In this post, I’m going to walk you through the five main things I think every sidebar should have (and some things I think it shouldn’t have).
Read MoreComing up with blog content ideas can take up quite a bit of time, so I’ve done the work for you!I’ve made a list of blog post ideas that bloggers in any niche can feel free to use.
Read MoreThis is my blogging for beginners guide to feelings that I’ve had in the past and how you can beat them. I wonder how many of you have had these feelings too…
Read MoreThis guide will help you make a blog better, faster than you ever thought possible, with tips that you can start implementing right now.These are nine habits that I’ve used to help make a blog better and they will work for you, too.
Read MoreI’ll be breaking the process down into two sections - essentials things to before you hit publish and after you publish a post. Learning how to blog in the most successful way possible has never been easier.
Read MoreHere are a few effective, realistic ways you (and I) can try right now to regain your mojo and start 2018 in the best way possible.
Read MoreYou don't have to make the same mistakes I did. If this is your first year as a new blogger, here are some common mistakes that you can learn to avoid.
Read MoreIt's always useful to look back over your progress. But where should you start? What are the most important metrics to track? This is the key information you need to look at (plus what it all means!)
Read MoreWorried about your blog right now? Don’t be. Below are four great tips to help you get more engagement, write better blog posts and watch your online presence shine.
Read MoreThere’s one thing that a lot of blogs lack that we don’t even realise - there’s no way for readers to quickly see whether a blog is worth reading. Keep an eye on these four features of your blog and it will be the most successful marketing tool you’ve ever used.
Read MoreLong-term benefits win over instant gratification and today, I’m going to go through some SEO tips that will get you these results for each article you write. Welcome to your ultimate SEO checklist that you can use for every single blog post you create.
Read MoreThese are twelve signs that you’re moving in the right direction with your blog and actually doing a fab job. Even if it doesn’t feel like it.
Read MoreHere are the exact strategies I used to double pageviews on my blog in just four months. I went from 5,000 a month, to 10,000 a month, to now over 20,000. And yes, these are things you can keep doing to get more results.
Read MoreYou get really excited about your blog. You’ve got ideas flowing around your head all the time. But when it comes to actually choosing one, you keep changing your mind. Why is that? Well I know, and I’m going to tell you.
I’ve got seven things for you today, friend. Seven reasons, actually, how to take away your fear. The fear of no comments, no interaction and no one listening.
Blogging by yourself is exhausting, not just with all the work you have to do, but mentally too. If you try to do everything by yourself, you’ll never see as much growth as you want. Lately, I’ve seen some negativity in our community and this week, I know I’m not the only one who’s felt overwhelmed.
The biggest thing I’ve found to help me along my blogging journey hasn't come from a tip, a tool or a piece of information. It’s come through the support of other people. So if you’re in this blogging thing alone, this is a reminder that you don’t have to be. Here are seven big reasons why.
#1 You Learn More
We’ll never know everything there is to know. And it’s actually better that way - would you want to be in a place where you couldn’t learn anything else? I definitely wouldn’t. That’s the beauty of the blogging world. Part of the reason you have a blog is because you’re sharing what you know, whether that’s beauty products, interiors inspiration or social media tips. You have some sort of knowledge to share these things - and other bloggers have knowledge on completely different things.
Asking for help from other people always allows you to learn more. A great advocate for this is Twitter chats. I can guarantee that I’ll learn something new from every Twitter chat I join that I can try out. I’ve even given advice to fellow bloggers and their reaction has been “I never knew that.” So just think - you might look at someone and wish you knew what they knew. But there’ll be plenty of other people looking at you that way too.
A great saying I learnt is “if you do what you’ve always done, then you’ll get what you’ve always got.” Your blog develops as you develop and there’s always so much room for growth.
#2 You Create Relationships
The first interaction between anything is the start of a relationship, whether it’s active or passive. When someone hits the follow button on your blog, they’re entering into a passive relationship because they want to see your content. If someone hits follow on your Twitter profile that could be the start of you both actively interacting together every single day.
The more you reach out and get involved, the more relationships you create. It’s not down to you alone to promote your blog and what you do. Part of that comes down to your readers, and the people in your community who are there to shout about you to others. This comes down to forming relationships and you can’t do that when you’re hiding behind the internet and not getting involved.
Read MoreQuotes never fail to inspire me – some that I keep strike a chord with me every time I look at them. If you don’t regularly browse Pinterest or your Twitter feed for the quotes people are sharing, I really recommend you do so. Although some of them might not be to everyone’s tastes, there are always words you can find that will really resonate with you.
We know that quotes can mean different things to all of us, but I find that many of the ones I come across really make me think about my blogging journey. When you think deeper, a quote can actually help you out a lot if you’re struggling or need to make certain decisions. So today, I want to share seven inspiring quotes with you and what they can teach us about blogging.
NUMBER ONE:
“Celebrate every tiny victory”
Each of us can be in very different places compared to someone else’s journey. The place I'm at right now with my blog will be completely different to where someone is when they've been at it for eight years. You might see someone say they've launched an e-course or their own product line and think like you’re failing. But you shouldn't.
Just because someone reveals they get 100,000 pageviews a month and you get less than 10,000 doesn’t mean you’re not good at what you do.
I’ve always believed in celebrating every milestone, no matter how big or small – this quote reminds me to do that. Whether you’ve put loads of effort into a blog post and it becomes one of your most popular ones, or you get the chance to host a Twitter chat – these are all really great things.
For me, getting my first gigs for the sites I freelance for were huge achievements. Now, I celebrate every time something I’ve written goes live on one of them, because I know how hard I worked to get there.
Each time you feel a sense of achievement, write it down. If something makes you smile, that’s always worth remembering.
Read MoreWell we spent the month of January on the Blogging Breakthrough challenge. As we were coming towards the end I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if people could get their hands on this all in one place?”
That’s where the eBook started.
For the past few weeks I’ve been busting my butt to get the content sorted and trying to get this book as close to perfect as possible. I always wanted to write an eBook, and although this project has been challenging, it’s also taught me a hell of lot.
So today, I am really excited to announce that you can now get your hands on the Blogging Breakthrough eBook!
Here’s what you can expect to find:
- 28 tasks
- 100+ pages
- 1 Breakthrough
- Unlimited support
- FREE
Yep you read right – this will be 100+ pages of free content for you.
Look, I get it – I’ve been there. You’re throwing everything into building your blog, yet you feel stuck like you’re not getting there. You’re on social media and publishing content, but you’re not seeing the growth you want. You’ve got lots of ideas, but you don’t know what direction to go in and there are too many things to look at which is clouding your vision of who you are.
Here’s the thing – many people think they’re stuck in one of two places: they’re either just starting out with their blog and trying every single strategy to see what will work, or they’ve been blogging for a while, want to try something new and don’t know where to start.
Let me tell you something – it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to waste time and spend money to start growing your blog and online presence.
You don’t have to do it yourself.
The Blogging Breakthrough eBook is the only no-fluff, self-study guide to growing a fulfilling online presence you’ll find of its kind online.
Read MoreWe made it – today officially marks the final day of the Blogging Breakthrough Challenge. Can you believe it? I really hope you’ve found this series as worthwhile as I’ve found creating it. But it’s not over yet. We've still got the final day to go…
Over the past 28 days we've covered a lot. We've talked content. We've talked social media. We've talked organisation. We've talked inspiration. We've talked about all the main things you need to get a breakthrough with your blog.
Really, there’s only one thing left to do. So to wrap up the 28 Day Blogging Breakthrough challenge, it only seems right to talk about how we can put everything into action. It’s all well and good doing these tasks for 28 days. But you want to keep on doing them. Some are tasks you can do every day – some are ones you can do every month. So on Day 28, we’re going to go through all the tasks we've done and block out when they need to be done so you can achieve a constant breakthrough with your blog.
I figured that the easiest way to do this would be to split these into daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and one-off tasks. That way, you’ve got this to come back to or you can make notes in your own planner to remind you. I'm going to put the number of the task by each point so you know exactly what day of the challenge you need to refer to. So here we go!
Every day
Plan your day (9)
Find something that inspires you (11)
Snapchat away! (20)
Interact on social media (21)
Every week
Write a list (8)
Find your optimal social media posting times (17)
Do something on Periscope (22)
Every month
Create your editorial calendar (4)
Sort out your blog files (7)
Write a list (8)
Plan your images (13)
Create and review your social media plan (18)
Plan content for your mailing list (23)
Take a break (27)
Read MoreThis online space has been running for over two years now. But I've actually enjoyed it and learnt the most about it during these past six months. This is my number one side project above all others, and it makes me so happy to create content for you and interact with you all each day.
Don’t get me wrong – it’s not easy. There have been plenty of tears and stress levels have been high. But it’s been more valuable and rewarding than I ever could have imagined. Now, I couldn't imagine my life without this blog. I know it won’t stay the same – it’ll grow as my life does. But I want it to always be there.
But there’s something I always wanted to try – daily blogging. When I first started out, I posted three times a week. Then for a while I went up to five posts a week. As of this year, I'm pushing myself to publish a blog post every single day.
Why? Well that’s exactly what this post is going to tell you.
On Day 12 of the #BloggingBreakthrough challenge, I want to talk to you about why you should definitely consider blogging consistently for a whole week. By the time you’ve finished reading this post, I think you’ll start to see the benefits.
Not so long ago, I found myself in the depths of my worst ever blogging rut. It's a situation that most bloggers will be familiar with: I grew more and more reluctant to write and photograph, and became increasingly convinced that I wasn't good enough, creative enough or talented enough to be blogging at all.
The answer was of course a simple one... My concerns about "branding" and "fitting in" meant that I was rushing to hit publish on posts that didn't resonate with me. Instead of being excited to write and share my content, I was left feeling flat and drained, unable to think of a way forward.
If this is where you are now, today's post is just a friendly reminder that we all end up here. Blog for long enough and you are bound to hit a low; it's just part and parcel of being creative. To help get you moving forwards, here is my very best advice for finding the posts you love to write...
TAKE A STEP BACK
I ended up not blogging for around 3 months, but this lull ended up being exactly what I needed. Removed from the pressure of sticking to a schedule and meeting readers' expectations, I could clearly see that the problem was not that I was lazy or stupid: I was simply no longer in love with the content I was sharing.
By Her Mirror was a beauty blog at the time, and the step back gave me a chance to realise that beauty posts weren't the ones that satisfied me most. Lifestyle and photography pieces were the ones I was excited to share, and that felt authentically me. I realised that for By Her Mirror, this meant a shift in focus was needed; I said goodbye to beauty content and I haven't looked back.
Read MoreFinding a space in which to work that makes you comfortable and free is an essential part of developing your voice.
How often has someone told you not to work in bed? That you should create an area in which you can be strict with yourself and focus, probably at a desk or kitchen table.
The people telling you to work that way will only have had your best interests at heart. They will have been teachers, tutors, parents, whoever and they’re correct - but only to a degree.
What's essential to being able to write, is having a space that is entirely your own, somewhere you can disappear into your own thoughts, theories and ideas.
And if you’re in your pyjamas under the covers, who cares?
In A Room Of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf wrote: “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”
While Woolf used the rest of her famous essay to put forward some of the trailblazing feminist theories that shape our thinking today, the practicalities of the situation remain the same as they were in 1929. It is essential for a writer to have personal space in which to write.
So while it might not be ideal to write from your bed, and you should try to ensure that you have the correct orthopaedic support, if your room is the only place that you have to write privately, then you should write there.
Whether you live with your parents, with friends or housemates, distractions are everywhere. Coffees being made, dinner being prepared, discussions about the day at work, university or school, all waiting to suck your attention away.
Writers need to be able to lock into a thought process and get thoughts onto paper as soon as possible, without being distracted by the delicious smells of a Sunday roast.
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