BLOGGING TIPS — Home by Julianne

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What You Need to Know Before Starting Your Blog

Since I’ve been on my new blogging routine, I am fielding DM’s daily for how to start a blog, or how to stay motivated and disciplined when it comes to blogging. First off it is no easy task, I work pretty much every waking hour. What you put into it really determines what you get out of it, especially if you are running your blog as a business (or planning to)!

You Must Know Your Niche

What kind of content are you going to want to create daily for the foreseeable future? Do you already have content ideas for this topic? Will you be able to easily come up with more? It is so important to hone in on a niche that you can really be happy with and create content confidently that you are proud to share with your audience.

You’ll Have to Stick to a Posting Schedule

Pick a goal and stick with it! I’ve challenged myself to post 3 times a week on my blog and at least once a day on Instagram for a whole year. The Instagram part is easy as long as I am creating for my blog, I have an abundance of photos to share on social media. Consistency is key and success doesn’t come overnight. It takes hard work and long hours before you’ll see big results but the work will pay off if you stick with it!

You Are Your Own Boss

When you are your own boss, holding yourself accountable for efficiently getting things done is a huge reality. As a blogger you are your own boss and it is up to you how you spend your time! I have taught myself to really maximize the free time that I have to get as much done as possible in order to set myself up for success. You also have to be comfortable working alone. Blogging tends to be a one man show much of the time. I put in hard hours on my laptop every single day working on content, contracts, emails, etc. Be prepared for lots of solo work time!

You’ll Work for no Pay (At first)

Ok so I am still kind of in this category. I’ve recently been taking on more paid contracts and work but up until now (for a few years) I have worked for free. I don’t mean work for brands for free (value your time and energy), but put in the hours creating original content on the subject you are passionate about and eventually you will get rewarded for your effort. There is no magic button for getting rich from blogging, it may take a very long time to get your first sponsored post or make an affiliate check. I don’t take my time for granted since I am fortunate enough to not have to work a second full time job to make ends meet (thanks hubby) but it is not uncommon for most bloggers to work in conjunction with blogging full time before they’re able enough money to quit their job and pursue the blog full time! You really have to be passionate about blogging as a hobby before it will become your full time job.

You Have to be Obsessed With Blogging

Are you excited at the thought of researching SEO, social media and creating contracts? Having the energy for blogging where you are still excited to pull out your laptop after a full day’s work at your 9-5 and bust out another 5 hours researching and creating content is a must! My pasGoogle was (and still is) my best friend whenever I have a questions I can’t seem to solve from the standard trial and error. Staying hungry throughout the process will really help propel you into the success you seek! The energy and passion you start with is so important in creating success as a blogger but even more important as you become a more established blogger!

My passion for blogging really started when I began to research the unique career 5 years ago and my curiosity has only grown since then! People ask me all the time how to start a blog, it’s easy, just do it! Jump in head first! You’ll make mistakes and you’ll learn from trial and error, but ultimately you’ll become an expert because you’ve done it all from the ground up. I hope my tips help you in deciding if blogging is right for you and choosing the right time to jump into this exciting territory!

Thanks for reading!
xo

What is “Instagram Engagement?”

Instagram engagement is the percentage of users who act on (or engage with) the content that you post. This includes when someone likes, comments, saves, and sends/shares your posts. Basically any time an action is take on your post counts as engagement for you.

Why is Your Instagram Engagement Rate Important?

A few years ago a bloggers influence was determined by the amount of followers they had on any given platform. As the Instagram algorithm was introduced, there were many changes to the way that a blogger or influencer’s content was (and currently is) now seen, therefore making it harder to grow follower count and in turn making organic Instagram engagement that much more weighted when it comes to a bloggers level of influence. Instagram engagement is one of the most important metrics to measure the authenticity or relevance of a blogger.

Let me break it down even further. As brands are looking for bloggers to partner with on campaigns, they want to make sure they choose someone who has an active, engaged audience and a high reach (a high organic reach % should also yield high engagement on a post). Generally the higher the engagement, the higher the conversion rate. Growing your follower count is very challenging these days and as brands are working with more and more micro-influencers, engagement rate continues to become more and more important.

How to Grow Your Instagram: My Tips and Tricks

You may have heard about a popular trend called Instagram “pods” or engagement groups, where bloggers in a particular niche get together and engage with each others posts in order to boost each other’s content in the algorithm. There are many reasons why this can be detrimental to your overall reach and how you are displayed within the algorithm but the underlying fact is that this kind of engagement is not completely honest and generally speaking these bloggers are not going to be converting customers for you.

I’ll do a more in depth blog post on Instagram pods and how they are damaging to engagement in the very near future.

How to Figure Out Your Instagram Engagement Rate

Instagram engagement takes is calculated by the ratio of followers you have the the number of comments and likes you receive. You could go through and figure out the math yourself, or you can use a free tool like Phlanx (you don’t need to sign up) to determine the percentage of engagement you receive. I don’t know that actual facts behind this statistic but I have heard that anything over 2% is considered good engagement in a brands eyes. The less followers you have the higher your engagement should be since you tend to have less bots and inactive accounts following you (this is common and just happens over time, so don’t worry about these kinds followers). Below is a screenshot of my engagement as calculated by Phlanx.

How to Increase Your Instagram Engagement

There really is no magic to building an engaged audience on Instagram. Beyond using hashtags, posting high quality content and finding the right time to post, I’m going to share with you some of the additional tactics I have procured to gain engagement and a continued rapport with my followers (friends!) on my posts.

Use Instagram Correctly
The first and easiest way to boost engagement is to ENGAGE WITH OTHER USERS. So basically, use Instagram for what it was created to be, a social platform. This tip is so simple it’s stupid, but honestly I just leave genuine comments on photos that I love and make sure to double tap the photos that I like. People love to reciprocate comments and likes and this is tried and true method.
Involve Your Followers
The second tip that I have is to engage with the followers you have by involving them in your content. Whether this means asking questions in your captions, putting polls in your stories, or just reaching out via DM and thanking someone for a follow, all of this goes a long way and can really help boost the confidence in people to leave more love on your page more frequently. A couple years ago I got an invaluable piece of advice from a fellow blogger which was to work to build relationships (and retain) the current followers I have instead of going out and seeking new ones. This has stuck with me, and it is such a valuable nugget of gold. Copy and paste that one and keep it in your pocket, pull it out ever few weeks as a reminder.
Reply To Every Comment
This tip is very dependent on your follower count. It would be unrealistic for a blogger with hundreds of thousands of followers to reply to the crazy amount of comments they’re most likely receiving on each post. But a smaller blogger like myself, I think this is totally realistic. I don’t usually get more than 100 comments per post (some I can’t easily reply to ie. emoji comments or one word comments), but I do my best to reply to every single comment, especially in the first 30 minutes of posting. I try to reply with a genuine comment and often try to engage further by asking a question or involving the commenter in another way. The more comments, the higher the engagement, and your comments count too!
Paid Sponsorships
I’ve just recently started paying Instagram to sponsor my posts, just a teeny tiny amount because I’m on a budget but even throwing $12 on a post, I’ve seen HUGE response. Not only do I get a ton of engagement on my sponsored posts, my conversion usually goes up for the items that I’m sharing, as well as blog traffic. All of it is positive and I’ll continue to use it as a tool to help grow my business. I’m still learning how to use Instagram ads so I don’t have much to say on the subject, but I just choose the option to target followers like mine and the response has been fantastic. I’m hoping to learn more about this to continue to improve the return from this tactic!

I love sharing the things that I have learned five years into blogging. Instagram is really fun, but it is important to remember that this social media platform is not the be all end all of your business. In fact, Instagram should just be a monetary supplement and additional marketing tool for your blog and the content that you actually own. Keep this in mind while you play the Instagram game, one day, like Myspace, it will all be gone. Poof.

Thanks for reading!

More Blogging Tips Here