Balkeni Studio

If you've been reading my blog you'll know that as a designer, developer and blogger I love and recommend using blogger (formerly known as blogspot) as a blogging platform. And it's not just because it's free, it's because it has the potential for customisation that parallels WordPress itself. If I may be so bold as to say so.

What does the "earnings at risk - fix ads txt" notification mean? 

What is Ads Txt?

Authorized Digital Sellers for Web, or ads.txt, is an IAB initiative to improve transparency in programmatic advertising. You can create your own ads.txt files to identify who is authorized to sell your inventory. The files are publicly available and crawlable by exchanges, Supply-Side Platforms (SSP), and other buyers and third-party vendors.  - Google

 How To fix the Ads txt earning at risk notification from Adsense?

There is one thing for sure, receiving this notification means that something is not right.

The good news is, if nothing is wrong with your blog and everything is fine and it is set-up properly then as a privileged blogger on blogger, you will NEVER see this warning.

Why do I say you're privileged as a blogger blogging on blogger?

Because if you're using Adsense and are hosted through blogger then blogger takes care of ads.txt declarations for you. And this will only happen if you use the Adsense widgets to show ads, not the HTML/Javascript widgets.



Now, to be able to fix this issue, much like any issue you need to get at the root of this issue. Most probably, there could be two reasons this is happening:

• Your ads.txt is not set-up at all (should not happen if Blogger is taking care of it for you.) 
• Your domain is not set-up properly, redirects are not proper or working and/or for some reason the Adsense bot is unable to crawl the ad.txt directory hosted in your blog.

How do I know whether Blogger is automatically managing my ads.txt? I don't understand some parts of this tutorial and have questions, what can I do? Can I hire you to help do the check and fix everything for me? I did the fix following this tutorial but the notification in my Adsense dashboard hasn't gone away, help! I also use XYZ ad company, how can I install ads.txt for them?

Have any more questions that you think I missed upon? Or suggestions for elaboration on some topics? Let me know through the comments so I can make this post even better for you! Hope this has helped.

In the second month of 2019, I got the pleasure of working with an absolutely fantastic blogger who helps young girls feel like a princess. With more than 900 published blog posts, she's truly a master at what she does.

She wanted an overall fresh look, clean code and an SEO friendly design that was feminine and reflected her style.

I was tasked with creating:

• A brand board
• A brand palette
• Social media templates
• Web design
• Web development

I don't usually provide SEO audits as part of the branding package. However, it just felt needed as she was quite concerned about her SEO. I have also suggested her a great book about SEO for bloggers on the blogger platform (although it is suitable for SEO awareness in general).

I also decided to give her an extensive SEO checklist to help her improve her SEO as she writes her blog posts.

Our Vision for the Brand

Feminine and elegant was the look I wanted to achieve for her brand. We wanted to incorporate some of the elements from our inspiration sources, which were influenced by the Pinterest mood board made for the same.



As you'll notice, I incorporated custom floral patterns and a distinctively feminine header and logo.

The Typography

The nature of the website and the tagline of the blog, "Hairstyles for princesses of all ages and places", I thought it only natural to deviate from the use of corporate and in-trend fonts.


I used one of my favourite font combinations, Cinzel Decorative and to complement the font, I used Fauna One. It is a perfect combination and looks fantastic together.



The good part, both these fonts are available for free download via Google fonts — something that was explicitly requested by the Client. Plus, they load super fast on websites.

Our Vision for the Website

We wanted to come up with something, feminine, girly, and pink as Kori (the client) just seemed to admire the hue, and well pink lovers, raise your hand!

Since her blog is about hairstyles, I knew from the get-go that a featured slider would be amazing. In fact, it would be perfect because it would showcase some beautiful hairstyle tutorials that visitors and readers could explore.

The latest blog posts that update dynamically come right after.

The sidebar really is an essential addition to just about any website as it contains just about enough information to keep the reader engaged and hooked. It helps bring attention to what's most important for a blog, I was aiming for simplicity and feminity.

I came up with two designs for the website for her to finalise. And this is the one that she chose.

The Social Media Presence

As most bloggers will know and agree, a social media presence is vital for bloggers. Not only to showcase their standing and authority but also to connect and engage with their audience.

Working with my signature branding package, all your social media channels are covered. I made templates for her, in the platform of her choice, that is PicMonkey so she can alter her templates if she so chooses.

We wanted to make sure that the templates match with the overall brand and with each other without feeling like there was no diversity between designs.

The social media channels that were covered under the package were:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram 
• Pinterest
• YouTube 

The SEO

The conclusion

When you've been blogging for a while and are finally starting to have a good number of blog posts on your blog, you'll start noticing that older blog posts that were once bringing you the most amount of traffic or were really popular are starting to fall down in search engine results page (SERP).


And this leaves you wondering, why is Google not loving my content anymore?





In this blog post, I'm telling you exactly how you can keep your content fresh and relevant in Google's and your reader's eyes. Step by step.

How To Revise Old Blog Posts To Boost Search Engine Traffic

Now that you know Google and most search engines love fresh, relevant and up-to-date content, it's time you start working on those piles of old blog posts that haven't seen any love from you lately.


Now I know, you might have many posts and you might not even understand where to begin from and how to leverage the art of updating blog posts to see a boost in your traffic, and better search engine ranking.

01. Read your entire blog post

This step is so important, yet so undermined. Chances are, you don't actually remember everything you wrote in every blog post. And certainly not in detail. So, you need to make sure you read your blog post thoroughly.


Yes, yes, I know it's a tedious task, but it IS so worth it.


At this point, you need to keep a pen and paper handy, or whatever your preferred note-taking instrument is. I recommend having a blog binder where you organise everything about your blog. I bought mine from Amazon.




Now, you need to make note of every single grammatical error or spelling error in the blog post and think of what information you can add and what you can omit. Don't actually add or omit anything in your blog post right now, just make small notes on a piece of paper or digitally, however you like.

02. Edit your blog post

Now, it's time to make use of the edits you made a note of and actually make them in your blog posts. Add content you think might be relevant to what you are writing about, anything that enhances the experience of your readers.

And make sure to omit anything that's starting to get repetitive.

This does not just apply to the text you are writing, make sure to add infographics where ever they are needed because our minds process visual content faster than written text.

03. Add appropriate supporting links

You might be wondering what I mean by this, but it just means that there will be certain phrases in your blog posts where you mention a fact which might be otherwise unknown to your reader.

For example, if you write about how horizontal stripes in a piece of cloth can make you look broader, you can give more information to your reader by actually linking this fact to another blog post, either written by you or some other authority website.

This helps your reader to know that you've actually invested time in writing about a particular topic, it helps with your credibility, and Google likes it too. Plus, your reader can read more about the topic easily if they wish to.

Everybody wins.

04. Adding links to other blog posts you've written

This one is similar to the third step but in this case, you are going to link to your own blog posts. Maybe you're writing about a topic and mentioning something related to it which you have also written about recently, or previously.

This is a great time to add the links to support what you have mentioned in the blog post you are revising.

Linking to your own blog posts like that is very organic, helps strengthen your blog's internal linking structure, gives you an SEO boost, reduces your bounce rate and helps your readers discover more content on your blog.

What to do in case you have more than a few blog posts to revise?

These are the four key steps to revising any blog post so as to start seeing a boost in your blog traffic and making sure your content remains fresh and up-to-date.

Essentially, you need to follow these four main steps. But it will become increasingly confusing if the number of blog posts you have to revise are more in number. Think more than 10, some people that have been blogging for years, and they have hundreds if not thousands of blog posts to revise.




How does one keep track of all of that?

This is where my blog post revision guide comes really handy.

This blog post revision guide makes it super-duper-crazy easy to update your old blog posts, keep track of your updates and even improve upon your older blog posts, and the best thing? It's AFFORDABLE for the value it gives you and the time it saves you!

Blog Post Revision Guide Features

It comes in two sizes (big and normal because not everyone has the same type of handwriting and we all know that MATTERS!)

• Limited floral edition
• Divided into five sections for ease of use.
• A Last-Updated Section
• Revision Ideas section
• Link To Section: helps you identify more opportunities for internal and outbound linking (great for SEO)
• New Article Ideas Section:  helps you generate more article ideas on the go, while editing blog posts so that you never run out of blog post ideas.
• Excellent for people that get new blog post ideas when they're revising old blog posts, people like myself.
• Pink and florals RULE!
• Saves you tonnes of time!
• Helps you get organised and streamline your blog post revision process.

Why is this blog post revision guide printable so valuable?

I'm glad you asked! This guide is so valuable because it will save you at least 4 hours per week (that's the amount I started saving ever since I started using this printable). And like we all know, time is money. Efficient organisational systems make you productive.

You will spend less time tracking what needs to be updated and more time on producing content for your blog or business. This will help you save time and make more money by being able to make more content for your audience.

Updating old blog post becomes so easy this way, you can give this system to your VA (vistual assistant) if you so wish and rest easy knowing he/she will do a good job updating the blog post for you because you can TRUST this system.

Trust it to give you RESULTS. And make sure your content stays evergreen. Seriously, I've tried this system. And now, I'm asking you to do the same now.

Already tried the blog post revision guide? 

I want to know all about it, leave me a comment below telling me what you liked and what you didn't and how you think this guide can be improved! I'm always eager to hear from you so I can improve the products I provide so they bring you even more value. 

What is blogging?

The term was actually coined by Jorn Barger back in December 1997, however, it had pretty much existed in 1993 as well without the name that it has now. It has come a long way though since the late '90s.

For me, blogging is a form of expression, you can blog to tell the world more about you, spread knowledge and awareness, and anything that you like. Your blog is a little bit of you, for the world wide web.

Why should you consider blogging?

Apart from the fact that blogging can help you earn a serious income online, which could rival a full-time job, heck, even more, it's really fun! Yes, I said it's fun. I find it so relaxing, and it is actually how I first got started online in 2015.

If you're a personal blogger, you can be using your blog as a journal to help others get a sneak peek into your life, or a blogger sharing recipes and helping people eat good food, the idea is that you are contributing to something good, something that will help other people.

Bottom line is — If you have any kind of knowledge to give, or you want to showcase your work online, you should consider blogging.


Blogging has also been an escape for a lot of people, people that want to quit their jobs because they don't like them or have horrible bosses. Women that want to stay at home and raise kids, because as I mentioned before, blogging can help you achieve that. You can make money doing what you love!

Can you actually earn from blogging?

In all honesty, yes, you can. Is it easy money? No, it's not. But yes, blogging CAN make you rich, just like any other profession, but you NEED to work hard. Be determined, consistent and have a big bag full of patience and then a hundred bags more.

It won't come easy, because if it were easy everyone would be doing it, and yes almost everyone is, they just aren't earning an income from it, yet.

How you decide to make money from your blog is up to you, but I highly suggest not selling your soul for it, like a lot of people do which treat blogging not as a passion but as a business that will earn them loads of money. Don't recommend things without actually trying them, don't write good things about a product if you don't like it. Be nice and actually help people.

Is blogging for me?

Good question — I don't know! Yes, I don't know. And this is something I tell people in Facebook groups, through e-mails, social media, and my clients, and members of my site (you too can sign-up to be a member, it's free! The link to which is in the menu section of the blog)... all the time.

Blogging is just one of those things that really depends on you, some people fall in love with it (me), some like it enough to do it as a hobby, some just never quite understand the point behind it and some just HATE it.

You're really going to have to find this out for yourself, you know, the kind of a relationship you develop with blogging.

1. So you want to start a Blog?

Supposedly, you decided you want to be a blogger, that's why you're reading this, aren't you? 😬

Here's the most valuable piece of advice I have for you, as a new blogger. Don't invest too much into blogging just yet, and before any of the blogging pros decide to start throwing rocks at me, let me explain why:

You're a new blogger, you don't even know if you'll like doing it, and a couple hundred dollars later, it could all be a huge waste of those couple hundred dollars you invested early on.

It is OKAY to not invest a single dollar on your blog before you decide it's something you ACTUALLY want to do,

And even then, it's absolutely okay to not want to pay a single penny for keeping your blog online when you aren't even making anything off of it yet.

No matter what anyone else tells you, you own everything you create. Unless you have signed up for a service that says anything you create on their platform is theirs — your content is your own.

Don't feel that guilt, the one that tells you that you're being cheap if you're not investing in your blog right now.

It is POSSIBLE to blog, day after day, even if you don't have a budget, at all. Yup, $0 is what I mean.

Now, why is this advice so valuable?

Because not listening to this advice is why MOST bloggers FAIL.

2. Why do bloggers fail?

Here's what I think, since blogging is anything but instant gratification, so many of us fail at it. Humans are hard-wired to want instant gratification. This is why most people fail at blogging. Especially, if they dive into it thinking they can make back all the money in a month or two.


Blogging doesn't work like that. You need to have consistency, patience and time to put into it for it to start bringing in results. I have started and closed down many blogs, some were successful, somewhere not (thankfully I earned from each one of them, but that's a story for another time). Some, I only maintain as a hobby with no real motivation to monetise them.

I know you want it to work, but with blogging the only thing that you can expect is to not become a star blogger making $5000 or more per month following your first month blogging.

Start small, and keep working hard.

Back to the topic at hand, bloggers fail because they invest too much financially and then they are unable to sustain themselves for more than a year.

Chances are this is your story:

You heard from someone, or searched on the internet or got the idea in your dream, the bottom line is everyone just seemed to be making a point. You can make money online by blogging. And if anyone can, you can too, right?

After enough "rosy searches" (Internet searches that focus on only the good side of the thing being searched) you are confident that you need to start a self-hosted WordPress blog if you want to be successful as a blogger.

And the funny thing is, you don't know what a domain is, what self-hosted means, and any other blogging linguistics. You just know you need to start something called a self-hosted blog and that's it.

Then, you start a blog and when it isn't even supporting its cost a year later, you are frustrated, tired, and you just start feeling that it will never work. And then you decide, you're not going to pay for it another year, and you close your blog or are about to close your blog.

I know a LOT of people who have been through this and don't have a blog anymore, some even started the same time I did. But the only thing I did differently was that I dared to be different.

I started a blog for FREE. I didn't pay for it for two years and when things finally started picking up pace, I carefully weighed my options (I tested different blogging platforms for an entire year). And chose a website building platform that was right for me.

Had I not shifted my focus from being just a blogger to a freelancer (I was studying Graphic Design and wanted to pursue it as my career, also a story for another time) I would have stayed on my free platform forever (Blogger).

Update June 2019: I am back on blogger. I will write a post on why I made this decision later.

But, hold on a second, you've been reading about bloggers making so much money in just their first month, why would you not make that much or something similar in your first month?

The chances of that are quite slim unless you know what you are doing, and have a proper strategy in place, also, I'm willing to bet that those bloggers are anything but beginners. They know what they are doing, and they have been around for a while.


That blogger you read about who made $500 or more in their first month of blogging? Well yes, but you probably don't know how many blogs they have had before that and what they've learned from each one of them.

Behind-the-scenes it could be a seasoned blogger that has just decided that they will shut down their other blogs and start a new one which currently resonates with them more.


Because once you've learned:



It becomes repeatable, and you can make blogs after blogs using this same formula.

3. Why is it a good thing to start with no budget?

Obviously, for all the reasons mentioned above but also because when you're not investing any money you can take your time to test waters. Maybe you only have an hour a day, with no financial commitments and not having to worry how you're going to pay for the next year you can easily focus on what matters: your blog.

4. How to start a blog with a budget of $0?

There are a lot of free platforms available that help you start a blog. You can start anywhere. But keeping in mind a few things will really help you get started in the right direction.

Questions to ask yourself before you decide on a free blogging platform:

• Do you have a Laptop/PC or are you going to use your mobile to start your blog?
• Is your blogging platform easy to use?
• Does your blogging platform have an easy way to insert no-follow links?
• Is your blogging platform compatible with third-party solutions?
• Is your blogging platform reliable and backed by a reputed company?

Why ask these questions?

Do you have a Laptop/PC or are you going to use your mobile to start your blog?

Obviously, if you have a very old PC or one that barely works you won't be able to use it in that case, a lot of bloggers prefer to blog from their smartphones. This is actually a viable option. But the blogging platform you choose should have an app that is fully functional on your mobile, not just some parts of it.

Is your blogging platform easy to use?

If you're just starting with blogging an easy to use interface will give you little to no headache finding your way around.

Does your blogging platform have an easy way to insert no-follow links?

This is very important from the perspective of monetising your blog, if you don't have the ability to no-follow blog posts in the platform of your choice, it will severely lessen your ability to earn from your blog (Read: Why You Need A Blogging Platform That Allows You To No-Follow Links).

Is your blogging platform compatible with third-party solutions?

You should always opt for a blogging platform that can easily adapt to other solutions, as you grow in your blogging journey it's possible that you'll start selling your own products, courses etc. for that purpose you'll want a blogging platform that can scale with you and either integrate directly with a third-party solution or give you the flexibility to integrate things on your own.

Is your blogging platform reliable and backed by a reputed company?

There are tons and tons of blogging platforms. Blogging is an industry with an amazing growth rate, a lot of companies start and jump into the industry only to declare bankruptcy sometime later and then you have to move from your current blog hosting platform (blogging platform) to another. This is why sticking with reputable ones that have been in the game for long is great and a smart choice.


Some reputable blogging platforms which also happen to be free or have a free plan are Blogger (completely free - no mobile apps though), Wix (offers a free plan; with Wix ads displayed on the free plan - mobile app available), and WordPress (offers a free plan - mobile app available.).


I know these companies to not be closing down in the foreseeable future. These are reputable companies. And they each are very strong contenders as they come out strong when the five questions I mentioned are asked.

5. Where to source images from when you have no budget?

I don't think I've read any blog that is worth reading that didn't have a single image in it. Humans are visual and when they are reading text it is just nice to break it up with some images to keep your reader interested.


The question is, where can you get images that you can use legally and commercially) on your blog? I mention commercially because if anything is making you money directly or indirectly, that use is called "commercial" use. Since we have a budget of $0, obviously we are going to need free images that we can use commercially.

Google is NOT a good place to look for images like those. So resist.

Here are a few places where you CAN get free images from without the hassle of worrying about lawsuits later.

• Pixabay
• Pexels
• Unsplash
• IvoryMix
• She Bold
• Moyo Studio

These are some genuine and quality free stock photos websites. Which offer free stock photos. The latter three have the option to get free styled stock photos by either signing-up to receive newsletters or subscribing to the free membership.

For free stock photos from Pixabay, Pexels, and Unsplash I'd advise you to take a screenshot before you download any image so that if for any reason you have to prove that you acquired the image lawfully, you can do so. Or at least stand a chance in court.


I know of some incidents where people downloaded an image from a site like that offers free stock photos and then they were sued and couldn't prove their innocence.


To be on the safe side of things it is best to buy stock photos, however, since for the purpose of this blog post as our budget is $0 yo should stick to maintaining a folder of screenshots that proves you got the image legally and your intentions were pure.

6. Writing error-free content

Grammar mistakes are not cute. Neither are typos. And unfortunately, unless you're writing locally you will be expected to write in English and that too like a pro. Unless you have a multi-lingual site where people can choose which language they want to read in. So how do you avoid this from going public → "I am a blogger but my content is barely readable because I don't know how to write well in English."?


The answer is, you use a premium grammar and spell-checking software. Now most of them that are of any decent quality are paid. However, we don't have a budget for that. So we are going to use Grammarly.


Grammarly is amazing! I've used it on sites that I make for myself and the ones that I've done for clients (I have a premium version) but I've used the free one and it's really good.


The good thing is once you install the Grammarly extension and the app and they run everywhere, meaning no more typo filled e-mails, content drafts, social media posts etc. And they have a Grammarly keyboard (for mobile phones) as well so you can use it even when you're on the go.

7. Monetising Your Blog

Now I know you're starting a blog with $0 as a budget but you don't want it to stay that way, do you? Of course not! You want to be able to earn from your blog so that you can continue to re-invest in it and make it into a full-fledged income source.


Now if you're not monetising your blog you're not going to have any income and since you're only just starting out I DON'T recommend getting into advanced monetising techniques because you can't start running before you learn to walk.


Also, you're better off without the overwhelm at first. One baby step at a time will save you from months worth of burnout. Trust me.

Affiliate Marketing

As a new blogger, you don't have strong stats to join a lot of affiliate programs but thankfully Viglink is a high-quality automated affiliate program that will save you tons of time and help you earn money from your blog.


The reason I mention this platform over others is that I have used it, it's high-quality and a breeze to work with. They also have a feature called VigLink Insert which automatically inserts affiliate links so you don't have to put in the time to do so manually saving you a LOT of time and energy and the hassle of manually linking if affiliate marketing is not something you want to spend too much time on.

I get it, some people just want to share their content and not go through the hassles.

Their merchant selection is amazing so revenue is guaranteed even if you write about something locally or internationally.

Viglink will do good for international traffic. However, if the majority of traffic that you have is Indian traffic then try Cuelinks. It is the best alternative to Viglink if your traffic is from India.


Cuelinks has partnered with most Indian brands and online businesses and brings you a wide selection to choose from, much like Viglink.

Can you use Viglink as an Indian blogger?

Yes, you can. Viglink automatically converts most links (if applicable) into geo-optimised links. Meaning, based on the area of your reader's location, the link shown to the reader will be automatically optimised.

Advertising

Another effective way of monetising a new blog is advertising. It is worth mentioning though that it is quite the task to get into advertising when you are starting out and are really new.


Most advertising companies have very specific requirements. I suggest trying Adsense at first, and later when your blog traffic grows, consider shifting to some other network such as Mediavine and AdThrive etc.

I have mentioned some of the best paying advertisers here, but it is important to take not of the fact that too much advertising is bad for your user experience.


As a web designer who deeply cares about user experience, I do not like aggressive advertising. Having more ads placed on a website than the content available is just a spammy practice that will get you no-where. I recommend a maximum of three ads per page, and no more to avoid ruining the user experience.


If your audience sees something they are really interested in, they will click and follow through to that page. It's simple.


Aggressive advertisement will only harm the growth of your blog.

Writing Sponsored Posts

This is something most bloggers dream to do.

Why?

Because it is probably the most highest-paying method of monetising a blog. This is where brands and business give you a free service/product etc. along with paying you a fee to review and/or promote their product and/or service.


Now, this is also very hard to achieve because for brands to trust you as an influencer, you need a good amount of targeted traffic, have a good amount of followers and be recognised as an authority in your respective field.


This is also something I would advise you only try and make money off of when you have established your authority. Don't try and do it sooner because then brands will either not pay you to review their product and just offer you the product for free or will not collaborate with you at all.


You don't want to not get paid for your hard work and all that free advertising and promoting you are doing for that brand. That is bad for you because it's not helping you advance your goal of being a full-time blogger, but you probably already know that, right?


Think about it, you accept a sponsored post for a free product and write about it and don't get paid for it. That is unlimited free advertising for the company, they didn't pay you anything for that post and it's going to sit on your blog, forever and you will be driving traffic and probably even sales to that company lifelong.


I don't think that would be in your best interest as a blogger, ever.

Selling Your Own Products/Services

Once you have established yourself as an authority on what you write about, you should definitely consider selling your products/goods and/or services on your blog.


The reason that so many bloggers are able to earn a decent or a good amount of money doing this is that you don't just earn a "cut" or "commission" out of someone else's sale but all that money goes straight to your bank. You're not the middleman here, you're the boss.


A word of advice here is that you don't want to sell to crickets, which is what you will be doing if you sell without even building an audience interested in buying your services or products. It's not because I don't want you to find success sooner but because you're more likely to have sales when you already have an audience built up and ready to buy.


Ideally, this should be the last stage of blog monetisation, where you have enough audience built up that you are selling your products to them, this will increase your profit and help you make more money as a blogger.

Conclusion

By now you've probably understood that you can and should start a blog for free if you are considering blogging as a career, or a way to finally leave that 9-5.


You've also learnt that the content you create is yours, even on a free platform and it is possible to monetise a free blog as well.


And most importantly, I hope you know that a free blogging option isn't bad at all, in fact, it is a smart choice especially if you are just starting out.

Writer's notes for the curious ones

The platforms mentioned in this blog posts are all scaleable. You could grow into a business and not have to switch to any other platform.


I have started my lifestyle blog using the exact same method described in this blog post, it is currently hosted on a forever free platform called Blogger and I don't intend to stop using it. I am setting it to be an outlet to my lifestyle as work from home solopreneur, giving insights to my daily life and much more. So if you dig lifestyle blogs, you should definitely add my lifestyle blog to your list!


Plus it would be cool if you follow my lifestyle blog just to see my journey, I am to make it a self-sustainable blog by the end of this year, all the while staying on the platform I originally started it on (blogger) just to prove that what I write here is something I know to be true.

Have some questions? Let me know in the comments down below and I'll be super happy to reply and help you out. Remember, I want YOU to succeed, so if  there is something that's bothering you and you feel like advice is what you need, do not hesitate to leave a comment below!

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest, Inc. is a social media web and mobile application company. It operates a software system designed to enable discovery of information on the World Wide Web using images and, on a smaller scale, GIFs and videos. The site was founded by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp.  - Wikipedia

Pinterest refers itself as a "virtual pinboard". But what does that mean anyway?

My favourite book on Pinterest marketing defines it in a much better way:

It says that Pinterest is the online or internet equivalent of having a cardboard box dedicated to everything that inspires you. It could be recipe cutouts you and your family enjoy, ideas about remodelling your home, a unique style of fashion or quotes that help you get by in different moods and situations in your life. 

Now, I'll come to why understanding this is so important in a bit.

Pinterest is also a great way to visually bookmark things on the internet, and that is the principle it started on. So you could say ta-ta to that cardboard box in your house. Plus it's easier to find Pins you've saved over time than have tens of boxes lying around, not to mention how much space you're saving while using Pinterest and not those boxes.

Why use Pinterest to grow your blog traffic?

That's a very valid question, why should you choose Pinterest over any other social media platform? Why not Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or anything else, you get the drill.

Well, for starters it's getting harder to get seen on platforms such as Facebook as over the over it's gotten pretty clear that Facebook wants people to spend money to be able to profit from it.

We know that it's already harder to achieve that amount of traffic. Pinterest, on the other hand, is still new and actually has admitted that Pinterest wouldn't be possible without the content creators, that is, you and your blog.

And in my experience, it's easier to get traffic back to your blog from Pinterest than it is from social media platforms in general.

Why?

Because Pinterest has dual personalities. It's not just a social media platform it has evolved into a search engine. People are actually using Pinterest like they use Google. To help them find new ideas, inspiration and answer general queries they have.

This only benefits YOU as a blogger. Think about it, you start gaining authority on Pinterest because people like what you have to say and Pinterest will notice that and show your content to more people that are searching for similar results. And that's how you'll increase your blog traffic.

This Pinterest course that I took explains it perfectly, the author of the course says that Pinterest is a relatively new search engine, and so, it's easier to rank Pinterest than it is on Google. She also explains in great detail about why Pinterest is a search engine and how other social media platforms are not.

How to get started on Pinterest?

So, you either already have a Pinterest profile (if you've been searching for a way to grow your blog traffic) or you want to get started with it. These are the assumptions I'm making for this blog post.

You'll also benefit if you were like me (This was ME four months ago), you know Pinterest and what it is and that it can help you drive traffic to your blog but don't know how to actually get started. Like, you just need someone to hold your hand and guide you without judging your lack of knowledge on Pinterest.

Of course, here's what you absolutely need to know about how to get started on Pinterest:

• You'll need a Pinterest Profile [Da-Uh] (more on what kind, later)
• Remember how I told you that Pinterest is a virtual pinboard? So yeah, you're going to need to create "Boards" on Pinterest that will house "Pins".
• And you're going to use keywords that are relevant to your blog and make boards based on that. (More on that later.)
• Of course, you'll be using Pinterest.

Setting up your Pinterest Profile 

Optimise your Pinterest profile

You want to do this for each and every board you have, if you are just starting out, I recommend having 10-15 boards relevant to what you blog about. You should increase this number as you start getting comfortable with Pinning and Pinterest in general.

Also, don't forget to claim your website on Pinterest, and if your blogging platform allows for it, then add Rich Pins as well.

This concludes optimising your profile when you're just starting out.

How to start pinning and use Pinterest.

It's quite easy to start pinning. Once you've added some boards that are relevant to you, you want to add some pins in those boards as well, it's good to have at least 10 in each board you have.

When you start saving pins in your boards, it's called pinning.

Which now brings me to the question of how many pins should you be pinning, and when should you be pinning on Pinterest?

I think, realistically you should pin whenever you have time and consistently. Which is exactly why this question doesn't have a right or wrong answer.

I understand that you are probably not a full-time blogger, even if you are, you still have a life to live outside of what work you do. You can't be on Pinterest all day.

This is why I recommend you use it when you are working on your blog or when you have free time.

But, I do highly recommend that you do it consistently. You know, try to do it at the same time every single day.

I read in this course that pinning at the same time, or around the same time is better. But to be honest, I pin just about any time I feel like it, and I was able to increase my reach on Pinterest from 6.8k to 24.4k in a week which also meant more referral traffic to my blog.

So, as always try to find out what's working for you, what's giving you results.

Manual Pinning Versus Tailwind

If you've ever read about using Pinterest to grow your blog traffic, then you have probably come across two schools of thoughts:

• Manual pinning
• Pinning using a scheduler (Tailwind) 

What is Manual Pinning?

What is Pinning using a Scheduler (Tailwind)?

So how do you know whether Tailwind is good for you or not?

What strategy should I use for Pinterest?

The Pinterest Strategy I am using to drive traffic to my blog

The most important advice that will make sure your Pinterest Strategy works

When you first start blogging, it's easy to want to crave instant gratification. You want to be earning the next day, week, or month. You want to have a lot of readers just because you're already writing your tenth blog post, and it's frustrating, to be honest.

You seem to be doing EVERYTHING yet you don't see ANY results. The future looks a bit dull to you, and you wonder how everyone else but you is making money blogging. What is it that you're missing, you wonder.

And you probably head towards Google and start typing, "How do bloggers make money?" or, "How to make money blogging?".

And then you discover, the internet is filled with blogging advice. You're happy to see free information that could help you be the next six-figure blogger. But it's not all that rosy, is it?






I'm sorry to be saying this, as a blogger since 2014, I have to admit, the internet is FILLED with bad advice. And I like to categorise bad pieces of advice into two categories:

• The first one just being BAD ADVICE. Simple.
• The second one is tricky, it's actually not a piece of bad advice, it's just bad for you, given your circumstances and where you are in your blogging journey right now. And of course, you don't that at the moment. You will only find out about it being bad advice when you've spent a lot of time on it only to see little to no results.

What This Interview Series Is All About

1. Blog every day - No one cares how many times you publish until what you publish is quality content.  Today, blogging is 100% about quality and not quantity.
2. Avoid competitive niches - While on the face of it, it seems logical but I have always been drawn to niches which attract a lot of readers. I see it this way - a niche that attracts so many readers will have equal amounts of earning potential. It will take time to establish your blog, but the rewards could be high.
3. Don't write for Google, write for the reader - Very well said. You should DEFINITELY write for readers BUT you should never ignore search engine optimization. After all, only if your blog post ranks on the first few pages, will you get the benefit of organic results.
4. Bloggers are in competition with others - That's not true. Blogging is not a competition and other bloggers should never be seen as competition. There is enough and more for everyone in this space and networking helps every business. Blogging is no different! It is important to understand this from the beginning.
5. Do not share everything that works for you in the blog post - I beg to differ. It is important that you help the readers achieve their goal. It is only when you help them in a certain way, will they trust you enough to visit you and buy from you.

Know More About Chhavi Agarwal

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