Want to discover some fresh blogging tips?
Have a website that no one visits?
Being a creative today means you’re going to be in a battle. A battle to acquire new clients, a battle to promote yourself, and a battle to gain new eyes on your work.
Everyone is shouting from the rooftops to be heard (especially with the rise of social media).
But what can you do to promote your creatives services to the next level?
A great way to start is with a blog on your website. It’s an excellent marketing tool that you can be utilise – and it’s free too!
If you missed it last time, I discussed the importance of creating an outstanding illustrator portfolio, with blogging tips and tricks from my first hand experience to help you succeed.
Coupling an outstanding illustrator portfolio with an outstanding blog is one road to success.
Within this article you will discover the importance of having a blog on your website, and discover it’s numerous benefits – from SEO, traffic, to potentially gaining more revenue. I’ll be sharing my personal blogging tips help along the way too!
What Are The Benefits Of Blogging?
There’s countless number of reasons why integrating a blog on your website is great;
– It gives you the chance to create amazing content
– Brings new eyes to your website
– You can promote these posts on social media
– Grow your email list
– Sharing your insight
– Becoming an expert in your field
– Promoting and selling yourself
– Improve your writing skill
It goes on and on.
I can hear you saying to yourself – “but everyone has a blog nowadays!”
Even though this is true, and there are countless blogs out there, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start one, or create a habit to keep yours going.
It plays an important role of any website, and it can do wonders for yourself and your creative business if you ustilise the following blogging tips to your advantage.
Split Your Blog Into Sections
As you can see with my blog, I’ve split it into sections, from How To, Design to Illustration.
This helps the user navigate around the blog, discovering new content easily (which I’m always tinkering).
Beyond the blog sections, splitting your content is also advised; from using headlines, breaking up big paragraphs of text, and using imagery.
Think about how your reader’s will travel throughout your blog – you’re onto a winner if you have them at the fore front of your thinking.
Tip 1 – Categorise your blog so your reader’s can navigate easily.
Tell Stories
We all love stories.
It makes us who we are, and we’re addicted to them.
We buy novels, watch countless films, and love our TV shows – because they all include a good story.
There are many elements that go into a good story that you can learn from, and adapt into your own blog to sell yourself.
Tell your readers about your recent successful project, reveal a mistake in the past, or that funny story that has everyone in stitches.
Telling stories is one way to reveal your personality, and makes your blog different.
You are unique, and your personality is unique, so reveal these by story telling, it will keep your users on your blog for longer.
Tip 2 – Be creative and tell stories about your successes, failures or funny moments.
Include Headlines
Much like sectioning your blog into categories, headlines breaks up content into actionable chunks.
Headlines lead readers throughout your content, and is a good way to include keywords. If you’re unfamiliar with SEO practice, Google bots scan content, and rank you accordingly for keywords you use; from the quality of your content, the speed of your website, if it’s mobile friendly – literally everything (this is a very small example).
Google doesn’t reveal too much about it, which is why companies pay thousands to get it right, as it can result in big business (and why other bloggers write epic posts on the subject).
Google pays particular attention to headlines, so include keywords within your headlines.
Tip 3 – Break up your content with headlines that grab a reader’s attention, encouraging them to read more. *Warning* – Remain cautious about embedding keywords into headlines, as if you go too OTT, Google will know (it knows everything!).
Post Consistently
Posting consistently means more traffic.
There, I said it!
Why?
Think of your favourite blogs (if you have any). Do they post consistently? Are they publishing new content? Do you find yourself revisiting time and time again?
You like these blogs because they regularly upload new content for you to digest. You never go back to these websites and see old content. They are consistent.
Consistent content means more traffic, better SEO, and more readers returning to your website.
This is all well and good, but publishing consistently is the hardest element to master, and is the most difficult blogging tips I’m revealing today.
Publishing on a regular basis means hard work, dedication and sometimes even sacrifice. Being consistent results in so many positives for your business, that it’s hard to ignore.
Here’s some blogging tips to help you remain consistent;
– Create an editorial calendar, so you understand what you’re going to write week after week
– Write and publish at the same time every week(s)
– Turn off distractions to help you focus
– Write everyday
– Make it a habit by doing it consistently
Tip 4 – Create an editorial calendar, publish on the same time every week(s) and create a habit of writing.
Create Great Content
Content is the king – those who create the best win.
It really is that simple, which is why I feel it’s the most crucial of all of these blogging tips.
If you’re an artist for example, you spend hours making sure an artwork’s composition, colour and subject is all on point, that results in an excellent piece of artwork.
This is exactly the same for your blog.
Create that first draft, edit it, think about the way it’s structured, develop it, add links, and work on it a bit more until it becomes an excellent piece of work (much like your artwork).
If you place just as much emphasis on your blog as your artwork, there will be no stopping you.
Tip 5 – Concentrate on creating good content, that yourself would want to read and learn from.
Have A Good Design
The content that you produce brings people to your website, however if the website design stinks, then it’s going to put people off rapidly.
This is even more important for those of you who offer a creative service (as this is something you should be an expert at).
Having a well designed website is just as important as it’s back-end (the code, structure, content .etc), and this counts for your own blog too.
Think about how a reader travels around your website, and arrange your design’s accordingly. This all boils down to good UI design, and the trends you should stick to in 2018.
Tip 6 – Be sure to create a blog which is well designed, with UI at the fore front of your thinking.
Added Extras
Here’s some added extras that you can think about to take your blog to the next level;
– CTA’s: Embed CTA’s (call to actions), to make users click through to other parts of your blog, contact you, or sign up to a mailing list
– Build your email list: Encourage your readers to sign up to your mailing list, so you can promote, sell and inform others of your creatives services straight to their inbox.
– Internal links & external links: Include these two elements to navigate your readers to other parts of your blog and external websites.
Conclusion – Blogging Tips For All Creatives
Blogging has been so good for me.
Not only has it helped my writing, it’s also allowed me to grow an audience, promote this good content on social media, and become more of an authority in my space.
So to conclude, create a blog that you would visit yourself, be consistent, focus on the design and content of the blog, and you’ll be heading in the right direction.
If you would like to find out more about myself and my illustration work, head on over to my portfolio, where I reveal my illustration and designs. If you enjoyed this blog post, do check out my other posts, or see my social media links below!
Cheers guys, and I hope you enjoyed these blogging tips!
Many thanks for listening and visiting my news page today. You can follow what I’m up to on my Twitter, Facebook or Google + pages, I’ll really appreciate it if you do, and don’t be afraid to say hi to me! Many thanks again, and have a great day!
30th October 2018
