We are so excited to participate in a blog hop with a few fabulous ladies! We’re going to be sharing tips for other bloggers! This week the topic is something you wish someone had told you before you started!
What is one tip you have for anyone that may be thinking about starting a blog — something you wish someone had told you before you started?
Pumps & Push-Ups has been a blog for three years now and my what a three years it has been! Three years full of experiments and learning curves. When we started our blog we had a vision of the content we wanted to share, but what we didn’t know was how to get anyone to read that content. We spent hours on Google looking for the best ways to build a following for your blog, boost your traffic, etc. For the most part, every article would tell you how important your social media following is to your blog traffic. While social media is important to the whole premise of a blog, especially if you’re trying to make your blog a business, when it comes to traffic, our experience has been that the social media has little influence over our actual blog traffic.
We wish someone had told us that social media is not always the only way to build blog traffic.
For the first year of blogging, we spent hours upon hours on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, just trying to grow and connect. We built a decent following on those channels, but very rarely would visits be referred to our blog. Something BIG we missed in our first year is how important it is to network with fellow bloggers. In our second year we started to connect with some of the bloggers we met on Instagram, on their actual blogs. Instead of spending all of our time on Instagram, we started dedicating time to networking. We visited blogs, left comments, found new blogs, participated in give aways and collaborations and guess what, our traffic grew and our following grew. Then blogging became a lot more fun. Some of the very first blogs we ‘connected’ with are participating in this blog hop with us and we so honored to be with them. Over the years we have watched their blogs grow, along with ours and it’s been a lot of fun!
So, for anyone embarking on a new blogging journey our advice is not to ignore your social media, it’s important, but don’t invest all of your time in it. Be sure to spend just as much time connecting with other bloggers on their actual blogs!
Hop on over to Peaches in a Pod to see what Blaire and Whitney have to say!
– Brooke & Erica
That’s so true about social media and blog traffic – especially instagram….I feel like that’s where the least visit to my blog come from! xo, biana –BlovedBoston
Such great advice, ladies. you both do an amazing job and we love collaborating with you!
Xoxo,
Whitney & Blaire
Peaches In A Pod
Connecting with lovely bloggers like you: my favorite thing!! Great advice!
Great advice and so true!! This is such an amazing series and I hope you ladies do more!
Brittany,
http://www.lawyerlookbook.com
Yes, great advice! The blogging community is wonderful!
Becky
http://www.bybmgblog.com
Thank you for saying that- the social media thing- I feel like I’m stuck in that….but I need better numbers…thing and it is refreshing to hear somebody who has lived it say that connecting with bloggers has been more important.
I absolutely agree with this advice 100% I actually did things backwards from you guys (I only focused on my blog for the first year and no social media), but I really tried to focus on social media in year two, and ultimately it brought me to the same conclusion as you! Social media is important but for me, the blog has to take priority.
Gina || On the Daily Express
This is so true and the friendships that are formed make blogging so worth it! It also gives you someone to talk to about blogging stuff, my husband gets tired of hearing about it rather quickly. 😉
Carrie
curlycraftymom.com
This is such a great point about connecting with other bloggers and building those networks, social media can be such an overwhelming aspect of blogging and you can end up wasting time that often doesn’t result in visits to your blog. So glad to be participating in this series with all of you amazing bloggers & looking forward to your next posts!
Marta
http://www.sweatersstripesandsweets.com
I totally agree – the connections are the most important part. I’m so glad I’ve connected with you two!
Connecting with fellow bloggers is something I lost site of when I started my blog – I stayed isolated to myself – now that I have gotten to know others it is so much more fun – and feels like a “family”. Thank you guys for joining this series! I look forward to next week! Also, I agree about social media – it really doesn’t drive traffic – for all the work!
Lisa
Daily Style Finds
So true! I rarely get traffic from social media, but I definitely get traffic from other blogs and collaborations! Great advice!
This is so true. The amount of time spent building up a following on IG does not have a positive correlation with traffic. I really wish I knew that from day #1 but it’s all about learning and moving forward, right?!
– Dara // http://www.peoniesandhoneybees.com
I love this and the networking piece is my favorite part but for some reason I’m always nervous to ask to collaborate with people lol. Need to grow a set I suppose lol. Thanks for the inspiration! Love you ladies!!
Simply Shaunacey
Love this ! I almost think of Instagram as its own entity, as if the Instagram ppl just comment there they don’t bother clicking on links. And vice versa. Bloggers dont necessarily follow you on all social media but will follow your blog. It’s bizarre. So many things to remember!!
This is so great! And something that I’ve only begun to realize! It’s really tough balancing so much social media outside of my blog but slowly but surely I hope to connect with more bloggers on their actual blogs. I’ve always made a point to click on the blog links & read especially on Instagram but now I’m working on commenting more 🙂 Glad I found you ladies!
Such great advise! Work is getting to so crazy, I hope I keep up with all of my favorite people! I was going through my bloglovin list and saw all of you guys posting about how to start a blog, I was thinking wow what a coincidence, LOL!
Great advice! I definitely get more traffic by reaching out and connecting with other bloggers than any social media outlet! So glad we “met” through blogging!
Jill
Doused In Pink
I keep hearing that your social media presence is important but I agree that connecting with other bloggers is better! Nice to meet ya!
~Sheila
Yes!!! And in the beginning it is where we spent all of our time!
Thanks ladies!! We love collaborating with you too!
Ours too!! 😀
Thanks Brittany!! 🙂 There will be more to come!
So wonderful!
We were stuck there too and it was sooooo frustrating! For us, the blog connection was way more fun and way more effective!
That’s great to hear a different perspective, we’ve always wondered if our experience with it was unique! We still try to balance both, but we enjoy the blog much more!
We love the friendships we’ve formed, it’s like we could all meet up one day and be best friends lol
So glad to be participating with you too Marta! You were one of the very first blogs we connected with, along with almost all of the other ladies in the collaboration!
We are so glad to have connected with you too Lana!!
We were the very same way! When we finally started connecting, things got more fun!
Yeah!! 🙂
So true!! What hurts the most is how hard we worked to build up Instagram, but when the time came to devote more time to our blog and less time to it, our following dropped. But, the focus on our blog is worth it!
We were nervous too!! But we’ve never met a blogger that wasn’t more than happy to collaborate! 🙂
Yes!! This is 100% accurate!
You were someone we found on Instagram!! Instagram definetly helped us find lots of awesome bloggers!
I feel so much better finding multiple comments on blog posts from other bloggers than I do after gaining a few followers on instagram- I feel like those connections are so authentic and mean more! I wish I would have started interacting sooner in my blogging journey:) Such good advice, ladies!
Emily
Darling, Dearest
Great advice! I enjoy connecting with my IG friends, but I know many of them never visit my blog. This is such a fun blog hop!
Andrea
Andrea’s Wellness Notes
Sounds so easy and I think this is really great advice but ugh, this is a struggle for me! Love the idea of a Blog Hop, that’s for sure!! Connecting with other bloggers is the best.
Xox Dana Ivy // http://www.iadorewhatilove.com
Haha! We have been struggling to keep up too!! It always makes me sad when the weeks get busy and I miss catching up with my fav bloggers!
Us too Jill! 🙂
Yay! So true!
Us too Emily!! We love reading comments and getting to know other people!
That’s true Andrea, we’ve met so many fun friends from Instagram!
It is a struggle!! Some weeks are better than others. Haha!