Every year we hear the same thing, oh, this year it’s all changed and here, finally, are the absolute rules of blogging. So, what are the blogging rules in 2019?
What we’re hearing the most is to over schedule and over plan whenever possible regarding your posts and that you’ll do best doing it on your own.
There are some valid arguments to both of these “rules,” but in 2019 these aren’t reasonable for most bloggers. Not everyone can plan three posts a week for months in advance. Not everyone can personally write every post they put up on their blog.
Besides, blogging is about doing something you love and making some money doing it, so focus on your ROI instead of these nonsense rules.
1. Break Out of the SEO Mindset
So far as blogging rules go, SEO has taken over many blogger’s entire world. When it comes to blogging, yes, SEO is essential, but it’s becoming less relevant.
Google, Bing, and even Amazon are becoming smarter, and they’re not fooled with keyword stuffing if anything it will get you in trouble. The downside is that bloggers sometimes unknowingly overuse their keywords, especially in niches.
Please, break this rule! Stop worrying about SEO and instead, focus on quality content.
If your content is high quality, then you should easily include a high volume of keywords without repeating yourself needlessly.
Write what you love instead of trying to use a formula to create content.
Now, this affects ROI in a bit of a weird way, because you get the most significant boost from cutting your costs. Many bloggers pay top dollar for keyword research and SEO planning, skip that and shave down how much you’re investing in the first place.
2. Give Away Less
One of the long-standing rules in blogging is that you should give away, well something. You can give away a short class or workshop, but you should give something to entice your readers to become customers.
Well, you don’t walk into a fast food chain and get a free burger for showing up, so stop giving things away. Or change how you give away products.
Think of it this way, your blog posts are the free stuff. When someone visits your site, they’re already getting a ton of information and a smidge of personality, all for free.
If you want to make money off of your blog, start charging. If you’re new to charging for your products or services keep these things in mind:
Have a pricing strategy
Know how much time goes into each service or development of a product
Do offer discount codes that you can offer if someone seems hesitant to commit
When you look at ROI, you can only count the money you made, and everything you gave away is moving in the opposite direction. Sure, someone could have found similar information online for free. But when readers are willing to pay for your fantastic services or products, charge them and get some return on your investment!
3. Create Meaningful Content, Not Scheduled Content
Meaningful content is something that’s a bit of a hot topic because naturally, no one wants to create useless content. Except it’s still out there, in fact, the internet is full of fluffy content that doesn’t have any real value.
The content that has less meaning is usually scheduled content. Think about your content calendar for a second, you probably had to make up a few topics that don’t really interest you to hit your weekly post goals, right?
Meaningful content hits readers, AKA your potential clients, in an emotional way. If we know anything about humans is that they’re great at making emotional decisions especially when it comes to deciding how to spend their hard earned money!
So, boost your ROI by cutting out the scheduled content and instead, focus on writing about what motivates you and why you love your field. This type of material is what readers want, and it’s what will turn average site visitors into customers.
4. Don’t Go It Alone
The misconception is that blogging is still like Julie and Julia where you take on some insane task and everyone watches. Over recent years blogging has split into the people taking on crazy projects and those who are providing high-quality information. The thing is that neither of these divisions within blogging means that you’re on your own and the more interaction you have, the better.
To build a little bit into your content, and help with the business end, rely on services that will positively affect your ROI. While you don’t need to pay outrageous amounts for keyword research, you can afford to pay for an assistant to help curate your blog, schedule your posts and handle your social media.
Assistants and additional writers make it easier for you to focus on the business you’re building.
On the other side of things, get in touch with your readers and customers. If someone’s reading your blog, then they have an opinion on the topic you’re addressing. Ask for their opinion! Understanding your readers and their views can open unimaginable doors!
6. Stop Sending Every Post Through Your Email List
Say you have a blog post that explains how you have found the secret to life, and of course, you give a little for free, but the rest is available through a course. People are going to want to know about your colossal discovery and learn how to use it for themselves.
But if your readers ignore the email that tells them about the course, you’ll be missing out on tons of possible income because you’ve lost email trust. The thing is, you might think that every post is important, but your readers probably don’t, so when you send an update about every post you make, people stop opening the emails.
Save your email list for when you’re ready to make money. Bloggers usually try to use their email during the wrong part of the sales cycle. If someone is on your email list, they know they want to work with you, you initiated contact (via your blog), they know what they need, and you are now presenting the offer. Email is not contacting the customer for the first time.
Use emails to present offers to get the attention and income that an email list should generate.
Break the Rules
What are the blogging rules in 2019? They’re nothing! Break the rules and focus on crafting content you’re proud of, only paying for resources that are high-value, and use your resources when the time is right.
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