HOW TO GROW YOUR BLOG
When I started food blogging over a year ago I became overwhelmed pretty quickly with everything a food blogger not only needs to know but be good at like:
Building a WordPress Website
Growing the Subscriber List
Writing Great Content
Taking Beautiful Food Photography
Monetizing Your Blog
Generating Traffic to Your Blog
Search Engine Optimization
Social Media Marketing
Have you been there too?
So I began tracking my Food Blogging Journey and I found resources on How to Start a Food Blog and Food Photography but What Was NEXT????
The hardest part was not knowing what to do on a daily basis. I didn’t know how to Grow My Blog.
If only I could peek into the life of a Food Blogger and see what they do every day, maybe I could learn too and grow my blog.
So I started keeping a Blog Activity Journal. This has really helped me keep track of :
- How I was growing my blog
- What tools I’d discovered
- What strategies were directly impacting my growth
- New resources I was using
- New connections with new blog friends
- Facebook Groups I’d joined
- Classes I was taking
- Website to do list
Not only was it really helpful to me, but I started to see how this created a transparencyand a HUGE RESOURCE that I couldn’t find on the web when I was starting out. I knew many other bloggers could use this to grow their blogs too.
I’m excited to announce, that starting this week I’m taking all my daily documented blogging activities for the week and publishing them!
It’s a weekly report called How to Grow Your Blog Report and this is issue #1!
My blog has grown from 0 views per month to around 3000 views per month which is great progress. I am growing my Wordpress expertise, learned to monetize my blog with ad networks, affiliate links, Google adsense and am working on a couple of projects to generate some more income.
After more than a year of blogging you learn to network with the right people, go through tons of training and learn a few shortcuts. You find out what works, and what doesn’t and begin to experience a mastery of things you struggled with in the beginning. I am still growing, but I know we can all grow together and get there faster. If I can do it, so can you! Ready? Let’s Grow Together!!
WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU??
You will have full access and visibility to all of my daily blogging activities which are used to grow my blog. These activities may include:
Weekly blogging routine√
Links to all of the Facebook Groups I belong to√
WordPress tutorials√
Helpful blogging tips√
Links to tons of resources√
Traffic generation Strategies√
Monetization strategies√
Food Photography tips√
Cooking tips√
How to create a recipe√
How to find your “written voice” as a blogger√
Helpful Plugins√
Motivation and Inspiration√
Links to Free Training from Successful Mentors√
FORMAT
The Weekly How to Grow Your Blog Report is broken down in the following format:
1. Weekly quote
2. My daily activities, tips, resources, tutorials broken down into common categories
3. My Blog’s Growth Stats
4. Monthly Goals
To get on the weekly distribution for a free copy of my –>>>
How to Grow Your Blog Report
sign up here
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Aug. 3
TRAFFIC GENERATION: FACEBOOK GROUPS
Blogging Boost – Checked my FB newsfeed and went to Blogging Boost (a FB Group that helps you promote your blog). Mondays are for Promos only so I posted a link of my most recent blog post and commented on 3 other members’ posts.
BlogHer Network – Checked BlogHer Network Facebook Page and posted my recent blog post and “helped” out other members. By “helping” out, I mean I follow whatever help is requested by any member that posts a comment. Some may want more FB Page likes, some may want more Instagram followers, more comments on their blog post or Pins. I’m pnly required to help out 3 but I always help out way more.
FOOD BLOGGING
Did a little research and wrote up the recipe for my Watermelon Blueberry Mojitos in my notebook. I wanted to do something really special and summery with the watermelon I had bought. I broke down the instructions in steps where I can logically fit my photos into. Logged into WordPress and typed up the initial draft of my post and did a cursory edit. I like for my tone to be very light, energetic and upbeat. I love to make people laugh and my sense of humor tends to come out through my writing without even trying..lol..I don’t try to make it funny it just turns out that way, sometimes more than others but I love that I’m not just writing about food but also about what inspires me to cook and develop cool recipes that are awesome and enjoyable. Sometimes I may add something interesting about the recipe or a food memory of mine. I also like to include what my reader will love about this recipe and try to be as descriptive and convincing as I can.
TRAINING: SELF-IMPROVEMENT
Attended a Freedom First webinar by T. Harv Eker which explained the money mentality a person needs to succeed. Good stuff!! He also offers a great coaching service with a payment plan.
Aug. 4
TRAFFIC GENERATION: FACEBOOK GROUPS
Signed up for several Facebook Groups: Insta-Fabulous and was invited to Twitter Marketing Group
TRAFFIC GENERATION: LIST-BUILDING
Saw another FB Group member post a comment about a List-building group she was in and I clicked the link and signed up for the 30 Day List Building Challenge – a resource for helping you build subscribers. So I started going through the daily challenges.
FOOD BLOGGING: FOOD STYLING RESEARCH, FOOD PROPS, PHOTO SHOOT
Looked on Pinterest for the way drinks are styled to find the prettiest images. Picked some images I liked that I could use as a guideline to style my photos. I pinned those images to a private Pinterest Board called Current Post to have as a reference. I found some glass cups I could use, grabbed my blue and white striped paper straws for contrast, a round wooden tray, a nice neutral dish towel with a navy stripe, a glass pitcher and I cut a couple of slices of watermelon and placed on wax paper for some color. Also used a small white bowl for the frozen blueberries which provided a nice contrast.
First, I staged the area to see how it looked and took some pictures without the fruit or drinks. After making sure I liked the lighting and the composition of the pics proceeded with the photo shoot. Then, I made the Mojitos which were refreshingly perfect and shot the photos with my Canon Rebel T3i in a vertical mode. (Vertical shots are used by most professional food bloggers and look better in a post.) I like for my posts to be tutorial so I take photos of certain steps in the recipe. In this case, I took pictures of the ingredients, chopping up the watermelon, pureeing the watermelon, straining the watermelon, muddling some of the ingredients (before and after), mixing all of the ingredients in the pitcher and then the final, styled pictures.
I imported the pictures from my cameras SD card then I started editing the food photos in Lightroom. Some had too much shadow so I lifted the shade and made them brighter. Added contrast by increasing the Clarify setting, increased saturation to the red, green and blue colors to make the fruit, mint leaves and Mojitos pop. I increased the detail and finally smoothed out any graininess.
Aug. 5
SHARING THE LOVE: FACEBOOK
Left comments on blog posts for members of Facebook groups, liked their Facebook pages and followed them on Instagram.
PHOTO EDITING: LIGHTROOM AND SEO-FRIENDLY PHOTO TITLES
Finished editing photos in Lightroom. For optimal SEO, I named each picture the same name as the recipe and added a number at the end to keep them ordered. I exported them to a folder with the same name of the recipe. Later I will upload them to WordPress and remove the number at the end of each photo title. For SEO it’s best to name your photos the same as your blog post.
WORDPRESS DESIGN: ADD A WIDGET TO ABOUT US PAGE
Wanted to add a widget to my About page that shows my current posts and wasn’t sure how to do it. Did a search on Youtube and followed along.
1. Went to my dashboard and selected the Appearance>>Widgets page and found theGenesis -Featured Widget Amplified widget I was using in my Recipes Bottom section of my blog. I looked to see how I had set it up and jotted down the settings.
2. I grabbed the Genesis -Featured Widget Amplified widget under the Available Widgets column and clicked on Add. I filled in the fields and saved it under the Widgets for Shortcodes column, first position and selected Save Widget.
3. Went to the About page and selected the Text tab and added the following code to the very last line:
-(insert bracket here) do_widget “Genesis – Featured Widget Amplified”(insert bracket here)
4. Test. I was able to see my list of current blog posts at the very end of my About Us page!
Did Day 2 of the 30 Day List Building Challenge.
SEO: CREATING SEO-FRIENDLY PHOTOS BY ADDING THE TITLE ATTRIBUTE TO YOUR IMAGES AUTOMATICALLY
I found this great tip on a post in one of the FB groups I follow and immediately signed up to get WPBeginner.com newsletters. I found an article that explained the importance of making your photos SEO-friendly. When you upload your photos to your WordPress blog, you should be adding the Title Attribute to images and this can only be done using the Editor. This can be rather tedious and ominous if you don’t have any experience doing it. But there’s a Wordpress plugin that does it automatically.
1. So I clicked on the link they provided and downloaded the Restore Image Title Plug-in.
2. I saved the plugin on my pc.
3. Navigated to my blog and selected the Plugins>>Add New menu.
4. Selected the Upload menu.
5. Browsed to the location I had saved my plugin and clicked Install Now.
6. Once it was installed I selected Activate.
Now whenever I add a photo it automatically adds the Title Attribute to the image. When I hover over the photo, its title pops up! Yay!
Aug. 6
BLOG POST: EDIT
Finalized any photo edits in Lightroom. Uploaded my food photos to the post. Edited post and looked for typos, grammatical errors and ways to better clarify sentences. Went through my Blog Post checklist and SEO checklist and made sure I’d followed each item. Clicked PUBLISH!
WORDPRESS DESIGN: FACEBOOK PAGE LIKE POP-UP
Add a Facebook Page Like Pop-Up
I also wanted to add a bar at the bottom of my page that asks visitors to like my Facebook page. Googled it and found Conversionsbox.com. It was a 3-step process.
1. The website prompted you with a window and you: added your headline, added your FB Page address and clicked Get The Code.
2. Once your code is generated you right click on it and copy the code.
3. Then go to your blog and navigate to Appearance>>Widgets page.
4. Select the Text widget under the Available Widgets column and click on Add.
5. Paste the code into the empty box right after the Title box.
6. Select the last position of any of your sidebars. Select Save Widget.
7. Test. I pointed my browser to a new page and typed in my website’s url. After a few seconds I saw the pop-up. Success!
TRAFFIC GENERATION: LIST-BUILDING
List-building is the optimal way every blog should leverage for traffic generation. Having a large subscriber list is instant traffic when posts are generated and instant sales when products are offered because you always generate the most income from your warm markets or those that have established a trust and loyalty with your brand.
Did Day 3 of the 30 Day List Building Challenge. Got stuck trying to create a Goal in Google Analytics which tracks my subscribers. For some reason the Goal Button wasn’t working. Have to go back and finish this another time.
Aug. 7
WORDPRESS DESIGN: SUBSCRIBER POP-UP BAR PLUGIN
Was looking for a more “polite” subscriber pop-up and found Sumome subscriber pop-up bar which I found on smartpassiveincome.com. It’s actually several plugins in one.
1. Navigated to sumome.com
2. Clicked on the link for WordPress users and downloaded the plugin to my Plugin Folder.
3. Navigated to my blog and selected the Plugins>>Add New menu.
4. Selected the Upload menu.
5. Browsed to the location I had saved my plugin and clicked Install Now.
6. Once it was installed, I selected Activate.
7. Selected the SumoMe menu from the side menu bar
8. Clicked on the blue tab and registered.
9. Clicked on the Sumo Store icon and downloaded the Smartbar app which was free and really easy to configure. Here’s a really cool video on the Sumome apps.
TRAINING: TRAFFIC GENERATION
Saw a member from a FB Group post a link to Traffic1m.com where they share 16 videos to take you to your first 1 million customers and of course I signed up!
Started outlining the weekly report I was going to make listing all of my weekly tasks. Started brainstorming in my notebook and began keeping better notes of my weekly activities 
NETWORKING
Read a post on a FB Group and found Becca Nelson with a cool site she’d just relaunched. Reached out to her about suggestions for my site. Check her out!http://www.beccanelsonmakesthings.com/
Left comments on blog posts of fellow FB Group members.
Aug. 8
TRAINING: PINTEREST
Today I received my Useletter (an email newsletter) from Amy Lynn Andrews and she had some great tips. One being a link to a Simple Pin Media Newsletter which I immediately signed up for. They are a company that focuses solely on Pinterest Marketing and I think they know everything there is to know about Pinterest! If you go to their website you can sign up for a free weekly newsletter and download a free Monthly Pinterest Trends calendar and learn a ton of stuff about Pinterest.
SOME PINTEREST STATS:
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PINTEREST IS THE 3RD LARGEST SOCIAL MEDIA SITE IN THE WORLD
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DRAWS 70 MILLION USERS DAILY
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80% ARE WOMEN
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PINTEREST DRIVES MORE SALES TO BUSINESSES THAN ANY OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM
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CHECK OUT 25 AMAZING PINTEREST FACTS FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS
TRAFFIC GENERATION: PINTEREST
(I have a daily reminder on my iPhone to add Pinterest Pins- not a bad way to break up the day and increase your Pinterest impressions!) Added pins to my It’s Bananas Pinterest board. Pinterest boards should look abundant, not barren or neglected. Make sure you are adding pins everyday to boards that have a low pin count. Also make sure you fill in the description and category for each board which makes it searchable in Pinterest.
Organized my newest boards and moved them up with other boards in the same category.
Blog Stats:
Pinterest Followers: 1,052
Twitter Followers: 3,780
Facebook Likes: 92
Instagram Followers: 280
Feel Good Food Blog Subscribers: 22
GOALS FOR AUGUST:
INCREASE VIEWS TO 6000 PER MONTH
INCREASE SUBSCRIBERS FOR BOTH LISTS TO 100 EACH
CREATE A FREE DOWNLOAD FOR HOW TO GROW YOUR BLOG LIST SUBSCRIBERS
LAUNCH HOW TO START A BLOG PAGE