THE BLOG
Living With Anxiety - How To Cope And Thrive
So, you've read the title, and now, you know the truth. My big secret...
Living With Anxiety - How To Cope And Thrive
So, you've read the title, and now, you know the truth.
My big secret...
Although,it's not really a massive revelation is it?
I have certainly alluded to the fact that I am not an infallible and unflappable lady, and have indeed had 'issues' in the past.
But I want to make it clear in this post that my anxiety is very much alive and well, as is my nomadic lifestyle.
Hiding my truth like its a third nipple.
For most of my travels, and indeed my life, I have withheld information about myself from those around me and in the last 2 years, those who read my blog.
The kind of anxiety I dance with daily is not generalized, natural or normal every day worries, its a state of being and overthinking that alters my behaviour, decisions and daily choices.
For me it reveals itself in a few different ways. It comes out in OCD tendencies (which I don't want to over-focus on) as well as times when I wake up with an inexplicable and wildly overpowering feeling that something is about to go horribly wrong. It sometimes makes me feel completely empty and void of passion for anything, other times it makes me miserable and unkind.
Anxiety comes forth when I am making changes in my life, like when I start a new job or plan a new venture. It tries to dominate my mind at every turn of my life's path, and it almost succeeds at making me recoil and retreat from the things, and the people, that I love.
I wrestled with my anxiety so hard throughout 2013/2014, that it made me physically ill and nearly stopped me from coming travelling.
Seriously, it wasn't until the week before I left that I let myself believe it was going to happen and I was going to like it.
Anxiety is trendy.
It's not suddenly cool to suffer a mental disorder, but its certainly popular to talk about right now.
More people, from everyday folk to other bloggers and creatives, are speaking up about how anxiety affects their life beyond the usual idea of being a 'Worry wart'.
The reason I have held back this truth, the reason I don't admit it to people who have actually witnessed me having an anxiety attack (I just tend to cry and sob then refuse to say why, just a tad alienating) is because I feel shame.
I don't shy away from much, but I have sat down to write this post approximately 8 times, each occasion talking myself out of it. I have walked to work mentally writing it out in my mind and then mentally sent it to the trash.
The thing with anxiety is that you feel anxious admitting to suffering with it... nature of the beast an all.
Why do I feel shame? Well, I don't want certain people to perceive me as weak; be it in my job, in my freelancing or amongst my peers. And even by Taran.
The belief that I should quash down this part of me isn't helped by the fact that someone, not long ago, made me feel incredibly guilty for not being at my best. I was made to feel pointless and useless, because they couldn't deal with my humanness.
I get that there are people in society who marginalise those with mental illness and many of them do so because they suffer in silence or have a loved one who's mental illness might have negatively impacted them. These people might try to cut down those who represent a hard truth, one that threatens their self control and ability to keep it together.
And then there are those who are simply uneducated or bigoted. Those people are indeed the weakest of us all.
Their knowledge and understanding is weak, their desire to know more and care more is weak, but I don't judge even the most closed minded, because anxiety or not, I'm gonna do my thing and I'm gonna do it well.
This isn't mind over matter or ambition over adversity, this is evidence based thinking. I know that despite my anxiety I have succeeded at many things that have truly mattered in my life so far.
I bet all of you have done amazing things, and mundane things, just perfectly, despite your powerfully anxious thinking.
I was able to start and grow a new loving relationship. I also struck out alone and started my own small business.
I have also then gone and jacked that in, in favour of travelling indefinitely...
I haven't exactly made life easy for my anxiety and its punished me by laying the worries on heavy and thick!
So I know that I might have up until now, felt this horrid inhibiting shame and not wanted to share a large part of my truth, but regardless of that shame, I know that nobody can call any of us sufferers, failures or weaklings, because we live our lives the best we can despite our mind and physiology fighting us.
We aren't sufferers, we are fucking warriors.
We try hard, time and time again. When we do focus on ourselves, and ignore the judgement and treatment we receive from others, we recognize that we can have a fulfilling life, we just have to work a little harder to get there.
I no longer care what someone thinks of this part of me. In honesty, I am usually proud of the fact that I am not them. I would rather be emotional and sometimes frightened, and endure my afflictions, than be a nasty, vacuous or close-minded individual.
Awkward when you suck so much someone would rather live with a mental illness than be remotely like you, the supposed embodiment of strength and success, HA.
Anyway, truth bombs dropped, let's get specific.
Anxiety warriors tend to prefer routine and predictability as a way of coping and I am no different. Sometimes they desperately want to try new things but spend months going back and forth in their head before they do it, or they just simply never end up feeling able to.
The last 4 months have been marvellous in that I have had time to unpack, settle and just stop; stop having to plan our travels or deal with tent-living or force myself to interact with new person after new person.
And yet, it has also been a time of challenge, with my work not being overly steady, my income being way less than hoped, and just the fact that our brief period in Australia being sucked up by our need to be employed.
It's been a mixed bag of emotions and I am now so ready to go and travel again that I am chomping at the bit to get going.
That's why I am a traveller right now. I want to explore and I want to live outside my comfort zone but that small part of my anxious mind would prefer it if I didn't.
Like what you're reading?
Join the email gang for bonus content and conversation.
How I travel with anxiety, and in spite of it:
I don't follow this advice like I've read it in a book or adhere to it like a diet pan. But I do try to remember these things each time I am on the brink, and it often helps me nip an anxious thought in the bud before it builds momentum.
I hope this advice can help any and all my fellow warriors, not just the ones living out of a backpack.
Balancing Today with Worries Of Tomorrow
I worry about money, an awful lot, and the only way I have found to counter this is to try my damnedest to be present and mindful.
As a particular worry grows in volume, I will tell myself 'Take life one day at a time' because that's all anyone can ever do.
If we don't at least try to do this, we either make impulsive emotional choices, afraid of some imagined future event, or we simply retreat into ourselves and ignore the positive things happening right that moment.
There is a right amount and wrong amount of time to spend thinking and planning for the future, and we tend to end up on the wrong side of that.
But when we recognize that we can indeed cross our bridges when we get to them, and not a month before, we become more present and more calm.
Accepting The Worst Case Scenario
For me, right now, the thought of having to prematurely return home is a big anxiety trigger. The thought of my dream being cut short due to financial reasons feels akin to someone cutting my oxygen supply.
So over-bloody-dramatic! Get some perspective woman!
Travel is a privilege and it is not the only avenue to feeling happy, but my anxiety would have me believe that the alternative is way worse than it is.
The best way I have found to overcome this and actually enjoy the travelling I am doing is by making sure I stay in contact with my loved ones, stay engaged with what's happening there and remind myself that home is never ever the worst place I could end up.
Not Trying So Hard
By this I mean caring a little less about those steadfast ambitions that feel as if they are the be-all and end-all; yes, I want to be a successful writer and one day a published author, but my goodness, if it doesn't happen, is that the end of the world?
Unless your life is truly horrible as it is, and unless you are trying to recover a lost career or even your health, having a dominant and all-consuming ambition is draining and frankly, its self-inflicted stress.
Why can't ambition be a slow process, one that has things in perspective and recognizes that no dream is worth sacrificing your now? Are you living and breathing for the right things?
What if you work so hard you get burnt out in the process and end up loathing what you once loved?
Just something to think about, applicable even to someone who isn't trying desperately to be anything other than a travelling bum.
Revelling In Joy Wherever I Can
I LOVE my morning walk to work with my headphones and 30 minutes of podcast time. I GO CRAZY for hugs from Taran. I INHALE chocolate and BATHE in cups of tea. And when we are on the road, I jump out of planes and rescue Koala's...
The little things AND the big things; I'll take them both.
I don't just feel the hard shitty parts of my day, I wholeheartedly enjoy the simpler moments, the ones which are able to happen because I am alive, healthy, and okay.
Anxiety can feel like it taints the good things we seek out in life and takes us far away from feeling the joy, but like I said, even the simplest of practises can bring us contentment.
Turning Down The Volume
When you have a headache because the TV is too loud or suddenly the radio is just super annoying, what do you do? You turn down the volume.
What do I do when my thoughts are vying for hours of my time and emotions, I turn their volume down.
I distract myself with writing, reading or listening to meditative podcasts, or even watching a movie. If my mind and my attention is taken up with things other than thinking, it stops the worry in its tracks. It might not erase the worry but it makes it quieter for a while, until some time when I deem it relevant to actually confront that worry.
This isn't about escapism or suppression, it's about giving yourself needed breaks from over-thinking and the havoc it wreaks on your behaviour and those closed to you. Inevitably you will still spend large chunks of your time given over to anxious thinking but a few periods of distraction amongst that will help.
Viewing My Weakness As A Strength
I find that I am usually the most organized person in my relationship and I have always been known for being reliable and trustworthy; my anxiety simply won't let me be any other way.
I am never late to anything because the idea fills me with dread; I might not turn up at my perkiest but I sure as hell will turn up.
I make provisions for the future to prevent my worst case scenarios actually happening, by being frugal and thrifty where possible.
I might try to live one day at a time, accept my worst fears, take it easy with my goals, revel in the small joys and distract my busy mind, but I also thank my anxiety on occasion, because it isn't all bad.
I'm not all bad. Neither are you.
Anxiety makes us feel acutely aware of the negative things in life, in people and in the passing of time.
We are all complex individuals with different motivations and differing amounts of time in which to achieve our goals, but at our core we are a beautiful concoction of processes.
I could see my anxiety as an indicator of the scary world in which I inhabit, or I could see it as a reaction to wanting to so desperately be part of the beautiful world which I also inhabit.
My anxiety makes me reach out, give love and accept love, because I fear losing the chance to do so. My anxiety forces me to weigh up decisions carefully and whilst it might have nearly stopped me coming to Australia, it also helped me prepare for it properly.
I treat my anxiety like a parasite; I feed off it and convert its strength into mental energy for myself.
It is possible to take the bad, with the good, and thrive in spite of what our mind fears or what actually happens to us; anxiety can be painful and feel impossible but anxiety also means we care and that means we are able to feel hope, faith and love. That means we live, not simply exist.
Thanks for Reading!
Want more reads like this? You can now find Hannah in her own online space, Good Intentions. Minimalism, mindfulness, conscious living and self-love; all the good stuff centred around being kinder to yourself, and kinder to the world.
Be social and come follow us across the virtual world!
Want more?!
Blogging Overwhelm: Having A Break, Not A Break-Up
This travel blogging lark sure is a story of ups and downs…
Blogging Overwhelm: Having A Break, Not A Break-Up.
This travel blogging lark sure is a story of ups and downs…
This week I fell out of love.
I fell out of love with blogging.
I went days without even thinking about our little corner of the internet, not wanting to put fingers to keyboard to produce anything at all.
I also found Twitter stifling, Facebook cluttered, Pinterest visually irritating and my own blog...just a source of massive stress.
My natural response was to take a step back, avoid these spaces online and just give myself a break.
Sadly my other natural response was to fall into a pit of mild creative despair and stress.
I felt pretty upset and anxious that when it came down to it, during the time where I was realizing just how much I want to do this professionally and long-term, I also felt completely bored, bummed and baffled by it.
I suddenly didn't want to write anything, and I didn’t fancy reading another ‘How To’ post, experience another sea of graphics and headlines on my Pinterest feed, or even read posts from my favourite bloggers.
I know that it's entirely normal for my energy and enthusiasm to wane time to time. If things in other areas of my life aren’t going so swimmingly, I am more likely to sink under, instead of swim in the ocean of expectation I have for myself and my goals.
That has definitely happened recently as my casual job role, outside of the blog, has pretty much dried up due to the end of the tourism season in this part of Australia. We are yet again experiencing money struggles and feeling disillusioned and discouraged from our life of perpetual travel.
We still have no regrets about embarking on this crazy and unpredictable adventure but the downs have been more powerful lately than the ups.
In the face of our work struggles I knew I had to get more serious about my freelancing career, and I had to truly knuckle down.
But it’s amazing how when you actually zero in on your creative expression to try and make it something more, the fun gets sucked right out of it in the same moment…
This week I had 7 days of no paid work outside the house. I suddenly had a long week ahead of me with no structure, and it was easy to feel overwhelmed by this void of spare time. Usually I strike a balance whereby I work for 3-4 hours outside the home and then I do the blog, but this week I felt like I should take this chance to work non-stop on it.
Instead, I pretty much shut-down and turned my back on my to-do lists, plans and creativity altogether. For me, if I spent all my days off working on the blog that would mean wholeheartedly acknowledging my financial worries. It would mean giving into the crappy part of travel, whereby you feel like the thing you love doing is at threat because you can’t maintain a decent and sustainable income on the road.
But when it comes down to it, it goes beyond just my external stressors; I also have a chaotic number of goals and ambitions exerting internal stress.
I have so many ideas, about so many different things, all hanging over my head like tiny little speech bubbles. They follow me around and steal my mental clarity, and even my sleep. I tried to unload some of my ambition baggage onto a wall of post-it notes; I literally wrote down all the different goals, short and long-term, that were muddling up my brain. Then when I realized my cheap post-it notes didn’t fancy staying stuck to the wall I had designated for them, I thought I’d try something more compact and functional.
I moved to Asana to try and outline my different ideas and suggest practical tasks relating to them. But since opening an account 2 weeks ago I have probably revisited it once…
Am I my own worst enemy, neglecting the very problem-solving routines I know can probably help me out? Or am I just totally overwhelmed?
Overwhelmed by my goals, and the wealth of advice available out there designed to help me reach them.
Overwhelmed by the acute internal pressure of building something financially viable out of a life-long vocation.
Overwhelmed by the knowledge of potential and the struggle needed to make it a reality.
Overwhelmed by the amazing output of my fellow creators and my desire to be a fledgling part of that community.
You might be feeling something similar, or, if you are passionate about your creative pursuits and have the goal to take them to the next level, then it's likely you too will find yourself experiencing general overwhelm.
What can you do to ensure a little break doesn’t become a full-on break-up?
You need to get back to the most fun part of blogging and make it simpler to do.
You need to implement a simple planning system.
You need to accept the bad days and write when it feels right.
You need to acknowledge your fears and worries as well as your goals.
Foremost, you need to enjoy the life you have chosen and live out the mantra's you advocate via your blogging creations.
You need to remember that having a passion and something that you are good at, is truly a privilege, something to be grateful about and empowered by.
Also, how can anyone find the stories they read on a blog truly aspirational if they feel like the writer is not actually enjoying living out those experiences, and relishing the opportunity to share them in honest and authentic detail?
I personally would rather see my favourite blogger produce one amazing blog post a fortnight, and take their time creating products, than try to produce and publish non-stop, because the quality of their offering will suffer.
I get that us creatives are always tweaking our strategy, changing our routines and finding what works best for our audience, but we shouldn’t lose sight of what works best for us.
I truly believe that blogging overwhelm is a double-edged sword; on one hand it proves your passion and reaffirms your 'Why' for doing what you do, and on the other hand, it literally sucks to experience.
But the path to where you want to be, who you want to be, is littered with obstacles, up-hill climbs and stress, but so much of that will come from your own internal dialogue.
Pressure isn't bad, ambition isn’t either, but when the two become bigger than the act of doing what you enjoy, then the balance has been tipped out of your favour.
I took some time out, time I didn't measure or dwell on, and I did all the random things I felt like doing, like binge-watching Grey’s Anatomy, and reading a novel, but what felt like wasted time was actually a much needed break.
The break clearly worked because I felt refreshed and ready to write this post. It wasn't a long break but it was enough.
I did think through my goals, and realized that I can likely reach them one day, but if I don’t chill, take a step back and remember to enjoy creating and living, they will become insurmountable dreams instead of entirely possible outcomes.
Suggested reading for some inspiration when you aren't feeling so overwhelmed:
Thanks for Reading!
Hannah here, one half of NomaderHowFar. I love reading, the beach, proper fish and chips, and a good cup of tea. But I mostly like to chat about minimalism, simplifying your life, the beauty of travel and sometimes I get a bit deep. Get to know us here!
Be social and come follow us across the virtual world!
Want more?!
The Ultimate Guide To Boosting Your Blogging Strategy
Looking to up your blogging game? This all-in-one guide will take you to the next level with tips and fixes including...
The Ultimate Guide To Boosting Your Blogging Strategy
Yes!
I'm finally writing about my biggest passion of the last two years (besides travel, minimalism, food, pugs, and finally, Taran): BLOGGING, to bring you 40 simple steps to making a better blog!
I believe that I was always destined to write, from a young age; I wrote anything from poetry to short stories to songs even. But when I was a teenager and trying to find my creative outlet, blogging was in its infancy. I had no idea that one day this would be my thing.
We grew up together, blogging and I.
I liked the idea of journalism, but I also always wanted to help people, provide advice or guidance, but did I have a single clue via which channel I wanted to do that? I truly didn't, until 2 years ago.
This blog is one of the best things I have ever gone through with, from its small beginnings to what it has grown into today.
I've had so many ideas about blogging advice jumping around my brain for months.
The last 2 years have been a major learning curve for me as a blogger. Even the last 2 months have brought me reams of new ideas. I now read about blogging more than I read about travel which might seem odd to admit as a travel writer.
No offence to my fellow travel bloggers! I love peoples travel chronicles and advice, but when I get downtime from travel, I use my days to hone my blogging craft.
I have slowly figured out some solid ways to boost my own blogging strategy, through trial and error, lots of time on social networks and other blogs.
Ready to totally up your blogging game and follow 40 proven steps to success?
Below is an 8 part guide, which centres on the different areas of blogging strategy.
1 - Review your blogs user friendliness
2 - Engage with other creators in your community
3 - Review your newsletter strategy
4 - Build a deep and sincere relationship with your audience
5 - Utilize social media scheduling tools
6 - Create great content upgrades
7 - Audit and repurpose old content
8 - Improving your writing
1. Review your blog's user friendliness
We often get disconnected from the user experience of our readers when we are in a routine of writing, publishing and sharing.
How often do you actually sit and use your website as if it wasn’t your own? Do you ever take a moment to actually enjoy your own stuff, whilst also critiquing it?
Use your website instinctively and intuitively.
This isn't about analysing your writing quality, that we will discuss in a part 8; this is purely about design elements, technical issues and general user-friendliness.
Write down anything which sticks out to you as needing immediate changing, from small details, to overarching flaws. Note what is working well and see if you can build on this across your site to deliver a more consistent and stream-line look.
Struggling to critique? Consider this:
Are your most recent, and most popular blog posts easy to find?
Your blog might have a deep archive filled with content that doesn't match your current style, theme or message. In time you probably intend to edit or remove these posts, but meanwhile, you want to ensure that your new readers come into easy contact with what you know is 100% current, as well as your evergreen content. We personally use a gallery tab on our homepage which shows 5 of our most read posts. We then share our most recent content nearer the bottom of that page. We also have a category in the top navigation bar for latest and popular. We basically make it super simple for anyone to find the content we want them to see first.
Are your sharing buttons well-placed for optimal visibility?
If people love what they find, at almost any place on your site, can they easily share that on multiple social networks? We favour using AddThis to display our sharing buttons on the left side of the page for desktop and at the bottom for mobile. We originally relied on social links at the top of the page, plus a floating follow widget that followed the page as you scrolled down, as well as sharing links at the bottom of the post. I have noticed a lot of popular or high-quality blogs who do this is also, only including share buttons at the very bottom of a post. I do ideally want people to read all the way through a post before sharing, but not everyone will read the whole she-bang before they feel the desire to share it. I like the placing of our buttons because they don't detract from the bulk of the text whilst also making it very easy to share the post.
Can your readers easily ascertain who you are and what you do, without having to read your 'About' page?
Something we have tried to do here at Nomad'er How Far is ensure that we use a bio on the homepage, and at the bottom of every post, using our keywords to get across our blog's purpose. We also created categories for all of our blog posts displayed along the top bar, so that readers can get a quick idea of the key things we are all about, no matter which section they land on. Our homepage uses an video in the header if you are viewing on desktop. We also have our sidebar present on every page, displaying our logo, names and social channels.
Do you use one readable font type across your site for a simpler viewing aesthetic?
We go through phases where we hate our font and want to change it, we often stumble upon a dream font somewhere online and then can't find a worthy match. For now, we are mostly a-ok with this font because we know it's readable. We did however make our font smaller, which makes our longer posts much easier to take in. We also now use our Heading 1 and Heading 2 correctly, as this has a lot to do with improving SEO; our blog title at the top of the post is always Heading 1, and any subsequent sub-titles, Heading 2. This is something we had just brushed aside until recently and is such an easy mistake to make, we genuinely felt a bit silly when we realised what we were doing.
Is your colour scheme and layout easy on the eyes?
We have used the same colour scheme since day one, although I did gently encourage Taran to lighten the background because I love black on white, whereas he thinks the pop of colour is better. It is actually good for our blog because it visually complements our logo image, and is a continuation of our branding.
Focusing on these elements of design have helped me spot a number of things that needed addressing on our site; I found that many of my blog posts weren’t using the best header images, and I also found weird glitches in fonts, where my bottom bio was all messed up. I couldn’t believe I'd missed this stuff before, but I hadn’t been looking for it.
My forever solution to this problem is to regularly audit my content. I go back through the archives, pick old posts and edit them to ensure they follow the design of our newer posts.
HOLD UP, we will discuss this more in Step 7.
2. Engage with other creators in your community
Lately I have loved being social, present and chatty across our social networks. I'm a chatter box by nature and I have to kerb this so as not to babble all the time. Like I was about to, just then… So recently I have massively upped my game across the board, from Facebook groups, to twitter conversations, to talking more to the bloggers who inspire me the most. I have also become addicted to podcasts and I now use my walk to work for lots of inspirational brainstorming time.
As bloggers we can become solitary figures, locked down to our laptops, typing away endlessly, and trying to go it alone in creating great stuff, and sharing it. But I have to remind myself that blogging is fundamentally, my hobby, so I should try and enjoy it more. Sure I get days and even weeks where I avoid everything to do with my blog, which I call, my blogging overwhelm. But right now I am striking the balance between engaging often and brightly, with my fellow bloggers, as well as creating meaty content.
I especially love talking to and sharing the stories of those who are just starting out in blogging, travel or minimalism, because we were all new to this once upon a time!
5 Things To Consider:
Do you regularly share others content, which you have read and can truly advocate?
I believe its more important to share other people's content less frequently, and focus more on the quality of what you share, furthering the message and purpose of other bloggers you personally respect. As bloggers I believe we want to encourage each other in our quest to produce truly engaging and life-changing stuff. But also, it makes sense that you don't deliver to your loyal followers something that you can't provide 3 solid reasons for why they should read it. You don't want to fill up the feeds of your fellow bloggers and your audience with things that aren't worth their precious attention. Plus, if you share absolutely anything, of any quality, it does nothing for your credibility as a voice worth listening to.
Have you created a spreadsheet to collate your favourite posts from other bloggers or websites?
This is a massive time-saver that I recently brought in, so that I can save any links I have read and shared, and make it easier to re-share them again in the future. I also utilize Pinterest and Feedly, for when I want to source new bloggers or content worth sharing; I look at my saved pins and newsfeed, and pick a few things to share on other platforms. Yet again, this saves time and carries forth a message in-line with your own, curating social spaces that are unequivocally suited to your niche or target reader.
I have also been making better use of IFTTT, which if you haven't heard of, is a neat site which allows you to connect different processes through what they call 'Recipes'. I've connected our Twitter to my google drive, so that all the tweets I post are saved into a spreadsheet; this helps make twitter sharing quicker in the future.
Are you regularly commenting on other creators posts, offering positivity and friendship?
I develop blogger and youtuber crushes constantly when I find people who are hitting it out the park with their stuff. I don't necessarily mean established and well-liked individuals, I mean people similar to myself, who are maybe not yet pro-blogging, but headed that way. This might seem like a purely social activity not geared to improving your blogs success, but it truly is.
Some of my favourite podcasters, some of whom are super successful personalities, often bring on fellow creators to share their wisdom, and these people aren't just their guests, they're their friends. When you move forward in your creative journey, it makes sense to bring others along with you, to complement one another in your different outlets, and make the long process of growth far less lonely. But also, by being massive and consistent supporters of our fellow creators, we foster mutually beneficial friendships, not short-term business connections.
Do you play an active part in Facebook communities in your niche, offering advice and opinions, not just links back to your website?
I try hard where possible to help others via the various Facebook groups I am currently in (including a minimalism group of around 7000 people), but more often than not, I am the one seeking help. I am still a relatively new blogger, and there is an awful lot that I yearn to understand. Thankfully, these communities are full of people willing to share their wisdom, open to building others up, because its the cool thing to do. We are all in this together, and whilst competition exists, there isn't ever going to be one standout winner in this game. If you are someone who wants to succeed and become the top in your field, and you choose to chase this in a selfish and one-sided manner, you're not really here for the right reasons. Sharing IS caring.
Have you reached out to any of your blogging companions via email to discuss a collaboration?
I personally struggle with this one usually because of time limitations; I'm so caught up in my daily life and blogging routine, I neglect to broaden my content variety by inviting others onto the blog or reaching out to guest post on other sites. I just never get down to writing out thoughtful emails to people who I genuinely want to collab with out of fear that they will either say no, or simply be too busy, in which case I feel bad for bothering them aha! People-pleaser disease. I am definitely going to be working on this big time in the coming months.
This idea, as well as the other 4, will benefit your blog in terms of content variety and authority, but at the core, it’s a fun and important part of staying sane in the blogging game.
We're all here to cultivate something special and real aren’t we? Being engaged and creative within the communities which we rely upon and want to be successful in, is a key part of that.
Step 3. Review your newsletter strategy
We currently use Mail-chimp, because, duh, it’s free...up to a certain point that we are nowhere near reaching.
We have seen a huge rise in our newsletter sign ups in the past 2 months. We believe this is directly linked to the addition of a call to action to join our email list, placed in the middle of our longest and best content. We don’t have a welcome mat or a pop-up (we find these mildly annoying even if they do apparently convert to list growth) but so far, increasing the opportunities to join the list across our blog posts has more than sufficed.
For the longest time we sent out a weekly newsletter pulled from our RSS feed. This is surely a pretty boring email to receive, plus these often end up in people's promotional folder, not even their main inbox. It's great for our readers who need reminding we exist, but, it doesn't provide extra value to those who have willingly handed over their email address in the hope of getting something great.
Recently we made some changes based on the fact that we suddenly had this growing audience on our email list who had signed up assuming they’d receive bonus content, and we simply were not delivering on this.
We still keep to only 1-2 emails a week, but we now bulk out the RSS email with a conversational style of email. We share more personal info that links well to recent blog posts and we try to give a little extra detail than what our audience finds on the blog.
But the biggest change has been the addition of a mid-week email. I create a relatively long-form email which will relate to a recent post, and make mention of my minimalism eBook. In-depth and thought-provoking, this email levels a question at readers in the end. The answer to that question could well lie in the product you are promoting be it free or paid, or in the very least, it makes your readers think, and interact.
You really cannot underestimate the connection you can build with your reader via email, so consider these 5 ideas:
How often do you email your list, and what are you current open rates?
We review our analytics for our open rates and click-throughs via Mail-chimp, and it's always a good way of measuring which email format is working best. But because we only alternate between an RSS-driven email, and a more long-form chatty one, there is little room for drastic comparisons. We generally use this as a rule of thumb for if we need to up our game further, for example, by creating a better email subject line in future emails.
Do you often share something valuable, and bonus, making the members of your list feel like they are part of an exclusive club?
We send emails to our small (but steadily growing list) which are more conversational to encourage more interaction than the average blog post might do. We also expand on our current posts, or discuss something relevant but not yet published on the blog. We have also brought in content upgrades only available by joining our list, but in the future we will periodically send out content upgrades to our list, as well as incorporating an opt-in to a landing page, which will be a piece of evergreen content.
Are you including a call to action at the end of your email, plus 1-2 links within the text?
Research into getting your emails not flagged as spam might suggest against too much link dropping in an email, but you should still include at least 1-2 links within the text, otherwise you are missing out on a targeted traffic-driving opportunity. I definitely keep it to a minimum however. I also add a call to action to the bottom of the email which relates to the key topic or takeaway of that email and directs readers back to my website or product.
Is your sign up link visible across your site, during your content and at the end as a call to action?
Our list growth can be directly attributed to the increased visibility of our sign up link, now included in the middle of posts, often at the end, and in the side-bar. We have seen a 1000% growth in our list. Yes, 1000%. For months we only gained 2-4 new people a month...to now getting 2-4 a day.
And you know what, we haven't used any annoying user-interrupting methods or pop-ups to achieve this growth! It is purely from having more sign-up links across our posts, combined with a couple of content upgrades in some posts, but only a couple so far.
Have you made this sign-up link enticing, but not promising of too much that you can't deliver?
We generally keep it short and simple, and we ask, 'Like What You're Reading?', so when people sign up, it's a vote for YES, your stuff is good, and I wanna hear more.
We don't promise a specific type of email as we are still in the process of improving our email content strategy and don't want to make false promises. We believe its mostly important to have a great piece of content, because then you gain list sign ups based on the quality of your writing and the message this infers, that whatever your emails contain, it will probably be good.
I know this blog post is a long read. I mean, LONGGGGGG, so I have also created a printable checklist for all 40 steps:
Sign up to our newsletter and get it sent to you instantly!
See what I did there ;)
4. Build a deep and sincere relationship with your audience
Of course your email list, your social media sharing and your actual blog posts all go a great distance in building your audience, but do they facilitate a deep and lasting connection?
Do you convert one-time visitors to long-term readers? Are you true to yourself and yet true to your audience and their needs?
42% of the world’s population now have internet access, and right now, around 3 billion people use a variety of devices to access it, but not all of whom are reading blogs (stats courtesy of we are social). That’s a lot of people all searching for inspiration and information, online. But then again, there are also 6.77 million people producing blogs.
But how many of these blogs are in your niche? And how many of them are producing content of a consistently high quality? Well, for starters, you need to be confident enough to say that you are... You need to be sure (via step 1 and later, step 8) that you are producing stuff worthy of an audience.
But really, it doesn’t matter what the numbers say, or how scary your level of competition is. You can still make a place within an over-saturated marketplace if your blog impacts a few people each and every day; you are going to gradually increase awareness, grow your audience and become a useful resource to a small but valid part of those 3 billion people.
Do you reply to comments promptly, address the commenter by name if possible, thank them, and think before you respond?
This is pretty much the most basic thing for audience engagement. We don't receive a constant stream of comments so its relatively easy for us to do this for every comment, always. I get its harder for larger blogs to keep up with but I still think its a worthwhile practise. I know you can't drop everything to immediately respond to a comment but even taking 10 minutes twice a day to do so, is still prompt enough for most people.
I really dislike it when a blogger replies to my comment with a perfunctory response that shows they speed-read my comment and probably found even that level of interaction an inconvenience. I think it all boils down to knowing your purpose; do you write for yourself, for your audience or to generate customers? For many creators, you are basically nothing without your readers, and you would be speaking to a brick wall if none of them felt like respected commenters.
Do you pepper your content with provocative questions, or statements, to make your readers think and respond?
We used to end every post with a question but it didn't really work, and maybe that's because we were focusing too much on this one question, neglecting all the points in our post that might have got our reading thinking, and wanting to speak. And it's not about asking more questions than you answer, but it is about placing a couple of well-worded sentences, which might even contest the point you are actually making. I believe we should assert our advice and be confident in it, whilst still showing a consideration for other perspectives. For example, in this post, we delivered a firm stance (albeit on a mildly trivial topic) but we still suggested ideas in support of those of the opposite stance. That brings me nicely to my next point...
Do you write about something from a fully-informed place, and use secondary sources as support?
I think its very important to not just use disclaimers (more in point 5) and refer to external sources across your blog, in places where you recommend products or specific ideas, but also, you should expand your readers knowledge on a topic, beyond the points you yourself present as truth. I make good use of social media to drive this but I also try to refer to external research in a blog post, sometimes that I myself conducted. I find this helps me to not make assumptions about the pains of my readers, or deliver unrealistic advice. Also, in certain posts when I am delivering a perspective from my own personal experience, I use my own situation to help my readers avoid the same outcomes. If we simply sound off about our own pains and basically put out negative vibes, what value does that provide others?
Are you honest and true to yourself in your creative output?
This might be hard if you cultivate a persona based on indomitable strength and success, who prefers to always keep up the appearance being an iron-clad authority in your field, and nothing else. But most of us show some level of weakness because it appeals to our audience, and because we want to keep it real. We want to be a respected authority but we don't want to steer so far away from sharing our imperfections that we lack personality and hold back our truth. This is important for building reader connections because we come across as real people, with real concerns, and the solutions to match, who care about our readers lives more than just being business-like 24/7.
I always go back to my reasoning for beginning this blog, which was to chronicle a phase of my life which I knew would be momentous. It then changed over time because I realized that I could marry my desire to be a helpful advice-giving person with my minimalist travel adventures, and maybe, just maybe, turn it into a part-time job. My fundamental goal starting out was centred around creativity, expression and honesty, something I never want to stray from in the pursuit of blogging success. My audience, every day real people (not companies), and the truthfulness of my content, is of my up-most concern. That brings me smoothly to the next point...
Is your blog over-run with self-promotion, external ad's and sponsored posts?
I talked about this topic super in-depth a little while back because it had been majorly bothering me. I get that plenty of the biggest and best blogs out there will have ad's and self-promo in abundance, and that great content can co-exist alongside these things. But for a number of reasons, this can really turn off your readers and distance you from them. I want to be drawn in and delivered something of value on the blog I have chosen to read, and I want to be offered, in small subtle ways, invitations to develop my knowledge, which may be via your affiliate, eBook or course. But I don't want to click on a link, having been tempted by a Pin or tweet, to then find a website I can barely load for all the ad's its running. I won't even read the post in this scenario, I will click off before my browser implodes (my tiny laptop is not built for much).
If you aren't striking a nice balance between furthering your professional goals, and also delivering a readable website with consistent and high-quality content, your readers will suffer, and eventually, you will to. We would love to build an income from our blog, because we're nomads and work is not a stable facet of our lives; we basically need to find a way to make a sustainable living to keep on travelling. But you know what, we currently both work casually and part-time (we often end up washing dishes or doing housekeeping) and we go without, every week, but we still pay our website fee, and we still invest all our free time into this blog. We have turned down numerous sponsored posts and limit our ad's to 2/3 sidebar spots at current, because we have a clear idea on how we want to do this blog.
Our passion costs us time and money that we don't really have, but that's love folks. Love for our audience, love for helping them, love for our creativity, and a belief in a bigger purpose to what we are doing here.
5. Utilize Social Media Scheduling Tools
So this step goes hand in hand with engaging in your communities.
Do you use an automated and efficient sharing process for your own content and that of other people?
Our favourite tools for sharing (and engaging) include Tailwind for Pinterest. We invested in the full paid version because not only is Pinterest our number one traffic source (thanks to some semi-viral minimalism pins that no longer fit our style and look kinda ugly, ha!) but it’s also my favourite place for curating and sharing content I love and can learn from.
I share some pins right away but schedule about 70% into our Tailwind queue. This means I am constantly building our boards at a rate I couldn’t without the scheduler. I also love Tailwind for the analytics as it shows the virality and engagement score for your boards and group boards. This helps us know where our tribe is most active and where we should pin to most regularly.
We use Twitter regularly to chat with fellow bloggers and know it’s where our professional circle spends a lot of time, along with Facebook communities. So I love to use Tweetdeck combined with my twitter lists. Twitter lists are actually my favourite new thing that I have been using to make the crazy nature of Twitter, easier to navigate. I find this is the easiest way to see the latest content from my favourite bloggers and quickly add it to my scheduled tweets, which I then specify to go out at a specific time and date. I try to space these out across the week, and to post early in the morning and late at night (I tweet live during the day).
I see Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter as a great way for curating content that I love, as well getting my own messages out there.
We also use Tweet Jukebox to send out a list of our key important links each week. We edit the tweets weekly as Twitter isn’t a fan of duplicate tweet content! We include things like our Patreon sign-up, our email list sign-up, YouTube channel and 2-3 of our best evergreen posts.
It’s quite obvious that if we are ever-present and providing valuable sharing, beneficial to our readers and our comrades, then we will also create more awareness for our own stuff.
But that’s not to say that the key reason for a solid sharing strategy is to ultimately lead to our own growth, but its a cluster of activity that helps elevate your brand as well as lift others up.
5 things to think about:
Are you automating and spacing out your sharing as much as you can?
Tailwind is great for this purely because everything is added to a schedule which posts your pins to nominated boards in intervals which you can specify. Also, via Twitter and Tweet-deck, I like to live tweet/re-tweet/like throughout the day and have 4-5 things pre-scheduled to go out at other times, so that I am present across the different time zones, and can build engagement in my sleep. We also schedule Facebook updates to ensure our content is seen by the time-zones that our largest demographics come from.
Do you utilize free tools as well as premium sites to help you share consistently?
We love Tailwind but its currently the only paid tool we use. We utilize all the free tools previously mentioned such as Tweetdeck and Tweet-Jukebox as well as Canva and free stock photos for our sharing designs. We are always on the look-out for new free tools because we are still a small-scale operation. But the main justification in our minds for forking out for Tailwind is because Pinterest is our biggest traffic source. If we have any intent of growing then some investment in our social tools is necessary. I believe even bigger bloggers can seek out frugality in the running costs of a blog, but realistically your social tools should reflect your audience size and how well you can manage it and grow it. Don't spend money on social tools if you can do most of the work on the free ones.
Have you looked at your Twitter/Pinterest/Facebook analytics to see if your current schedule is working?
As much as I love Twitter, it is a tiny source of traffic for us. But Twitter has a bigger purpose as we use it for building and maintaining our relationships with other bloggers as well as learning stuff from our favourites. I still have a regular sharing strategy because I know that if you have a large audience on a social network, then some of that audience will be made up of your readers. Being present in a variety of channels that your readers might want to find you is a solid idea, but, we can always play around with social strategy to ensure we balance out being engaging with our counterparts and engaging with our audience. Its important we regularly check if we are reaching certain goals via our current social activities, whatever those goals may be. When your goal is measurable, such as gaining new readers, then reviewing your analytics will help you know where to always show up. When your goal is building business relationships, then it makes sense to change the way you interact on certain platforms.
Could you alter the way you contribute to your social spaces to better meet your core goals?
One thing we have done recently is delete pins on Pinterest to make sure our boards are continually of good quality and engaging. We also like to ensure we are chatty and honest on Twitter so that our followers and fellow creators see us as more than just link generators. Furthermore, we like to do live videos on Facebook as this is a rapidly growing feature that we want to take advantage of to actually share the travel side of our blog. Basically, each social space is different and can be curated to show different sides of your blog and your personality, when used correctly.
Have you looked at expanding your reach to different social networks e.g. Stumble-upon, Google+, Snap-chat or Periscope?
We have taken a few light steps in Stumble-upon and are still none-the-wiser to Periscope so this step is advice we too need to act on. I think it's all too easy to stick to what you know works or to believe that you are already adequately reaching your audience, but you could at least experiment in these different spaces. Your audience are often trying out new social networks, so it's probably wise that you follow suit. But you can still have a strategy in mind, and look at the optimal ways to deliver value in these new spaces, not just replicate your strategy from other social networks.
Step 6. Create great content upgrades
I'm super new to this, mainly because when we were travelling non-stop (before we took a travel pause to work and save up) I had barely enough time or internet to upload a post let alone create a content upgrade.
I have tried recently to focus more on this because not only is it an incentive for email list sign-ups but it provides your audience with double the value they expected to receive. You deliver something great, and then some. That 'then some' can set you apart, or just better imprint you in the memory of your readers.
Even if I don’t always read or use the content upgrade I might find on my favourite posts from other bloggers, it is suggestive of a quality and committed creator who wants to help me as much as they can. And, they want to do it mostly for free.
5 things to consider:
Would some of your older posts which still deliver traffic benefit from an email list content upgrade?
I am currently in the process of creating some content upgrades for older posts, be they just a downloadable PDF (which requires email sign-up) or an activity workbook, but for me, its a slow process. The best way to go about this might be to review your top-performing posts and see if they might also convert readers to email sign-ups. Do these posts max out on value or could value be added with an upgrade?
Are your current content upgrades converting in some way, and if not, how could you make them better?
We recently published a post in our super popular minimalism section which included a content upgrade. It has resulted in a few email sign-ups but not a whole lot. I think the best way to overcome this is to give the post some time to grow its audience (being that is reasonably new) and see over time if it converts to sign-ups. But if it doesn't convert we will probably adjust the sign-up link text to make it more enticing. We might look at the placing of the sign-up and ensure that it will be seen as a highly relevant solution to the problem discussed in that part of the post.
Have you isolated the best content for upgrades or do you place them across all your postings?
It might seem that placing upgrades on all your posts or just the ones which get the most views is the way to go, but those posts might not actually be suited to an upgrade. I think its probably wiser to spend time on one amazing upgrade that is completely useful within a given post, even if it isn't a highly popular post. This is a great way of improving an older post and driving new traffic to it, meaning that when you go to re-share it on social media you can make mention of the new awesome content upgrade.
Are your content upgrades actually good and something you yourself would want to download?
Taking on the challenge of bringing in content upgrades can add a lot of stress but not necessarily a lot of value. If you allocate a lot of time to develop your upgrades, and want it to build your audience engagement significantly, you want your sign-ups to receive something they will be more than satisfied with. Focus less on developing multiple upgrades for multiple posts and instead, build occasional upgrades which are extremely in-depth and useful. It takes a lot of time and energy to construct a blog post that people will love and share, so it makes sense to not try and add to this commitment by creating too many sub-par upgrades.
Have you considered creating one great upgrade applicable to more than one blog post or topic?
I currently publicize my eBook as a great supplement to my minimalism posts but of course anyone can buy this, they don't need to sign up to my email list to get it. But, you could introduce some short-term incentives for existing products in your inventory, by creating a discount on a paid product, only available via your email sign-up. You could then insert this into relevant posts, see how it performs and adjust it accordingly. If you want to create new products, be it a free eBook or course for example, then these should be something solidly relevant across your whole site.
Providing discount incentive sign-ups on paid products might seem like a bit of a pushy and salesy thing to do, but people can take the offer, or leave it. If you put lots of effort into creating a brilliant product worth buying, which you want to generate passive income on, then a content upgrade will help you do so; you already did a lot of hard work to create your product, make sure you give it the best chance to succeed.
Step 7. Audit and repurpose old content
Those of us that have been in the blogging lark a while are probably regularly auditing our websites, reviewing our traffic, SEO, keywords, meta data and imagery, then making slight improvements to our content along the way.
It’s something I have been majorly lacking on recently; being engaging and social leaves little time for this which I find quite a daunting task. Having produced our blog for over 2 years, there are a lot of pages and posts to audit and edit. There are some things I know desperately need fixing, some I am too afraid to look at, and then others I know could really boost our blog if updated.
The benefit of a blog audit is to know where you are at, how your blog is performing across the board and thus establish where you need to change things. When an audit is combined with repurposing, you can create new content from what you already have, potentially boosting your traffic and improving your brand cohesiveness. Many of your best blog posts will have been buried somewhere down the line, unless they have taken on a viral life of their own. And so many could do with updating to ensure any new visitors land on content that is totally in-line with your current keywords, voice, visuals and of course, your email list sign ups and content upgrades.
In part 1 we used our blog as if we were a reader. We may have isolated different things we needed to immediately change or edit. But within part 7, we can now set aside time to audit, edit and repurpose, one post at a time, one day at a time.
5 ideas to think about:
Are your recent and popular posts the best they can be, in terms of spelling, grammar, layout, visuals, social sharing imagery and of course, calls to action?
We always make sure to review each week which of our most recent and popular posts are gaining the highest traffic, and we proceed to re-read them, edit and ensure that we didn't miss anything when we originally published them. There's nothing worse than a new post gaining great virality, and only then do you realize it isn't the optimal representation of your best creative practise. We combat this by re-reading a post when we go to share it, be it 1, 2 or 3 weeks later.
Have you got old content with great potential but which needs a total revamp?
We most recently altered a super old post which was garnering fresh activity on Pinterest. The post itself is 2 years old, and highly simplistic compared to more recent posts on the same subject. Instead of removing it or changing it drastically, I made sure it was grammatically correct, created a new pin and matching header image, and added a comment at the top inviting people to read our more recent and in-depth posts on the same topic. I basically invited people to the stuff I would prefer they read, which is broadly better, but the post itself still holds some value, so I of course encouraged readers to continue. This post then saw a surge in traffic even though I didn't re-share it in all its up-to-date glory. It most importantly lead readers to the rest of our content on the topic, simply by adding the new opening sentence.
Many of our older or original blog posts lack several things we now include as standard. They don't simply look weird and wrong but they are either extremely short and basic, or just not in line with our current style of delivery. But if we took the time to write on this topic way back when, surely we cared about the idea or thought it was worth discussing. So part of our current auditing process is to pick things from deep in archives, which probably get no reads at current, and completely revamp them, change the publishing date and re-share.
Are you categorizing all your posts clearly meaning people can easily find your different content, not simply your most popular or latest posts?
Of course its important to always re-emphasize your latest creations and direct people to your most popular stuff, because, well, we know there's a high chance they will like it. But we should also make sure that our readers can actually get into our archives and can easily read further into a specific topic if we have talked about it numerous times.
We make sure we have a search bar in our side-bar so people can look up anything on our site. We also have our posts categorized which then display along the top-bar. This helps readers spend more time on the site, which of course builds a deeper connection and helps elevate your brand over time. We are not the sum of only our best offerings, or only appealing and worth reading based on our most recent stuff. Our blogs grow and develop over time, and some people want the chance to experience that, know us on a deeper level and extract value across all our creations.
Do you link to older or similar posts in several places, also including a list at the end of each post for relevant suggested reading?
I don't do this enough, but somewhere I recently implemented this, was on our 'Start Here' page. Instead of just talking about our topics, I straight away list 5 useful posts that people should read, which takes them through our blog purpose and ethos. Our tag-line states that we changed our spending habits, embraced minimalism, ditched the 9-5 and started afresh, so we list 5 posts which help our readers do the same. We also list relevant internal and external links to posts which expand on the given topic (or one particular point within the post). Sometimes one post is highly relevant to another but slightly different in topic matter, but by linking to a relevant read, you are making yourself appear like a bottomless pit of interesting info.
I feel like people are more responsive to a bulleted list of links, titled by what that blog post is about, not simply peppered through as in-text links, because they can sometimes get lost in the process of reading. I have admittedly used in-text links in this post purely because this is a super long read with those links only supplemental to the actual points.
Have you looked at repurposing certain pieces which might work better in video, audio or infographic form?
Blog post repurposing and auditing can go hand-in-hand I believe. If you find a post that could work better or could engage a different audience via another form, then consider why and how. Don't try to convert a blog post into another format just because you can, try to locate things which can be expanded on or explained better in video, audio or infographic form. There are many ideas on what you can repurpose your stuff into, with Darren at Pro-blogger and Melyssa Griffin offering great advice on this tactic.
Step 8. Improving your writing
After all that's said and done, you have looked at the ways you can improve website user friendliness, engage more with fellow creators, refine your newsletter, build a deeper relationship with your audience, simplify your social sharing, devise great content upgrades and improve old blog posts.
You want to boost your blogging strategy, up your game, and just get better at what you love to do, via these proven methods for success.
You've ticked many a box, but this step pales the others in comparison.
If you don't have great writing, you have nothing. Well, you have something, just not something worthy of you or your audience. But you do have something you can build up, change and improve.
No matter what in the blogging game, you can always improve!
I am constantly working on all the other steps but I realized recently that I don't spend enough time educating myself on how to write really, really, well. One thing which got me thinking more deeply about this was a free email course I joined a few weeks back. 'Unboring Your Writing' from Rosie Morley at Hedera House, and its been a great experience for me. I'm sure there are plenty of courses out there and I'm eager to find them too.
Rosie's course got me thinking about my writing beyond the actual story; she got me thinking about the active voice, expletive constructions and contractions, in ways I never had before. I recommend it for anyone who wants to give their writing some real attention.
When forming a blog post, do you edit as you write or let your thoughts flow without a pause?
I recently began brain dumping, something I read about when seeking some blogging inspiration. Basically, you write non-stop, letting everything come out in its organic state, without editing yourself in the process. This seriously helped me with the major blogging block I was having, but it also went against my normal mindful way of writing. I would usually go slower, editing each word even before I had wrote it down, which I now realize works well some of the time. However when it feels right, letting yourself go with the flow, tumbling out your words, and altering it later on, helps bring forth some real gems. If we over-edit ourselves during the writing process we might stunt our creativity and suck the soul from our writing.
Beyond your grammar and spelling, do you structure your sentences to be concise and clear?
I have been known to write crazily long sentences, full of words that don't need to be there. This was a major criticism of my work during my Uni studies, and I think it will always be an issue. But, by spending a bit more time during my writing and editing process, I have learned to craft my sentences better. I now include a mixture of shorter and longer sentences, made easier to read with the right punctuation placement. I have also learned to space my paragraphs to make certain points more impactful. I have also placed more focus on ensuring I don't repeat myself too much and focus on having multiple valid sentences that all have a good reason to be there.
During the editing process, how often and for how long do you re-read your post?
If you stare at one particular word long enough, it starts to look strange. The truth can be said of blogging, that if you read through your own block of content repeatedly without taking a break, it starts to not make sense. You also might fail to spot key errors or notice areas you could expand on or refine. When I finish a blog post, I leave it alone for an hour, or even a day, and then return to it. If any new ideas have come to mind in that time, I will make room for them. I will re-read my post and of course check for grammar and spelling, but also make sure I have said all I truly can. I don't want to press publish and realize 5 days later than I skimmed over certain vital points because I was rushing.
Are you getting across your natural personality and language, tweaking it for a broader reach?
I am generally someone who likes to laugh, to try and be funny, and to wax lyrical. I try to combine all this to create content with personality and value but I don't want to over exaggerate my natural traits and alienate readers. I do this by peppering my post openings with small personal details, delivered in a concise yet conversational manner; I get to the point of the blog post quickly but not without first setting the scene and clearly communicating my vibe and tone. I couldn't write any other way because I am unapologetically me, but I'm not so silly as to think that I can be myself to the nth degree. If you are writing to help, guide and inform a broad sect of people, you have to speak in a way that makes people want to listen.
Do you regularly use a set of specific words to bolster your branding whilst also expanding your vocabulary?
In Rosie's email course, she mentions that we should use certain words or phrases recurrently which helps to define our style and branding. I try to employ certain terms consistently in this manner, but I also like to shake things up by expanding on the descriptive terms I might use, especially in my travel-related stories. This creates a nice balance of language that is predictably 'my style', combined with something fresh, clever and interesting, for myself, and my readers.
If you want to truly up your blogging game, you should want to expand on your knowledge and language, so you can craft better stories that people will want to read, love and share.
New to blogging and digital marketing? We were new once too!
Today, we have 20,000 social followers, average 30,000 monthly page views and have worked with numerous bloggers and companies. We feel pretty darn accomplished!
So let us use our diverse range of experience to help you find your online feet today:
Don't forget to get your FREE PRINTABLE CHECKLIST!
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
Be social and come follow us across the virtual world!
LATEST POSTS
Taran & Makoto here, together we form Nomader How Far photography.
Check out my photo journals