A few weeks ago, WeBlogNorth were invited to speak at Altrincham Word Festival. We shared all our tips on blogging with their community of writers.
Whether attendees wanted to share their work online, connect with other creatives or grow their portfolio to attract freelance clients and other work, the talk centred around the power that blogging and creating content gives them to do that!
For those of you who missed out, I wanted to share a few key takeaways from the tips Pamela and I shared...
We get it. We’ve been there. We all had to start somewhere. But the point is we started, and we kept going...
You get out what you put in
Time and time again we reiterate this, but it can’t be stressed enough.
If you want to build a community, you have to be a participating member of that community. Find similar communities and engage in them, get involved in conversations, support other creatives. Be the supportive and engaged member that you’d want in your own online space.
The more you can put into these efforts, the more rewards you’ll reap in lifelong followers and friends across the globe.
Test, test, test
I’m a victim of overthinking as well. So many of the questions we’re asked can only be answered with well…how long is a piece of string?!
- “How often shall I post per week?”
- “How many times a day do you need to Tweet?”
- “What time shall I post on Instagram to get the most engagement?”
Nobody can give you a concrete answer to these questions. WeBlogNorth, Google Analytics and other resources online can advise you on tools and analytics to help figure these things out, but it will reach a point where you have to just test.
Post on Instagram first thing one day.
Post just before you go to bed the following day.
Do this a few times, dotted around the week, and observe.
- Are there any particular days you get more engagement?
- What time seems to be the busiest for initial likes?
All these questions can be answered if you test and observe.
Think of yourself as a nutty professor of content creation. You can even jot down your findings in a notebook if you think they’re helpful to refer back to.
Be brave and have a go
Okay, this is a biggie. If you’re new to creating content online, I have some solid advice...
Be brave in the face of fear and just have a go.
So many incredible creatives get caught up in the fear of failure and rejection.
- What if I’m crap?
- What if nobody follows me?
- What if I never grow my followers and community?
- What if I get negative comments?
- What if my friends and family think I’m a weirdo for snapping pictures everywhere we go?
- What if, what if, what if...
The only way to improve as a content creator and gain confidence in your ability is to be brave in the face of fear.
We get it. We’ve been there. We all had to start somewhere. But the point is we started, and we kept going. You can do too!
Think that’s enough cheese for one blog post. Hope this was helpful for you guys.
If you wanna stay updated on any and all the events we have coming up like this one, be sure to follow us on all our social media platforms - Instagram, Facebook and Twitter being the main ones.
Members - keep an eye on the newsletter and private Facebook group, as everything like this gets posted in there.
Not a member yet? Find out more about joining our incredible community of Northern Content Creators today.
Thanks to Altrincham Word Festival for having us, and for providing the great images for this post!
