Once the joy and thrill of the New Year’s celebrations (and the influence of alcohol) wears off, it is time to make some plans for the months to come. I’d gladly share my travel plans with you all, but since we are looking at multiple potential destinations right now and nothing is set in stone, I decided to start the year by sharing more boring useful plans of how I plan to improve my blog in 2017 (my apologies Emma, Angie and Polly for being such a downer on your January link-up party) in the hopes that it might help some other bloggers out there and/or trigger a dialogue where you, my lovely blogger readers, might be willing to share your blogging tips.
Before I even move to the nitty-gritty details, I want to make one thing very clear for anyone who is thinking of starting a blog: if you think blogging is only about writing a 500-1000-word text, uploading some pretty photos and hitting the publish button, then you’re in for a disappointment. If you want your writing to reach people beyond your immediate family and friends, then get ready to dedicate a lot of your free time to your site. Because guess what? It is as much about your networking and marketing skills as it is about your ability to create adequate content. You need to make sure your blog is technically well-maintained, looks decent and is user-friendly; that you regularly produce high quality content – stories are engaging and photos are properly processed and look appealing – and, most importantly, you need to network with other bloggers, promote your blog on every social media possible AND try to reach out to brands or publications for potential collaborations. And that, my lovely readers, takes more time than you’d imagine. Now, do you believe me when I say that blogging is my second job?
I absolutely love it though, and since all my hard work on Travel With Nano B. in 2016 paid off I want to continue the trend and dedicate 2017 to enhancing this web-site and building my brand name. How do I plan to do that?
Revamp The Blog Design
I believe that a blog is a face of the writer. If you don’t like what you see the very first time you open my site, or if you have difficulty finding your way around to get the information you need, then you won’t stick around for a long time AND most certainly won’t come back again. That’s why I have invested some funds and spent the entire 1st of January redesigning my web-site to make it more sophisticated and user-friendly. I added menu panel on the top, as well as social media icons so that you can reach me/navigate the blog easier. Plus, the footer and side bar widgets so that you can easily subscribe to my blog and have a look at my Twitter & Instagram imagines. Please have a look and let me know how you like it and if there is anything that you’d want me to tweak further?
Improve My Photography & Post-processing Skills
Now that I have a new camera gear (woot woot) I want to push myself to be more creative, step up my photography game as well as learn more about post-processing. I believe these are very useful skills to have even if you don’t own a blog. I’m still experimenting with various photography styles, I typically love the vibrant pastel colors although I’m also attracted to film look. We’ll see where my little experiments take me, you sure will be witness and a judge of it all.
Diversify Content
While your blog must have a theme and focus, it is fine to write about different topics as long as they have a logical link. While my primary focus is travel and food, I also have tons of lifestyle ideas I’d want to write about (similar to this post which have remained as drafts until now). That’s why I decided to add monthly series – Things That Made Me Happy – where I’ll share some exciting news, and give a round-up of positive and interesting events that month: happy moments, favorite finds (local products and items), reads (blog posts, articles and books), etc. Something beyond the usual travel guides and restaurant reviews I write. I feel like this will be a good way to have you, my readers, get to know me better and help me engage with you more.
The idea of writing monthly posts about my past travels also tickles my brain (I have thoroughly planned and traveled to multiple cities in Europe, Russia, UAE just to name the few), but sadly many of my photos have been lost or are not of adequate quality so I’m not sure if I’ll go ahead with this plan.
Increase My Twitter Presence
I won’t lie, I have a love-hate relationship with Twitter and have been on/off it quite a while now. On one side, it is so fast-paced and totally overwhelming, and on the other, I feel like all the action is happening there. It seems to be a great way to engage with wide array of audience, be it potential readers, other bloggers or the brands you’d want to work with. Having said that, I have been willingly ignoring this golden mine for the past year (again, because it takes so much time). However, I feel like it’s time to fully commit if I want my blog to reach even more people. Twitting regularly, retweeting my old posts via Buffer, sharing others’ interesting posts/articles/posts, participating in Twitter Chats – are just a few habits I must adopt!
Engage on Pinterest and Facebook
While we are on the subject of social media, I also need to figure out how to better utilize Pinterest & Facebook tools in favor of my blog. If you have any effective tips or posts written on this topic, please feel free to link them down below. I’m sure many readers besides me would benefit from it.
That’s about it for now. Although, as many other bloggers will agree, it is a never-ending learning curve. Life online is constantly evolving and if you are serious about it all, you need to learn new tricks and adopt new techniques to keep abreast of the time (although I still refuse to use Snapchat!). I very much hope my list will be insightful to some, and will encourage others to share their experience and advice on the topic.
Do you have any tips on how to improve a blog? What has/hasn’t worked for you? Any blogging dos and don’ts?
xoxo, nano
Let’s connect on Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | BlogLovin’ | Pinterest
This post is part of this month’s Travel Link-Up series, hosted by Emma, Polly, and Angie.
PIN FOR LATER:
I’ve been sliding around in the Reader looking for some tips to help me start my blog, and your blog is probably the most exciting blog I’ve come across all day. I love it! xo
great! Pinned and followed. Please stop by when you have time.
Would love to, thank you!!!
Great I love it. I think I’m opening a Pinterest account now
http://Www.probaron.wordpress.com
Thank you for reading!
Extremely helpful tips !!
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I’m so delighted I discovered your blog, your writing is really excellent. Not everyone creates for the very same factor, however your own is actually remarkable.
Terrific tips as well as terrific message overall!
Thanks for sharing
Thank you very for reading :)
Nano I love you photography it is always gorgeous, so will be watching to see what else you do with it. Social media is as big as the blogging is it it? I probably spend more time keeping up with that than anything else. Pinterest is my fave its perfect for sharing travel posts. And cant wait to see you lifestyle posts this year its great to see more about the blogger xx
Thank you so so much, it means a lot! I’m experimenting with different editing styles now, we’ll see how it goes. And I absolutely agree, social media takes so much of my time too!
Good luck with the goals! So with you (and lots of others, by the looks) on the love/hate with Twitter!
Thanks Jessi. I’m partially happy that I’m not alone about Twitter, although I do aspire those bloggers who use it successfully. All the very best to you in 2017, and thanks a lot for reading, always :)
I love hearing about other people’s blogging priorities and plans! :) Good luck with Twitter – I find making lots of Twitter lists makes it easy to manage and catch up with people, and using something like Buffer for scheduling. I’d be interested to hear how your Pinterest experience goes – I have an account and haven’t used it in years but think it could be a good source of traffic. But then there are also only so many non-working and sleeping hours in the day! ;)
Jane, thanks a lot for reading and for the tips! I haven’t even heard of Twitter lists (now you can really tell how bad I’m at it) so will definitely look into it. I already reorganized my Pinterest boards and will try to upload my most favorite photos on a regular basis linking back to my posts, although doing it regularly is a challenge – I’m 100% with you on not having enough time in the day. :)
Can’t wait to get to know you more through the blog, Nano! <3 And I'm the same as you – I've a love/hate relationship with Twitter!
Thank you, Honey! Also, hope to meet you in person in 2017! xoxo
I also love getting to know the person behind the blog a little better so I’m all for your new monthly series! I have all sorts of good intentions about social media but I just don’t have the time, and it takes SO much work (/devious tactics/money) to grow them that I’m just not really on for it. So I think I’m actually going to be taking a step back next year – doing what I can when I can, but not stressing about it. I blog for fun so numbers don’t really matter to me – I much prefer reading other people’s writing and enjoying their photos (yours are fabulous, what editing software do you use?), feeling inspired, and making internet friends! That’s the best bit about it for me :)
Rachel, I think you have the best attitude about it all. Blogging isn’t about numbers, and I try to remind it myself from time to time to take the pressure off. I won’t lie, I’m foolishly nervous about the monthly series, but will still go ahead with it :) I use Lightroom to post process my photos. Hope you have wonderful 2017, can’t wait to hear all about your adventures in Australia!
This is all sooo true! I’m the same with Twitter, I love it but usually i hate it because I can’t be arsed to do anything about it lol. This year I have all of January planned as of yet and want to really improve that. I revamped my blog design just before the new year and it made me so happy! Also yes on photography! I’m the same!! I want to keep pushing myself :)
That’s so great Camila that you have a clear plan of how to achieve your goals. It definitely requires a lot of work and effort , but usually pays off too. Will be checking out your new design and blog posts! xoxo
I have so many good intentions when it comes to Pinterest…. but they haven’t happened yet. On the upside they haven’t paved the way to hell yet either, so there’s that XD
Lol Frankie, you made me laugh hard! I’m the same way, Pinterest definitely not a priority yet, but hope to get to it some time this year.
I love the idea of a things you loved category! It’s coherent but versatile at the same time. I don’t think I’ll ever get into the habit of being on twitter, so that’s an inspiring goal.
Thanks for reading, Sandra! Twitter is definitely a struggle for many, but I just need to develop a habit of using it.
So exciting! I’m also making a 2017 resolution to up my blog game – including making the dreaded social media accounts / promotion devotion 😂 Best of luck to you – I’m loving the new theme. Currently on my mobile and it’s very streamlined and loads well!
Sarah, thank you so much, I’m so happy to hear it works great on mobile too! I hope 2017 will the year we achieve all of our social media goals 😂
Blogging is so much more than a hobby! It has now become an obsession for me. I also feel the same way about twitter! I still haven’t figured it out yet. The tags, retweets and dm are totally confusing. I’ve even tried ‘crowdfire’ and ‘later’ to help me manage my social media accounts. It only added to more confusion *LOL*
Your blog already look beautiful! Sorry to hear that you’ve lost some photos from past trips. Well, I’m sure you’ll come up with even more stunning photos soon.
Joyce, thank you so very much! I admire your posts and photos too, always so informative and beautiful :) Let’s hope we all tackle Twitter in 2017 lol
Love this post Nano! Really interesting to read what you want to improve. I love hearing about people’s blog journeys. And it’ll be great to read in a years time and see how far you’ve come!
Thanks a lot Eppie, I’m glad you found the post interesting. Will be talking about results at the end of the year, hope they won’t be embarrassing lol
This is my plan this year too. Build the blog, build my followers, work on my content, perfect my social media skills. So much work to do. We bloggers are sometimes bonkers with how much work we put into our little passion projects.
Great post! Can’t wait to see what the year ahead brings.
Thanks for support Erin! Let’s hope we all reach our goals this year!! :)
I agree with Emma I love reading about how people feel about their blogs and how to take things further. Honestly if I didn’t require sleep and exercise I would work on my blog 24 hours a day :P No really, you’re totally right blogging is so much more than the few hours that we spend writing a post.
Angie, your hard work on your blog definitely shows and that’s why you are an inspiration for me and many others I am sure!
I think Emma is right. This post is aboslutely no boring at all. It gave me great ideas to improve the content of my blogs!
In term of social media, I agree with you that we should make more apperance on Twitter and Pinterest, though it might be difficult at first because we don’t have many followers ^^
Thanks a lot for the inspiration and happy new year! :)
Len, thank you so much, I’m very happy that the post was helpful. It is definitely a challenge to build the following but I think a bit of dedication can yield results. Hope we both reach our goals this year :)
Great tips, my job only lets me dabble but I still enjoy it!
The most important thing is to love what we do, numbers don’t really matter :) Thanks for reading!
great ideas! I need to work on my blog too:) #travellinkup
Thanks Tanja!
First of all, your post wasn’t boring at all!! I loved it – and can’t wait to see what you share in 2017! I love a well-rounded blog.
**insert a huge sigh of relief here** Thanks Emma, I’m glad you liked the blog. Hope to put all these in action soon. xoxo