Blogging can be tough. We always seem to be juggling and grabbing time here and there to keep all our balls in the air and make sure our blog is ticking over. It can be super difficult to find time to actually grow our blogs. I want to show you that with a little planning and focus you can use these spare minutes here and there to take action to grow your blog, not just to sit in the loo eating biscuits while your kid is baby sat by Topsy and Tim (just me?!).
So, I’m going to share some great things you can do for your blog in a variety of time slots. All of these things will help you to boost your blog, so let’s get cracking.
Grow your blog in 5-30 minutes
Got 5 minutes?
- Respond to comments on your own blog posts.
- Reply to comments on your Instagram pictures (remember Instagram LOVE engagement and this includes your responses to people).
- Retweet someone’s post on Twitter (as many as you can in 5 minutes).
- Comment on someone else’s blog post. You can use Feedly to keep track of the blogs you follow.
- Follow 3 new accounts on Instagram or Twitter (use relevant hashtags to find people).
- Sign up to a free blogging course. My 5 day productivity course starts on 12th September!
- Update a popular post from your archive.
- Like and comment on five Instagram accounts.
- Add your top three posts into your sidebar (you can use the Cyclone slider widget).
- Go to a friend’s Facebook blog page and like all of the statuses.
- Click your social media icons and make sure they all go to the right places.
- Go into one of your posts and try to share it, make sure your Twitter share button has your @handle in it! (this is my pet hate).
- Send an email to a PR you have worked with in the past to see if there are any current opportunities for your blog.
- Record an Instagram story.
10 minutes?
- Update & reshare the post you wrote on this day a year ago (if relevant).
- Update your ‘About me’ or ‘Work with me’ page.
- Declutter your sidebar.
- Set up an RSS newsletter – this post will help.
- Organise your Pinterest boards – move them around and update covers if necessary.
- Tidy up your blog categories.
- Schedule tweets for the week (I use social oomph*).
- Delete email subscribers who haven’t opened your last 10 emails. Don’t forget at some point you will be paying for your subscribers and so you need to make sure you only pay for people who are engaged in you and your content.
- Add two email opt in forms to your site. Which is the most visited page on your blog? Consider putting one there (I use Convertkit for my mailing list).
- Make sure your social media links are clear, consider adding them to your footer too.
15 minutes?
- Write a draft for two new posts, bullet points will do. Don’t get it perfect, get it written.
- Set up an editorial calendar using the Editorial Calendar plugin or even pen and paper!
- In your calendar add at least two weeks of content ideas.
- Add a pop up to encourage people to sign up for your blog newsletter.
- Pin high quality posts from other people to your Pinterest boards.
- Add one month of post ideas to your editorial calendar (for real, you can do it!).
- Schedule a month of tweets / pins / Facebook posts to promote content from your blog archives.
- Create a pin template to give all your pins a consistent look.
30 minutes to spare?
- Create a landing page for your email list.
- Write a case study about an area of your blog to help with brand work.
- Set up a Start Here page, highlighting your popular content and signposting new readers to the areas of your blog you wish to highlight.
- Create a content upgrade for one popular and useful post (i.e add a printable or add in a vlog to explain a point further).
- Improve your skills by watching a webinar or a TED talk.
- Create an email template for your newsletter. This will speed up production of your newsletter each week.
- Do a Facebook Live.
- Pitch to a brand you love. This might help too!
- Set up a reader survey using Survey Monkey or similar.
Here are some sure fire ways to grow your blog. Do you have any quick growth fixes?
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