About 7 years ago I was sitting on my computer and I stumbled upon what looked like some kind of forum. There were words, pictures, and then a bunch of other recommended “forums” on the sidebar.
It turns out this little “forum” I was on was Blogger – the first ever blogging platform.
One link led to another and I ended up on this page titled Something Navy.
Something what? What is this?!
It was a girl posing in her NYC apartment in Jeffery Campbell Litas (who remembers these?) and I was hooked. I went out and bought a pair the next day.
A few months later my first fashion blog was born.
Had I actually stuck with it who knows where I’d be now but I was young and wanted to do more important things like go out on Thirsty Thursday. ::rolls eyes::
So after a few years of inconsistent blog posts and soul searching, I decided my fashion blog wasn’t for me. I shifted gears completely and created a new blog focussed on self-development and spirituality.
At the time, I was reading a lot of self development books and doing a lot of yoga so it made total sense. I was in a great place with myself and just flowed through life with ease (everyone’s goal, right?).
But then after a few years, my perspective shifted yet again and I became a hybrid of my first blog and the spiritual one so I decided to marry the two and rebrand completely. This time I was in it to win it and Not Another Blonde was “the one”. (Read the full story on why I changed blog names.)
So why am I telling you this?
Well, first of all, I talk to so many bloggers who feel overwhelmed and downright confused, which is exactly how I felt during my first years of blogging. I almost think it’s better to start blogging later in life because you have a strong sense of who you are and what you want…
Secondly, a lot of people see the end result of macro-bloggers like Something Navy and think it happened so easily. They think after a short time, ‘Why aren’t I there yet? What am I doing wrong?’ But what they don’t understand is the years of challenges these bloggers had to face before they got to where they are now.
Here’s a little secret: everything happens at different times for different people. It’s rare you’ll meet an overnight success but if you do that doesn’t mean by following the same formula it’ll happen to you. Your success will come exactly when it’s supposed to.
Now let’s get into how you can expand your blog…
step 1: stay true to you
First and foremost you want to stay true to who you are no matter what. Granted, you will change over time (I’m not the same person I was when I was 20) but over the years, however you feel, should be what you portray on your blog.
Personally, I’ve always been interested in fashion and self-development and those are two themes that have stayed consistent on my blog in some way or another, they’ve just taken on different forms.
If you’re not a huge beauty buff but feel you need to incorporate it into your blog because Marianna Hewitt does, you won’t get too far because it’s not you. Do you boo boo!
Stick with things that feel natural to you… what make you excited… things that you’re super knowledgable in. Not everyone is going to be into beauty and that’s ok. As long as you’re staying true to you and telling your story in the best way you know how. People will see that and they will gravitate toward your authenticity.
step 2: innovate
Innovation in blogging is huge. Instagram won’t be around forever (oh hi Vero) and people will digest content differently in the years to come (VR, AR). You have to always be sure you’re getting bigger and better and keeping up with the times. So don’t, don’t, don’t, whatever you do, rely on solely on Instagram. “Instafame” is not sustainable.
In my opinion, videos and podcasts are the way to go right now. This isn’t the first time I’ve acknowledged video is king, so if you’ve never done an Instastory, Instagram live, or Facebook live, then you’re seriously missing out on creating a highly engaged audience.
Video is the closest thing to being face-t0-face with someone and as you innovate you want to keep that in mind. People want to feel like they’re a part of your story. They want to feel like you’re best friends and the best way to convey that is through video.
Back in the early days of blogging, a super long, novel-like blog post was totally acceptable but now you have to make your posts “skimmable” using subheaders and they can’t be too long, otherwise you’ll lose your readers’ attention, or too short, otherwise you won’t rank for SEO. There’s a sweet spot of about 500-1,500 words.
In addition to innovating how your content is consumed, you want to innovate the design of your blog as well. I mean, how boring would it be if you’ve stayed with the same template/layout for 6 years?
You want to keep readers on your page as long as you possibly can. And in order to do that you need an extremely user friendly layout – people should know where to find your Instagram, latest content, videos, and anything else you have to offer (email list, interviews, giveaways, products, services, etc.).
There are all kinds of cool customizations you can make to your blog today to make it a totally interactive and engaging experience for your readers, which is exactly what you want.
step 3: put your readers first
I’m sorry if I sound like a broken record but your readers are the bread and butter to your business. So whatever they want or suggest, you better do it or you’ll lose them.
They should be as much a part of your content creation and innovation process as you are.
You may be thinking ‘But what if I don’t know what my readers want?’ Well then ask them!
People love to give their opinions and suggestions and it’s really cool if you provide them a way to do so.
‘I ask my followers questions but no one answers… now what do I do?’’ That’s a question I get asked often because, as much as people like to give their opinions, they’re also hesitant to be the first one to suggest something.
The more people who genuinely engage with your content, the more other people will follow (I know there’s some psychology behind that but I can’t think of it right now). Nothing draws a crowd more than a crowd. But if you’re still in the beginning stages of your blog and you haven’t quite developed that readership yet, create content based on what you think your ideal reader would be interested in and continue to engage, engage, engage.
And when you finally do get responses from your readers, regardless if it’s positive or negative, be sure to reinforce that behavior by immediately responding to them.
Once you get the conversation going with your readers, you’ll quickly learn who your audience is and what they want from you. Then you’ll be able to create more of the stuff your followers respond positively to and less of the stuff they don’t respond to. But the key is keeping that conversation going which is where engagement comes in.
You must engage with your audience for at least 1 hour a day to stay relevant and top of mind of your followers.
step 4: expand the brand
Expansion is necessary and inevitable as you evolve your blog. You can’t expect to maintain the same success while continuing to do the same thing – that gets boring and predictable.
People want to be excited and entertained. If you’ve stayed solely on Instagram, try jumping on YouTube. And likewise if you started on YouTube try to up your IG game.
For Not Another Blonde the expansion was organic. I didn’t start out with a plan like ‘Ok first I’m going to do this for 6 months, then this for 7 months, and then by 2020 I’m going to have this!’ Not at all.
But that’s not to say I went into NAB completely blinded, I definitely had, and still have, a good idea where NAB is headed. I have an overarching theme and general goal in mind with an action plan to help me get there (the NAB blog guides are extremely helpful for this).
And of course there were, and will always be, hiccups along the way, which led me to put some things on the back burner, but for the most part I’ve achieved everything I set out to achieve (with many dark days and nights where I’ve cried myself to sleep). #realtalk
The truth is, evolving your blog is never ending. You don’t just hit a goal, kick your feet up and relax. You have to continue to think of how you can expand your reach. How can you branch out and impact a bigger audience? How can you meet people who don’t even know you exist?
As exciting as expansion is, one thing to keep in mind is to never try to do everything at once. There is nothing more ineffective. You have to have patience. I blogged and Instagrammed for 2 years before I went over to YouTube.
Doing too many things at once will make you the jack of all trades master of none, which will never work when trying to grow your business. Not only that, but it will completely overwhelm your audience. They won’t be able to consume all of your content fast enough. They won’t know where you are or what they should be following and why.
In my opinion, too much content is too much content and because of this, half of it goes unconsumed. This is where I think some influencers fail: putting out too much at one time. Unfortunately, I can’t keep up with the Kardashians as much as I want because there are so many other things out there fighting for my attention. It’s important to pick and choose how much you promote. Releasing your podcast, cookbook, blog post, and giveaway at one time is overkill.
I digress…
Lastly, with every evolution comes growing pains. I’d be lying if I said every day was sunshine and butterflies. I can’t stress that enough. There are some days where I go to bed ready to kick ass in the morning but I end up watching Snapchat all day.
One thing all experts can agree on is that the harder you work, the faster you will evolve. That’s it. But you have to be ready to w e r k honey. So are you up for the challenge?
How has your blog evolved? Tell me about it in the comments below!
xx
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