A Few Blogging Tips

In my recent reader survey I conducted; many people are asking for additional beauty and blogging posts, which to me is kind of scary. I never thought I was a beauty person, nor a blogging expert, however those are the posts which you want to read, so I will give them a shot. Now I am not an expert on blogging, nor am I a 'big' blog. However, I do feel like I have some experience in the matter, so I decided to share some of my tips on blogging today, and depending on whether it goes down well or not, I might a few more posts on it.

Not everything happens in one night. A lot of new bloggers start a blog expecting to have 1000 followers within the first week (slight exaggeration there), and then quit because they don't get their followers. Or, with the people who stick at it, become really catty to popular blogs because they are just frankly jealous. Believe it or not, those people with the 'big blogs' with thousands of followers once started out with a big fat 0 too.

Don't do follow for follow etc. Nothing gets on somebodies nerves like a good old follow for follow. Still to this day, I get so excited receiving comments and replying to them, and I was always so disappointed when several comments I received was a copied and pasted 'nice post. follow me and I will follow you back'. Being new to the blogging world, I thought this was the 'done thing' and willingly obliged. I think this is a disgusting way to gain followers, somebody has put work into writing a post and beginning their blog, and it is so obvious by the manner the person speaks, that they haven't read the post at all. I wouldn't want anybody to follow me just because I followed them, I would want people to follow me because they liked my content and enjoyed my blog. Recently I have unfollowed several blogs which I did 'follow for follow' with as in all honesty, their content just didn't interest me, which meant their posts were popping up on my dashboard with no intention of me reading them.

Get a good design. Unfortunately, 'don't judge a book by it's cover' doesn't apply in the blogging world. Yes, there may be a few people who take the time to read somebodies post when they have a design which they hate, but the majority of people just click off the blog. Having a clean, simple design is essential for blogging, and I bet you it will gain you readership. Stick to two or three colours maximum, have a white background, and make sure your font is readable to all ages are all rules that will gain you those extra few followers.

Plan your posts ahead. This is a tip I need to start using myself actually! I am one of those people who waits for inspiration to find them, instead of hunting it down. Usually on the day when a post is due to all you lovely people, I am organised, but sometimes I am frantically trying to find a post idea to use. Some bloggers schedule posts ahead, some even do it months ahead, but I prefer to write a post then publish it, not schedule one, unless I am on holiday, or I am having a post marathon (hasn't quite happened yet). I think it is a good idea to take all your pictures in a bulk (tip: use natural light, NOT artificial!) and then write up your posts, either to schedule, or write them when you want to publish them. Pace yourself too, don't publish loads of posts in one day and then don't post for weeks. Divide your posts within a month, and then your readers will have consistent content coming through their dashboard.

Don't work with brands just for the sake of it. A good tip to learn if you want to have a successful blog is learning when to say no. Quite a few PR companies have emailed me asking if I want to feature their product on my blog, but I have had to turn them down because I don't feel like the product relates or would be beneficial to my blog. Saying no won't halt your future PR requests, or cause a decline in followers. In fact, if you say yes to the wrong thing, you may reduce your followers. Now, I am not saying all PR requests are bad and you should decline them, as some can be really beneficial to you and your blog, I'm just saying be careful!

I hope this tips were helpful! Have you got any others?
Oh, and if you haven't already, please just take a few minutes to fill out my reader survey?