Blogging Secrets - Everything You Could Ever Want To Know

This post is exactly what the title states it is - this is a rundown of everything you could ever want to know about blogging.
If you look through the entire thing and have an additional question or topic that you would like to see answered, feel free to leave a comment or email me and I would be happy to do a second post or chat with you one on one.
These are the most frequent things I hear bloggers (both big and small) ask about. I love being a part of this community, so why not share the knowledge I've picked up over the past year? There are plenty of tips, tricks, and secrets listed below, so enjoy!

How To Start Blogging

There are some key things you should follow when starting your blog. These are critical to you gaining readers and connecting with your followers. I guarantee that if you do not follow the steps listed below, you will be committing the biggest pet peeves for seasoned bloggers. I frequently try to find and communicate with new bloggers, but when you make it impossible for us to get a hold of you, we don't have much choice but to move on and find another blog.
Here is a checklist for when you start a blog:
- Create a contact tab where you list a working email- Stop being a noreply-comment blogger!!! Instructions can be found here- Turn off word verification. I cannot tell you how many times I have given up leaving a comment because I can't figure out what blurry words this dumb thing wants me to type. It really does not prevent people leaving spam or mean comments. The best way to prevent this is to go to your dashboard and disable anonymous commenting. I rarely get spam.- Post a photo of you on the front page of your blog - We love to see the blogger we are getting to know!- Create an "About Me" page - again, we love getting to know you

How To Design Graphics & Buttons

When you first start blogging, someone may ask you to "swap buttons" with them. Or maybe you choose to sponsor another blog (see more on that below). In both instances, you may be wondering how the heck you create this said "button".
There are plenty of things you can use to create buttons and also to create graphics (like all the circle images I used in this post or the "bump dates" I do). For more detailed graphics, I use Pixelmator, which is a VERY inexpensive duplicate of Photoshop, but for Mac. I highly recommend it. Obviously you can use Photoshop as well, but most people can't fork out $70+ for software.
My least favorite program to use is Paint. Usually you can tell when a blogger uses Paint for something because a lot of images can be saved with poor quality. Paint also does not provide a lot of fun or easy tools and fonts to use. The BEST free option for bloggers is PicMonkey. Yes, they now offer a paid version with even more features, but everything you really need to do, you can do with the basic website. I have used this since day one on my blog and I use it almost daily. You can create buttons and graphics, fix up photos with filters and effects and even create collages. To actually create a button, head here and look at the detailed instructions (:

How To Create & Install Social Media Icons

This is extremely important. I personally put off getting social media for my blog for the longest time. I didn't see the value in it and it was a huge mistake.
I explain in detail why you really should get social media ASAP and how to go about it here. Of all the social media options, I stand behind the fact that Twitter is the most crucial. This ties into working with companies (see more on that below) and also creating relationships with your readers. If you want to get the low down on Twitter, you can see all of the explanations here.
When creating your social media accounts, try your hardest to use the same handle for every single one...and if possible, use your blog name. I am "/wifessionals" on every social media account I have. It is really hard for me to find a reader on Twitter if their blog name is Everyday Sparkle, yet their Twitter handle is xoxJessxox213. Also, by using the same handle AND using your blog name, you are branding your blog and it is much more professional.
Once you actually have all your accounts you will want to place social media icons on your blog. No need to scour Google for the perfect icons, I teach you how to make icons in any color you want and how to install them here.

How To Offer Sponsorships & Sponsor Other Blogs

Bloggers frequently want to know when is the appropriate time to start offering Sponsorships on their blog. My answer: Day 1.
At a minimum, you should ALWAYS offer blog swaps if you are trying to grow. For the first 8 months of my blog, I basically just swapped my buttons with other bloggers.
At some point you may want to make the transition into offering paid Ad spots. That is totally fine and I know varies from blogger to blogger. I offered paid Ad spots up until this past month. I have decided to take a break in preparation of having a baby because I always want to give my sponsors 110% and I know that will be impossible with a newborn.
For anything and everything you could want to know about swapping, paid Ad spots or choosing who would be a good blog to sponsor, head over here. As far as YOU offering paid Ad spots - my advice: give bloggers the most bang for their buck. Don't just offer a spot on your sidebar. I offered social media shoutouts, creative group giveaways, guest posts and video chats to my sponsors - and I am happy to say that the majority of them really gained a lot from their sponsorship. I personally never buy an Ad that is just for a sidebar slot...it's not a good investment. So just know a lot of bloggers look for Ads with a bunch to offer them as well.

How To Create A Link Up Or Use A Link Up Tool

Maybe you are thinking about creating a weekly link up. This can be a HUGE challenge because there are already so many weekly link ups out there. I have personally started 4-5 and some failed just after a week or two. I know it can be discouraging when you think you have come up with the most creative idea ever and no one else wants to participate.
There are 3-4 BIG linkups that take place on Mondays and are solely geared towards recapping your weekend. Hundreds of girls participate in these, so it's probably not a good idea to create a link up on Mondays, asking bloggers to recap their weekends. These women are already participants of one of these bigger link ups, so chances are, they aren't going to leave their link up to come do yours. I always tell bloggers, if you want to create a link up, get really creative and try to make up something you haven't seen before. Also pick a day where major link ups aren't already consuming all of your friend's blogs. Some of the most successful link ups are ones with a set time period. I have done a "love" one with bloggers for the 4 weeks surrounding Valentine's Day, or take my Preparing For A Little One Series. I have a set amount of topics and the series will end a couple of weeks from now. Bloggers tend to like these because there is a specific topic to write about and they know that the link up won't last until eternity.
Now, once you get an idea, create a button and spread your idea to all your friends, you need to figure out how to use a link up tool. My favorite is inLinkz. You can sign up for free and create a link up. Then you just paste the code they give you into the "HTML" side of your blog post and you are all set. The free option allows you to host Text Links, which means you won't see an image box above the link. If you want to get an image link up, you have to pay a small fee OR do like I did and email inLinkz. I asked them if I hosted Ads with the link up if I could have it for free...and they said yes.
Keep in mind you can use a link up tool for so many things besides and actual link up. A great example? Go check out my "Recipes" tab on my blog. I used inLinkz for that so readers could easily find a past posted recipe.

How To Effectively Use Pinterest

People do not give Pinterest enough credit. Some of the biggest bloggers out there will completely attribute their growth to Pinterest (ie, The Small Things Blog).
I personally did not know what Pinterest could do for me when I started my blog. One day I made some Funfetti Birthday Pancakes for Ryan's birthday...and I pinned them. The most hits I get every month comes from that sole pin. My recipe is now in the top 3 hits on Google as well. I had no idea what I was doing when I pinned that, but it taught me a valuable lesson: Pin your content onto Pinterest.
When pinning your blog posts on to Pinterest, use keywords that are extremely common and try to think about what people would type if they were looking for your post. For my Trickster Turkey Chili recipe, I would use the wording: Crockpot Turkey Chili. These are simple words and my recipe is so easy because it uses a crockpot. These are words people would probably type into Pinterest.
Besides pinning your own content, the best thing you can do is install a hovering Pinterest button on your blog. This will make a Pin It button appear over any picture when a reader hovers over it with their mouse. This encourages them to Pin things because it is easy and takes them 2 seconds. If you want to install a custom hovering Pinterest button, I give you detailed instructions here. One last thing which is highly recommended is to verify yourself on Pinterest. It takes 5 minutes and you can learn how to do that here.

How To Image Map

Some of you may have no idea what Image Mapping is. I avoided it for so long because it looked hard and seemed scary. And then another blogger was kind enough to do the simplest tutorial I had ever seen on it - and I was sold.
Image Mapping can be found on a ton of blogs. You know when you see a blog's header and all the "Pages" are actually pretty fonts or pictures? Or below a blogger's picture you see images used for "About Me" or Contact Me"? That is Image Mapping. It is a way to create "spots" on an image that are actually links.
Now trust me, I know this may sound complicated, but if you have ever been interested in Image Mapping something, go check out this tutorial and I am betting you will be willing to finally try it out (:

How To Make A Media Kit

I always encourage bloggers to create a Media Kit. It is one of the best ways to make your blog look more professional, especially when you are wanting to start doing product reviews (see more on that below). It took me awhile before I sat down to create my first one, mainly because it was daunting and I had no idea where to start.
My first one was done in Microsoft Word. All you have to do is break the page into columns if you want to have multiple "parts" to your Media Kit. Once I actually purchased Pixelmator, I started doing all of my Media Kits in there. After a bunch of trial and error, working with a ton of companies and also comparing a bunch of Media Kits, I think my Media Kit contains the most relevant information and statistics that should be included. To see my last Media Kit, click here. It is currently out of date since I have cut my Sponsorhips.
So why create a Media Kit? It is a quick snapshot of your statistics, your Ad offerings and info about you. It's great to give to Sponsors, but most of all, it's great to give to companies you want to work with. Before I had a Media Kit I would email a company and then they would respond, asking for all my statistics. Then I would type out a long response and send it back. It would waste about 10-15 minutes every time. Now I can just attach my Media Kit and all the info is right there. It will save you a ton of time and also makes you look like you have your stuff together.

How To Get Product Reviews

This is the top question I consistently get asked - so I am going to share with you all of the secrets I have learned.
It is never too early to work with companies for product reviews. Bloggers want to know the ratio of companies that contact me vs. me seeking out companies. I would say 90% of my product reviews come from me seeking out companies. You will get a few opportunities presented to you randomly, but for the most part, if you want products to review, you need to hunt them down.
So my biggest tips:
- Do not take just any product. If you talk to a lot of bloggers about when they started product reviews, they will probably admit that they were willing to review just about anything. Your readers aren't going to like this, and most of all, you will probably get to a point where you don't like it either. I would accept so many offers, then by the time the product actually showed up on my door I would think "Why did I ever accept this?!" Choose items that are relative to your readers and what you normally blog about. If you love beauty, go ahead and review a new beauty subscription box that just came out. If you like cooking, review an awesome apron that was offered to you. Just stay true to yourself and things you actually like or need! This can work to your advantage. Right before Christmas my hairdryer and straightener went out. I was offered a review on a brand new $200 hair dryer. I did such a good job with the review that the company also ended up sending me a straightener as well. Those two reviews saved me about $400.
- Put a lot of effort into your reviews. Other companies will look at your past reviews to base whether or not they want to work with you too.
- Keep a good balance between product reviews and personal content. I have had the Small Business series running for weeks now. If people aren't interested in the reviews, they can just skip over the posts and only read my personal content. I promised when I started the series that for every review I did, I would post personal content as well that day. Because I make the effort to do one personal post for every review, I don't feel like my blog is "all reviews" or I'm not staying true to what I want my blog to be.
So how do you get products to review? Like I said before, some companies may reach out to you, but that is not the norm. Here are the best places to get products for review:
- Twitter. Go on Twitter and search the words "bloggers for review". Hundreds and hundreds of tweets go out a day looking for bloggers. This is one of my best kept secrets (secret no more!).
- Tomoson. Tomoson is a website that gathers tons of products that companies need reviewed. Some of the stuff isn't that great, but other things I have really loved!
- Pollinate Media Group. Pollinate Media Group is one of my favorite companies to work with. You have to apply, but if accepted, you will have the chance to work with tons of great companies.
- BlogHer. You also have to apply to work with BlogHer. It took almost a year for me to get in, but I now run my sidebar Ads through them and they also give you opportunities to work on campaigns and with other companies.
Lastly, always be honest in your reviews. Do not lie or make false statements because you feel obligated since you received something for free. The last thing you want to do is encourage your readers into buying something you absolutely hated. If I have not liked something in the past, I directly contact the company and share my issues with the product. Sometimes they ask me not to write a review, but other times they have said to post the review anyways, since it would give people an honest viewpoint of the product. Out of respect, I always leave that decision up to the company.

How To Be A Successful Blogger

So how can you become the best blogger you can be? There are a few small things that I think can really add to your success as a blogger:
- Respond to comments. I respond to every heartfelt comment that comes my way. Maybe it takes me a day or two, but if someone writes a long comment (and they are not a "no-reply comment" blogger), I will always respond. I cannot tell you the bad taste it leaves in a person's mouth when they reach out to you and comment or email you and they never get a response back. This happened between me and a blogger with 5000+ followers. I sent her a long email, even saying I was interested in sponsoring her (she would have made money off me!) and she never had the courtesy to write me back. I thought it was really rude and to this day I still can't believe it happened.
- Read other blogs. I have about 100-200 blogs in my feed every day on bloglovin. Maybe I don't always comment on every single post, but I do read a lot of other blogs. If I take the time to read someone else's post and I got something from it, I always leave a comment. You can't expect to create awesome relationships with other bloggers if you never take the time to read and comment on other blogs.
- Always remember where you came from. Just a year ago, I had zero followers or readers. I remember what it felt like to get so excited when I had met 50 other bloggers and began gaining readers. Do not forget that feeling. I see way too many girls grow to be a certain size and automatically think they are above responding to certain people. Sometimes girls start acting this way when they get 500 followers, sometimes it isn't until 3000. I don't care if you have 18,000 followers, you are still just an ordinary person who decided one day to put your heart out there and start a blog. Don't ignore people or think you are better than them because they are "smaller".
- Stay true to you. My last advice to leave you with. I have had a handful of posts over the last year where I apologized to my readers. I would get to a point where I was doing everything "a blogger should be doing" but then realized I lost sight of why I truly love my blog. There are a ton of things that are thrown at you when you have a blog. You see hundreds of bloggers doing something, so you feel pressure to do the same. Your blog is YOUR space. You can do whatever you want with it. I promise if you stay true to yourself, post about things in your heart, you will always be happy with your blog and the direction it is heading in. As soon as you start being influenced by everyone else, you too will find yourself writing an "apology post" to your readers...


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