Hey, y’all! When I returned from my blogging hiatus in 2020, I talked about taking my blog more seriously. For so long, I was working hard to publish posts without seeing a return on my investment (ROI). While blogging has always been a way to be myself on my corner of the internet, I don’t think I was doing a good job at that or listening to what my audience wanted. While it’s really not about the numbers, I do spend a pretty penny every year on the apps, photos, and blogging tools for this blog. And to not see an increase in my ROI can be a little frustrating. Since my hiatus, I’ve been revamping the way I think about blogging and how I’m creating my posts. So, I’m sharing with you 4 things that I’ve been doing to take my blog more seriously and focus on growing.
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REMEMBERED MY WHY AKA MY MISSION
I started my blog because I wanted a creative outlet from my job. A lot of the work that I do is taxing emotionally, and being able to have something that allows me to tap into my creativity is so important to me. The blog was also started because I wanted to show how people can incorporate African print into everyday life. I had a moment where I realized that I had fallen away for these reasons. I decided that if I am to continue to blog, I would have to stick to my mission. Having a guiding point makes it so much easier to create content that I love and am happy with, regardless of how many people read it.
STOPPED WRITING POINTLESS BLOG POSTS
If you look at the majority of my blog posts from 2016-2018 – aka most of my blog career – they were very much about nothing but “look at me and my cute outfit.” I always heard “write informative blog posts,” but it didn’t click for me until 2019. I would go to some of my favorite bloggers and read their posts and see that they all had something in common – each post was focused on teaching something. For the longest time, I didn’t think I could write blog posts that “taught” my readers something. But, the light turned on when I saw that formula used repeatedly.
PHOTOS BY: DORESE JENAE PORTRAITS
When I started writing posts that actually taught something, my views went up. Even in the midst of Instagram and TIktock and many bloggers writing fewer blog posts, I have seen an increase in viewership on my blog. Why? Because I’m providing value and writing posts that answer questions that my audience wanted answers to. Also, the COVID lockdown has helped my views. Planning my posts, repurposing old posts, and writing posts that solve problems have been essential to my blog growth.
STARTED WRITING LONGER, MORE PERSONAL POSTS
News flash – People are nosy! Just Me? Lol. Writing posts that provide more insight into different personal issues I’m going through or thoughts that I have on certain topics really displays my humanity. It shows that there’s more to me than clothes or things. I will say that this is still hard for me because I’ve shared many times that I am a private person. I’m still learning to find the right balance to be more open and write more about what I feel without giving all of me away.
USING PINTEREST MORE TO PROMOTE MY BLOG POSTS
I actually made the investment into Tailwind to automate my pins, especially the ones that promote my most recently published blog posts. During my hiatus, I noticed that I would still get visitors to the blog even when I didn’t post anything. The posts that were the most popular? My natural hair posts. Why? Because they were teaching my readers something. I decided that my main focus was to promote more posts on Pinterest and update some of those old posts that keep getting clicks.
If you’re a blogger, don’t sleep on Pinterest. You should be sharing and creating idea pins on there because it’s gonna do way more for your blog than Instamg. Follow me on Pinterest if you’re not already.
DO YOU LIKE THE NEW DIRECTION THAT I’VE MOVED THE BLOG INTO? WHY OR WHY NOT?
SHOP THE LOOK!
Yellow Faux Leather Jacket (similar) || Shirt (similar) || Black Pleated Skirt (similar) || Marc Fisher Booties || Omi Woods Necklace || Kiss Earrings (similar) || NARS Don’t Stop || Apple MacBook Air
