Blogging is not easy. There I’ ve said it. I know this because there are days when I struggle to come up with content, struggle to sit down and focus. It hits all of us at some time.
No matter your best intentions. When you sit down to work on your blog, but your mind is still racing.
Spinning with all the other tasks you need to get done that day. Your toddler is tugging at your shirt urging you to come and play. The house looks a like a freak accident has happened.
You have no idea where to start with your to do list.
It’ s no wonder you are struggling to stay focused.
Struggling to even make a start.
It can be overwhelming, when you are starting out with a new blog. It can be hard keeping up with all the many things that you need to do daily to grow your blog.
When you stop and break these tasks down. I have been able to put these into simple categories.
And this made it all click into place. I realised that there are really only 3 things that you need to do daily to grow your blog.
That’ s where a blogging checklist comes into play.
Having a blogging daily checklist will keep you focused.
You can simply look at the list to know exactly what things you need get done.
When you do any of the things on your daily blogging checklist, you will have a sense of accomplishment.
It will help you know that you are doing the right thing each day.
This is really useful, at the times when it feels like nothing is happening on your blog.
When you put in all that effort day in and day out. And you only get a few people stopping by your blog. It can feel well a bit discouraging.
But, if you follow this daily blogging checklist, then you will know exactly what you need to do.
You will know what tasks you need to focus on, when you sit down to work on your blog.
Having this clarity will stop the overwhelm and struggle with your blog.
Here’ s the 3 Things You Need to have on your Blogging Daily Checklist?
Get Attention
I know this seems needy. Get Attention. Let me break it down for you.
Just think of that toddler pulling at your shirt and calling out for you when they want something.
They sure as hell find a way to get your attention.
They call, scream, shout, stamp their feet and maybe even throw a tantrum. All to get your attention.
That leads me to ask, what are you doing on your blog to get the attention of your readers?
Now I am not suggesting that you shout, call or scream at your audience. That would be kinda silly right.
But think about what this may look like on your blog. What can you do to get their attention?
It goes without saying that you will need to write interesting content. This cannot be stressed enough. Just throwing together something that looks okay, is not going to get noticed.
As well as interesting, you need to write content that solves the readers problem.
If they want to know how to get their baby to sleep through the night, (and who doesn’ t want to know how to do this!!) and you write a blog post offering them solutions about how to do this, then they will want to read it.
I wrote a post about why bloggers Pinterest views were going down. My post was on the first page of Google search for the term “pinterest views going down 2021 ” and I was the second listing.
Write content that people are searching for.
By the way, if you are looking for Pinterest Training, then Pinteresting Strategies is the course I took and can highly recommend it.
*This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information*
The next thing you can to do to get attention, is to write great post titles.
If you are thinking really! I know this sounds simple. It is. But it isn’ t.
Your post title is the doorway to your content. It needs to grab attention but still show what they are going to get. It needs to entice your reader to want to take a look.
Don’ t try to get all fancy with your post title. I made this mistake at the start of my blogging journey. I wrote titles that were so long and cliched that even I didn’ t know what they were about.
I remember I had a title “Blue Monkeys and Pink Pajamas ”. Unusual right? But what the hell was it about?
Would you know by reading that?
I thought because it was so unusual this would create interest.
I thought the mystery would create intrigue. Well mystery it did create alright. No one knew what it was about.
Guess what? I had zero readers to that content.
Your content needs to have a great title that will intrigue and draw your reader in to want to learn more about a specific topic.
The next thing you can do to grab attention is to learn how to SEO your content.
I use a plugin called Yoast. If you are not sure how to SEO your content, you can find 5 Simple SEO Tips When You Are Starting Your First Blog or try this free 30 day training which teaches both on page and off page SEO, to grow a successful blog.
Another thing you can do is choose your social media strategy. What do I mean by this?
Focus on one social media strategy at a time. Maybe one other strategy once you have things running smoothly.
I chose Pinterest, as it is still a great strategy to gain traffic to your blog.
Your pins are like your notice board. They go out to lots of different eyeballs. People see your pins. They like what they see. They want to come and take a look.
I know that there have been changes in Pinterest lately, but it is still a great strategy.
I know because as pins improve, I am getting more views.
I recently had a simple pin I made. Took me a couple of minutes that has 2.3K impressions. That means it was shown that many times. That many eyeballs saw that one pin. That pin is getting me noticed.
If you are interested to see that simple pin. Here it is
You can see it on my board here:
If you want to know where I learnt how to create pins that convert this is the training that helped
and
You can also do the same thing on any other social media platform.
Just find the platform you enjoy being on and where you are most likely to find your ideal reader.
We’ re coming to the end.
The final thing I want to share that you can do to get attention is to Take Part.
If you are an introvert like me, then this doesn’ t come easily.
I hate the limelight.
But I have to say that it is much easier online.
You can take part in forums like Medium, Answer the Public or Facebook groups that are relevant to your niche.
Answer people’ s comments in forums.
Make comment on blogs.
Soon, you will find that people will start to take notice of you. They will start to remember your comments. You will soon start to get some attention.
I’ ve given you a lot of ideas of how you can GET ATTENTION.
Firstly, you do not need to do all of these things every day.
In fact, I’ m guessing that you may not have time to do all these things every day.
Maybe not even every other day.
But if you only did one thing each day. This will add up in the end.
On those days where you feel overwhelmed.
Go to your daily blogging checklist and see if you can tick off one small action.
This will give you an internal boost that you did something.
This will be the catalyst to help you to keep going to grow your blog on a daily basis.
#2 Keep Their Attention
Now, I know what you are probably thinking. KEEP THEIR ATTENTION. Isn’ t that the same as the first one?
No. Is the simple answer.
Here’ s why.
Just because your toddler got your attention doesn’ t mean that you are going to go and play trains or kitchens with them. Right.
If they are trying to get your attention, maybe you are busy writing your blog post.
You are probably going to try to interest your toddler in something else on their own. Just for that bit longer. Afterall, you have so much to do.
But they persist. Because they know that they need to keep your attention if they are going to get what they want.
They pull at you even harder. They scream even louder. And they do all they can to get you to take action. (more on that later).
So how can you keep your readers attention?
Have you ever stopped by a blog post and found it well boring?
A You Tube video that did not catch your attention?
What did you do?
You left of course. Although they did the first thing right in gaining your attention, they did not keep it.
So how am I going to keep them interested, you may be asking.
Keep solving their problem.
Sounds simple. But this can also feel quite hard when you are starting out with your blog.
Maybe you even suffering from imposter syndrome.
You don’ t feel like an expert yet.
But you don’ t need to be an expert you just need to know a bit more than your reader.
You need to have started to research. Keep yourself informed and up to date so that you can tell them what you know.
Why do you think blogs that show how they did something step by step do so well.
People want to know how someone new did the exact same thing.
They want to learn from someone who is like them. Someone they can relate to.
Rather than a big expert who has thousands of followers already.
Because that feels like a big jump, to go from a beginner to an influencer. (Even though that influencer was a beginner once before.)
Let’ s get back to it, how do you keep your readers attention.
Firstly, your content needs to have your own personality. It is unique to you. No one can write the same blog post as you. This makes it interesting to your reader.
Unique content that solves the problem.
You can also make them an offer that solves their problem.
If they want to know how to start a blog. Give them a step by step guide that they can follow.
If they want to know how to write their first blog post, show them how to do this easily.
Create opt-ins that give further help on your readers problems.
You can also create a PDF or printable that they can keep or print, that helps them.
Just like I have done, get yours by reading further down.
Here are a few more things you can do to keep people’ s attention on your blog:
Keep your site clean. Keep it easy to read. Make sure that your pages that don’ t distract. Are you clear on what you want your reader to do when they come to your site? Will they know what you want them to do?
Make sure that your blog posts solve a problem. Or least teaches your reader how to solve their problem. You may not always know and so you can show them where you learnt. I don’ t know everything about Pinterest but I know someone who does, I have learnt everything I have implemented into Pinterest following this Pinterest training.
Keep learning about your niche. You need to stay ahead of your audience, you need to also learn and grow.
#3 Building Trust
Well done, you have got some attention and you have kept them engaged. Now what?
When your toddler calls for you, if you always come the first time, then she starts to trust that this is what happens.
If this happens consistently, then she starts to build trust.
She knows that when she needs her mummy (and who doesn’ t) mummy will always come.
You toddler will know that mummy knows what I need right now. Mummy understands my needs. She gets me.
Being consistent with your toddler, will mean you build this connection with them.
You will instinctively know what they need at that moment. Similarly, your toddler will trust that you know what they want.
Building trust with your audience is the same.
It is the final thing on the blogging checklist that we are going to talk about.
The best way to gain trust is consistency. Just like the toddler, if you always do the same action, then they know that is what happens. They know what to expect.
If you are consistent with posting to your blog. Then your audience knows that every week, there will be a new blog post ready to solve a new problem.
If you email them consistently (I do not mean bombard them) they will know to expect to hear from you.
You speak to them and their problems. When you do these things consistently. This resonates with them.
Trust happens with consistent actions.
When you do this that happen. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
Be consistent in producing content that helps.
Speak to your audience in a way that they understand and connect with you.
Keep in contact with your audience, email them or respond to comments on your blog.
Let’ s get real.
How am I going to do all of these things on the daily blogging checklist?
If you are asking yourself this question, then you have missed the point of this post.
I have broken down micro-actions that could be taken under three focused areas.
We are human afterall.
When I give you 50 Actions to take on your blog each day. Will you be interested?
No, you are probably screaming where the hell do you think I have the time for that.
But when I give you 3 Daily Blog Actions your brains thinks hmm I can do that.
3 Actions. Hit me with them.
At the end of the day, all you need to ask yourself is did I take an action today from each of these three focused areas.
If you can tick off three things, then well done. You are taking those daily steps. Little and often, wins the race in the end.
It may seem slow, but this better than giving up before you even get going.
If you have done nothing else that day, except one of these three actions.
You will get that buzz. That sense of having moved forward. You will want to continue the next day. And the next. And soon all those actions will add up into a successful blog.
I know that we all like lists so you can get your blogging checklist here
I suggest that you tailor it to your own needs though.
Because one list is not going to fit for everyone.
For example, it will depend on what you want to accomplish with your blog.
If you are getting started with building your blog
Your daily blogging to do list might look like this:
Look at popular blog post titles. Start a swipe file of catchy titles. (swipe files are great and kept by many copy writers, you can come back to these again and again). Doing the work one day, means you have ideas of titles for other days. It is sometimes easier to find many titles, when you are researching, (that’ s to help get attention).
Write a draft of the title. Just free flow and write what comes. Aim for at least 500-800 words to get started. You will later add the research and refine it. But getting the draft your initial thoughts is something you can get done each day. (that’ s keeping their attention)
Reply to comments on posts, answer questions in forums (that’ s getting building trust)
Do you think you could face a daily blogging checklist knowing that you can do just 3 things each day?
If you can create a unique daily to-do list for your blog based on these three actions. And actually stick to checking them off the to-do list every day. Then you will feel so much better that you are doing something every day towards building a successful blog.
As you continue, you will find that you refine your daily checklist with actions you know you need to take, repeatable actions and things you need to do to keep growing (training and keeping a step ahead of your audience)
If you are thinking isn’ t blogging dead?
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