Tips and Tricks for Setting Up Your Blog

Blogging is a lot of work, but it can be very rewarding. Are you thinking of starting a blog this year? Here are some helpful resources to get you going:

Getting Subscribers

• “The Benefits of Focusing on Your Mailing List” on Elle & Co
• “17 Fresh Reader Magnet Ideas For Fiction Authors” on Smart Self Publishing Biz
• “20k subscribers: Here’s how I doubled my email list” on XO Sarah
• “30 Desirable Content Upgrade Ideas” on Elle & Co
• “7 Little Known Ways To Get More Out of Your Conversions from Your Exit-Intent Popups” on Optimonk
• “How to design blog post graphics that convert” on Melyssa Griffin
• “Create a Sneeze Page for Your Blog [Day 18 – 31DBBB]” on Pro Blogger

Driving Traffic

• “7 Steps I Took to Make a Blog Post “Go Viral” on Brittany Berger
• “7 Tips for Making Search Engines Work for Marketing Your Book” on Media Shift
• “A Step-by-Step Guide to Driving Qualified Traffic From SlideShare Presentations” on Neil Patel
• “Growing a Site from 0 to 10k Visitors a Month: Nat Edition” on SumoMe
• “How our blog went viral and our one essential strategy” on Ivory Mix
• “How to Create Viral Content People Can’t Wait to Share [infographic]” on Louise Myers
• “How to get more website traffic” on Amy Lynn Andrews
• “How to grow to 2500 daily blog views (without being hacky)” on Morgan Timm
• “These Are the 9 Best Tips We Got on Medium Marketing: 3 Worked, 6 Didn’t” on Buffer
• “Ninja Copywriter’s Guide to Writing Headlines that Seduce Readers & Drive More Traffic” on Copy Ninja
• “SEO Case Study: First Page Rankings in 2 Hours Flat” on Think Creative Collective
• “201 Powerful SEO Tips (That Actually Work)” on Backlink
• “Hoping to Grow Your Audience? Focus on Narratives.” on We Grow Media
• Website Grader

Avoiding Mistakes

• “5 Blogging Mistakes and How to Avoid Them” on Rafflecopter
• “5 Common Mistakes That Even Longtime Bloggers Make” on Jane Friedman
• “8 Blog Commenting Mistakes You Need to Avoid at All Costs” on Neil Patel
• “How to Blog: Essential Do’s and Don’ts for Author-Bloggers” on Anne R. Allen

Guest Posts

• “5 Ways to Creatively Brainstorm Guest Post Ideas” on ProBlogger
• “Guest Blogging Strategy: How To Knock Your Next Guest Post Out Of The Park” on Blogging Wizard

Writing Posts

• “6 Ways to Make Your Posts More Actionable” on Neil Patel
• “7 Ways to Update Old Blog Posts (with Free Checklist)” on Beautiful Dawn
• “How to Write First Blog Post (16,000-word Guide +63 Expert Tips)” on IWannaBlog
• “How To Write The Ultimate Blog Post: A Blogger’s Cheat Sheet” on Blogging Wizard
• “How to Write with Power and Authority, Even if You Feel Like a Nobody” on Copy Blogger
• “The Automatic Kickass Headline Generator, by SumoMe” on SumoMe
• “The ultimate guide to repurposing your blog content (so you can reach more people by doing less)” on Melyssa Griffin
• “The Hub and Spoke Content Strategy” on Jimmy Daly
• “Want to boost your comments and shares? Here’s how to write better blog posts” on XO Sarah
• “How To Publish Like A Huge Content Creation Team (When It’s Really Just You)” on SumoMe
• “Clean illegal images from your blog before it’s too late” on Helen Sedwick

Monetization

• “8 Powerful Ways to Monetize a Blog That Generates Under 1,000 Visitors Per Day” on Neil Patel
• “8 Ways You Can Make More Money With Your Blog By Doing Webinars” on Wonderlass
• Chitika
• “All the data and numbers from our latest product launch” on Video Fruit
• “Can only certain blog niches create successful online courses?” on Melyssa Griffin
• “How To Blog Yourself To A Realistic Salary” on Startup Camp
• “How to make money blogging” on Amy Lynn Andrews
• “How to Make Money Blogging: How This Blog Makes $100K per Month” on Smart Blogger
• “The Ultimate Guide to No-Pain Copywriting (or, Every Copywriting Formula Ever)” on CopyHackers
• Mad Ads Media

Marketing Books with Blogging

• “How to Use Guest Blogging to Promote Your Book” on Jane Friedman
• “The Skinny on Virtual Book Tours” on Published to Death
• “Tips on Using Blog Tours for Book Marketing” on BookBub
• “The Not-Quite End of the Book Tour” on The Atlantic
• “Will a Blog Tour Work for Your Book?” on Indies Unlimited

Metrics

• “Google Analytics Basics for Bloggers” on Free Borboleta
• “How to Conduct Your Annual Blogging Review” on Pro Blogger
• “The best and worst metrics to track in order to grow your blog or biz” on Melyssa Griffin

Trends

• “Is Blogging Dead? Building Your Content Home on Rented Land” on Social Media Examiner
• “Blog Content 2016 Performance Trends” on Atomic Reach
• “2017 State of the Blogging Industry” on ConvertKit

Tools

• “11 Must-Haves Resources & Tools for Freelancers” on Medium
• “How to create time-saving systems for your business and blog” on Melyssa Griffin