5 Tested Tips That Will Make Your New Blog Grow Quickly

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If you are new to blogging or have a had a desire to start a blog, you are in for a treat.  In this episode, I am talking to Elna Cain from Twins Mommy.

Elna is one of my favorite bloggers and has been one of my go-to resources for everything related to blogging.

She is a freelance writer and blogger.  And she also holds the title of wife and mother to twins.

If you have never heard of Elna, you have to check her out at Twins Mommy.  If you have heard of Elna you can probably imagine I was pretty excited to have her on the podcast.

This post contains affiliate links.  That means that if you use one of the links and make a purchase, I will receive a commission at no cost to you.

Elna shared her story of how she has a background in education and after having her twins, she wanted to stay at home and still be able to contribute to the household financially.

Like most people, she googled ‘how to make money from home.’  While searching for what she should do next, her husband casually mentioned becoming a virtual assistant.

At first, she wasn’t very interested because she was thinking I did.  And thought more management and bookkeeping.

Instead, he was talking about helping businesses with there emails and writing.  Then she learned about freelance writing and that is what did it for her.

Since then, Elna had clients like Optin Monster and managed 3 blogs!  During this process, she has also found ways to make an income and do what she enjoys from home.

I wanted to ask Elna questions on how she got started to help you with your journey on starting your blog.  And potentially open doors for new opportunities.

Know that I am right there with you.  Even though I have been blogging for over a year now, I still consider myself a new blogger.

The biggest challenge for moms starting a new blog

If you are thinking about starting a new blog it can be a little overwhelming and challenging.  Especially if you are not very techy.

I asked Elna. “What have you found is the biggest challenge for new bloggers and starting a blog?”

Honestly, I thought her response was going be about the techy part of starting a blog.  This is what she said:

“I think the biggest challenge, especially if you’re a mom, is just having that committed time.”

She is right.  Time is huge for us moms.  We are already busy working whether it be on the job or around the house.

Then add managing the kid’s schedules and keeping your marriage fresh, there is a limited amount of free time left for ourselves.

“But as a new blogger, I think you need to sit down and decide the best time in the day or in a week that you can spend just to learn about blogging, or write a blog post, or just to get your blog set up.   I think if you can carve that time and, and be committed to that time, you will see growth and you will see success with your blog because it is a journey and it does take time.”

If you really sit and look at your schedule, you will find an hour or two that you can get started.  It is so easy to make excuses that you don’t have enough time.

Remember my previous guest, Denis?  She showed us that we do have the time to get started on our dreams.

I know that I had to start waking up earlier to make time to work on my blog.  It was hard, especially because I am not a morning person.

I went from waking up at 6 am with the kids to 4:30 every morning to work on my blog or do some self-care before everyone in the house wakes up.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”The number one challenge for new bloggers (especially moms) … finding the time. ” quote=”The number one challenge for new bloggers (especially moms) … finding the time. ” theme=”style2″]

One secret that will help you grow your new blog quickly

When I first started my blog there were only two people that I would consider my go-to resources.  That’s Meera Kothand because she is a beast at what she does! And Elna.

Elna is phenomenal at answering the questions that you may have about starting a blog through her blog post.

After reading several blog post and learning about her course, Ready Set Blog for Traffic, I had to have it!

Once I got her course and started implementing her strategies I started seeing results within a month.

One of the topics that she covered in the course that you don’t hear many bloggers talk about, is the power of collaboration.

Working on your blog can be lonely.  You can also feel like everyone is in competition with you.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Collaboration and networking are important for growing your blog quickly. You are not on an island by yourself!” quote=”Collaboration and networking are important for growing your blog quickly. You are not on an island by yourself!” theme=”style2″]

But it is actually not that way.  There are so many other moms, just like you, that you can collaborate with.

Networking and collaboration can be mutually beneficial for you and the person you are collaborating with.

Collaboration can be in the form of guest posting, doing a webinar, or hosting a giveaway.

This is a topic in Elna’s course that she dives into and gives practical tips on how to incorporate this into your weekly routine.

Find ways to collaborate with other bloggers will help you grow your new blog quickly by getting you in front of a new audience.

Utilizing SEO to grow your new blog

One thing that Elna knows well is utilizing SEO to grow traffic.  What is SEO?

SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization.

Wikipedia describes SEO as “the process of affecting the online visibility of a website or a web page in a web search engine’s unpaid results—often referred to as “natural”, “organic”, or “earned” results.”

For bloggers, this means optimizing your content for the Google bots to get you ranking on a google search for a partial word or phrase.

“A lot of bloggers are just talking about like, well, how can I rank in Google, how can I use SEO … Because for a lot of people relying on Pinterest, Pinterest has been changing and impressions are decreasing and click-throughs are decreasing. So, people are trying to find other ways to bring traffic to their site. And SEO traffic is the golden traffic.”

There is an entire module that has been added to Elna’s course that gives the basics about SEO and Elna’s strategies for ranking in Google.

If you are just getting started, one of the keys that I have heard from Elna and other pro bloggers is to create great content that others will link to.  Then, incorporate keywords that people search for into your content.

Quick tip for new bloggers noticing a dip in traffic from Pinterest

I love Pinterest as a user and a blogger.  You can get ideas for your little one’s next epic birthday party.  And you can also create your own pins to drive traffic to your new blog.

Now if you have been using Pinterest to drive traffic to your new blog you may notice that there are periods of time that there is less and less traffic coming to your site.

Instead of having a meltdown because Pinterest is having a mood swing, Elna has a few tips to help boost clicks to your site.

“The number one thing is to always create new pins. Pinterest has been stating that they want fresh content and fresh content typically means new pins. Ideally, you want a new pin with a new blog post, but you can’t write a blog post every day. It’s just not going to happen. So you can sort of fake it a little bit by having new pins for old blog posts and that will help.”

Instead of having one pin per blog post, create multiple pins for the same blog post.

And if you have an old blog post that you have already created pins for, go ahead and create a few more new pins and try experimenting with the pin description.

The other thing that you really want to make sure that you pay attention to is the title of the pin.

“Finding the right type of title for your pin is so, so crucial.”

You really want to make sure that 2-3 seconds that it takes to read your title on your pin, you grab your reader’s attention.  This takes some practice.

I have found some headline templates that are pretty helpful.  But the best resource I have found with improving my titles is CoSchedule’s headline analyzer.

They also have a free download with power words and emotional words to help increase the likelihood of someone clicking to your site.

Elna mentions that using the words “I” and “you” are helpful as well.

“Pinterest as a platform, you can be personal, you can say how you did that and how you succeeded on that. And people will pin that and save that.”

Elna’s best tips for work at home moms that are finding it difficult to balance work and home life

“Have a lot of coffee is number one.” LOL.

Especially if you have young kids that have energy like the Energizer Bunny, caffeine can be very helpful.

“You need a plan. You need to sit down and have a schedule and sort of have those times of where you’re going to say, okay, I’m going to do the chores during these times.”

Having a schedule will help you maximize the time that you do have.  Elna’s secret weapon …. a bullet journal.

“I’ve been using that and that like totally keeps me accountable. Like it’s open on my desk like every day and I just write tasks and then that’s it. And like I crossed them as I go and it’s like so awesome. It’s a nice visual thing and I like it just because with a bullet journal you can have everything in here. Like I can have my blog topics on here, I can chart my social media following on here. I can do my to-do list, I can do um, a lot of things just within this one little book.”

You may have seen the fancy designs in bullet journals on Pinterest.  I know that I saw those and thought that a bullet journal is probably not for me.  Elna mentions that she doesn’t use her bullet journal that way either.

But after talking to Elna a bullet journal can easily work by designing it that way that you want and need it.

Thinking of starting a blog?

If you have ever thought of starting a blog, do it!  I know that it looks like a lot to learn, but there are plenty of resources out there to help.  So don’t let that stop you.

“I hope if you are interested, if any of your listeners are interested in starting a blog that, you know, you’re not going to find the right time.  There’s never going to be the perfect time to start, so you might as well just start … Slowly grow your blog. You don’t have to do it fast. There’s no need for that, but just take action and get started sooner than later.  Because like I said, there’s just never going to be a right time.”

To learn more about Elna, you join the Facebook community with other mom bloggers.  You can also find Elna on Pinterest.

Key Take-Aways

• Find time to start and maintain your blog by carving out pockets of time throughout the day.
• Network and collaborate with other bloggers to help grow your blog and traffic.
• Learn more about SEO so that you can rank on Google and ultimately bring more traffic to your blog.
• Create multiple pins for the same blog post and be sure that you have an attention-grabbing title.
• Use a planner to plan your week and schedule your days to help you stay productive and accountable.
• There’s never going to be the perfect time to start, so you might as well just start.

Links mentioned in this episode

• My first blog – Dr Toni DDS
• Ready Set Blog for Traffic
• Mediavine
• Elna’s Facebook Group – Mom to Mompreneur
• Elna’s blog – Twins Mommy
• Elna’s Pinterest Profile

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