31 Days of Small Changes Day 2: Small Changes to your Blog

Welcome to Day 2 of 31 Days of Making Small Changes. If you missed the intro, you can click here, and also read Day 1’s challenge.

This post is for my readers who are actually new-ish bloggers. I attended a blog conference this past weekend and couldn’t wait to share a few things that I learned. It was my 2nd year to attend Blog Elevated and the 2nd year I was blown away with the information that I learned.

Believe me, I know, that getting started as a blogger can be overwhelming and time consuming. If you are looking to make an income, you are essentially starting a small business. But if you try to do EVERYTHING at once (and don’t have 40+ hours a week to devote to it) there are a few small things to implement that will have a big impact on your blog. I’ve been blogging for 6 years (what?!?), 3 of those seriously. It took me over 2 years to start making any mentionable income. (You can read how I did that here and here)

I am making a few small changes to the blog over the next few weeks, and here are a few things you can do if you’re just getting started, or just wanting to make some changes. Remember, just pick one at a time!

1.) Learn how to really use your fancy camera

I took a workshop on this topic at the conference from Lindsay at Pinch of Yum. This gal and her husband are the definition of successful bloggers ($32,000 income in ONE month!) so I figured I had much to learn. The main thing I came away with? Use your camera in manual mode. I had already started doing this but Lindsay gave great tips to further this learning. If you’re really wanting to learn, check out this post on using your manual camera, and if you’re a food blogger check out Lindsay’s book on tasty food photography. (affiliate link)

2.) Offer a little something for free to capture e-mail addresses

Did you know if you subscribe to this blog by e-mail, you’ll receive 3 free scripture printables? (Go ahead, subscribe here!) Since I’ve done that last year, my e-mail list has more than doubled. It’s important to capture e-mail addresses just in case other traffic sources (Pinterest, FB) ever shut bloggers down. That would be a sad day, but at least you’ll have your readers’ email addresses.

3.) Connect with, and encourage other bloggers.

One of the mantras we heard over this weekend was “A rising tide lifts all ships.” And it’s so true. Find a group of people that you connect with. Start searching for a “tribe” of other bloggers who have similar blogs to yours and share their stuff. You can find lots of these groups on Facebook. If you can, even look for a local group. My tribe is awesome and we get to see each other at local events- which makes it even better!

This picture deserves explaining. After the conference, my friend Kirsten, who’s a member of my “tribe”,  and I decided to grab a bite to eat, not realizing that there was a major football game was on, and our restaurant of choice was the hot spot to watch it! So here we are, two gals who don’t care about football, along with Kirsten’s nursing baby, with lots of (very loud) cheering going on. It was actually quite fun!

4.) Use your blog for good

With Kristen

 

One of my favorite speakers at the conference was Kristen Welch of We Are That Family. She spoke about using your blog for good. Once you start making money, use it to effect change in the world! Kristen’s blog and her readers have funded two teenage pregnancy homes in Kenya called The Mercy House. Talk about using your blog for good! Instead of accumulating wealth and buying more “stuff,” use your earnings to help others!

So choose one of these steps today, and do it! I’ve learned that I can learn all kinds of useful information and agree with it, but actually doing it is a whole other thing! Making small changes will add up to a big difference!

PS If you’re a blogger, please also link up to this Life of the Party linky! So much fun every week and it’s a great way to find new blogs to follow!