Blogging Tips – Page 7 – Love Style Mindfulness

Sinead 25th February 2016 Blogging Tips

5 Steps To A Killer Blog Title

I’m gonna go ahead and say it, I think that you’re blog title is possibly, no definitely the most important part of your post. Now I only really realised this a couple of months ago and boy have I seen the benefits. My friends, you need to cross on over to the bright side and ride the gravy train of a good blog title and you’ll soon see what I mean. When I first started blogging I stopped my mindfulness posts sharpish because no body was clicking on them, they just did not care. So I presumed all that people were interested in was my style and resigned myself to a life of OOTD posts. Recently, I’ve actually discovered that now my mindfulness and positivity posts are the ones with the best responses. Yes I have bloomed and now have a following but these ones are bringing in new readers and guess what? They’re staying! So, I’m not just here to brag about how amazing I am at writing blog titles and how you should really go figure that one out for yourself, of course, as always (I hope) I’m here to share the wealth. Things To Consider When Choosing Your Blog Title Grab The Readers Attention This is THE most important thing when you’re writing the blog title, and it’s so obvious, so I know you’re probably thinking duh. But I used to use words that sounded intriguing and related in some way to the post like texture and black, let me tell you now, unless you’ve got an almighty following your not going to get many people click on that! If I saw a post names texture there’s no way I’m clicking on it, I don’t care who you are or whether I follow you already or not. It just does nothing for me. Now I always take time to consider which title would draw the reader in and make them want to see the full story. I also like to add numbers in the title wherever possible, I just think 5 top SEO tips is more eye catching than SEO tips, add in the words ridiculously easy and you’ve got yourself something people are going to want to click on! Use Google Trends Google Trends is something I’m still getting to grips with myself. You can basically search what your key word should be, which by the way should always be in your blog title. So when you open it, there’ll be some info on what’s currently trending and the most talked about topics, you can then search your title or keyword to see if it’s something people are searching and whether it’s worth re thinking. If In Doubt Google Autocomplete I used this one before on my 5 Ridiculously Easy SEO Tips post, but I thought I’d throw it in again because, 1 – it’s relevant, and 2 – why not? Google Autocomplete is a bit like Google Trends but more for when you don’t have a clue on what to use as your title or…

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18th February 2016

Blogging Tips

Blogging Tips // Things I Wish Someone Told Me

So I’ve done a post on how to get started as a blogger, easy SEO tips and bounce rates, so the next in my series of blogging tips I thought I would share the things that I wish someone had shared with me! I feel like theres the generic tips that everyone shares and then there’s the tips that they keep back for themselves! If you have any more questions you want answered I am happy to answer on instagram or twitter or even if you wanted I could do a Q&A on my new Youtube Channel? Let me know! Blogging Tips Photography is Key I feel like people always say ‘photography doesn’t matter’ and it’s right to some extent. You don’t need a fancy camera, it’s much better to take beautiful images on your iPhone than it is to have all the gear and no idea coming out with something that looks like it went off in your handbag. Your photography is generally what will attract someone to your post, unless of course you have a super duper catchy title (which is also important!). Not only this, but I myself have recently discovered the power of a repost on social media. If you take a beautiful picture, the brand featured or an inspiration page is going to want to repost it, they’re also going to sit up and take notice of you, as are their 1.5 million followers. . . do you see where I’m going with this? One of my top blogging tips would be to always take photos bearing in mind your instagram and make sure you tag the brands whilst simultaneously crossing your fingers for a re post! Get Google Analytics & Use it I got google analytics a good 6 months after I started blogging and it took me until recently to actually use it. I’ve now got the app on my phone which is amazing for motivating you to share your posts on social media. It shows real time figures and when you can see the views going up in response to your networking it spurs you on to keep doing it! It’s also a great way of learning more about your audience, the time’s and days that your blog is the most popular and the posts that fetch the most views. It’s also the most accurate for stats and the one that all brands ask for. Be Useful When using my Google Analytics (another reason why you need this!!!) I noticed that my posts that were helpful in some way shape or form were doing the best stats wise. I was shocked to see that my outfit posts weren’t doing all that great in comparison, however, I’ve now taken this on board and I make sure that every post has something interesting that the reader can take away. Whether it’s a tip, my opinion, a review, just something that isn’t just “hey look how good I look, I know” or “I got sent…

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11th February 2016

Blogging Tips

How to Lower Your Bounce Rate in 5 Simple Steps

I’ve decided to make these blogging tips posts a more regular thing, I’m thinking weekly, as you guys seemed to love my 5 ridiculously easy SEO tips! This week I’m hoping to help you out with some of my tips on how to lower your bounce rate. If you’re wondering what a bounce rate is, have no fear, I’m here to help! What’s a Bounce Rate? First things first, a bounce rate tells you about the behaviour of people who go on your website. If you go on to your Google Analytics, if you don’t have Google Analytics then stop what you’re doing and go and get it now (slash keep reading this post and then do it). So a bounce rate tells you if people stay on your blog/website after they’ve seen the initial page they clicked on, or if they leave straight away. The lower the bounce rate, the better, because don’t we all want people to stay and read more and possibly become a loyal reader? As someone with a bounce rate of just 3.75% I felt inclined to share some of my tips. I never really aimed to lower my bounce rate with these measures, just to tempt people to follow my blog and stay engaged. Lowering Your Bounce Rate Link To Previous Content This one I’ve said before, people are reading a post about lowering their bounce rate? Well then they might be interested in my 5 ridiculously easy SEO tips or my Blogging Tips post. You see what I did there? Linking relevant topic helps hugely, you’ve already got a reader and you know they’re interested in a certain topic so make the most of it! Show them other posts they might want to read and they’re going to hang around for longer! Make Your Homepage Engaging This is something I did to try and get people to follow me on Bloglovin’ but I feel like it’s had a big part to play in lowering my bounce rate too. I spent some time thinking about my homepage as if I were a reader and trying to make it clean and easy to navigate. You can get plugin’s for example that show the most popular posts or recently published posts down the side, it’s another great way of catching the readers eye and maintaining their interest! Get Rid of Unnecessary Banners and Distractions For me, I did this for my OCD but honestly, why would you have banners if you don’t have to and they aren’t beneficial to you? When I first discovered affiliates and banners I went a bit banner crazy, I had links left right and centre for every blogger group I was in and for every website I thought I could make 2p off a sale from. When people are clicking on a banner or a ‘sticker’ they are leaving your site. I got rid of all of them except for my Next Blogger Network award sticker which of course takes pride of place!…

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4th February 2016

Blogging Tips

5 Ridiculously Easy SEO Tips

Welcome to my ridiculously easy SEO tips, so easy I thought perhaps everyone else already knows them? But it took me almost a year to figure these out and learn them, so I thought I would pass on the love to you guys! You can thank me later! Google Autocomplete This one I learnt from Fashion Influx recent post on SEO. Honestly I had never even contemplated that simply searching something on google could help, hence the blog title ridiculously easy SEO tips! So here’s the deal, you want to blog about a certain topic but aren’t sure what to call it or what your key word/s should be. Simply google the topic or the word that’s the most important and it should come up with suggestions of what other people have searched and what the most searched topics are relating to it. Basically telling you what people want and will look for, and essentially guaranteeing a searchable title/keyword. Make Use of Backlinks This is something I always knew was good but purely for people finding your blog through other sites. Turns out, there’s other benefits from getting good quality backlinks – I’m pretty sure leaving comments on other people blogs don’t count here but not 100%. So basically, as well as helping to get you ‘out there’ good quality back links tell Google that you’re an ‘authority’ in your field and essentially makes them more likely to bring you up in more general searches like ‘fashion blogger’ and ‘stylist’. Check Your Website Speed For my third ridiculously easy SEO tip, I’m going to tell you something that I myself should have already done . . talk about not taking your own advice! Google hates slow websites, or so I’ve heard. You can test your web speed here, and it should give you tips on what you can do to speed it up! Write More – I Said They Were Easy SEO Tips Your posts should ideally have at least 300 words, obviously I know not all blog posts do, mine don’t, but it really helps for SEO. Obviously don’t write 300 words of drivel, make sure it’s interesting and engaging, but seriously content is key. Write as much as you can whilst keeping it interesting! Link Back to Your Own Content I find it hard to do this and have to constantly remind myself but honestly one of the most easy SEO tips (whilst also being self serving) is to link back to your own content. So for example, this post is giving some helpful blogging tips so I could link back to this post about getting started with your blog or this post about how to build your instagram following and hopefully if you find this interesting you’ll want to read them! This doesn’t necessarily help with Google but it helps to lower your bounce rate which does help with google. There you have it my 5 ridiculously easy SEO tips, what did you think? Let me know if you find them helpful…

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18th November 2015

Blogging Tips

How to create the perfect flatlay

I’m definitely more of a flat lay kinda gal than a selfie taker when it comes to instagram. Obviously as a stylist I have a huge advantage when it comes to creating flatlays. A general understanding of negative space, colour and how things look on camera really helps when getting the perfect shot. I actually created these flatlays for a Bali Body competition #bbgetslayed, the task is to create an image using Bali Body. As it’s something I personally associate with holidays I thought I would base the shoot around my other favourite item, my new Triangl Bikini. This ones the Brigitte style in Moondance – definitely my favourite so far! Like the selfie, behind every flatlay is probably about 50 photographs! You have to get the right angle, make sure everything’s in and even just moving a nail varnish 1cm to the left can make a huge difference – ok, so I’m a perfectionist! This is one of the first images I took, and actually I love the simplicity of it. It’s also great because it tells a story, ‘off to the beach’ obviously I wasn’t off to the beach, I was in my pyjamas on a rainy tuesday afternoon but you get the idea! Here’s some of my top tips for creating the perfect flatlay: Background Make sure you use a fairly plain background that will make you’re objects pop. it’s great to use something that can add texture if you’re theme will allow it! I have a sheepskin rug that I love to use but it just wouldn’t look right with a bikini and tanning oil! Tell a story Use objects that help to tell a story, I’ve used a book tanning oil and a bikini for the above photo. The below photo is more of a colour theme which also works really nicely, I thought I would put in a few of the other shot’s I took with this set up to show how many times I changed the arrangement to get the one I liked the most! Angle Make sure you use the birds eye angle for the perfect flatlay. I do like to use unusual angles for close ups on details but I think that the birds eye view works best for a shot with a lot of different items and helps to give a good perspective. Use the negative space I always think of the empty space around the items as being as much a part of your image as the items themselves. Empty space is good, use it to your advantage! In this case less is definitely more! Use proportion This was a new one for me though I guess I had been using it without realising for a while, using proportion. Using a few different items of different shapes and sizes creates a really nice effect and shows the actual size of things. Remember the crop If you’re taking the photograph for instagram then make sure you remember how the image will…

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