Is Blogging Still Worth It? What Is The Future of Blogging?

Is Blogging Still Worth It? What Is The Future of Blogging?

Two questions that I tend to see come up quite a bit and that are in the same wheelhouse are:

  1. “Is blogging still worth it?”
  2. “What is the future of blogging?”

In the constantly evolving space of blogging, digital marketing, social media, technology etc, these are actually very valid questions to ask.

Things are always changing and changing fast!

In this post, I will share my thoughts on if blogging is still worth it and what I think the future of blogging entails.

This may help those who are on the fence of starting a blog to begin with and/or motivate active bloggers to keep pressing forward.

But first, let’s address if blogging is still worth it or not…

Is Blogging Still Worth It?

It’s important to note that everyone’s blogging approach and circumstances will be different.

  • In general, as long as you’re producing high-quality content, blogging IS most definitely worth it.
  • Now on the other hand, if you’re publishing mediocre, short and low-quality articles, then blogging will NOT be worth the time.

Long gone are the days where you can quickly slap together a low-quality 300-400 word blog post and expect it to perform or rank highly.

Google more than ever before is looking to rank blog articles that are informative, comprehensive and incredibly valuable to its users.

So blogging is indeed worth it, but only if you’re willing to put in the necessary work to create high-quality content for your readers.

And as we look to the future of blogging, it’s important to keep a few things in mind as well.

The Future of Blogging – What Should You Focus On?

Now of course there are still unknowns when it comes to the future of blogging and no one knows for 100% certainty what the blogging landscape will exactly look like…

However, with that being said, there are definitely a few areas that I think people should focus their attention on if their goal is to run a sustainable blogging business for years to come.

1.) Quality of Content Should Be a Top Priority

As stated above, crafting high-quality and interesting articles for your readers should be a top priority. Especially with the overwhelmingly growing competition and tons of blogs being created on a daily basis, your work needs to stand out (both to human visitors and the search engines). You can get rewarded with higher search engine rankings by creating content that encourages users to spend a sufficient amount of time on and share with other people. Quality of content is only going to become more and more important in the future of blogging. Also, try to focus on creating longer-form style blog posts of over 2,000 or so words (this doesn’t have to be every blog post, but mix it in). This type of content that covers a subject in its entirety tends to do well and will continue to do well in the major search engines. Neil Patel states that his blog posts are 2,500 words at a minimum and he even has long-form articles that reach 30,000 words! Quality and comprehensive content is truly king here.

2.) Incorporate YouTube Videos Into Your Blog Content

Video content is hotter than ever right now and especially with the growing popularity of YouTube. In fact, YouTube is the second largest search engine (behind Google) with over 1.5 billion logged-in users per month. As a blogger, if you’re not taking advantage of YouTube and embedding videos into your blog content, you are seriously missing out. Supplementing your blog articles with helpful video content that you create is part of the future of blogging. YouTube can also be an excellent way to generate loads of referral traffic for your website, from people clicking on links within your YouTube video descriptions. Building up a reputable YouTube channel will only strengthen your brand and help drive more targeted traffic to your website.

Incorporate YouTube Videos Into Your Blog Content

3.) Ensure Your Blog is Mobile Friendly

More and more people are using mobile devices to browse the internet and search the web. If your website is not mobile friendly, 1.) it will lead to a poor user experience and most likely high bounce rates and 2.) it can potentially be de-prioritized by Google and ranked lower in the search results. You need to make sure your blog is mobile responsive and especially with Google rolling out mobile-first indexing. The amount of people using mobile devices is only going to increase in the years to come, so this needs to be a major focus if you’re a blogger.

4.) Generate Content for Featured Snippet Results & Voice Search

Acquiring featured snippet type search results can really help drive more targeted traffic to your website. Featured snippets are special search results (see screenshot below) that are positioned on top of Google’s organic results in a designated box/area.

What is the Future of Blogging

You should strive to produce/optimize your content to cater to featured snippet results/keyword phrases. Utilize bulleted lists, numbered lists, question/answer style content (especially in headings), add schema markup to articles, add proper imagery and more. Question/answer style content can also be great for voice search, which is the future of blogging as well.

5.) Utilize Social Media to Share Content

No surprise here but a good refresher. If you’re not doing so, you need to start sharing your content properly on top social media platforms. The amount of traffic “hanging out” on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest for example is staggering. This is also where a lot of people’s attention is, so why not utilize these free platforms to get your content in front of more eyeballs?

6.) Website Speed Matters

I cannot believe the amount of bloggers that do not prioritize their website speed. There is nothing more aggravating in my opinion than trying to navigate a website that is super slow-loading. Think about it for a second, Google would much rather rank a website that loads lightening fast compared to a sluggish website (strictly from a user-experience perspective). This can mean all the difference in the world of ranking in Google’s top results, or not ranking high at all. Each month you should run speed tests and look for ways to improve your website speed if you want any shot at outranking your competition. Two free tools you can utilize for this are GTmetrix and Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

7.) Build Your Email List

Every blogger, no matter the niche should be focusing on building their email list. An email list is something that is always yours and that you can always take with you. Collecting email addresses allows you to sell to your subscribers overtime and build a long-lasting relationship. As a blogger, this is truly your biggest asset and you should have strategies in place to encourage people to opt-into your list. The best email marketing software that I personally use and reccomend is ConvertKit. You can read my ConvertKit review here.

8.) Blogging Will Remain a Long-Term Game

Blogging is and always will be a long-term game. Those who consistently produce high-quality content, build their email list and remain very patient will give themselves the best possible shot at becoming a successful blogger. Blogging is by no means an overnight process and should be approached with a long-term mindset. In order to see organic growth, you need to set realistic expectations. If you do this from the start, the probability that you will stick with blogging is much higher. It’s sad to see so many bloggers quit far too soon in their journey. The ones that are the most successful understand that it takes time to build a blogging business. You really need to be in this for life!

Conclusion

The key takeaway here is to understand that blogging will always be evolving. Trends and technology will always be changing. However, if you are able to adapt and approach this with the right strategy and methodology, blogging is definitely worth it. In fact, the businesses that are not utilizing a blog are putting themselves at a serious disadvantage. There will indeed be a form of blogging in the future, it just may be different than years prior. So my recommendation is to blog on and embrace what lies ahead!

Looking for additional guidance for your blog? Check out my blog coaching services here!

Do you think blogging is worth it?

What do you believe the future of blogging will be?

How to Build Backlinks for a New Website? (Link Building Technique)

Build Backlinks for a New Website

One of the biggest problems I see with new bloggers and webmasters is a lack of knowledge on how to build quality backlinks for their website.

This prevents a lot of people from seeing the type of results and momentum that they desire.

Especially with a brand new website, it’s vital that you incorporate consistent link building work into your overall strategy to strengthen the authority of your website/brand.

We want to give Google positive signals that your website is important and relevant enough for other external sources to link to.

If done correctly, overtime, this is a surefire way to gain more traction in the search engines and increase your organic traffic.

In this post we will uncover a super simple technique to build quality backlinks for new website owners and a step-by-step process that anyone can follow.

Why Is Building Backlinks Important?

Before we get into the specific strategy for building backlinks to a new website, let’s briefly discuss why this is important in the first place. These are just a few of the many benefits of building links to a new website:

SEO Purposes

If you want to give yourself a better shot at ranking in the major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo it’s essential that you adopt an on-going link building strategy. Google looks at the strength of your backlink portfolio as a ranking factor (this is just one of many ranking factors Google analyzes, but it’s very important). Every time you build a quality backlink to your website, you’re basically saying to Google “hey, my website is valuable and important and other people are linking to it”. This is how I’ve seen some of my most significant ranking increases for certain keywords, through building quality and natural backlinks each and every month. This obviously can also result in increased organic traffic when your organic keyword rankings improve. Just keep in mind that it takes some time for this technique to kick in and for Google to recognize new links built to your website. Stay patient and be persistent!

Brand Awareness

Having your link published on external websites is great for overall brand awareness and exposure. Even just one solid/authoritative website linking out to you can be a game changer. Every time you build a quality backlink you should also look at it as building additional buzz around your brand and/or company. Generating backlinks for a new website is such an underrated way to get your name and message out there and can potentially lead to more customers/clients/business down the road.

Referral Traffic

Increased referral traffic is the icing on the cake when it comes to building backlinks to a new website. Whenever your link is displayed on another website, you have the chance of people clicking on that link and visiting your URL. A few backlinks that I have personally built for my blog continue to generate me referral traffic on autopilot each and every month. This has directly led to more email subscribers, SEO/blog coaching students and product/affiliate sales. If your links are published on other relevant websites, this referral traffic is incredibly targeted, primed and ready to take action.

Now that we’ve discussed a few specific benefits of building backlinks to a new website, let’s look into a specific strategy to help you accomplish this.

How to Build Backlinks for a New Website

Now there are many strategies for building backlinks to a new website, but in this particular blog post I wanted to touch upon one of the easiest and most effective methods out there (especially for new website owners).

Guest Posting

Guest posting is simply writing an article to be published on another website relevant to your niche, subject or expertise. Within this article you are generally allowed to place your URL within the content or in an author bio section.

Through guest posting, you really tap into the three benefits we laid out above.

You get the SEO benefits of improved search engine rankings/organic traffic, you generate more brand awareness/buzz and you produce more referral traffic from people clicking on your link within your guest posts.

Also, it’s important to know that guest posting is a win-win for both the writer and the publisher. Other websites are always looking for fresh and unique content. They get rewarded with engaging content and you get rewarded with the backlink and increased web exposure. Truly a powerful tactic!

How To Find Quality Guest Post Opportunities

Let’s look into a few methods to actually find quality guest post opportunities.

1.) Research Relevant Blogs: Start by simply researching related blogs in your niche. For example, if you’re in the technology niche, you may do a simple Google search for:

  • “technology blogs”
  • “top tech blogs”
  • “technology blogs accepting guest posts”

This may sound simple, but I’ve found some really quality guest posting opportunities this way.

2.) Use Search Queries: Drilling down even further, you should try to use strategic search queries in Google such as:

  • “write for us” + “keyword”
  • “guest post” + “keyword”
  • “writers” + “keyword”
  • “submit content” + “keyword”
  • “contributors” + “keyword”

This will help you identify websites that are specifically looking for content contributions.

Just replace “keyword” with something relevant to your niche. For example, if you’re in the technology niche you might try “tech”, “technology”, “web apps”, “computers”, “smartphone”, “automation” etc.

Here’s an example of a guest post opportunity I found on Teckrr.com using the search query “write for us” + “technology”:

How to Build Backlinks for a New Website3.) Utilize Guest Posting Tools: There are tools out there that can help you find guest posting opportunities in your niche that may also be helpful. A couple examples below are:

Spot Check the Domain Authority (DA)

You will want to look into the domain authority of any potential guest post opportunity.

See MOZ’s domain authority description below:

  • Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). A Domain Authority score ranges from one to 100, with higher scores corresponding to a greater ability to rank. Read more here from MOZ.

If you’re trying to build backlinks to a new website, your own personal domain authority is most likely a 10 or below. Therefore, I would only target websites that have a domain authority of say 15 or higher (the higher the better).

To start, building links on any website that has a higher DA than yours will be super helpful.

To check the DA of other websites you can use this free DA checker here. Paid SEO tools such as MOZ and Ahrefs are also another option when looking into the DA of a website.

Here’s an example of what you’ll see:

How To Check Domain Authority

Organizing Your Guest Post List

Now that you know the general process of researching potential guest post opportunities, I recommend compiling/organizing a list of at least 20-30 websites to start.

Important: You need to make sure that the websites you are targeting for your guest posting efforts are relevant to your niche/industry. You only want your content published on websites that make sense so you do not raise any red flags in Google. For example, if your blog is about technology, you wouldn’t want to publish content in the “dog training” niche. Make sense?

The simplest way to put together your list is by using Microsoft Excel or Google sheets. Here you will have columns for the URL, Domain Authority (DA), Contact Email, Status etc. It’s a good place to add notes and keep track of your progress. See below for example on how you can set up your list generation documents moving forward:

Guest Post List

Crafting a Guest Post Email Outreach Template

Now that you’ve generated your list, you will want to come up with an email outreach template that you can send out going forward.

Keep this simple and to the point but also make sure it’s unique/compelling (as websites get pitched all sorts of stuff all the time).

You want to make sure your email stands out from the crowd and explains how you will provide value to the webmaster. Point out maybe a specific article of theirs that you really like to demonstrate that you’ve actually taken the time to browse through their website.

It’s also really important that you pitch them 3-4 blog topics right in the initial email. I’ve tested this and found that when I presented topics upfront it led to quicker and higher conversion rates.

Here’s an example outreach email for guest posting (feel free to modify to your liking):

SUBJECT: Guest Post Contribution for (INSERT SITE NAME) | Contributing to (INSERT SITE NAME) with a Guest Post

BODY:

Good afternoon,

My name is Evan Hoeflich from EvanHoeflichMarketing.com and I really enjoy the quality content you publish on your website. I especially like this article here (INSERT LINK) as it correlates directly to what I write about on my website. I’m reaching out to see if you’d be interested in a guest post on one of the topics below. I believe it would be of great interest to your readers.

Would you consider any of these topics for your blog?

Topic Pitch 1

(brief description: 2-3 sentences)

Topic Pitch 2

(brief description: 2-3 sentences)

Topic Pitch 3

(brief description: 2-3 sentences)

Kind regards,

Evan Hoeflich

Writing Your Guest Posts

If you get the go ahead from any guest post opportunities, you are now ready to begin writing your article.

Generally you will have to follow some writer guidelines provided by the webmaster, or sometimes you can find them directly on their “write for us” page, example here.

Make sure to abide by these guidelines for the best chance of your article getting published.

Also, make sure that you are provided a do-follow backlink within your article for the best results. This will ensure that Google will follow and credit you for this link.

Conclusion

Mastering the guest posting process takes time, practice and dedication but it is truly one of the best ways to build backlinks for a new website. You need to make sure that you implement this strategy on a consistent basis in order to see the best results. For new websites, this can be an excellent method to get your name out there, increase your search engine rankings and generate more awareness around your company.

Is guest posting something you’re willing to try to build backlinks?

Have you had any trouble with this strategy in the past?

Blogging Pros and Cons – Uncovering the Good and Bad of Blogging

Blogging Pros and Cons

The goal of this post is to be completely transparent and uncover what I have personally discovered as the good and bad of blogging.

Before we get into the thick of things, let me start off by saying that I encourage anyone to get their feet wet and start a blog for the overall learning experience (and especially because there are so many potential benefits).

However, I also think it’s important to be realistic and highlight a few areas that aren’t so sexy or attractive when it comes to blogging.

We see a lot of blogging success stories online (which are incredibly inspiring), but what we don’t see are the millions of people that are struggling to gain any sort of traction with their website.

Also, the successful bloggers generally had to work pretty hard initially and stay consistent for a long period of time before they gained momentum and saw any noticeable results.

Now again, this article is not trying to scare you away from blogging at all and in fact, in my opinion there are way more pros than cons when it comes to blogging.

But I do want to be honest and list out both the positives and negatives that I’ve experienced.

Creating and running a blog whether it’s part-time or full-time can be an incredible opportunity and hopefully this article will help answer any questions you may have and steer you in the right direction.

Blogging Pros and Cons

Like any type of business, there are pros and cons that should be considered before getting involved. Just because blogging is the right business model for one person, doesn’t mean it’s a good fit for another. Please take the time to read the blogging pros and cons below to see if this is something that you would like to pursue.

Pros of Blogging

1.) Very Inexpensive to Get Up & Running

One of the biggest benefits to starting a blog is that it is incredibly inexpensive to get up and running. Remember, a blog is a business (if you treat it like one) that you can have live on the web for literally $3 per month. Compare this to a brick and mortar store (like a local jewelry shop) and the expenses are way WAY less. This is part of the reason why online businesses in general are so attractive. You don’t have to pay rent, there’s less overall overhead expenses and it’s affordable for almost anyone who wants to get involved.

2.) Flexibility To Work from Anywhere with an Internet Connection

This is an attractive benefit to many aspiring bloggers as you are not confined to one place when you work on your business. You can work from home, the local coffee shop, while on vacation or anywhere where there’s a solid Internet connection. To me, this is insanely liberating and one of the reasons why I started my blog to begin with. I really enjoy working from home and having the option to choose where I spend my working hours. So many people are restricted to an office cubicle for example which I know can feel like being shackled to the ground (I used to work an office job and very much disliked the cubicle lifestyle). With blogging, the flexibility is endless and really provides you with location freedom that so many people strive for.

3.) Asset that Works For You 24/7

For me personally as someone who has always been obsessed with investing, creating various streams of income and entrepreneurship, this is my favorite “pro” when it comes to blogging. Once your blog starts gaining some momentum and especially if you’re beginning to generate a steady flow of organic traffic from the search engines, it turns into an asset that works for you 24/7, 365 days a year. In fact, I wrote a whole post on this here. You can be sleeping, at the park, playing golf, eating lunch etc. and your blog can be working for you, generating traffic, leads and sales on autopilot. Now it will indeed take some work to get to this point and that’s one of my “cons” below, but in my opinion it’s way worth the effort to have an asset like this working for you at all times of the day. Once you publish a blog post, it is up there forever for people to discover.

4.) Can Work Into a Busy Schedule

Many of the successful bloggers we see today worked on their blogs part-time before making the transition to full-time. So the good news here is that people who currently work a full-time job, can absolutely still be building a profitable blog part-time on the side. As long as you’re giving it 1-2 hours per day or alternatively devoting your weekends to your blog, it’s the type of online business that doesn’t require full-time work when first starting out. Blogging is such an amazing opportunity because almost anyone can work it into their chaotic and busy schedules.

5.) No Ceiling on Income You Can Earn

Every blogger’s income will be different, but having the global reach that you do when running a website gives you an earning potential that is really unlimited. With billions of people using the Internet and so many different traffic sources to tap into, it’s not uncommon to hear people making full-time incomes from their blog (and sometimes much more). As bloggers we are always producing more content and working on growing our readership which makes it very possible to earn a very good income and scale up overtime. I will caution that bloggers should not be too focused on income though when just getting started and instead be more focused on providing as much value to the marketplace as possible. If you do this, it will give you a much better shot at earning the type of income that you want from your blog.

6.) Positions Yourself as an Authority in Your Niche

Having your own personal blog is a great way to position yourself as an authority figure in your niche. Building a reputation and credibility is crucially important in the online space and can lead to more people sharing your content and more doors opened. Through blogging you can provide your expertise on a given subject, valuable information, tips, tricks, insights and more to slowly build up the authority for your brand and your website. Having a platform such as a blog to communicate relevant information allows you to really brand yourself as an expert and influencer in your niche overtime.

Cons of Blogging:

1.) Growing Competition

It seems like almost everyone nowadays has a blog and the competition continues to grow each and every year. However, in my eyes, competition is a good thing and it’s important to note that most bloggers will quit only after a couple months of blogging anyways. Keep in mind though that everything is much more saturated in general these days and for example, it’s not as easy to rank on page #1 of Google as it used to be. You will have to be creative in your content generation strategy and really work hard to stand out from the growing competition. This is something to be prepared for when starting your blogging business.

2.) Takes Time to Gain Traction

Each and every blog is unique. Some blogs will grow very slowly and others will grow incredibly fast. In general though it’s important to understand that blogging does indeed take a while to start gaining some traction. Organic growth of a blog does not happen overnight and you will need to be producing high-quality content on a consistent basis. There are also no guarantees that your blog will gain traction in the first place, so some people may think that this is a bit of a gamble. However, if you really stick with it and focus on publishing content that will really help your audience, there’s no reason why you can’t start seeing results for yourself. Just know that you must be in this for the long-term in order to succeed.

3.) Requires Hard Work & Strong Commitment

Let’s face it, you really do have to put in a lot of work if you eventually want to make a career/full-time living from your blog. It takes hard work to style your blog, create quality content, implement proper SEO, build a following and keep readers engaged. It takes hard work to build your email list, create your own products and build up your blogging revenue. Plain and simple, blogging is not easy and requires a strong long-term commitment (as discussed above) in order to have any shot at success. If you’re not willing to roll your sleeves up and put in some serious effort, a blog might not be the best option for you.

4.) Requires Some Technical Knowledge

In order to properly set up, manage and maintain your blog, you will need to be prepared for some technical work. Luckily, if you’re using WordPress they make it really easy to craft your blog the way you want it. Nonetheless, you will still need to install necessary plugins, set up an external email autoresponder, ensure your website speed is fast, equip your blog with necessary tools, widgets and much more. This shouldn’t sway you away from creating a blog to begin with though because all of this can be learned and there is a wealth of information online to help you.

Conclusion

I hope this blogging pros and cons list was helpful and gives you a better idea of what it takes to create, manage and run a blog. Again, this is based off of my personal experience. To re-iterate, the cons of blogging that I provided are definitely not to scare anyone away but to help reveal a few areas where some people may run into obstacles. In my opinion, I think anyone should start a blog if they are really interested and devoted as it will be a learning experience like no other. The pros of blogging to me far outweigh the cons and this can truly be a business model that provides more freedom, flexibility and opportunity for many people!

Have you started your blog yet? If not, you may want to read this here.

If you’re looking for additional assistance and/or coaching, please visit my page here.

Check out my video version of this post here!

Why You Should Embed YouTube Videos in Your Blog Posts?

Benefits of Embedding YouTube Videos

Today’s blog post is based around a super simple topic, yet something that I’ve personally seen noticeable results with…

What I’m talking about here is embedding YouTube videos in your blog posts.

This is just another way to stand out from your competitors and add more personality to your blog.

Today we will be going over some of the benefits of embedding YouTube videos in your blog posts, but first let’s explain how you would actually do this in the first place.

How to Embed a YouTube Video in WordPress Blog?

First things first, head over to the video that you would like to embed into your blog post and click on the “Share” button.

How to Embed a YouTube Video in WordPress Blog

 

Now you have two options here:

  • Option #1, you can grab the “embed” code and paste that directly into the “Text” editor within WordPress (see next steps below).
  • Option #2, you can grab the URL provided and paste that directly into the “Visual” editor within WordPress (for the sake of keeping this particular blog article to the point, I only demonstrate option #1 below. However, option #2 is dead simple and if you have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment below).

Embedding YouTube Videos

 

Next “copy” the embed code (alternatively, as stated above, you can just copy and paste the YouTube URL provided directly into the “Visual” editor within WordPress).

How to Embed YouTube Video in Blog

 

Lastly, find the blog post you’d like to edit and once inside hit the “Text” tab. Then simply just paste the embed code in from the previous step.

Embed YouTube Video on BlogYou will also want to “preview” this to make sure it looks okay (note: you can adjust the height and width dimensions of your video if necessary).

Benefits of Embedding YouTube Videos in Your Blog Posts?

Now that we’ve gone over exactly how to embed YouTube videos directly into your blog content, let’s examine some of the benefits of this strategy.

Again, a simple yet powerful tip!

1.) Provides Readers Exposure to a New Platform

Many of your blog readers may not know that you have a YouTube channel unless you embed your videos into some of your posts. This is a such a great way to expose some of the traffic from your blog to your YouTube channel. If these people already like your blog content, there’s a good chance they will like your YouTube videos as well. Which leads to the next benefit!

2.) More YouTube Subscribers

When you embed high-quality videos into your posts that help explain or sum up the content, people are way more inclined to subscribe to your YouTube channel. They are now primed and ready since they are already visiting and hanging around your blog. Embedding your YouTube videos within your blog content as an on-going strategy can really help grow your subscriber count and help build a loyal audience (both on YouTube and your blog).

3.) Longer-Time Spent on Page

If a visitor happens to watch your embedded video on one of your blog posts, this will most likely increase the time spent on that particular article. This is incredibly beneficial from an SEO perspective. The longer you can get people to stay on your website and click around, the better. This is a really easy and helpful tip to better optimize your blog posts for SEO.

4.) Potential for Inbound Links

If your content and videos are high-quality and provide loads of value, then these types of posts (copy with an embedded YouTube video) can attract inbound links. Informative articles get linked to and shared all the time. When you produce a really good piece of content on your blog that combines both text and video, you increase your chances of other webmasters linking out to you. Another huge SEO benefit that could lead to increases in targeted organic traffic.

5.) Makes Content More Engaging

Have you ever come across a blog post that flows fluently, smoothly and is very easy to read? Well, embedding YouTube videos within your blog posts can provide the same experience to your readers if done properly. YouTube videos within blog content can be a great way to break up the text and make it easier for your traffic to digest the information and stay on the page (similar to why we use text headings). Videos reveal additional layers about you, your brand and also helps add more personality to your posts.

6.) Deeper Relationships & Connections

When your readers either see your face or hear your voice (through video), this helps build deeper relationships and connections with your audience. Complimenting your text content with video really invites people into your world and creates a unique experience. It also shows that you’re transparent, human and willing to put yourself out there to help people your readers. This is a great way to build a following that will last for the long-term.

Bonus Tip:

Make sure you are also adding your blog article links within the YouTube description section (see screenshot below). This is an excellent way to drive more traffic to your blog with YouTube!

Adding Blog to YouTube Description

Conclusion

It’s hard to believe that so many wonderful benefits come from such a simple tactic like embedding YouTube videos in your blog posts. Yet, I’ve noticed over the course of my blogging experience, it’s the little steps over a prolonged period of time that yield the best results. Make sure to combine this strategy with other foundational blogging techniques for the best results!

Do you currently embed YouTube videos within your blog posts?

Have you noticed any positive benefits yourself?

Check out my video version of this post here!

Blogging For Income – Are You Doing This Backwards?

Blogging For Income

I was inspired to write this post based on a common trend I see with some of my coaching students and also beginner bloggers in general.

Too many people get into blogging with the sole purpose of making extra money, without any sort of plan, and without any real direction.

We see all these success stories of bloggers who are making full-time incomes from their websites (which is entirely possible) but I personally think this gives people the wrong motivation and message.

The main problem I see with many beginner and aspiring bloggers is that they’re blogging for income

Now if you continue to just blog for income, your readers (if you even receive any) will be able to see right through this.

You don’t want to be a blogger who overloads their website with banner ads, Google adsense, affiliate links in almost every single post etc.

Blogging for income and using “money” as a main motivation in my opinion, will make it almost impossible to build a sustainable and thriving business.

In fact, this mindset needs to be shaken up a bit!

Now you’re probably wondering, “okay Evan, so if I’m not blogging for income what the heck is the point of starting a blog in the first place…What am I blogging for?”

Well instead I want you to switch your mindset from blogging for income to blogging for value (or blogging to create value).

Let’s jump into this in a bit more detail below.

Blogging For Value Instead

Now of course as bloggers we want to make extra money and for some of us, even turn this into our full-time incomes…

But as stated above, it’s going to be painfully hard to get there if your mindset only revolves around money, money, money!

Blog For Income

Blogging for value or blogging to create as much value for your readers as possible is the ticket to building a sustainable business in this arena.

A blog is one of the best ways to share high-quality and helpful information in your area of expertise and should be used for that.

People who just blog for income will quickly run out of topics to write about and most likely lose their passion along the way.

Creating value provides a huge sense of purpose and a reason to keep producing quality content.

Here’s the kicker and why this type of mindset is a win-win in my opinion.

If you blog to create value rather than income, overtime the income will actually follow.

If you give, you shall receive…this saying is true with blogging too.

When you are committed to giving and producing helpful content for your readers, making money becomes a lot easier with your blog.

This is such a simple concept, yet so many people have this backwards.

Below are a few specific ways that we can begin blogging for value:

Blogging to Answer Questions

  • A blog is the perfect platform to help answer questions that people may be searching for in your niche. People type in questions to Google all the time, and being able to help answer some of these positions yourself as an expert and authority figure. Not to mention, question and answer style blog posts can rank well in Google assuming you are optimizing them properly for search. If you provide a really thorough and thoughtful answer to a particular question that may be nagging at someone, you build immediate trust and credibility with that person. This can snowball upon itself (with other blog articles you write) assuming most of your content is value based, and eventually lead to a tribe of engaged fans, followers and readers.

Blogging to Solve Problems

  • Solving problems ties in directly with the point we laid above and should be used in a similar approach. You need to think of yourself as a problem solver. Do your own research and see what types of issues people are running into in your niche. Craft quality and informative content based around solving these problems. Sometimes this can even provide you with a good foundation to build out a product of your own. People are willing to pay for information that addresses a particular obstacle or hurdle they may be faced with. Always be solving problems!

Blogging to Educate

  • Informational articles that help educate your readers on a particular subject (without wanting anything in return), is another powerful value based approach. I know when I personally come across an article that really leaves me with a sense of “I really learned something new here“, it makes me that much more inclined to sign up for the newsletter or return to the website in the near future. Become almost like a teacher in your niche and provide practical, actionable and educational type content for your readers to indulge in.

Blogging for Relationships & Community

  • Instead of blogging for income, blog to create relationships and a community that will last a life-time. Blogging is a long-term and never-ending journey. You want to build a community that will stick with you for the long-haul. As a blogger, you must always respond to comments and emails if you want to establish an engaged following and eventual customer base. Blog for the people that visit your website by making them feel welcome and supporting them with content that is useful and beneficial to their lives. Fall in love with your readers, show gratitude, invest your time in them and they will eventually invest in you.

Conclusion

Let me make clear that making an income from your blog is definitely important and should still be a goal of yours, but know that you must create value first for income to follow. I still encourage you to monetize your website, build your email list and create quality products but only if you’re providing value in the process as well. I know at first even when I started out as a blogger, I was too focused on just making money, it wasn’t until I completely changed my mindset from blogging for income to blogging for value (or blogging to create value), that things really started to take off.

I hope this post helps some of you maybe re-evaluate your current blogging strategy.

At the very least, it will be a good reminder just how important creating value in the marketplace is!

Do you fall into the trap of focusing too much on income when it comes to blogging?

How has creating value helped your blog grow?

Check out my video version of this post here!

Building Up Your Blog Is Not An Overnight Process – It Takes a Long Time!

Blogging Is Not An Overnight Process

I recently came across an excellent article (The Insanely Slow Road to Building a Blog) which correlates directly to my own experience and thoughts about blogging in general.

Some of the most successful blogs took years and years of consistent effort before any momentum was built.

I didn’t write this post to scare anyone away, but more to be completely transparent that 1.) blogging is a lot of work and 2.) blogging takes a long time to start gaining traction, traffic and a loyal following.

The unfortunate part about this is not the length of time it takes to build a successful blog, but the number of people that give up too early and quit.

My main goal with this post here is to encourage as many people as I can to continue blogging for the long-term, no matter where they are currently at.

To help drive this point home, let’s take a closer look at my long-term blogging metrics.

Long-Term Organic Traffic Chart

We will be looking at three different plot points in the chart below.

  1. ) 16 Months of Very Little Traffic
  2. ) Breakthrough/Spike #1
  3. ) Breakthrough/Spike #2
Blogging Takes Time - Organic Traffic Chart

It’s important to note that this chart is analyzing organic traffic coming in from the search engines (and not total traffic).

1.) 16 Months of Very Little Traffic

My first blog post ever published for this website was in May of 2016.

You can see for around 16 months to follow, I received very little to no traffic on my blog…Yes that’s 16 months of very minimal results!

Luckily I have experience with building up websites organically over time, and know that this is definitely not an overnight process.

However, taking a step back and looking at my own long-term traffic trend, made me completely understand why so many aspiring bloggers quit in the first place.

It can be quite discouraging to continue blogging after 16 months of slow results and most people will quit far before then (sometimes even within 1-2 months).

I wasn’t focused nor worried about the lack of traffic coming into my website during that time period.

Instead I was producing/publishing as much high-quality content as I possibly could to build my foundation.

I would publish anywhere from 4-8 blog posts per month, optimize them properly and share them on social media.

In combination to generating quality content, I also started guest posting on other relevant websites to increase my overall reach and build quality backlinks.

This helped me to finally start getting noticed in Google and led to my first big organic traffic spike.

2.) Breakthrough/Spike #1

After 16 months of generating quality content and building backlinks to my website, I started to get certain blog articles ranked in Google for specific keyword phrases.

This is where you see the first real spike in organic traffic in the chart above (labeled “Breakthrough #1”).

Again, most people would have quit months and months ago without giving their website a fair chance.

You have to realize that I was building my blog completely from scratch and with a domain authority of 0.

It’s not surprising that no one was visiting my website in the beginning, since it was brand new.

I had to let Google know that I actually existed.

I also switched my website to https before the first spike, which added to the traffic increases you see.

What’s powerful about this first breakthrough/spike is that my traffic never again dropped to as low as it was in the 16 months prior.

I was now getting a steady flow of targeted organic traffic to my website on a monthly basis.

3 .) Breakthrough/Spike #2

Fast forward to January 2019 and I hit a new all-time high in organic traffic by a long-shot (see screenshot above).

Now this was another 14 months or so until I saw a noticeable spike in traffic again.

Hence why patience and consistency is everything with blogging.

To see this second spike, my strategy was pretty much the same as before…I kept creating quality content, optimizing my blog posts and building quality backlinks.

There were a few additional tactics that aided in increased traffic like improving my website speed, but the fundamentals did not change.

At this point (almost 3 years in) 99% of people would have already quit.

This is to be expected as it takes time and effort to build a blog that produces a consistent stream of traffic.

But it’s also hard to think that so many people, if they stuck with it and implemented the right techniques could have a successful blog on their hands today.

And potentially a blog that generates a predictable extra income.

Key Takeaways For The Aspiring Blogger

To summarize, almost 3 years in at the time of writing this post and my blog just getting started. Results will vary from person to person and blog to blog of course, but the message here is the same.

I’d like to leave you with a few key takeaways when it comes to blogging:

  • Adopt a Long-Term Mindset/Vision
  • Expect Stagnant Results At Times
  • Keep Work Consistent Even in Times of Discouragement
  • Blog About a Passion of Yours
  • Celebrate Small Wins
  • Stay Patient & See It Through

I hope this post gives you some perspective on what it takes to start a blog and more importantly stick with it.

The stories you see of successful bloggers are generally the result of years and years of hard work.

The rewards of blogging can be priceless, but it does take time to build your brand and following.

Buckle up and enjoy the ride!

 

How To Do SEO For Bloggers? SEO Tips For Bloggers Anyone Can Implement

SEO For Bloggers Tips

Any and every blogger would like to gain more traction within the search engines and generate more organic traffic for their website.

The problem is, the concept of search engine optimization (SEO) can seem so foreign and/or overwhelming to many new and even veteran bloggers.

Many people get freaked out by all of the algorithm changes put forth by Google (yes these happen every year), and how to stay ahead of a marketing strategy that seems to be constantly evolving and changing.SEO Tips For Bloggers

The good news is that if done correctly and methodically, SEO can really help you grow your blogging business and lay the groundwork for long-term success.

And over-time it will just become second nature with the consistent effort that you put in.

In this article, we’ll take a look at a few helpful SEO tips for bloggers that anyone can implement.

Make sure to save this link or bookmark this page so you can refer back to it.

How To Do SEO For Bloggers

1.) Long-Term Mindset

First things first, let’s ensure we have the right mindset when it comes to doing SEO for your blog.

SEO is in no way an overnight process.

There’s a good chance I just lost 50% of people who are reading this blog post after saying that.

But it’s true…and as a blogger you should already know that you need to be in this for the long-haul.

You must adopt a long-term mindset if you ever want to see major growth from your blog.

Give your SEO efforts at least 6 months before drawing any conclusions if it’s working or not and continue implementing the other steps that we’ll lay out below.

2.) Keyword Research

In order to get found within the major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo, you need to target the right keywords.

For this step you can use any of the tools provided below:

  • Ubersuggest (free)
  • Google Keyword Planner (free)
  • MOZ Keyword Explorer (paid)
  • Keywordtool.io/google (paid)

A lot of bloggers get this step wrong and target keywords that are way too broad and competitive.

I am a big believer in going after long-tail type keyword phrases – meaning terms that have anywhere from 3-6 words in a single phrase (sometimes more).

For example, you may want to target “strategies to make money from home” rather than “make money”.

Although the longer-tail terms may have less monthly search volume, if you rank for enough of these over-time, it can really start to add up to a healthy amount of organic traffic.

It’s important to be realistic here as well…Not every blog post you write will rank on page #1 of Google, it’s just a simple fact.

But the more quality content you produce on a regular basis, the more options you give Google to choose from.

Which brings me to my next point.

(If you want to learn more in-depth on keyword research please be sure to read my post here or watch my video here).

3.) Produce Consistent & Quality Content

Within this next SEO tip for bloggers, there are two areas to focus on when it comes to content generation.

Consistency and quality.

Master these two and you put yourself way ahead of the blogging competition.

1.) Consistency- When it comes to doing SEO for your blog, it’s essential that you publish consistent blog content.

Google wants to rank a website that they know is updated with fresh and unique content.

Also, if you’re starting to establish a readership, know that your followers are craving more informative content from your end.

  • Strive to publish at the very least 1 blog post per week…This equates to 4 or so per month.

If you can do even more, that’s excellent…but this should give you a good place to start.

Producing content on a consistent basis also provides more opportunity to rank within the search engines.

As stated in the keyword research step above, you won’t rank or “hit” for every blog post you write, but generating lots of content will increase your chances.

It will also allow you to go after many different keyword phrases…More opportunity means more potential to rank highly.

2.) Quality: You want to make sure that each piece of content you produce is of the highest quality possible.

Now obviously not every blog post you write will be your best…we’re all human and cannot always produce our best content, but the majority of your content should be highly valuable and helpful to your readers.

Do not write low-quality articles just to get something published on your website.

Take the time to craft well-written pieces that will bring people back to your website.

In return, your search engine rankings and organic traffic should improve.

4.) Optimize All SEO Tags on Blog Posts & Main Pages of Website

This is an SEO step that most bloggers get wrong in my opinion…Or if they are implementing these tags, their work could use major improvement.

This is where the keywords you generate in step #2 will come into play.

There’s 4 on-site tags that we will briefly discuss here that you will want to optimize for every blog post you publish.

  • Title Tags: Your Title Tags essentially hold the most SEO weight and should be optimized with your most important keywords in place. They are seen in the search results as the blue hyperlink (see screenshot below) and also in the browser window tab. Try to make your Title Tags as close to 70 characters as possible without going over.

Optimize Your Title Tags

  • Meta Descriptions: Your Meta Descriptions don’t hold any SEO weight, but they do affect click-through rate as they are the snippet of text that is seen below the Title Tag, underneath the URL (see screenshot above). It is recommended to write a unique and engaging Meta Description for every page/post on your website. Try to keep them around 150-160 characters without going over that limit.
  • Header Tags: Like Title Tags, Headers Tags on a website are very important in regards to SEO and pack a lot of punch. These are generally the main heading above any block of text on a blog post/webpage. They help break up the page, explain what a certain section is about and provide Google with another ranking signal of what your content is about. These are the only front-end facing meta tags on a website so it’s important that they read naturally to your visitors, while also incorporating target keywords. Header tags can be used in a hierarchy starting with the H1 tag, H2, H3, H4 and so on. You can see an example of a header tag below:

Optimizing Your Header Tags

  • Image ALT Tags: As bloggers, we most likely have tons of images on our website. The problem is, most people when doing SEO for their blog completely ignore their Image ALT Tags. Whenever you upload an image to your website you have the option to write an Image ALT Tag along with it. This helps Google better understand what the image is about and offers additional optimization.

If you are using WordPress, a plugin that will make this process as easy as possible is Yoast.

If you start optimizing your meta tags from here on out over a long enough period of time, you should start seeing noticeable increases in your search engine rankings and organic traffic.

5.) Copy Optimization & Internal Linking

Optimizing your copy with target keywords helps add more relevancy to each and every one of your blog posts, giving Google a strong signal of what you’re trying to rank for.

Internal links (links pointing to other relevant posts/pages on your website), helps users navigate your site more effectively and also helps spread some link equity throughout your pages.

When it comes to copy optimization and internal linking, try to only add in target terms and links where appropriate.

We do not want to “keyword stuff” here or try and “force” any unnecessary internal links.

Be methodical in your approach with each and every blog post.

6.) Add Schema Markup

Structured data or schema markup helps Google better understand what the content on your page is about.

Google has said that adding structured data to your blog articles can potentially enhance your position in the search results (see here).

This also gives you more opportunity to rank for rich snippets depending on the types of keywords you’re targeting and how you are formulating your content.

There are really helpful plugins to make this process really easy such as this one here.

Any blogger using schema markup for SEO purposes are putting themselves way ahead of the competition.

7.) Build Quality Backlinks

Link building generally comes after much of the on-site SEO work (all the steps discussed above) is completed and should be a strategy that you do on a monthly basis.

Google heavily favors websites who have a strong backlink portfolio.

Websites that rank the highest in Google are normally the ones who have other quality websites linking back to them.

Let’s quickly bring up a very simple link building example, and one of my favorite techniques which is guest posting.

Guest posting is as easy as researching/reaching out to other relevant blogs in your niche and asking if you could write a high-quality article for their website.

Within your content, you would insert a link that points back to your website.

Once your guest post is published to the external website, you’ve built yourself a quality and natural backlink which Google will love.

Again, this needs to be an on-going effort in order to acquire as many quality backlinks as you can.

But over-time, this strategy alone could dramatically help with overall search engine rankings, domain authority and organic traffic.

8.) Track Your Progress

As a blogger utilizing SEO tactics, you must track your progress to see if your work is paying off or not.

You will want to monitor your traffic data, search engine rankings/keyword movement, conversions/goals, crawl errors and more.

This will help you identify trends, patterns and areas where your website could use improvement.

A few tools that come to mind that I believe are essential are:

  • Google Analytics
  • Google Search Console
  • Rank Tracking Software (i.e. Serpfox, MOZ, Ahrefs)
  • Screaming Frog

Get comfortable diving into the data at your disposal and use it to your advantage moving forward.

Knowledge is power and especially when it comes to SEO and blogging.

Conclusion:

To close, implementing SEO on your blog needs to be a long-term marketing strategy and should not be thought of as a quick fix. Follow these steps one-by-one slowly until you get the hang of implementing proper SEO on your own. Be extremely consistent with your efforts and Google won’t have a choice but to notice the changes you’ve made on your website. We are building your foundation here, and the work you put in now will be well worth it in the end.

Check out the video version of this post here:

Begin Living a Minimalist Lifestyle & Change Your World

How To Live a Simpler Life

Instinctively I’ve always lived a pretty minimalist lifestyle…

However, it shocks me how many people live well beyond their means and don’t even realize they’re doing it.

Buying things they don’t need, going into unnecessary debt, having to spend every paycheck they get on ‘stuff’ and never paying themselves first.

This immediately puts you in a hole and creates habits that are hard to break.

When you begin living a minimalist lifestyle, your options really begin to open up in life.

The simple life in my opinion, is the good life.

It cuts out so much extra tension (especially with finances) but also with unnecessary clutter as a result of mass consumerism.

And down the road if you save/invest the surplus, it allows you to do what you want, when you want and where you want to.

Financial independence is always the end goal.Begin Living a Minimalist Lifestyle

And this ultimately means creating more freedom in life and never having to rely on money again.

Sound impossible?

Well it’s not when you begin living a minimalist lifestyle and do things differently from the vast majority of people.

It actually can be quite addicting once you start to see your savings increase and your spending decrease….and also when you start getting rid of unnecessary crap that serves no value.

This isn’t just liberating from a financial perspective, but also from a mental health perspective.

Knowing that when tough times come up (which they will), you have money in the bank to lessen the burden.

I want to tell you a quick story…

The other day I was with a group of people having a conversation (although I was mainly just listening/observing) and there was this one guy there who talked a “big game”.

He gave off the impression that he had his sh*t together…

He had a nice car, living situation, expensive clothes, shoes and the latest gadgets.

When the conversation went on a bit longer, I began to realize that this guy wasn’t as “put together” as he wanted to come off as.

In fact, it became apparent to me that he was flat out broke, in debt and barely getting by day to day (as he confessed in a round about way).

Nothing against his character or personality, however it does bug me when people own all this stuff and have absolutely nothing to show for it.

To me, it’s just plain stupid.

And even worse, the first impression this guys gives off would fool many people into thinking he’s got lots of money.

When the exact opposite is actually true.

To make a long story short, do not buy expensive things to look cool or wealthy…as most people don’t really care.

Once you adopt a minimalist lifestyle, there is no going back.

I realize this post was a bit of a rant, however I think it’s an extremely important topic and I encourage you to try this for yourself.

If this changes even one person’s mindset on how they are currently living and encourages them to live a more basic and freedom enriched life, then I’ve done my job.

What are your thoughts on this subject?

Are you already living this way?

Are there improvements you can make?