I never thought of myself as a blogger. In fact, back in 2018, God told me to start telling my story on social media. I was extremely scared, but I did it anyways and guess what? In 2019, I took another Bold Faith step. I launched my blog. I wanted to create a space where women could come, read about my journey and get daily inspo. The only problem was I didn’t know what I was doing. I thought, “If I launch it they will come,” (Kevin Costner voice from Field of Dreams). But I was so wrong! The opposite happened. For three years I would release blogs and I probably had 4 faithful readers. I thought maybe it was because I was not consistent, so at the end of 2020 I began releasing a new blog a week. Still no success. I needed some first time blogger advice.
The Struggle is Real
- I struggled with creating catchy headlines.
- I struggled with SEO.
- I struggled with reaching my target audience.
Whenever I posted a blog it got lost in oblivion – an endless web that no one could find. I longed for one day to search a topic and my blog be the first to pop up. I needed help! So, I prayed to God asking Him for direction with my content. In addition to blogging, I’m also a full time content creator who has created several viral reels and TikToks. I share 7 tips to create epic videos here. But I wasn’t growing as much as I could and I definitely did not know how to monetize; but this I’ll discuss in another blog post. I felt like I was working twice as hard and no one was seeing blogs. That’s when a representative from the LadyBossBlogger Courses reached out to me. It was definitely God ordained.
“Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning at no cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.”
About LadyBossBlogger Course: Grow Your Christian Blog
The founder, Elaine Rau, is a successful blogger, who launched a course to specifically help other Christian bloggers grow. She creates content specifically giving first time bloggers advice. So, I enrolled and on the first day of the course my mind was blown. There was so much that I didn’t know about blogging. There was so much that I didn’t know about my website. I made so many mistakes, and Elaine offered solutions. If you’re interested in growing and monetizing your blog I suggest you take this course. Here’s my code, bookofstar_, so you can get (20% off). Trust and believe, the course works and now I have a new perspective when it comes to blogging.
I wish I had this advice back when I first started blogging, because it would have saved me a lot of time and prevented me from crashing and burning. So I wanted to pay it forward and share with you 4 Terrible Mistakes to easily avoid as a first time blogger with advice from LadyBossBlogger.
Mistake No. 1
No SEO + Boring Headlines = No Traffic
I struggled with this for many years. I knew what it was, but I couldn’t figure out how to get better at it. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This is the process of increasing your sites visibility with keywords, so that when people search for/ask certain questions on Google and other sites, you pop up. The better your SEO the better traffic to your site the easier it becomes to grow a community and monetize your blog.
While taking the LadyBossBlogger course, Elaine shared a technique for coming up with keywords for your blog. Think about what you want your blog to be found for. Jot it down. Then go on Google and type it into the search engine. You’ll see a series of results. Pay attention to what stands out. Tadaaaa, this is now the content you’ll create and what your target audience is looking for. How simple is that?
But there’s more to it than that because now you’ll need to make sure that your blog is optimized with the right amount of keywords in order to show up just like these other sites did. So, there are other tools and strategies that Elaine shared to help with this. For that info, you’ll want to check out the course. Elaine is practically giving away months of information condensed into a one-week course. This first time blogger advice is crucial to your growth.
Mistake No. 2
What are you crazy, are you tryna get sued?
This was probably the most life changing thing I learned during Elaine’s class and that is how to legally protect my site. I had no idea that each website needed a Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, and Terms & Condition. As a blogger, it’s important to note that you’re not just a writer. You’re also running a business. There are certain rules and regulations you must adhere to in order to have your site up and running. I figured because I was a small blog, none of this mattered. Rookie mistake! It matters. Whenever you’re collecting information from anyone there needs to be a disclaimer mentioning how their information will be used. The terms and conditions serves as a legal contract that whenever someone spends time on your site they agree with how your site is used.
Once I recognized that my site lacked this, I immediately included it. So, Elaine shared some key points to include in these specific legal documents. The course walks you through drafting your own documents, which is free. But then Elaine also offers another resource so you can purchase these documents and receive a lifetime of updates. You’ll never have to worry about having outdated terms, because whenever a term is changed for doing business online you receive updated legal documents. For example, if the FTC introduced a new regulation, you’ll receive a new updated Terms and Conditions for your site. I know the free option is enticing, but if you want some first time blogger advice, I’d choose the latter route. That’s what I did because it saves me the hassle of trying to stay up to date with all of the latest changes.
Mistake No. 3
No one ever told me I needed a strategy to grow my blog.
These were my exact words when I was taking the course. I never had a strategy to get traffic to my site. In fact, I’d write my blogs and then promote it on Instagram. I have a decent following on the platform, but my audience very rarely visited my blog. I hosted Giveaways and free courses to get people to my site and it didn’t work. My focus was so narrow; I needed to broaden my reach to other social platforms.
Elaine shared her Pinterest strategy for getting traffic to your blog. Now, I love Pinterest. I’m a serial pinner. I go there for fashion ideas, interior decorating ideas, party décor ideas, photo shoot ideas and much more, but I never thought to utilize the app to bring traffic to my site. The reality was I actually didn’t know how to use the app except for pinning. I have since updated my profile to a business account, included my blog information, and now pinterest is part of my strategy for growing my blog. This is probably the best first time blogger advice you could receive!
Another strategy to bring traffic to my site is using my email list. I have subscribers, but I only communicate with them whenever I launch a new blog. However, I found that I could create email automations to better serve my community. This really helped me to set up reoccurring emails, funnels, and a landing page. This helps me to engage with my audience and new subscribers. I don’t have to worry about anyone feeling left out or not regularly engaging with my audience.
Mistake No. 4
First Time Blogger Advice: Monetize your content
One of the things I struggled with was monetizing my blog. It’s fun being a full time blogger, but it can take a toll on you when you don’t see the reward. One way to monetize is by having affiliate links. Now, I used to cringe at the thought of this because I never wanted to sell to my audience. We’re sold to all the time and I wanted my blog to be a safe space that people could genuinely come and learn about God. But after taking the LadyBossBlogger Course, I learned that the affiliate links help me. It’s one way to make passive income without the hassle of tricking my subscribers to buy. It’s more like me sharing great resources with my audience and it’s up to them to purchase or not. And of course, a disclaimer is needed for this. With this information I went and signed up for a couple of affiliate programs especially for the products that I use on a daily basis.
First Time Blogger Advice Wrap Up
Now that I’ve corrected these major mistakes please follow my lead, so that you’re not wasting valuable years creating blog posts that are going nowhere. This will give you a head start in your blogging career. If you’re thinking of starting a full time blog or wondering how you can monetize your blog I strongly suggest taking the LadyBossBlogger course: Grow Christian Blog because it will help you master SEO and create catchy Headlines, create a strong email funnel to monetize, and increase your traffic. Use my code, bookofstar_, for 20% off your purchase.
If this blog was helpful feel free to check out my other content Here.
Let’s Chat: Which advice helped you the most with starting a blog?
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