Ten Tips to Blogging Like a Pro

There’s a massive difference between blogging like a beginner and blogging like a pro. Pros receive traffic, beginners don’t. Being a beginner isn’t bad of course; everybody has to start somewhere. Taking the step and becoming a better blogger, however, is a key part to seeing success.

Granted, I am not the greatest example. I have seen moderate success with my writing, but nowhere near that of excerpts like Neil Patel or Cristian Mihai. However, these ten tips are a compilation of the tips offered by experts such as the aforementioned Neil Patel. Employing them will ensure your step-up to the levels of elite bloggers and will give you an eventual boost in traffic.

Be professional.

There’s a difference between being professional and talking about yourself. Both can be done at the same time, although the latter should be kept in restraint. Nobody wants to read a blog that only contains posts about the author. Keep your posts punctual and short, refraining from using casual writing styles with emojis and bad grammar. This will not succeed. You have to be professional in this world, or you may risk being run over by frustrated readers.

“A huge key to being a good blogger is writing with a professional style.”
Tweet

Become an expert in your niche.

This won’t happen in one night, and some of us will never become true experts (ie. me and theology). Keep in mind, however, that a constant struggle for knowledge will pay off in the blogging industry, because a large amount of knowledge on a specific topic instantly thrusts you into that niche.

For example, if you were just beginning blogging, and you knew a lot about photography, become a photography blogger. That’s your niche- photography blogging. From there, you can expand, find others within the same niche, rank for niche keywords, and more.

If you aren’t an expert in something, don’t worry. The internet is a huge place, full of information. With enough work and dedication, you can become an expert in any topic you want. To date, I have worked extremely hard on learning about Search Engine Optimization, and I have put hundreds of hours of research on the topic. You can do the same.

Don’t be afraid to speak your mind.

Some bloggers hold back from speaking what they believe. A famous man once said, “if you stand for nothing, you’ll fall as nothing”. You have to stand for something. Sure, it might get you flak, but you may win some allies in the process.

I have been heavily criticized in my stance on same-sex marriage and homosexuality. As a Christian, I don’t believe these things are good or healthy like the American culture portrays. I follow the Bible’s teaching, which states that these things are “an abomination”. As previously stated, I received much flak for this but I also found friends who believed the same things.

So, if you believe something controversial, don’t be afraid to stand up for it. You can, after all, just ignore the comment section. State your beliefs, give why you believe them, and leave it at that.

Don’t be afraid to admit your mistakes.

As a young, learning blogger, I have continually built the mindset “learn from anyone”. If someone corrects something I have written, and can show me where I errored, I will immediately fix the problem.

Don’t be the blogger that’s always right. You can and probably will be wrong on something, so don’t be afraid to admit where you went wrong. Fix the mistake as quickly as you can and thank the person that caught it.

Blog consistently.

If you aren’t willing to make the commitment to blog consistently, don’t blog. It’s that simple. You will either drive people mad with spam or you’ll force them to lose interest. Balance posting regularly with marketing; on the days you don’t post, focus on marketing your blog through social media or emails.

Continue to learn.

Learning is a process, and within the blogosphere, you can never really know everything. Be constantly on the lookout for new tips and tricks, and always be willing to change your blog or writing if something new is discovered.

Experiment.

Don’t be afraid to try new things. The key to this is seeing what your traffic looks like after you’ve made the changes. For example, when I changed my domain from the old Africa Boy website to the site it is now, I received 480 views in two days, which nearly doubled my average daily views at the time.

So if you try a change in topics or make an adjustment on your website, track the changes in traffic. If they went down over a week period, consider removing the change. If it went up, see if you can apply that in a larger scale (ie. if you began posting about SEO, post more).

Use optimized, relevant images in your posts.

Nothing hits home better than a relevant, touching picture. One of the greatest blog posts I ever read was about death, and the picture showed a funeral being conducted in the rain. At the time, I was really struggling with the concept of death, and the post hit home.

To ensure Google accepts your images, keep them around 1200×800 pixels, with alt text matching your title (paste your title into the alt text to ensure it matches up). You can further optimize your pictures by customizing them with a free image app like Canva.

Use Grammarly or another writing app to check your grammar.

Nothing is more important to a blogger then proper grammar. While none of us are perfect and occasional mistakes happen, the quickest way to turn off your readers is by making major grammar/spelling errors. Download a free app like Grammarly to quickly check your posts beforehand, or use Word Document’s editor to check spelling.

Take Neil Patel’s Free SEO course.

I have not been paid to say this, but Neil’s course is, by far, the greatest SEO/blogging course I have ever seen, and it is completely free. He is consistently adding to the course, so be sure to begin watching it by clicking here.

He runs it by publishing thrice-weekly YouTube videos, each around fifteen minutes. Small homework sheets, also free, come with the course, ready to be used whenever you’re ready. There are no time limits or assignments to turn in, so the course is doable by anyone with a little time.

Incorporating these tips doesn’t make you an official pro blogger, but they put you a step in the right direction. Incorporate them as soon as possible, and you will already be blogging at the next level.

Incorporating these tips doesn’t make you an official pro blogger, but they put you a step in the right direction.
Tweet

Alright, that’s all for today. Thanks so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this post (and possibly learned something)! If you did, then make sure to click that Follow button below (or to the side). Then, when I release new posts like this one, you’ll get notified. Thanks again, and I hope you have a fantastic day!

-Elisha McFarland

Last post: Christ, the God of Fulfillment

Featured post: What Does “Yahweh” Really Mean?