You re here to change that. And this ebook will help you along the way.

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2 Welcome to 14 Days to A Better Blog! We all want a better blog. We know that there are things out there that will help us along the way but we re not really sure where to begin or what works best. You re here to change that. And this ebook will help you along the way. When I started blogging, I didn t have a lot of direction for what worked. Sure, I worked in social media and marketing, but I didn t swiftly apply that to blogging. Now that I blog full time, I ve made it my mission to help bloggers get discovered and make an impact online. I study what works and what doesn t, and this challenge will help you get there. So here s how it works: This challenge is designed for you to cover a task, just one task, every day for the next 14 days. Hey If you re like me, you want to see all of the tasks. Or, maybe you have some time on your hands and you d like to complete more than one challenge at a time. You can do whatever works for you. But I wanted this to be available in bitesized chunks so you don t feel overwhelmed. that s me! I m UMP Hele ED yo ne an u re d joinin g me. I m P Bottom line: I want you to take ACTION. To improve your blog in some way that makes a difference for you. Now, let s get started. P.S. use #14DayBetterBlog to share! Click to tweet! 2 of 32

3 Day 1: Find Your Focus You will never, ever, EVER hear me to tell you to pick a niche for your blog. WHY? I don t believe in it. What I do believe in, is passion. I believe that passion is what drives us to create a blog that matters. It drives us in every aspect of life. So, when experts say I must pick a niche and only blog about one subject, I want to scream! How can I blog for years to come (hopefully) and only blog about one thing? For me, I can t. Maybe this will work for you, and that s fine! But for me, I want to write about a variety of subjects and tastes and share my life. Instead of picking a niche, choose a focus. What topics do you like blogging about? Where do you see the most response when you blog about these subjects? If you re new to blogging, no problem! Write down things that you really love or you think people would find interesting. Let s be frank, no one is going to care that you did laundry on Sunday and watched a basketball game. Instead, focus on subjects that: 1. You are PASSIONATE about 2. People ask you for advice/questions/want to know more about these topics 3. You are an expert on Oh, don t try to tell me you aren t an expert! WE ALL ARE! We all have unique backgrounds, ways of writing, and ideas, and that translates to different areas of expertise and a different point of view. That point of view differs from anyone else s out there. That s why it s necessary to use your voice. 3 of 32

4 TAKE ACTION: Write down what areas you are passionate about, what questions you get, and/or what field you are an expert in? This will help you to find focus. Remember to think about why YOU read blogs. This will help you determine what topics you should write and focus on. Write down the areas that you are passionate about, are an expert in, or questions that you get: 4 of 32

5 DAY 2: What do you want from your blog? When I started blogging I just wanted a place to express myself. It can be as simple as that or as complicated as an emotional stress reliever that you monetize to pay for your margaritas. Whatever you do, do it with purpose. The same should be said of your blog. What do you want FROM your blog? Would you like to make money? Do you want to connect with other like-minded people online? Do you want to express your creativity? Do you want to teach someone something? Your wants and needs from your blog can be all of the above or something totally different. After all, we are all unique and therefore have a different take on what works when it comes to our blog. So today, I want you to think of your tagline for your blog. When someone says, to you, Oh you have a blog, what do you blog about? You will answer with THIS! Think of this as your elevator pitch or your tagline that quickly and easily gives an idea about what you re all about. This should stem from what you want out of your blog. Your Passion + Your Goal = Your Tagline TAKE ACTION: Now that you have your passion and expertise written down from day 1, write down your goals. What do you want out of your blog? This is TOTALLY okay if this changes. It s changed for me MANY times! But know that having a plan is the best way to take action. 5 of 32

6 From this, come up with a short, descriptive tagline for your blog that tells EVERYONE what your blog stands for. My Tagline? Helene in Between is a lifestyle blog that helps bloggers get discovered and make an impact online. What is your blog tagline? 6 of 32

7 DAY 3 Make it easy I cannot tell you this enough y all, we want to make it EASY and OBVIOUS for people to follow us! When we have followers: and I mean both social media and newsletter subscribers, these are the people that help us grow our blog, read our work, and participate in our community. They are essential. So, make it easy on them! Make social sharing buttons prominent on your site so people can follow you. We also want to make follow buttons easy to find as well. But let s take it a step further. Right now, what s the most important social sharing platform for your blog? It could be Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, your newsletter you name it. I want you to think about which social channel is the best. Now, I want you to put that social network or newsletter subscription box front and CENTER. Include it in your blog posts. Share it on OTHER social media networks. Make it easy and obvious for people to follow and find you and follow along. TAKE ACTION: Write down your most important social sharing platform (or newsletter) and make it RIDICULOUSLY easy for them to follow you on it. Add a Twitter Button Add a Facebook Like Box Add the Instagram widget (this is the BEST one. Actually takes you to Instagram, unlike some of the others out there!) 7 of 32

8 Day 4 It s all About ME Your about me page is one of the most clicked on pages of your blog after your blog s home page. Is it up to date? Does it have an image of you or what your re about? Does it simply list off what you re into or do you go in-depth about who you are and why you blog? An about page is the key to what makes new readers stick around. I know when I find a new blog I like, I go to the about page to get a better glimpse of this person. Think of it like this, you know when you re about to read a new book? You look at the inside cover and read those first few paragraphs to see what it s all about. It covers: 1. An overview of the story 2. It hooks you to read more That is PRECISELY what your about me page should be about. That is necessary for your blog! Your About page gives new viewers an idea of what they can come to find on your blog in a more in-depth way. The best part? You have total control over this. You get to write exactly what you want and say it in your own words. That s pretty freaking awesome. Here are some ideas of what your about me page can contain: 1. Why you started blogging - give a heartfelt or interesting story. I SWEAR people want to read this. We all started somewhere and I m always nosy to see how others did. 2. What are you passionate about? (Remember, this echoes back to day 1!) 8 of 32

9 3. What will you tell me about on your blog? Ahem, what will you focus on and WHY should I read what you have to say. Spell it out! 4. Tell me about your life. I want to know how we can connect. 5. TELL ME WHERE TO GO NEXT!! #5 is the most important and a key step most bloggers leave out. Tell me exactly where I should go next! This is a very important part of why someone will keep reading or simply peace out. Send them to an about me post, tell them to follow you on Twitter, give them an incentive for subscribing to your newsletter. Whatever it is, give them a call to action to go somewhere next. TAKE ACTION: Spiff up your About Me. Include your personality, your bio, what your blog is all about (go more in-depth on your tag line from Day 2), and include a call to action. Tell me WHERE to go next. Remember, we want to make this easy and obvious. Look at a few blogs you admire and glance at their about pages. Write down the aspects you love! Write down your favorite ABOUT ME s and WHY you like them! 9 of 32

10 DAY 5: Write a post you want to share When we write on our blogs, we should be ECSTATIC about it! We should want to share the post and encourage others to share. So write a post that you are passionate about and that you think others would be too. Think about the posts you love reading or sharing, now write with those posts in mind. Most of those posts are: - Helpful - Engaging - Make You Think - Solve a Problem - Informative Regardless of the subject of your post, these posts should engage the reader in one way or another. Your post that you create should include: 1. Informative Content 2. An Engaging Headline 3. A clear, branded image When you create these posts you should include exclusive content that your readers can gain something from or where they cannot find this content anywhere else. This should be something you re passionate about while helping your reader in some way. This can be mental, emotional, or helpful. If you have the last 4 days in mind, you will be gaining traction already! Writing an engaging headline can be VERY hard. But also incredibly important when you re crafting and sharing your posts on social media. 10 of 32

11 So after you re done writing your post, pull out the key takeaway: what will people get out of this. Here s an example. The other day I wrote a post about Pinterest. Specifically, I wrote about the social media service Tailwind to help me schedule my pins. But I didn t title it Using Tailwind to Schedule Pinterest NO WAY! I titled it: The ONE Pinterest Strategy that Changed the Game. Because I wanted people to get my strategy for using this tool. And that s why I titled it this way. Also, this is highly clickable! TAKE ACTION: Write a post on a subject you are knowledgeable and passionate about. Share in-depth content that you would want to share, even if you didn t write it. Create an engaging headline or title that makes people want to CLICK. Research, rewrite, reedit, before you publish :). Pull out the key takeaway from your post and use that as your title or headline. Now, get to writing! 11 of 32

12 DAY 6: Social Sharing You might be thinking that I m about to tell you to share your posts on social media and you know what?! You d be wrong. I m actually going to tell you this instead: share from OTHERS. The best way to establish online relationships, look like an authority, and create a community is to SHARE from it. I know that when people share what I write, I want to learn from them and I want to FOLLOW them! What can you share? 1. A blog post you loved 2. Retweet a tweet that had impact on you 3. A newsletter that you enjoyed 4. Facebook an article you liked 5. Regram an image you felt connected to You can share anything! Just make sure you do this authentically. I know you might be scared to do this, especially if it s a big blogger but remember this is a great way to connect in ways you might not have thought possible before. I try to share at least ONE blog post from someone else everyday. I do this because I want to support my fellow bloggers. I want to help grow their blogs and community. I want to know that their post had an impact on me. But I also want to do this to better connect with them and hopefully establish a connection with them for the future. 12 of 32

13 BONUS: It also gives you credibility in the blogging community when you share posts from others. It s a win-win. So push yourself out of your comfort zone and share, share, share! TAKE ACTION: Share from your peers. Share an article you loved. Tweet it. Facebook it. Instagram it. Whatever you want to do. Do it. And do this with authenticity. Please, oh please do not just tweet out a link. Tell us WHY it matters to you. Don t forget to tag the person or company you re sharing about so they know that this is coming from you! There are no rules on what kinds of posts that you should share. Just share a post that resonated with you, made you laugh, cry, stirred an emotion, or made you feel connected. A good place to start? Share the 14 Days to A Better Blog! Click here to tweet. Who did you share from?! Keep track of it here. 13 of 32

14 DAY 7: Share on Social, the right way Now that we ve covered sharing other bloggers, let s talk about sharing your stuff. You should absolutely, 100% promote your own posts in any way you can. I m going to tell you how to do that, and in a way that makes it easier. There s no reason you shouldn t be sharing on all social networks with tools like Buffer or Hootsuite that allow you to schedule the content to go live at anytime you like. I ALWAYS schedule my tweets, Facebook posts, and sometimes my Instagram posts. My favorite tool for Twitter and Facebook scheduling is Hootsuite. It s very very easy to use and gives you the ability to analyze how all of these posts are doing. As for Instagram, I use a service called Later (recently switched over from Latergramme) you can see how I use it right here. When you do share your posts, do not just share the link and call it a day. You need to create a short, clickable, engaging caption. Let me circle back to my post on Pinterest. My post was titled The One Pinterest Strategy That Changed the Game. Now, I did use this as one of my tweets. But I also Tweeted this: How I gained over 300 Pinterest Followers in Just 7 Days. Find out here>>> link to post That s clickable, right?! Before you share and skip on, think about what will make people want to CLICK to read what you have to say. Please! So, what places can you share your posts: 1. Facebook 2. Personal Facebook 14 of 32

15 3. Instagram 4. Pinterest 5. Twitter 6. Google Plus 7. Your Newsletter 8. Your Signature 9. Digg.com 10.Stumbleupon 11.In other posts 12.In comments on other s blogs 13.Snapchat TAKE ACTION: Brainstorm ideas for your social shares. Make them clickable and interesting. Think about this: if you didn t write this, would you click on this? Share and schedule your social shares using a tool like Hootsuite or Buffer so you have more time to spend on other things! Brainstorm Ideas for your social shares. Create CLICKABLE shares! 15 of 32

16 DAY 8: Clue in on Comments Commenting on other blogs is an incredible way to make lasting connections online. Creating your online community might be the single most important thing you can do for your blog. Commenting on other blogs is a totally free way to establish real connections. When you go to comment on blogs, do not just comment with a hey awesome post! You need to leave a comment that helps start a conversation or let s them know that you liked the post, your opinion, or that you felt connected. Here s an example of a great comment on a post of mine: You ll notice she included: 1. A thank you (not necessary but it was still nice to hear!) 2. That what I offered her helped her 3. She went further to ask me for a post topic. I LOVE this! She clearly reads this blog and wants to learn more 4. She left a link to her blog You guys, leave a link to your blog so others can find you! Please, please do this! We all want an easy way to find you. Don t be shy about leaving your link. As long as you re leaving an authentic comment, you don t need to worry about this at all! 16 of 32

17 TAKE ACTION: Comment a few blogs you like to read. To find some new blogs, see who s commenting on their posts and click on these women to read their blog. The great thing about this? You know they are commenters too since they are commenting on this post! You have a pretty good chance that at some point they ll return the favor for you! Remember to leave an authentic comment (generally, a longer comment is best because it shows you care) and leave a link to your blog. Start here, leave a comment on this post! I will be checking out your post and you can find new bloggers to connect and comment on. BONUS: Don t have many comments on your blog? No problem! Spend minutes commenting on other blogs and leave genuine comments. The more comments, the better, and the more likely these people will comment on YOUR blog. In no time you ll have people commenting on your blog. 17 of 32

18 DAY 9: Be Blog Friendly Today is a fun one, we re giving your blog a quick checkup. Today, I want you to go through all the links on your blog and make sure they work. Technology isn t always our friend. Sometimes it gets screwy and links get broken. So, check all of your social media links. Check all of the links on your navigation bar (such as your about me page, popular posts page, contact page, etc.) Make sure your opt ins work if you have a newsletter. Take a minute to comment on your own blog and make sure it goes through. Make sure your domain name is renewed (seriously this could screw you over!) by going to your hosting company and making sure you re up to date. Take a look at your blog on a mobile device and make sure it s mobile friendly. Check it on a tablet too if you have access to one. Make sure the advertisements on your blog (if you have those, such as Google adsense) are up to date. TAKE ACTION: Get to clicking! Click through your links and make sure everything works properly. I do this regularly to ensure everything works correctly. It might seem like it s pointless to click around but spend some time doing this and you might just find something broken. The fastest way to look like a newbie online is with broken links. So fix this now! 18 of 32

19 DAY 10: Someone Think of a blogger - does not matter the size at all, and reach out to them. Let them know that you connected with their post. Tell them you appreciate their work. If you haven t noticed yet, it s incredibly important to build a community around your blog. So give someone your personal attention and let them know that you care. Not only does this help you establish a connection, they will most likely remember you. I know for me, when someone s me I make sure I am following them on Twitter. I then put their note in my saved folder of personal notes and sometimes I even use what they say on the blog. This is free promotion for them! Because I appreciate so much what they have to say they become the poster blogger for a solution that I offered that helped them or impacted them. Most of the bloggers that I work with today, I started working with them because they reached out personally to me, or I reached out personally to them. My very good friend, Taylor of The Daily Tay and I became fast friends after one of us finally reached out. Confession: for the longest time I was scared to reach out to her! Now, I m invited to her wedding! TAKE ACTION: Today s task is very simple but it can feel daunting. Believe me, I get it. But I promise, reaching out and establishing a connection like this will work wonders for your blog. A great place to find people to reach out to is via the comments on your own blog, reach out to a blogger you admire, or look on social media for someone that you really connect with. Simply them that you appreciate what they do. Be specific about what or how you connected with them, so they know that what you say is meaningful. 19 of 32

20 Day 11: Feature your Favorites Writing a post can often feel daunting. But today s task is fun, I promise! When you are crafting a killer post I want you to think of other bloggers or entrepreneurs or influencers in general that you can include in your post. Doing this is a great way to include other bloggers, gives you authority by featuring bloggers that are doing great things (also they may SHARE you posts!) Here s an example of a post I wrote where I focus on featuring other bloggers. Every single person that was mentioned retweeted or featured this post on social media. Do you know what this did for my page views!? This is an incredible way to grow your blog organically. When you link to other bloggers you are able to grow a relationship with them (they appreciate you for featuring their posts!) and your ideas spread across the blogosphere more quickly. You re giving your readers value because you are presenting your ideas in more than one perspective by featuring others. You re establishing credibility and you are building a relationship. BONUS: it also helps your SEO! TAKE ACTION: Write a post where you feature other bloggers. This can be a post about ANYTHING. Start researching and brainstorming who it makes sense to feature in your post. This can be as simple as a Friday Favorites and you link to these other blogs or you can write about a resource post. And you list off different resources and link to various bloggers. You can mention other bloggers related to your post topic or give further examples that would help illustrate your point of view. 20 of 32

21 Here s how to start this: start saving links! If you really like a post or think you might want to save it for later, save the link. I have a folder in my gmail inbox and I save all my favorite links there. I also use Evernote to put together all my ideas and links so that I can look at it later. Don t forget to REACH OUT to those that you featured. Tweet them, Facebook, Instagram, or them directly! What posts do you love? Add them here so you can link to them later. 21 of 32

22 Day 12: Beat Bloggers Block Let s face it: we all get bloggers block. It can be so frustrating to be stuck. Coming up with fresh content on a regular basis is TOUGH! So it s a good idea to have stock blog post ideas on the back burner for whenever you are out of content ideas. First and foremost, always have a space where you can write or type an idea. I am one of those people that will just be walking around and think of a post topic. I have a note section in my phone called brilliant blog topics and I put them all there. To really get your creativity going, take a look at: 1. Your own blog 2. Pinterest 3. Blogs you admire Looking at all of these will help you cook up some great ideas. Don t just look at your blog posts, look at the COMMENTS. What are people asking or commenting on? This can help you think of more blog posts. Don t just look at Pinterest, search it! Take a look at the popular page on Pinterest to see what s trending. (I also love looking at Google Trends). Now, go to some blogs you admire and look around. Why do you admire them? What s you favorite thing about those blogs? You can always take previous posts and answer a question that was asked or go into more depth or a side topic. Write an opinion post on what s trending. TAKE ACTION: Come up with 15 blog post topics and keep them in a safe place. Take it a step further and start drafting each post. It s always nice to have a new 22 of 32

23 post ready for a rainy day. Think of a post topic, now brainstorm ways you can expand on this. For example: How it stimulates mood Best Places to order Improves memory Benefits of Coffee Live Your Coffee 10 ways to make Coffee What coffee brain does to your Negative Side Effects Brew at home Now it s time to come up with 15 blog post ideas. Use an App like Mindly to help capture ideas and brainstorm topics. Or, go old school and write down the topics on a piece of paper. Whatever works for you. Think of different topics on different subjects or posts that are already popular that you ve written and extend them. 23 of 32

24 Don t forget to go outside and refresh your brain to give it a boost. Start creating actual posts from what you ve written down and look to these whenever you get stuck. Brainstorm Your Content Ideas Here: 24 of 32

25 Day 13: Update TIME! We ve already talked about updating your about me page- but don t forget about the other pages on your blog. Update your different pages to reflect what your blog is all about. Spend a few minutes thinking about other pages that need a refresh or update. I recently added a New? Start Here! page and this is a page that I like to update often. It s a place for newbies on my blog to start to get an idea of what I m all about. Things that might need some updating: - Blog s sidebar - Popular Posts page - Header or logo - Calls to action - Footer of your blog - Navigation Bar - Any page on your blog that is within your nav bar Make sure each of these pages are filled out and created to their fullest potential. Spend just minutes and update these. We all need to update from time to time. TAKE ACTION: When you go to your blog s home page is everything laid out and easy to get to? Is your sidebar easy to read and navigate? Do you need to get rid of some distracting or out of date images or ads? Fill out pages that have not been updated in a while. Make sure to add a call to action to these pages! Make sure that each page is serving a purpose on your blog. Check broken links and remove content that no longer fits. 25 of 32

26 Day 14: Measure your Success We can t REALLY gauge how our blog is improving if we don t measure it! Looking at your stats can often feel overwhelming. So I want you to focus on a few key areas: 1. views 2. Unique Views (I ll explain the difference between 1 and 2 shortly!) 3. Comments/Interaction 4. Popular posts 5. Referral Stats These 5 key stats are a great way to build your blog and a good way to look at what s trending. views means the actual number of times someone is viewing your blog. So I could click on your post and then your about me section and then sponsor page and that counts as 3 page views. Unique views is the number of times one individual views your blog. So if I did all of the above, that would just account for one view. Make sense? Most stats look at pageviews, Google Analytics shows you both page views and unique views. (Here s a Google Analytics tutorial if you need further help.) We want to see when our views go up. Which posts are influencing this number? Take a look at your popular posts. These are you key ingredients for a great blog and will help you understand what your audience likes reading. It gives you an idea of other post topics you should continue to write about AND it will help you optimize these pages. We also want to see which posts gain more interaction. More comments = more interest. So take a look at the posts that have more comments 26 of 32

27 and interaction. I keep a list of my popular posts and look to those to see what s working on my blog. If you have a post that s popular, make sure it works really well. Meaning, make sure you have some links to follow you on social media or on your newsletter! I had a post that was doing fantastic on Pinterest, so, I added an incentive to subscribe to me on my newsletter. Take a look at how that looks here. Don t be afraid to update these posts - you won t hurt anything! Referral stats are those when other blogs or websites mention you online. To find these in Google Analytics go to your Google Analytics dashboard >> Click on Acquisition >> All Traffic >> Referrals // Alternatively, go to Acquisition >> All Traffic >> Social >> Trackbacks to see the direct URL of links where you are mentioned. This will give you an idea of who out there is mentioning you. Don t forget to go comment on the blogs that mention you and THANK THEM! TAKE ACTION: Start tracking your results and metrics. Create a spreadsheet, a google doc, or dive into Google Analytics to really see your results. On the next page, I ve given you a full page to track and measure your statistics. Fill this out to get an idea of where you stand. >> 27 of 32

28 Measure Your Results METRIC: views DATE: NUMBER: Unique Views Comments Popular posts Referral Stats 28 of 32

29 BONUS DAY! (I always gotta give you more :)) Collaboration is the KEY! If you haven t noticed that there s a theme throughout this ebook and that is: community is key. If you haven t created a community for your blog, it s hard to continue growing. Community and collaboration are the secret ingredient to creating a blog that lasts. Here s why: - You feature each other (and in turn you each get more exposure) - You bounce ideas off one another and find what works and what doesn t - You re increasing your impact and credibility online Reaching out and creating a community for your blog can feel scary. Believe me, I know! But if you can get out of your comfort zone and get together you will find more authority online. It will become easier when you continue to reach out and develop relationships. Here s an example of an that someone sent me that was AWESOME: 29 of 32

30 The above is the PERFECT example of how to reach out someone, make them care, and want to work with you. TAKE ACTION: Start forming your tribe. Comment on blogs regularly that you love. Reach out to these individuals via . But let s take it a step further, this is the BIG step. Think of ways you can work together. AKA, how can you collaborate together? Here are some collaboration ideas: 1. Guest Post 2. Write a post together 3. Host a Pinterest Party 4. Answer Questions/Interview Style (I do this with my sponsors from time to time) 5. Review a product or review something a blogger offers 6. Instagram Challenge (see #MyHolidaySpark) 7. Recommendations - refer your readers to something new 8. Webinar (host one together!) 9. Podcast 10. Create a Facebook group community 11. Host a giveaway together 12. Do a Periscope with each other 30 of 32

31 13. Snapchat stories - you could specify a time that the two of you will be on Snapchat, answering questions and talking to one another 14. Link up - host a link-up together on a specific topic 15. YouTube exchange or review 16. Newsletter - talk about each other in your newsletter 17. Affiliates - become an affiliate of a product or service 18. Twitter Chats There are so so many ways you can collaborate. Start brainstorming ideas. I always keep a brainstorm note pad or note on my phone so that I can write down these ideas. You DO NOT need to be in the same blogging category for this to work. You can do something like a graphic designer + a style blogger create a post where they style each other or style their blogs. It s a way to showcase each other in different lights. Spend some time and start thinking of SPECIFIC ways you want to collaborate. Reach out with your ideas and watch your blog grow. WHOO HOO! Write down some collaboration ideas and who you want to collaborate with! 31 of 32

32 You did it. You are awesome and so dedicated. I m proud of you. Thank you so much for reading this ebook on creating a better blog in 14 days. I hope you learned something new and applied these techniques. If you enjoyed it, I d love for you to tweet using #14DaysBetterBlog. CLICK TO TWEET! Blogging can often feel intimidating and scary. But I want you to know, you are not alone in this! People (I m one of them!) want to see you succeed and thrive as a blogger. So, go out there and try your best, I promise, it will be worth it. Just like anything you put your mind to. Feel free to reach out to me anytime. I m over at helene@heleneinbetween.com and I LOVE working and speaking with bloggers. Thanks for joining #14DaysBetterBlog! 32 of 32