How to Get Your Blog Out There When You Just Started

Last updated on August 2nd, 2019 at 09:48 am

How to get your blog out there when you are just starting your blog? That’s one of the questions that so many new bloggers ask themselves. Heck maybe you’ve even gone to Google and typed in “how to get more blog traffic” in hopes of finding the secret tips.

We’ve all done that when we start our blogs. Google is usually our go-to when we want to learn how to grow a blog. Especially, when you really don’t want to spend money on a new blogging course.

I’ve done it several times. Not only with this blog, but with several of my other blogs. The difference with this blog is that I actually invested in my blogging education and continue to do so.

But what do you do if you don’t have the time or money to invest in blogging education?

Well the truth is that it’s not very hard. I’m going to give you the exact plan that I am using to help me grow this blog. The best part is that it’s NOT going to cost you a penny.

If you still haven’t started your blog, I’ve created a step-by-step tutorial to help you get your blog started on SiteGround.

I’ve Failed Several Times

Now before I can tell you what I am doing, I have to tell you a little bit about myself. My blog may look like it’s growing at a good pace and things are going good.

The truth is that it wasn’t always like this. When I started my very first blog several years ago, I had no clue what I was doing.

In fact, I failed several times. I kept buying product after product because I had no clue how to build a real business and what it took to grow a blog.

With this blog, I invested in this course that has helped me understand what it takes to grow a blog. The best part is that I am NO longer spending money on course after course.

Stop Buying Courses

If you’re one of those bloggers who are constantly buying course after course. Just stop.

I’ve been guilty of it. I can’t even begin to tell you how many Pinterest courses that I have bought. Every time I ran across a new course, I thought maybe it could teach me something that I didn’t know.

You know what?

While it’s true that maybe I did pull out a little bit of knowledge from the course. The truth is that most of the content is the same in all the Pinterest courses that I have purchased.

This is the only Pinterest course that has actually taught me something new that I didn’t know. (don’t buy it if you’re brand new to Pinterest)

Now I’m not saying not to invest in your education. I’m just saying that if you did buy a course, stop investing in other courses and get to work implementing the information and strategies in that course.

It’s Going to Take Work

Copywriting works and some of it has worked wonders for me in the past. The truth is that there is no magic bullet that will help you grow a blog.

It’s so easy to believe that if you just buy this product and start doing this, you’ll see results in weeks or months.

The truth is that it takes time to grow a blog. Starting a blog is so easy, in fact, all you need is a great hosting account and your own domain.

Once you get your blog set up you’ve now got your own little virtual real estate online. It’s so easy and affordable to start a blog.

It’s Hard Growing A Blog

The truth is that it’s hard to grow a blog. You’re going to need to be dedicated if you want to grow your blog. At first when you start your blog, you’re probably going to want to pull your hair out because WordPress is confusing and you don’t know what to do.

Just breathe, it’s okay. We’ve all gone through woes on dealing with WordPress. When I first got started with WordPress, it took me over 8 hours to set it up.

Now I can set up WordPress manually in just 5 minutes. If you’re confused with WordPress, then be sure to check out my WordPress tutorials for beginners.

Give Yourself Time

One of the hardest things that most new bloggers struggle with is time. We tend to believe that if we start a blog today, we should start seeing traffic and getting results by next week.

When we log into Google Analytics and we don’t see any traffic, we start to wonder what’s going on. I must be doing something wrong.

So what do you do?

Most likely you turn to Google to find out what you’re doing wrong. You start reading blog after blog and then jump from one method to the next.

Related: 7 Reasons You Need to Find Popular Topics People Love

What You Need to Do

Put your head down and keep working. The truth is that it takes a while for a blog to grow. As long as you’re continually publishing new content on a regular basis and promoting it, you’re fine.

That’s all it takes. Persistent continual action day in and day out is all it takes to grow your blog.

How Do I Know This?

Because when I started this blog, I swore up and down that I wasn’t going to make the same mistakes that I made in the past. That’s actually why I invested in the Elite Blog Academy and Billionaire Blog Club.

I wanted a road map of what it took to create a successful blog. I’ve invested in a few other courses as well, but that’s because I am a huge believer that you should education yourself if you want to grow.

For months I didn’t see any traffic. That little voice in my head kept saying that maybe I was doing something wrong. That little voice got so loud that I almost reverted back to my old self.

You know the one that has failed so many times because I always jumped from one method to the next.

Well, I stopped myself from jumping on bandwagons and put my head down and kept working. Some days it sucked because that’s all I did was work.

No one was visiting my blog or leaving comments. If you look at my first year results, you’ll see that they’re nothing short of sucking big time. I’ve shared my blog traffic growth reports about 6 months after starting this blog.

Yet, I had my goals in front of me and I kept pushing forward.

I Chose 3 Traffic Strategies

One of the main reasons that I didn’t have the success that I wanted my first year is because I was spreading myself too thin.

I was trying to do so many things at once, it was impossible to see growth. It’s hard to try to do everything if you’re a one person band.

Throw in the fact that you’re still working a day job or doing client freelancing like me, then it’s even harder.

You Can’t Do It All

Pick 2-3 traffic strategies that you enjoy and work on those methods. I chose Pinterest, commenting and SEO as my 3 methods.

I figured since I was writing blog posts, I should do everything in my power to make sure that they are properly optimized.

SEO

The truth is that I don’t stress about SEO. As long as my blog posts are optimized according to Yoast SEO standards, I am good. That’s all I do, I don’t complicate things. If you’re completely new to the Yoast SEO plugin, here’s a tutorial that will help you optimize your posts.

Commeting

I understand the value of online friendships. I’ve made a few of them online. In fact, just by taking the time to reach out to other bloggers, I’ve been able to land some guest posting opportunities.

Not only that, but I’ve also been added to some Pinterest Group boards just because I took the time to get to know someone.

While it’s been great that I’ve been able to get an opportunity because of taking the time to comment. The truth is that you want to make sure that you comment on blogs without expecting anything in return.

Building online relationships are vital and blog commenting is the easiest way to do that.

Just remember, when you start commenting, you want to make sure that you’re taking the time to do it correctly. Don’t leave a bunch of one-line comments.

Those types of comments will just get deleted. I know that I delete them from my blog.

Pinterest

I saved this bad boy for last, because I had no clue just how powerful it was when I got started. One of the biggest mistakes that I made when I started my blog is that I completely ignored it.

You might have heard other bloggers say that all new bloggers should start with Pinterest. Well, it’s true.

I started with Pinterest when I started this blog, but I had no clue what I was doing. I signed up with Tailwind for a year and filled up my automated scheduler and that’s it.

Once I had my account set up, I started reading the Pinterest Engineering blog to get more education. I’ve also learned a lot just by reading the Tailwind blog.

Never did I actually take the time to learn how to use or understand Pinterest. It wasn’t until January of this year that I picked up the Pinterest Strategies eBook because I was tired of not seeing any results from it.

Once I started implementing the strategies and tweaking them to work for my account. I continue to be blown away at the results I’m getting.

And I’m not even getting the results that other people are getting. You can check out my traffic reports here, where I share what I’m doing to grow this blog.

If you want to pick up my Pinterest Daily Pinning Templates that I use to help me stay organized while I am manual pinning, you can do so here.

I’ve set up my sister site extension at https://blogwithsusan.com. This is where I will be creating all my products and hosting them.

I chose not to use Teachable or Thinkific to host my sites. So if you want to see how I am pinning my pins and even watch me live as I pin one right in front of you click here to buy.

Oh and by the way, I am only manually pinning about 5-7 pins per day. I don’t go crazy with manual pinning. I am still using Board Booster and Tailwind to help me automate my pinning.

Here’s The Secret to Pinterest

There isnt’ any. After I started really learning how to use Pinterest, I’ve realized that there is no secret to pinning. And I’ve purchased tons of courses and eBooks on Pinterest.

The truth is that some niches tend to do a lot better faster on Pinterest. Some people create multiple images for the blog posts.

As long as you continue pinning on Pinterest and sharing your popular pins, you will continue to see growth. Just like anything else in blogging, it takes time!

While it is true that I’ve come up with a pinning strategy that works. It’s really not any magic pinning strategy. I’m still using both Tailwind and Board Booster to help me out.

Once I Realized

How to pin and which pins to keep pinning. Things just started to grow. It definitely hasn’t happened overnight and my results are still not as impressive as other people’s.

But it’s nice to see that I am finally starting to get traffic from Pinterest.

Final Take Away

Blogging is hard and you only make it harder on yourself when you don’t give your strategies time to work. You can’t expect to start a blog today and see traffic tomorrow.

In the blogging world it just doesn’t happen that way. I understand that in today’s day and age it’s hard to have patience.

Heck you can order a package from Amazon and get it delivered in 2 days or less depending on where you live. You can download a movie and watch it from the comfort of your own home instead of going to Blockbuster to rent it. (I don’t think Blockbuster even exists anymore)

What I’m saying is that you don’t even have to leave you home to get something you want today. So when we’re told that blogging takes time, we don’t know how to wait.

Some of us choose not to wait and go out looking for that magic bullet. Only to realize that it doesn’t work so we go out searching for something else.

It becomes a perpetual cycle and then a year later you look back at your results. If only you had stuck with it and listened to the fact that blogging takes time.

You would be a lot further than were you are today. So stop spending money on products and put your head down and work.

That’s all it takes to grow a blog.

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Are you guilty of jumping from one traffic strategy to the next? When did you realize that all it took is for you to just keep doing the same thing over and over to see the results you want? Let me know, I’d love to hear about it.