As a professional blogger (so, as a blogger that every now and then earns money with her blog), I study a lot and read every day small but complete and effective online posts and tutorials about how to increase your traffic, page rank, how to lower the bouncing rate and many other things.
There are good practices that I constantly find in these posts written very well, and the most of times I try to follow them with good results. Other bloggers’ tips are in my opinion one of The best ways to improve.
But there are recommendations that I assume must be part of the ABC of blogging, because they are constantly reminded by experts everywhere… but I just don’t want to put them into practice!
Even just to explain to myself that I am not a complete stupid, now I’ll list what looks like crucial in your blog management that you won’t find In My Suicase.
#1 – Subscribe my blog!
Many (good) blogs have, on their sidebar, the registration form to receive updates.
Compiling it, you will receive an e-mail for each new article. This method is very useful when it comes to self promote to a new customer, since often the number of members is available and visible on the blog and many companies contact bloggers after checking that number (that’s what they say).
The point is that over than having a blog, I’m also a person who uses e-mail and personally I don’t like receiving so many of them from other blogs, and they will be put among spam soon or later. Each person receives an average of 15 – 45 e-mail a day, and only 10% of them are useful and waited. The others are advertising, spam, promotions.
I prefer to have a look around, once a day, on my favorite blogs to see what’s new and I hope that in a perfect future, also others will do the same with mine.
Moreover, I am aware that each person can be interested in only one post category (some can be interested in posts about travels, others only Europe/US travels, others may look for advices about blogging and social media strategy and so on) and I’d prefer readers to follow me on twitter than me entering for sure in my readers’ spam folder.
For sure, you can follow me on Instagram too 🙂
#2 – Newsletter
I don’t have a newsletter for the reasons mentioned in point # 1. I know that I will be less interesting for advertisers, but companies need to understand that the newsletter is now an archaic thing.
There’s facebook and social media to be updated and to update followers about a blog. Newsletters are like the advertising flyers in your snail mail box! At least, that’s how I perceive it despite being a blogger myself.
#3 – Pop ups (N-E-V-E-R-)
I don’t know about you, but when I read a post on a blog, especially if very interesting, I hate pop-ups asking me to follow the blog on facebook, subscribe to the newsletter, buy a course or product.
We are already bombed by advertising and also at the bottom right of this blog there is an adsense.
When you eventually want to read what I write … why should I interrupt you with a Pop-stupid-up?
From the point of view of the monetization strategy, they say, it would be better to put these pop ups… but this blog is not the New York Times, with so many visits that I can make my day with a single pop-up publicity. I believe that, before inserting an invasive advertising it is appropriate to ask myself what can I actually earn. Is it worth it?
It’s not the case to bother the reader for those ridiculous cents of a click or pay per view. Am I wrong?
#4 – Advertisement
When I decided that my blog would also become a form of work (a year ago, more or less), I inquired about affiliate programs that pay for clicks and views. I have tried several of them, but I shut them right away, just leaving the adsense that you see at your right bottom – and that contains an advertisement chosen not by me but by you and your cookies ;-P).
The matter was mostly related to graphics and content consistency. For a while, I tried to use LinkWeLove, an affiliate program that pays the bloggers automatically inserting related articles, linking back to other blogs and websites. Unfortunately, these items were not ‘related’ at all to my contents. Actually I found under my posts some articles abut wrinkle creams and miracle diets!!
I tried to write to the assistance office and explain them that I’m often at the forefront against the stereotyping of female beauty and I don’t want any miraculous diet mentioned on my blog and, I must be honest, they were very nice and tried to make all they could to control the system and be sure that it didn’t beget those codes for In My Suitcase.
But nothing to do, periodically there were articles titled ‘Discover how this star lost 32 pounds in two months’ here under my blog posts.
I couldn’t stand it. And I gave up!
#5 – Facebook page
Ok, let’s start from the assumption that I am thinking about this position. Until today I didn’t want to create a facebook page of In My Suicase because I regularly share contents on my profile, quite full of contacts – not all my personal friends or parents – and I’m not going to ask them to follow me also through my page.
But lately I have learned from a very good blogger that the facebook page traffic is not necessarily the same as the one of your profile. All the more so, I must consider that this blog is in two languages and my fb contacts tend to read mostly the Italian version.
So the truth is that I’m reconsidering this hypothesis and maybe I’ll make the experiment of the facebook page.
What do you think about it?
20 Comments
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David
I agree 100% with this very smart created 5 list. A lot of people that are starting to blog will find this very helpful. I’ve been making mistakes on the start of my blogging but we should learn everyday new stuff about blogging.
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Sabrina - In My Suitcase
Well, as far as my experience taught me, blogging is making everyday mistakes! But it’s soooo funny 😉
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Ana
Hi Sabrina,
I do agree with you regarding the pop-ups as I hate too when I am reading any interesting article and suddenly a pop-up window opens for the subscribing newsletter or following them on social media. And secondly, when there are ads popping in between lines of the post, it’s very annoying!
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Ana De- Jesus
Definitely go ahead with the Facebook group! It can really help with traffic especially if you post often!
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Vlad Vaida
I don’t have pop-ups neither nor newsletters. Pop-ups are such a hassle whenever I open an Internet page while on my phone I would literally just exit the tab. About the newsletters… Don’t know how to make it yet lol.
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Sabrina - In My Suitcase
Hahhahha, that’s better! I think nobody will ever use it in a very short while!
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Carrie
Interesting post! I think each blogger must do what works for them! I have a newsletter but it only goes out once a week with a roundup of everything found on the blog that week plus more. The way blogging is you have to carve out your own little way and stay authentic to yourself and your brand. That is the most important thing.
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Sabrina - In My Suitcase
I agree, and that’s why sharing experiences is so useful among bloggers: blogs are like people, they all have a personal and unique story <3
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Katie
Interesting read – over the years I’ve found there are so many “rules” of successful blogging, and they just don’t all apply all the time. You have to do what works for you.
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Rose Sahetapy
It’s depend really what suit us the best. Some bloggers like pop-up, but some not and so on. I like how you share your experience work with ads and your honest opinion about it.
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Sabine
I feel so the same. I hate pop-ups and ads all the time. It’s ugly and looks just annoying. Xo Sabine
http://Www.sofarsosabine.com -
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Tanya
I think you should go for it, with the facebook page. Even if you just post on there your blog posts. You will surely attract readers! Great post!
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heidi
I have thought about these very things. I admit I do have a newsletter which is just a rss feed. I think building a list is for people selling something.Got rid of the popup you are so right about that. I have been thinking alot about whether the ads are worth it. luckily I can pick the ads so they are tailored to my site but I’m not really making money I think about it as what will be of use to my readers. The facebook page I find completely useless however I have a group on facebook and google which was a good idea. Sorry this was so long lol
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Sabrina - In My Suitcase
Hi Heidi, thank you for your feedback, it’s great to share this opinions since blogging is a “loner’s job” :-O
Fb groups are great, I find them soooo useful, also in order to find good tips and interesting contents to read!
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Eugenia
Good points. I hate pop-ups too, sometimes they’re so annoying but they are still effective in online world! What about p. 5, I think creating the Facebook page of your blog is very important, it can helps you in your SEO efforts as well as interacting with your readers! Buona fortuna! Sono il tuo nuovo follower su Twitter ?