15 Things that can take your blogging game to the next level

Not everybody starts their blog hoping that they’re going to be able to make a career out of it. Some people do, and then others start blogging as a hobby, then realize that they might like to push their blog to become their career. Either way, it’s often important to make sure that you’re going to be able to take things to the next level. Because that’s all it is when you want to be able to go from blogging as a hobby to blogging for business. Or, just starting out with a blog as your business in the first place. And to do this, you need to know all about the things that can be good for your blog. No matter how you started or what kind of approach you take to your blog, you can change things around. Because, as with anything in life, learning and growing and developing is always good for you. And that’s what taking your blog to the next level is all about. It’s just about being able to learn more, apply new practices to what you’re doing, and then starting to get the results that you want. But when you’re new or you’ve been doing things in a certain way for a while, you won’t always know what it is that you need to do to be able to grow. And that’s only natural – but you’ve come to the right place to remedy that. Because we’re going to talk about fifteen different things that can help you to take your blogging game to the next level.

Create A Business Plan

The first is the idea of creating a business plan for your blog. And this can sound like a lot of work – but it is just a way to break down your ideas or the steps you need to take to make things successful. Writing a business plan is going to help you to think about what you need to do to start taking things in the right direction. Did you know that if you enroll in my resource vault you’ll receive a free copy of a one-page business plan template? This way, you can start professionalizing today!

Create A Content Calendar

Another planning and preparation idea that will help you to take things to the next level, is to create a content calendar for your blog – ideally a month in advance. This will help you to start thinking more professionally about how you approach running your blog. Learn more about creating a SMART content calendar that helps you reach your goals, from more traffic to more income and impact here.

Get A Professional Email + your own domain name

Make sure you grab your own domain name here, you’ll come off more professional instantly and it includes a free email address with @yourblogsname.com. Check here if your own domain name is still available and make sure if so, you click here for a special deal, which includes a FREE domain name and FREE custom email addresses that you won’t find anywhere else. So the next thing you need to do may seem a little silly, but it just makes you seem a little more professional, is to get an email address that is professionally associated to your blog. So here, you’ll want to get an email connected to your domain – luckily, they are usually including in your hosting package so it’s free to create a few email addresses as you wish!

Register Your Business

Now that you’re going to want to start treating your blog like a business, you should look to register it. You don’t want to start trying to run things professionally, and then get held up because you’re not registered. It’s also important to register your income and to pay taxes on any money that you’re starting to earn too. An accountant can help you to do this step if you’re a little stuck.

Get Contact Details

You may also then want to go a step further from the email, and get some contact details too. And again, this can be important to help you to look professional. But don’t worry, you can get a virtual phone number if you don’t want to give your own. You can also get a professional business address to register too if you don’t want to register things to your home.

Work On Your Writing

So the next thing is to work on how well you’re putting out content for your business. Because when it comes to your blog, the content is actually your product a lot of the time. So it’s only natural that you’re going to want this to be as good as it can possibly be. So think about the writing exercises you can do to help you here. Read more to help you develop your writing style. Or maybe even take a course to see how that can help you to progress.

Get Better Imagery

To complement that, you may want to make sure that your imagery is always as good as it can be. And this can be in two ways. If you take the photos yourself, you may find that working on your photographer is going to be a great idea. But it could also be something like subscribing to the right stock photo site to get the best imagery possible.  Also read: 20+ sites that offer FREE stock photos for bloggers.

Work On Your Web Design

Keeping in theme with the look of your site, you may also want to spend some time working on your web design. Because, while the imagery isn’t everything when it comes to your blog, it does matter. If you want to look more professional and provide your audience with a great site to navigate around, your web design is always important. You can also hire a communication agency like Green Creatives because they can help you with your online presence, website design, and WordPress tweaks.

Hire An Assistant

Next, you may find that you’re going to want to get yourself an assistant. And this will happen at the right moment because before long, you will find that you just need an assistant to help you to get everything done. It can also mean that you’re able to grow because you have some support to keep things running when you’re looking to get to the next level.

Get Familiar With Analytics

Then, you have to make sure that you can get comfortable with data. While you may not find that you’re that analytics or numerical by nature, but if you’re able to start working with more analytics tools, you should find it helps you to grow. You can often make better decisions when you’re tracking how your content is doing, and it helps you to grow more strategically as a blog or business.

Work In Monetization Options

Now it’s the thing that a lot of bloggers compare about the most – monetization. And this is because if you’re going to be able to run things as a business, you need to make money. So you need to make sure that you look into ways to monetize a website so that you can start to generate an income from your blog. I have listed 50+ ways to earn money online here, 20+ influencer agencies that pay you to blog and the ultimate guide to diversifying your income as a blogger here! One of my favorite ways to earn income as a blogger without working in real time for it (passive income!) is affiliate marketing. Here‘s an excellent course on it from a blogger that earns millions (really) a year from it.

Follow Trends

If you want to make sure that you’re growing and being able to stay relevant, you’ll want to make sure that you’re picking up on trending content topics, and joining in. It’s always handy to have your content calendar in place so that you know what you’re working on, but you should also be keeping an eye out on what’s trending so that you can stay relevant.

Increase Your Presence

So next, when you want to be able to grow, you have to make sure that you’re available on a range of different platforms. Because it can be difficult to just build an audience in one place when your readers could really enjoy content on lots of different platforms. So make sure that you’re mastering one platform first, and add another one into the mix one by one to build things up. Here’s a good resource if you want to master Instagram yourself and here’s one if you want to get started with PR & Free Publicity for free by getting the right kind of actionable knowledge you’d want. Network From here, you’ll then find that you can benefit from networking as much as possible. When you want to be able to take as many opportunities that come your way, and get as much notability as possible, networking with other bloggers, PRs, brands, and other professionals that are in your network, can help. This will often open doors for you, and help you to grow.

Give Back To Your Audience

Lastly, you may also want to make sure that you’re always giving back to your audience. And this is something that’s going to help you to keep your audience engaged, and make sure that you’re showing gratitude for them. It can also help you to keep them coming back to your blog too. So make sure that you’re coming up with ideas for giving back, from hosting giveaways and giving out prizes, to hosting events and meetups, and even just doing live broadcasts and interacting with them. If you want to push your growth and ensure that you can continue to develop, you have to make sure that you’re really appreciative to your audience. And there you have it! It’s so important to make sure that you’re taking the right steps towards growth when you want to take things to the next level. It can take a lot of work, but it will always be worth it. If you are serious about wanting to grow, starting to treat your blog like a business, and being able to really push it in the right direction will help you. And when you realize that it’s not just about the content that you’re writing, the followers you have, and the image you portray on social media, you will be able to put in the effort it takes to get to where you want to be.

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