8 Blogging Tips that Will Convince You To Write More

blogging tips

Often viewed as an outlet for angsty teenagers with too much time on their hands, blogging can be a powerful tool, both for your small business and for your own personal growth and creativity. Don’t believe us? Ask some of the top bloggers in the industry, who shared some of their best blogging tips as part of April Bowles Olin’s blog tour this week.

April, whose upcoming CreativeLive course, Build a Successful Creative Blog, has inspired writers, creatives, crafters, entrepreneurs, and makers around the world to find their voice and grow their brands through blogging. To lead up to her course, she asked some of them to share what they’ve learned.

Blogging is about trust. Artist Lisa Lehmann writes that blogging has “absolutely” helped her business, largely because it lends credibility to her business, and makes potential clients trust her. “Because I am not just a girl that makes jewelry,” she says, “I’m your friend.”

Blogging really can drive sales. On a strictly marketing front, an active blog is great for SEO. It gives Google something to look at, and makes it more likely that you’ll turn up in search results. Author and life editor Sage Greyson says it’s the number one thing she recommends to those who ask her how to grown their business.

“About half of my clients are other entrepreneurs, and they’ll often ask me why they’re not getting more sales. The first thing I do is check to see if they have active blogs on their business websites. No matter what kind of business you have, your blog is selling you! You don’t have to be perfect, but you do have to show what it would be like to work with you.”

Blogging helps you meet your goals. Artist and entrepreneur Mayi Carles says that blogging drives her follow-through with projects. “I blog because it keeps me honest. If I say I’m gonna write a cookbook, I better do it,” she says. “Pressure. Blogging keeps us accountable.”

Blogging is for realness. Business consultant Ashlee Thurlow covers a wide array of topics, but she says that her “most popular posts on this blog, my older ones, and on guest blogs has been the posts where I told stories, I’ve been open & authentic.” Openness is what readers most connect with — and can drive business as well as personal growth.

Blogging is for exploration. Sitting down to write a post is never a straight shot. Says artist and crafter Laura Clempson, “that’s the beauty of blogging – a post about one thing can so easily become about another. It can transform and be organic and inspire and make you fall in love with something you thought had disappeared forever. You just have to find your spark.”

Blogging builds your credibility. “When done right,” web designer Emily Thompson writes, “blogging becomes both a business and personal outlet, and it also becomes your calling card and your proof of expertise.”

Blogging is for you. It’s easy to see blogging as just a marketing tool, but, says Creative Women’s Business founder Coral Lee, it’s also about you. “Share your heart with the world.  Be open.  Be true.  Be vulnerable,” she writes, “That’s where the beauty in writing is.  That’s what makes you fall in love with blogging.”

Blogging is empoweringApril herself says that one of the things she loves most about blogging is that it “gives me that gushy ‘I’m-making-a-difference’ feeling.” Because when you write for the internet, you’re writing for everyone — and you might inspire others.

 

Join April Bowles Olin for her course on blogging and business May 1-3. RSVP for free here — and, as a bonus, you’ll get a 75-page workbook full of incredible blogging tips. And if you purchase the course, you get an additional 60-page book called the Done For You Resource Pack.

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Hanna Brooks Olsen is a writer and editor for CreativeLive, longtime reporter, and the co-founder of Seattlish. Follow her on Twitter at @mshannabrooks or go to her website for more stuff.