figuring out how to make my blog successful
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to be clear, i'm not talking about this blog. i'm talking about my other blog where I want to make a living from.
i don't know what i should do to grow my blog. i know all of the things i can do, but i just don't know which ones i should do right now.
that's why i'm just doing what i've done for the past year: writing about 2 articles a week. no ads, not great keyword research, no affiliate links, just writing about topics i think should write about.
and sometimes, about once a month, i'll feel completely stuck. and today it's that time of the month...
how the hell am i gonna make this work? how tf am i going to make a living with this blog?! i don't know...
writing seems so difficult right now and i feel like i'm writing about the wrong things. i feel like i've already written about everything i know about.
should i expand my niche a bit and include stuff i know less about? that feels wrong. how am i credible enough to write about acrylic paint for example? i have very little experience in it, but according to some keyword research tools, it's a great topic to include in my niche.
will it help to just make a plan for the next few months? but then again i don't know what's best to do right now... but let's try it anyway.
things i could do with my blog to make it successful
to make my blog successful i need to do the following:
- write articles (obviously)
- update articles, especially my most popular articles
- include ads in all my articles (maybe not in affiliate-based articles)
- become an affiliate for products i like and include those links in relevant articles
- build backlinks (this one scares me for some reason)
- make an info product that i can sell
- create a video course
- make youtube videos
- create an email newsletter
- make pins for interest
- interlinking articles
i feel like writing articles, updating articles, making pins for interest, interlinking, and building backlinks are the most important right now. building backlinks seems so overwhelming and difficult...
how am i going to get backlinks from people?
well, i know of 4 ways:
- write guest posts for other bloggers
- link exchange with other bloggers
- find broken backlinks to competitor blogs and get them to link to my blog instead
- write link-bait articles
the first three require me to interact with other people which is very scary and overwhelming. the third one also requires me to buy a tool which costs about 100$ a month...
so that leaves me with the fourth option: writing link-bait articles.
what are link-bait articles?
link bait articles are articles specially made as bait for other bloggers/website owners to link to. examples of this are an extensive research report, some tool, or just some helpful resource like specific metrics.
what link bait articles can i create?
my blog is about drawing, so i could create a resource listing the lightfastness ratings of multiple brands of colored pencils.
i could create a resource for color charts. i could do research to how lightfast alcohol markers are. i could create a tool that tells you which colored pencils you need for a drawing. i could create a drawing ideas tool. i could create a tool that helps you decide what the best colored pencils are for your needs (this is probably a really good one as i can include an affiliate link in the end). i could create a resource listing all the characteristics of multiple brands of colored pencils or alcohol markers.
and probably a lot more things.
some of these take a lot of time, others require custom code... maybe i'll create a few of these over this year.
what i need to do in a week
write blog articles
i need to write at least 1 blog article to increase my topical authority, to cover more keywords that bring in traffic, and as content for pinterest.
writing 1 blog article often takes 2 full days, especially if it's some kind of tutorial.
update blog articles
i need to update at least 1 article to keep and/or improve my rankings. this is only relevant for blog articles that should do better and popular articles.
this could be a great way to increase my blog traffic as many articles should perform better but are not well constructed and written.
this should only take about 1 full day, but it may take a little longer.
make pins for pinterest
i need to create preferably 21 to 35 pins (35 pins = 5 pins published a day), but 14 to 21 is also okay if i'm not able to make more.
this should take 1 full day, maybe a bit longer, and it's quite easy, but it is a mind-destroying task.
interlinking articles
by interlinking articles, I can make my website more crawler friendly and it'll increase my topical authority which in return increases my potential to rank higher.
this probably takes about half a day.
work on creating link bait articles
and if I have some time left I can use that to work on creating link bait articles which i'll publish throughout the year.
my weekly planning
i'll probably change the order a bit so that i start with the most important one and end with the least important one. so that would be:
- monday: blog article
- tuesday: blog article
- wednesday: pinterest pins
- thursday: update blog article
- friday: interlinking articles (+ link bait article)
and then i could use the weekend as a buffer if that's needed otherwise i'll spend the time drawing cars or relaxing a bit if i need to.
okay, so that'll be the plan for the next few months. let's hope it'll work and pay off.