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Happy New Year!

So it’s finally the start of 2015 and your New Year’s resolution is too improve your blog and become a better blogger?  

I personally like to set myself goals I want to achieve this year that will help me to progress in the world of blogging. These goals can be anything from as simple as improving my photography to create higher quality photographs to introducing a new topic to updating my blogs branding.

So here’s 8 ways to become a better blogger in 2015:

Switch up your social media channels. Update your profile photo, rewrite your bio, create a list or refresh the background on your profile. It’s a great way to make your current followers double take and also introduce newbies to take a peek and see who you are and what you’re about.  Also follow more fellow bloggers, industries that relate to your blogs, PR companies and brands you love, you need to Interact with them to get noticed.

You don’t have to have a fancy SLR camera to improve your photography skills; you just need to be creative with props and/ or learn to use Photoshop! Photographs are a huge part of your blog, it’s the first thing your readers see when they click on your link and it’s what most of us are attracted too first. Photographs can aid in gaining readers and also help brands to notice you so get creative. There are just 3 ways to a perfect product shot; lighting, props and angle. The lighting needs to be as crisp and as bright as possible, natural light is the key to creating better photographs as well as a white crisp looking background as a base for props and products. Props in products shots should aid in showing off your product and its details not hide or distract from it (Photoshop blur is a great tool). If your snapping outfit posts try to act as natural and use benches, lamp posts, cars etc as props to influence your style.

Mix up your blog by introducing something different now and again. If you blog about fashion, beauty or lifestyle throw a cooking post, a review of your latest gadget, your favourite book or a roundup of your favourite bloggers that month. Throwing something into the mix now and again can help you to gage what your readers are most interested in, it could potentially lead to a new concrete topic.

Google Analytics is a bloggers best friend when it comes to managing your blog. It enables you to see where who visits your site, where they come from, how often they visit, what readers search to find your blog, who may stumble across it with the use of keywords and also how well your latest blog post is doing as well as your overall blog.  Learn to use it!

If you wanting to start a fresh with your blog or just want to tweak it a little, a short break away from the blogging world is the perfect way to refresh your mind and seek out those creative ideas. If you haven’t already had a couple weeks off during the Christmas festivities then the start of the year is the perfect place to take a ‘blogger break’ before throwing yourself back into your blog.

Typically I try to not research content from other blogs as you can (unintentionally) end up duplicating ideas and wording and believing them to be your own and that’s definitely not what you want to do. Your blog is yours, so you need your content and photographs to be unique not only for SEO sake but for a better blog. Try researching your ideas through magazines, Pinterest, forums, newsletters, adverts or products; This way your content is guaranteed to be your own and your blog post will be bespoke.

I for one will admit that I’m really bad at scheduling in blog posts or consistently posting on certain days. I blog when I have free time and prefer to write 1 blog post at a time than a handful in a row as creating fresh content one after another can be exhausting. I typically blog 2-3 times a week but this year I’m hoping to pull together a schedule for my blog posts to enable my readers to know when to expect a fresh new blog post. This is incredibly helpful for your readers as they can ‘look out’ on social media for a link or catch up on your post at the end of the day.

In order for your readers to engage in your blog for longer it is important to create a user friendly website. Include easy to find links to pages, labels, contact details, social media channels and other website your profile and your blog feature (such as Bloglovin). Adding banners into your side bar, active buttons, previews of other channels such as your Instagram or Pinterest feed and/ or lists of popular posts etc, this will also encourage readers to look through your blog and discover older relative blog posts.