You do anything long enough, the routine is going to get a little stale. Keeping things fresh is key to a successful long term relationship. This is true in blogging as much as it is life. I guarantee you, at some point; your blog is going to feel redundant, uninspiring and generally, a whole lot more work than it does fun. So why would you continue?
Because if you hit this obstacle, it means you’ve blogged enough that you’ve advanced from where you began. You’ve changed and grown and become something bigger. It’s in this moment, that you need to change things up to elevate your blog to your new aptitude.
Here are 5 simple ways you can keep it fresh, reinventing and leveraging your blog to pro-blogger status.
1. Build relationships
Do everything you can to get your website(and yourself) known within the blogosphere. It is a very large network but the top blogs in each category are all very similar. You may be surprised how small the blogging world actually is!
To get started contact a few smaller blogs that may be interested in affiliate links or mentions on the site. You could also try guest writing for other sites and place a link to your own blog in the author biography.
The goal is to have at least some level of acquaintance with editors and webmasters who work in the same genre as yourself. You never know who will gain some popularity and may be able to help you out along the way.
2. Become and authority.
Organize monthly Google Hangout for those in your industry. Coordinate a bi-yearly product swap. Host a linky party. Start your own LinkedIn Group. Conduct a meet-up in your area. Engineer an industry-specific online summit. All of these ideas are ways to connect further with your audience and leverage yourself beyond just content production – rather, you’ll quickly become a connection facilitator not just for yourself, but those in your online community as well. Can anyone say “industry leader”?
3. Recent posts sidebar widget
Visitors who land on your blog from Google will not always direct themselves onto the FrontPage. But it’s likely that some of these visitors may be interested in your newer content. An elegant solution is to meet them halfway with a sidebar widget of new or popular posts.
This widget should catalog a list of the blog’s posts in descending order. Sidebar post lists are perfect for driving traffic further into a blog. If each post uses a featured image be sure to include that in the widget as well. Photos capture attention much quicker than text and offer a brief glimpse into the content.
4. Write sizable posts
If you’re only writing posts that boil down to 3-4 paragraphs then people will get the sense you don’t care about the site.
Google wants long, detailed articles to be ranking for certain keywords. Readers want long, detailed articles to keep them entertained and help them learn new things. Take pride in your content and the reciprocal effect will create visitors who take pride in your website.
5. Add a poll or survey
Interactive page elements are great for making your blog look current and heavily-trafficked. Polls and surveys directed towards your audience can be a fun little game for readers. But these polls can also create useful information for you as a writer.
Setup a new poll every week or every month and stick to interesting topics. Perhaps ask readers about their favorite categories or types of articles. The results may give you insight toward which post ideas could be most well-received by the current audience.
6. Invite guest writers
There’s no doubt running a blog by yourself is tiresome. At times it will be difficult managing new posts and you’ll always run into bumps along the way.
But perhaps the simplest trick for new interesting content is to invite guest authors. These authors could be anyone from anywhere in the world who have something worth to add to your blog.
Guest Writers are often passionate about your blog’s topic and want to share their thoughts with the audience. Most sites will put together a short author bio for guest writers to get some recognition for their name. But this is a small gratuity in exchange for excellent content and giving yourself a short break from the tiresome blogging schedule.
7. E-mail subscriber updates
All of the most popular weblogs have e-mail newsletters. These are traditionally released as monthly or quarterly publications that round up all the most popular and interesting posts. This way fans of the site can get updates directly to their inbox containing all of the latest posts and worthwhile content from your site.
E-mail services like MailChimp offer a completely free account for smaller blogs. If running a newsletter makes sense for your website try out an e-mail service and see how it goes. You may be surprised how well newsletters convert into repeat traffic.
8. Share posts in social news
Social news originally began years ago and has since turned into a vast array of communities. The website Reddit has hundreds of thousands of individual communities just by itself. Let alone other smaller websites like Designer News.
If you feel that your posts contain great information don’t be afraid to share them on social news communities. Very few posts will ever go viral, but it’s a way to show that you’re up-to-date and willing to break into the news community. Most of these websites also have user comments and the feedback from these comments may help to improve your writing.
9. Welcome discussion
In controversial or detailed posts it may be a good idea to openly welcome user discussion. This will lead to more comments, but also more readers talking amongst themselves.
People who find your posts in the future will take the comments as a sign of rousing & inciting content. When your message is clear it can drive people to share their own opinions on the topic. Be welcoming of user discussions because oftentimes they’ll add greater information to an already fantastic blog post.
10. Be a real person
Perhaps the greatest advice is to show readers that your blog is not just a digital thing. Your blog is run by a person(or people) who truly cares about the content. Show readers a little behind-the-scenes action with an about page, author profile, and updated social media accounts.
Staying current is ultimately about demonstrating that a person runs your blog, and not some machine on autopilot.
Also try to write like a human, for humans. If you’re not incessantly writing then it’ll take time to learn how to connect words naturally. Blogging is the best way to practice writing like a human and showing off your humane side.
What do you do to keep your blog fresh? Are there certain persisting problems you have trouble overcoming? What has worked for you in the past? What hasn’t? Any other suggestions to add to the list?
In the meantime, read:
o Part 4: How to Write Great Content & Own It!
o Part 5: How to Build Your Blog Audience
o Part 7: Keep Your Blog Fresh!
o Part 8: What NOT To Do To Your Blog
o Part 9: Beyond Blogging: What To Do Moving Forward
o Part 10: How to Do It: Free Ebook for Entrepreneurs, Bloggers and Brands!
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