Guest Post: Kelly the Kitchen Cop on Blogging Advice

Our friend Kelly is one of the coolest people I know. I love her KitchenKop site and her Christianity101 site, both of which are in my blogroll if you want to check them out. Kelly has been keeping people informed about REAL FOOD and healthy dietary choices for years with her blog, her public speaking engagements, seminars, and interviews. As a new blogger, she has really taken me under her wing and I am so very grateful. I love participating in her “Real Food Wednesday” carnivals and keeping up with all of the latest on her site. I am honored that she agreed to help me out, today. Enjoy! — Hallee

When Hallee asked me to do a guest post for her so she & Gregg could get away for some alone time, I was happy to help. Since her blog covers a wider range of topics than my health & nutrition blog does, I thought I’d do something a little different than normal and share blogging advice with you from many of the amazing bloggers in my niche. The tips below are from seasoned bloggers for newer bloggers, for all those crazy people out there who have jumped into the fray and decided to take on this wild adventure!

I ASKED TWO QUESTIONS:

1. If you were asked to give a new blogger your best tip for getting a lot of traffic, what would it be?

Kimberly Hartke @ Hartke is Online: My best tip for generating lots of traffic is to write on a timely subject and promote the URL to your post on message boards, list servs, through social media, and to your email list. One of the top viewed recipe posts last year on my blog was for roasted tomato soup, and it was posted at the height of tomato harvesting season.
Jenny @ Nourished Kitchen: Keep your eyes open and hit trends right before their peak, not after everyone else is talking about it.
Shannon @ Nourishing Days: Move around a lot… comment on other blogs, participate in various carnivals, and generally get the word out. But the truth is that people won’t come back unless you have useful content, you are consistent, and they can see that you are writing about what you love. Be patient, it takes time to build readership. Don’t compare yourself to bigger blogs, it can only produce discontent.
Ren @ Edible Aria: Quality trumps quantity. Do try to maintain a fairly predictable posting interval, whether it be once a day or twice a week, but don’t be afraid to skip posting if you’ve nothing especially new or interesting to share that day. Get involved with the blogging community. Hang out with bloggers that you admire, exchange info & leave comments often. Participate in blog “carnivals”. Be generous and have fun!
Ann Marie @ Cheeseslave: Use social media tools including Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and StumbleUpon. Also, comment on other blogs and participate in carnivals. Blogging is all about making friends and community-building. It’s NOT about promoting yourself though. This is the biggest mistake I see people make with social media. Don’t use Twitter and Facebook just to talk about yourself. Use the tools to be there for others. Retweet and stumble their posts, get to know people on Facebook, comment on people’s blogs and their photos on Flickr. When you do this, it shows them that you are interested in them and that you support them. In turn, they will want to support you.
Dan @ Psychic Lunch: Write from the heart and include personal experience when possible! Make sure to keep in touch with your community; the friends you acquire on Twitter, via blogging, Facebook, and so forth. These people are your inspiration as well as your network, and new people can find you through the network. Do your research. If you’re posting what could possibly be construed as simply your opinion, try to have facts to prove your point ahead of time. This will also let you provide people with links to further information about whatever they’re studying/reading/interested in, so you’ll be construed as a useful research stop in the future. I would also expect that the giveaways probably churn out a good bit of traffic, but I haven’t actually gotten into one of those, myself.
Alex from FeedMeLikeYouMeanIt: Form alliances with people writing similar blogs. Have business cards printed with your URL on them, and give out the cards freely. Post your posts on aggregator sites like reddit and digg. Use twitter.
Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship: Enter carnivals and make your own posts “sticky” i.e. lots to click on as far as internal links. Offer chances to get lost in your pages and to become a subscriber often.
Jo-Lynne @ Musings of a Housewife: The best tip for growing traffic is to be an active and positive part of the community. Respond to comments. Get out there and comment on blogs. Join Twitter and follow people in your niche and converse with them. Be interesting, and have something valuable to offer.
Wardeh @ GNOWFGLINS: Participate in other blogs via comments and carnivals. Leave remarks that are thoughtful, helpful, and that demonstrate you’ve paid attention to the details.
Carrie @ OrganicThrifty: Participate in as many relevant round-ups and carnivals as possible. Use twitter with #words that are #popular and people will find you!

2. What’s your best tip for not getting burned out as a blogger?

Donielle @ Naturally Knocked Up: Take a 24 hour computer break each week, take a week off from blogging every few months, stop looking at your blog stats a million times a day! (It causes too much pressure to blog more.)
Jenny @ Nourished Kitchen: Limit your hours and schedule when you work: when you tweet, when you post, when you check email, when you comment on other blogs, and stick to it.
Shannon @ Nourishing Days: I’ve struggled with burn out because I go in waves of putting a lot of time into it and then not so much. The only thing I have found is that you have to try not to care too much. Most of us have other responsibilities that are much more important – children, husbands, homes, other jobs, etc. It is so easy to get jealous, anxious, and overzealous when we see other blogs or bloggers. The truth is someone is always going to be better or have more time to provide more for their readers. I’ve learned to put blogging lower on the priority list and that has produced better content and a happier blogger.
Ren @ Edible Aria: I avoid burnout (so far, anyway) by taking a break from posting whenever I feel the need. Walk away for days if you need to, then come back with renewed passion.
Ann Marie @ Cheeseslave: You don’t have to blog every day. If you try to blog too much, you will burn out. It’s more important to learn the social media tools and visit other blogs than it is to try to get a post up every day. Even if you just do one post a week, that’s fine. Remember, you are building a community online. Take time to be there for others.
Dan @ Psychic Lunch: Don’t be afraid to take a week off, but try not to let it slip beyond that. Again, the keeping in touch with your community needs repeating; they’re your inspiration. They give you hope when you need it, and charge you with excitement about your posting.
Alex from FeedMeLikeYouMeanIt: Make your posts shorter. Set time limits for blogging. Don’t get discouraged too soon. Make posts that you can forward to people you know when they ask you how you’re doing and what you’re up to–this will save you time emailing!
Jo-Lynne @ Musings of a Housewife: The best tip for not getting burned out is to set limits AND THEN STICK TO THEM.
Wardeh @ GNOWFGLINS: Take a break when you need it. If you’re out of ideas, turn to asking for reader input – to answer a question or seek encouragement. Readers love to help! Their advice and compassion can give a big boost.
Carrie @ OrganicThrifty: Keeping it REAL. As soon as our blog ceases to be about who we really are, it’s not longer a joy to do. When we blog for anything other than purely sharing our passion, we can get burned out!