choose several of your personal favorites to feature. Go ahead right now and change those out if you already have that particular section. And if you don't, make one! (Add an HTML gadget to your Layout and you're good to go!) Once you've done this, make sure to share on Twitter or FB that you've changed up that section on your blog.
2. Comment on 2 blog posts.
Community is key in the blog world. Commenting is dying out, unfortunately, because most people read from their phones (and it's harder to comment with the tiny keyboard). But, it's always a good idea to show support to another blogger, and it will put your name and your blog's name out into the world for others to see. Make sure to actually read the post and make a genuine comment.
3. Comment on 2 Instagram pictures.
Yes, this is good for your blog as well. Scrolling through Instagram is my thing while I'm nursing Crew at 330am, and since no one is really posting during that hour, I'll click on people's accounts who have commented on a particular picture. If they have a link in their profile, I'll sometimes click on it. If I'm doing this, other people are doing it!
4. Determine how to recreate one of your most popular posts.
Look through your stats and see which of your blog posts have received the most hits. Instead of just re-distributing those blog posts through social media (which isn't a terrible idea to do a "from the archives" or "here's an oldie but goodie"), decide how you can recreate it. For example, my top posts are usually my 1 item, 3 ways posts. I enjoy doing these, and I think it's a great way to maximize your wardrobe...so I'll figure out more items I can wear multiple ways. And I'll do it right this second while I'm thinking about it...instead of putting it on my to-do list.
There are a ton of things you can do for your blog and to improve your blog, but these are just 4 things you can do right this minute! And maybe these things will even get your creative juices stirred up for other ideas!
What is something you do for your blog when you have just a few extra minutes to spare?
For a few blogging tips, check out this post.
13 comments :
These tips are great. I agree that commenting and building a sense of community is SO crucial in the blogging world. I also love the idea of sharing popular posts on the sidebar, I need to implement that one (:
Thank you for these tips! I just changed up my popular posts :)
love these! and i'm so sad about the little commenting. it's hard to feel like what you're putting out there is being well received! but even I comment way less thanks to addilyn and reading things on my phone! I need to change my favorite posts!
My favorite posts is based on hits so I am not sure how to switch that up!
I do like the idea of re-posting the "greatest hits" -- my blog has changed so much in six years, it would be fun to pull out an oldie.
PS- One thing I do to change up my blog is to change the color scheme, that's fun. I think I will go do it now.
These are great tips Ashley! And I just went back to look at your other tips and OH MY GOSH...I never knew about how to make the pictures widths be the same without having the pictures be distorted and it always bothered me so much. Now i'm going back and fixing some of my old posts. Haha. Thank you forever for that tip! XO
Love all of these!! so many good ideas, love the idea of commenting on instagram and changing up popular posts. I need to tackle that!
as per usual, you are full of great and easy blogging tips :) I love the Instagram one - I always assume scrolling through my feed is being engaging enough, haha, but I don't realize the people on the other side of the screen can't see me just scrolling!
Commenting and engaging in general is dying out. A good friend of mine and blogging buddy were talking about how we read on Bloglovin and she almost exclusively uses the app on her iPad or iPhone. I ask her how she commented on blogs. She said she just didn't. I was shocked. She has such a following and she has amazing content, but she doesn't share the love. I was kind of disappointed to hear that from her.
These are all great tips! I admit I've been reading blogs at work and haven't been able to comment (it's blocked on there) ha.
-Sharon
This is perfect! It's great motivation to keep up with my blogging even if I can't do it as often as I used to. Babies are out to suck up our time, aren't they. ;-)
Thanks for the tips!! I'm brand new to all things blogging and this really helps. Especially the bit about commenting...I'll be joining the early morning/late night feeding sessions in a few months with baby #2 and can be productive at the same time!
I agree, commenting is not dead and I love the idea of recreating one of your most popular posts!
xx Kelly
Sparkles and Shoes
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