THE BEST BLOGGING ADVICE I’VE RECEIVED

. THE BEST BLOGGING ADVICE I’VE RECEIVED: TOP 5 TIPS .

I’ve been writing my blogging tips posts now for almost over a year, I love sharing my tips with you from my own experiences and in turn love reading all your comments with your tips too. I’m by no means an expert and I always like to caveat this with any of my tips posts, whether that be career tips or blog tips or even my photography tips, but regardless of my level of expertise my advice and tips posts are always the ones you guys seem to really enjoy.

So today I thought i’d share a few more tips with you, but this time I wanted to share the tips and advice that I’ve been given by other people, friends, family, colleagues, fellow bloggers too …

. THE TOP 5 BLOGGING TIPS I’VE RECEIVED .

#1 QUALITY OVER QUANTITY

This is a tip i’ve often shared on my tips pages, but it’s not necessarily something I practice when I preach. I’ve been blogging daily since October 2011 and am addicted, obsessed and strict about posting content every day, without fail. More than that I am a big lover of photography and can often be found overfilling my content with imagery … in my friends and families opinion. Too many.

Quality over quantity is a piece of advice i’m frequently given. Less imagery is more (my dad regularly messages me telling me the volume of pictures i’ve added, just to bring to my attention that probably 20 pictures of the same outfit isn’t quite necessary), don’t feel so much pressure to blog daily, why not focus on 3 incredible posts a week rather than 7 etc etc.

And actually whilst i’ve definitely not mastered this yet, the advice is really valuable and something i’m still trying to ‘do’. Practice makes perfect.

#2 HAVE A BUSINESS PLAN

Whilst my blog started out as a hobby, these days it’s something i’m pushing into my own little business. And whilst in my career and job I frequently consult clients, create communications strategies for them and advise them on how best to achieve their business ambitions … for some reason I wasn’t doing the same thing for my own business.

Last year my dad advised me to create a business plan, work out what I wanted, create goals to work towards, and set myself tasks to deliver on each day, week, month. If I wanted to take this blogging business seriously, it was about time I put a proper business plan in place. And so I did that (and wrote a post to help you create a blog business plan too).

It wasn’t just my dads advise either, after attending a Warehouse blogging conference for ‘women to watch’, the advice I received here was really on creating your brand, having an identity, and making sure my readers new it … and as a result of this I created my manifesto, so that anyone who came to my site new what they were going to get. It helps give me guidance on everything I create, it’s my brand summarised into one sentence.

Mediamarmalade is a destination for the stylish, the ambitious and the passionate. It’s a hub of daily inspiration, motivational content and advice and tips for those of us on a journey to sartorial, life and career success.

#3 ENGAGE WITH YOUR READERS

When I met Deliciously Ella, one of the things I was keen to talk to her about was how she grew her blog into a brand and now a successful business. She explained that much was luck that her content gained such a vast organic traffic without any real commercialising, but she did say that she thought the fact that she engaged with every reader, across every social channel, everyday made a real step change in her blog growth, her readers felt listened to, rewarded and more loyal knowing that Ella would always respond to their comments.

For me this was a really great piece of advice as i’d previously been quite slack at responding to comments and feedback, and following my conversation with Ella, I decided that I really needed to focus on building a relationship with you, my readers, and set out time to respond to you all, and start having a two way conversation. You can read my Q&A with Ella here if you’re interested.

More than that, with the blogging industry rocketing over the last 18 months, having relationships with other bloggers, brands and PR agencies has also never been more important. Networking is key if you want to make it in this business.

#4 PASSION IS EVERYTHING

All us ‘old time’ bloggers started our blogs back in the day because of a passion, interest or a hobby for whatever it was we were writing about. And actually it was this passion, this personality and this genuine content which made blogging what it is now. A blog is made, is popular, is enjoyable when it’s truly ‘you’, and that’s because your passion and your enthusiasm shines through in everything you do, say and write.

If you were to ask any blogger, join any #bbloggers chats or even just ask brands or PR’s what it is they look for in a blog, its that ooze of ‘YOU’ that makes a blog stand out.

For me i’ve always written about what I want, when I want and shared things i’m totally passionate about, whether it be blogging itself, photography, clothes or simply just ‘life’, and I hope that when you read my blog and my content, you love what you read because it’s been written with passion!

#5 DON’T COMPARE YOURSELF TO ANYONE

The best advice i’ve given and received is to never compare yourself to anyone else. Your journey is your journey, not anyone else’s. Success is so subjective, vague and undefined that to compare your success to an others is simply unhealthy, unhelpful and if anything dangerous. I wrote a whole post debating ‘what is blog success‘ and my conclusion is that success is your own, it’s based on you achieving those things you’ve set out to achieve and it’s you being happy with the content you’re writing and creating.

More than that, and back to point #4, a blog is good because it’s YOU, not someone else. So being true to yourself, your style, your tone, your passions and your hobbies will mean your blog is unique, engaging and enjoyable for others to read. There’s no point trying to make it into something else, or someone else … it’ll show!!

“Creativity is not a competition” Autumn Skyhall

There you have it, the 5 best pieces of blog advice i’ve been given! I’d love to know what the best advice you’ve ever received is?