Easy Ways to Support Your Blogger Friend!

5 Ways To Support Your Blogger Friend

Blogging has become so mainstream these days, chances are you have a friend or two who has a blog. It can be so easy to overlook their career as it usually looks fun and effortless from the outside, but there is SO much going on behind the scenes to make everything run smoothly.

I’ve realized after having my blog for almost four years, that I have some pretty awesome friends who know how to help me succeed and love to throw me a like or a share every once and a while. I’ve also realized that so many people don’t know how to support me and my business and that’s why I thought to make this post! There are many quick and easy ways you can support your friend who blogs (or even just your favorite bloggers you follow).

Keep reading for ways you can support your favorite blogger!

Read Their Blog

This small action makes a huge impact as blog traffic plays a major factor in earning brand collaborations as well as insight into what posts are most popular amongst readers. Leave comments on your friend’s blog posts and share them on social media! Hours and hours of hard work go into each blog post, the 2 seconds it takes for you to share a blog post on Facebook or Pinterest will not go unnoticed! While you’re checking out your friend’s blog, make sure to click around and spend some time on the different pages. This kind of traffic tells Google that their website is important and has relevant and interesting information, which in turn will help your friend’s site rank higher and lead to more organic discovery and traffic via search engine!

Use Their Links to Shop

The great thing about monetizing a blog with affiliate links is that there is no cost to the reader when they shop via these links! In fact, the only difference it makes is that the company you are shopping from gives a very small commission to the blogger as a reward for sharing the item. Why wouldn’t you want to kick a few cents to your friend for items you’d already be shopping for? This goes for anything too, a blogger gets commission from a reader using their affiliate links even if they aren’t buying the item being reviewed.

Blogging is so expensive, I put every cent I make from my blog back into paying to host my site, camera equipment, clothing, photographers, travel expenses, and all kinds of other expenses. Although I only earn a few cents when I sell something, those cents add up over time and help me continue to do what I love and share it with you all!

Subscribe to Their Newsletter

A bloggers email list is their pride and joy and also the key to much of their initial blog traffic following a new post! Subscribing to their newsletter not only shows that you care, but also allows you to keep up on recent posts and often times get additional information or freebies that your friend may not share anywhere else.

Be Supportive of their Spontaneous Photoshoots

Blogging is a 24/7 non-stop job for those of us who have decided to make it a career. This means you may have experienced your blogger friends pull out their camera to capture their outfit, or pop open Instagram stories to share parts of their day. This can be annoying or awkward in public but remember, your friend is “on the clock” 24/7 which means they have to share to keep their audience engaged and continue to make a living. Try to be understanding of your friends who do this, and maybe even offer to snap a photo of their outfit if you feel comfortable!

Offer Suggestions for Posts

There are no shortage of topics for blog posts or photo ideas for Instagram posts, but often times it can be tough to come up with an idea that readers want to hear about. There’s only so many OOTD’s one can read about before getting bored or going crazy. When you have a topic you’d like to learn more about or a question for your blogger friend, let them know! Odds are there are at least a handful of their followers who have the same question, and it can be hard to continuously come up with fresh ideas to blog about, especially for those of us who blog full time.

In conclusion, it is so easy to help your blogger friends and there are many ways you can contribute to their success. If you are unsure of how you can help, it never hurts to ask! There is no better feeling than when your friends show that they care by asking what they can do to support your ventures.

How do you support the bloggers in your life?

Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to subscribe below, and share with your friends.

xo

5 Investments to Make for a Successful Blog

There is a lot of information about “how to start a blog” online. It is daunting to sift through pages of information as you search for the answers to your blogging questions. I’m speaking with complete transparency and from raw experience as I have put in the hours to teach myself everything that I know about blogging. I will admit I have learned a lot by trial and error, what works vs what is a waste of time and money. I decided to put this list together of the investments I’ve tried that have worked, for those of you that may be skeptical about what to invest your money into as you transition your blog into a business. Each one of these tips has made a difference in the successes I’ve had as a full time blogger and I hope that you are able to take at least one small nugget of information to apply to your own business to prove results!

5 Investments You Must Make for a Successful Blog

1. Self Hosting

Self hosting means paying a web host such as Squarespace or Wordpress to host your blog. When I first created my blog it was as a personal portfolio and I used a free website (blogspot) to host my blog. I didn’t intend for anyone to read it except me and a few friends and I didn’t understand why it was important to spend any money to host my blog at the time. For me, it wasn’t! For my original blogging intentions it was just fine to use a free hosting platform and have a website name with an unprofessional looking “.blogspot.com” at the end, with a messy and poorly laid out template that I chose from their free options on the site. Until I decided it was something I wanted to take on and to make money from, I realized that just like any other business venture, there are important things to invest in when blogging that will help to take your blog to the next level and are essentials in my eyes. Not all of these are monetary investments. I am frugal and don’t make a ton of money, but the small amount I do make right now, 100% goes back into my business and these are the top 5 investments that I make with that money in order to support my blog!

When you pay to self host, you fully own your blog and are able to make customizations to your website that you otherwise would not be able to do. Running your blog on a free platform is the same as having an Instagram blog, ultimately you don’t own your website or content and you have much less flexibility with the layout and look of your website.

Self hosting is the only way to monetize your blog, you are in control of what ads are placed on your blog, you can remove or add them at will. Free platforms, from my experience, are unprofessional looking and companies will not pay you to create content for them on a free blogging platform. If your goal is to make money from your blog these types of sites will ultimately damage your earning potential. Self hosting is one of the bigger investments I make each year, but I chose to use Squarespace to automatically renew my domain and hosting every year, so it’s really easy and I don’t even have to think about it!

Three years ago as a fresh new blogger who knew nothing about owning a website, I have to say Squarespace is one of the easiest and most user friendly hosting sites to invest in. It is very quick to sign up, create a domain and pay for everything in package form. They have beautifully designed templates that you can use and customize to create the exact look you want for your website. There is also an extremely useful “help” section that has answered any and every question I’ve ever had whenever I get stuck on anything Squarespace related. Click here to get started with Squarespace!

2. Website Design

Website design is one of the most important investments you will make with your website. Ultimately, you NEED to catch the attention of your reader within the first few seconds of them landing on your site. Besides content, the look and feel of your website will determine how long people stay on your website, click through articles, use your affiliate links, and increase your ad revenue (if you use them). This can be an investment that you pay for in terms of an actual web designer who you contract to create a beautiful website for you. Or this can be in terms of investing your own time and energy into designing your own beautiful site. Also it is so important that your website functions correctly, images load quickly, buttons route to the correct pages, links aren’t broken, ads aren’t overwhelming your readers, and the colors are cohesive and your site it overall a beautiful and easy page to function. Make sure your page is also mobile responsive for your readers who like to check your blog from their iPhone!

3. Photography

Whatever subject you choose to blog about, the quality of your images that you upload to your social media pages as well as your blog is paramount! Images need to be clear, composed and eye catching. Invest in your photography make sure you’re either using the correct equipment including camera, tripod, lighting, backdrops, or even a professional photographer if you can’t take your own photos. Investing in high quality stock photos is important if you don’t need to include personal photos on your blog. Your photos on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are what will entice your target market to click through to your physical blog. First impressions are everything!

4. Tailwind for Pinterest

I am a new believer in the power of Pinterest! I plan to create an entire post on my Pinterest growth and go into detail on how it has changed the game for my blog, but for now I want to touch on the importance of consistent pinning.

Pinterest is your new best friend. Utilize Pinterest by creating a business account so you can view you analytics, apply for rich pins, claim your blog and social accounts to increase your legitimacy, create some beautiful pins with Canva, and start pinning! Most people say to pin only 20% your own content and 80% other pins, but I do the opposite. I want to increase my blog views so I pin every single image from my website and Instagram and then continue to re-pin the images that get the most saves and clicks.

Tailwind is an amazing tool that automates your pinning, and it’s only $10 a month! Take my word for it, coming from the girl who thought Pinterest was a gimmick only 3 short months ago. INVEST. IN. TAILWIND. This tool allows you to batch pin and schedule out your pins so you can sit back and watch your page views grow with minimal work. Time is money, you’ve heard me say it before! Invest your time wisely, what is your time worth?

5. TIME

Blogging as a hobby is great because if it is something you genuinely enjoy you’ll find time to create and it’s so much fun! As you grow and learn more about the industry you’ll quickly see that creating a successful business from your blog takes a ton of time and energy. Maximizing your time will become a priority and learning to be efficient is a non-negotiable. I still feel like I don’t have enough time in the day to get things done and I think I’m pretty good at managing my time as a full time mom and work from home blogger.

Not only does the actual creating take up a ton of time between emailing with brands and PR companies, planning shoots, shopping for items, pulling outfits/looks, and editing photos, you will also spend a huge chunk of your time researching SEO, and trend reports, customizing your blog and subscription list, replying to emails and comments and engaging with your followers, the list goes on forever! Most days I feel like I’m working from the moment I wake up until the time I go to bed. It’s currently 11pm as I finish this post and I’m not going to bed until it’s completed and scheduled. Time is a huge commitment and hands down the biggest investment you will make in your blog if you want it to be successful.

How To Get Out of the Instagram Comparison Trap

Stick around to the end of the post for a motivational list I compiled from my most influential mentor.

It comes in waves. Every few months I will hit a road block in momentum with my blog and begin to spiral, losing motivation exponentially by the day. This is mostly in part due to my own over-thinking and perfectionistic personality getting the best of me. I always want to be the best at what I do and I am the first to admit that I get stuck in the trap of comparing myself to other bloggers big and small. I find myself feeling dare I say, *jealous* that they are getting to work with some of my favorite companies, or that they’re able to afford a professional photographer, or that they have the means (or connections) to go on amazing vacations, that they have so much more time in the day to dedicate to their business and for whatever reason seem to be thriving in all aspects of their lives.

First off, I can say all day “oh, but Instagram is just a highlight reel,” or “they’ve been doing it for longer.” There are so many ways to justify my feelings when in fact the only thing that is true is the fact that I am comparing myself to someone whose life is COMPLETELY different than mine! How is it even fair to myself to measure my personal success based off of another blogger who looks different than me, has a different style, lives in a different state, lives a completely different life? Comparison is toxic, but it is human nature and impossible to avoid no matter what you tell yourself. Sorry!

Although it is impossible to avoid these thoughts of measuring ones success to your own, I have found some methods of making it easier to push through these mental ruts and continue down a productive path instead of spending valuable time frittering away scrolling through social media, and wishing I had what someone else had. I tried to keep this brief, I know by now you can see how much I enjoy rambling. My best blogs tend to be the mind dump blogs, so bear with me! Here we go with the tips in no particular order of significance.

You may also like to read “How To Grow Your Instagram: Tips and Tricks”

1. Write Down Your Goals

   This may sound super obvious, but I have always been one to fly by the seat of my pants. I didn’t start writing my goals down and really thinking about what I was trying to achieve long-term with my blog (now business) until recently and it has been a game changer for keeping myself on track! First, I write down the overarching goal, then I break the goal down into manageable mini-goals and tackle each of the mini goals one at a time. This has helped me realize that my kinda scary, really huge, mountainous goals are in fact attainable, and much less intimidating. Instead of working for months to cross just one item off the list, I can cross off a goal every few weeks which is such a confidence booster and keeps me motivated on the bigger picture instead of stuck on feeling like I never get anywhere. Growth is slow, it’s a marathon not a race.

2. Create a Routine

   Especially since having a baby and becoming a stay-at-home mom, I have realized that nothing gets done unless I stick to a schedule. The more I stick to my personal daily routine, the easier it is to convince myself to sit down and work. I have dedicated a daily time block to work, and if I skip out on it during the scheduled time, I may not ever find more time to get things done for the blog. Of course there is flexibility, and some days don’t go exactly as planned, but that’s life and adjustments are made to the schedule. If you all are keen on me getting into more detail about my daily routine just let me know!

3. Think About Your End Game

   I have to give the hubby credit for this one. I was telling him about my blogging rut and my struggle with feeling not awesome about my content, and he asked me to tell him exactly where I saw myself in 5 years with my business. He wanted me to spell out my day for him from what kind of coffee I ordered to how many people I might have working for me, to where my office would be, to what kind of work I would be doing myself vs delegating to others. Every. Single. Detail. I was caught off guard because I hadn’t ever really thought about the direction I was taking my business since it has been a hobby for so long, I always just got inspired, took pictures, posted them and talked to you all in the comments! That was it!

   The reason why it is important to know exactly where you want to be is not to end up exactly there, but to have something to work toward, reverse engineering your life, essentially. Each task you accomplish should be working toward that “end game” goal. Even the smallest details matter so much, it’s kind of like a dream board but spoken out loud. It’s up to you to become the person you want to be, in that position with those successes. Since I was able to tell him exactly where I wanted to see myself in 5 years I am now able to dedicate each piece of work to this “dream” and work towards something that feels a little more tangible since I can see it in my mind, instead of blindly flailing.

4. Remember Why Your Content is Unique

   Your content is unique because you are unique. There is no other “you” out there and as long as you stay true to your personal style, and values, people will find you. It is much more fun to follow someone who is genuine and honest, not trying to emulate another blogger. I feel so cliche saying this because, well, DUH. But I still have to tell myself this, constantly. Compare yourself to others, because you will… but then move on and dedicate your time and energy to being yourself and sharing who you are instead of trying to be something that you will never be! I like to remind myself how valuable each minute of my day is. What is my worth and how much am I willing to invest into worrying or self doubt? I would much rather invest into learning, bettering myself, creating content that is true to me and working toward my goals.

Last but not least, I wanted to include a list of the tips for success that I learned from my mentor and great friend. We no longer work together but I still look up to her and I reference this list daily to keep myself balanced and motivated. Copy and paste this, put it in the notes of your phone and pull it up when you’re feeling unmotivated and remember that you have the full control to be successful in whatever you desire to do!

J’s Tips For Success:

Network

Utilize your resources

You can do anything you want

Take risks with your business

No risk, no reward

Don’t overthink things

Always portray good body language (no crossed arms or legs)

Delegate: trust but verify

Fake it ‘til you make it

Never apologize unless you are truly at fault

Never say “it’s fine” if it’s not

LEARN from your negative experiences, don’t let them drag you down

Don’t second guess yourself

Take personal feelings out of the equation

The things that make you uncomfortable will make you a stronger leader

If you made it to the end of this post, YOU are the real MVP and I LOVE YOU! Drop me a comment so I know how awesome you are!

I really hope this mess from my mind made sense to you all. I probably should edit my posts before publishing them because sometimes I’ll go back and realize how all over the place I am with my thoughts and remember that not everyone is in my head and able to decipher my ramblings. If you have questions or comments don’t be shy! I love chatting with you lovelies on Instagram or email!

Thanks for stopping by.

xo