How To Achieve A Successful Blogger Outreach

In October 2017 I quit my job, for many reasons, one being to pursue my blog and to monetise. I have been running Beauty Baking Bella for over 4 years and only this calendar year have I started earning money from my blog. With so many blogs now active on the internet, it can be a struggle to grow your brand and create awareness. Yes, your blog is your brand and like any business, if you decide you want to start earning from your blog, then you have to start running your blog as a business.

In this post I want to share my blogger outreach strategy and what process I have been following, which you as a blogger can use or even your business/brand. So lets get into it!!

BUY YOUR OWN DOMAIN & A PERSONALISED TEMPLATE

If you have a blog on Blogger, WordPress or any other platform, that’s great; but if you want brands or bloggers to really take you seriously as a ‘business’ it is important to look professional and have your own domain aswell.

I originally started my blog on Blogger in 2013 and decided to switch to WordPress in 2016 before buying my own domain. I have previously written a post about migrating from Blogger to WordPress here if you want to check it out. There are so many online services to help you purchase your own domain, it isn’t as scary as it sounds I promise. I bought mine from GoDaddy and pay yearly for my own domain.

GOOD QUALITY CONTENT & CLEANING UP YOUR POSTS AND SEO

Even if you haven’t had your blog for long, you will be surprised how your content improves the more regularly you blog and take photos. Take some time to go back over your old posts and revamp them, add new and improved photos, rewrite and update any content that is outdated or you feel isn’t as well written as you would like. By doing this you are creating more detailed and more desirable content that will not only attract readers to your blog/website, but will keep them there for longer.

If you have read posts like this before, you may have already seen others talking about SEO and Yoast. It all sounds so complicated and one more thing you have to concentrate on when you want to get new content out, but I have found that spending just 5 minutes to add tags and rewrite the SEO on your post helps get your post out there and attracts more readers to click on your links.

GOOD QUALITY IMAGES

Whether you are a blogger or a brand, using social media is key. I will talk about that in more detail below but before you can even think of posting your images across your socials, the question you have to ask yourself is “are my photos, clear, clean and eye catching?”

I am a visual person and so many readers out there are attracted visually to photos and images before they even think about reading the words. If you have spent a good amount of time writing a post you are proud of but your photos are dark and blurry, any one scrolling on Twitter or Instagram will just skip right past your image, therefore straight past your link to your blog post/website.

When attaching your photos to your blog post always remember to name your images with something relevant to your photo and also ALT text should also be relevant to your post if your image can’t be displayed properly.

Over the years, I have improved my images by using some great apps on my phone. Some of the photo editing apps I use are:

VSCO – great for a theme

ColourStory– also great for a theme, especially to brighten photos

Darkroom– allows you to control the colours in your photos i.e. decrease any yellow backgrounds on white images

Snapseed– to edit the brightness, contrast, exposure, sharpness and structure of a photo

If you are a brand and your key objective is to get your product or service out there, good quality images are a great way to get bloggers and buyers to take an interest. Working with bloggers to get your product out there is a great way to create that B2B connections. Using bloggers who will create some great visual images of your product will help to drive traffic to your website and generate brand awareness.

SOCIAL MEDIA – GET SOCIALISING/ READ OTHER BLOGS / BACKLINKS

Now that you have a clean, easy to read and eye-cathing blog/website, your next move is to get your brand out there on socials. Start with getting traffic to your blog. Use scheduling tools like Crowdfire to schedule your blogposts in the morning for the day so you don’t have to sit at your phone or computer all day. Use a variety of different posts from your blog and avoid using the same ones as this will help your readers find new material to read every time they check their feed.

As well as using Twitter, use other social sites. Create a Pinterest board just for your blog and make your blog photos pinnable for your readers. Upload a blog image to your Instagram feed and create a link to your blog posts in your bio. Create a business page on Facebook and invite friends and family to read your blog and support and share your content.

Other ways in which I have used social media to get my brand out there is to socialise. I reply to other bloggers or brands tweets, I take part in blogger chats, as well as retweet other bloggers or brands. I spend a little time each week, reading other blogs and commenting on their posts making sure to write genuine comments and not anything spammy. I find that I have made some great connections with other bloggers by doing this, purely from taking the time every so often, to read and comment on each others blog posts and it really does make you feel apart of such a wonderful community. By commenting on other blogs and leaving your blog URL, you are creating a backlink to your website and this is great to help improve your DA (domain authority).

START MAKING MONEY

Now that you have a steady flow of traffic and following to your website/blog and social accounts, now is the time to think about monetising.

I first started using Twitter to find sponsored/paid work by regularly checking the #bloggerswanted or #bloggerrequired hashtags and if I came across any opportunities that were relevant to my blog, I would reach out to the brands or PR either by leaving my details in the comment section of the tweet or emailing them directly. This is a great way to build that B2B relationships with brands and PR’s and from this I have built some great relationships with some great PR firms and brands that I have been lucky enough to work with a few times now.

Next I found affiliate programs to use on my blog like Amazon Affiliates, Shop Style Collective, as well as Brand Affiliates. There are so many out there for all brand niches, it is simply a quick Google search to find one that is best for your blog.

Register yourself and your blog to blogger and brand outreach websites, to find paid blogging jobs. This is a great way of making some regular money, where you can search through opportunities and write sponsored content on your blog to start earning some steady money.

THINGS TO REMEMBER

Everyone and every blog is different. Don’t compare yourself to other bloggers, don’t drive yourself crazy when it comes to numbers of followers and page views. The important things to remember are:

• Focus on your own blog – buy a domain and a great template – personalise your brand
• Create good quality content and images
• SEO and backlinks are key
• Socialise and connect with other bloggers
• Search for paid opportunities and don’t wait for them to come to you
• Get yourself out there and reach out to brands – the worst they can say is ‘no thank you’

If you keep working hard and keep sharing regular good-quality content, it will start to pay off. Patience is key.

I hope this post can help in some way or another when it comes to getting your brand out there. Don’t give up and keep doing what you love.

Pinar xo

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