Last week I had the opportunity to go hear Kimberly Gauthier speak about blogging and her blog Keep the tail Wagging, at Google in Seattle. If you follow me on Twitter you might have seen this tweet,
Not sure what I’m more excited about: going to @google or hearing @TheFurMom speak for #wpseattle
— Kristie Hill (@blogambitions) February 5, 2015
I guess the movie The Internship gave me high expectations. There wasn’t a slide (I didn’t go in all the building though, so maybe?) or free food everywhere (which was a bummer, because I didn’t eat dinner before I went).
Kimberly’s presentation was wonderful though. She could be my blogging soul mate. Everything she said was spot on. I’m pretty sure that Jenn (my blogging friend I got to hang out with in the back row at another blogging seminar) was annoyed of my “mmmhmm’s” “yeps” and head nods.
Top 3 blogging lessons learned from Blogger, Kimberly Gauthier
Narrow in your niche
Kimberly talked about how important it is to narrow in on your niche. Her blog is now focused on primarily 3 topics: raw feeding, dog supplements, and raising littermates. Shortly after she decided to focus on these 3 things, Kimberly noticed her traffic skyrocketed and the monetization on her site boosted!
She did say that some lifestyle bloggers can get away with writing about everything under the moon, but only because they are very entertaining.
My blogging friend Margo wrote a post last week about why blogging about everything is limiting you. You should go read it. She also gives tips on how to find your niche.
Put yourself into your blog
Even though Kimberly has a very defined niche, she doesn’t let that stop her from being herself on her blog. She always includes personal stories and many of her blog posts are just about her dogs. She still blogs about her life, just focused in on a topic.
She also suggests letting people know who you are at the bottom of your posts. She does this with a signature, but you could also use an author box. I love it when blogs have author boxes. When I find an interesting article on social media and it is usually my first time visiting that blog, I always want to know more about the author. Having an author box makes it easy for new readers to connect with you after they’ve read your post.
My author box has a short bio with a link to my about page, as well as ways to connect with me socially.
Have a home page
I’m so glad she mentioned this one! If you haven’t noticed in some of my latest posts (featured bloggers, my favorite genesis themes) I am a big fan of home pages that aren’t your blog roll.
Kimberly said that after she ditched the blog home page and set up a landing home page, brands started to take her more seriously. She went from being just a blog to an informational site. To quote her, “An informational site is a blog on steroids!”
Keep the Tail Wagging’s home page has 3 key sections:
The first row has links to important sections of her blog: subscribe, latest post, about feeding raw, and raising litter mates.
The second row displays her 3 most recent posts. This is the part that makes her home page dynamic – this section changes as she publishes new posts.
The third row is a big call to action: Get dog nutrition tips straight to your inbox.
When new visitors reach the home page of Keep the Tail Wagging, they automatically know what Kimberly writes about, what pages would be interesting/she finds important, and an encouragement to subscribe to her mailing list.
Overall, Kimberly’s discussion with Seattle bloggers was great! I love how passionate she is about her blog and that she shares her blogging experience with others. She even wrote an eBook titled Standing Out in a Popular Blogging Niche , where she shares everything that she did that first year of blogging.
Your turn: Have you narrowed in on your niche? What are your main topics? What is on your home page?
This was great! When I started blogging I was unsure about what my niche would be? I guess it has turned into a “All Things Christian Homemaking Blog”…Is that a Niche? I would definitely consider a static home page…Will have to go back to one of your tutorials 🙂
Christian homemaking sounds like a good niche to me!
Home pages don’t work for every type of blog, but they can be useful if you like.
I think I have done most of what you suggest. I have a blog landing page anf an about me page. I am going to look up an authors widget box. I like that idea. I do have a signature but that says little about me.
I would love if you evet have the chance to crtic my site…
I dont have a niche. I am still finding my voice. Hoping this year it will dawn on me.
I think most bloggers take a while to find their voice and niche, it’s totally normal! I love author boxes, because they are clickable, but signatures are great too. Keep it up Ray, you’re doing great.
Wow! Thank you so much. I’m so honored. Thank you.
You’re welcome! Thanks for sharing your insights!
Great recap, and of course I wasn’t annoyed with you, haha! My blog definitely fails in a lot of these areas, but at this point in time, I’m okay with that. Having a general fashion and lifestyle blog is working for me and is still fun. 🙂
I wouldn’t call them “fails”. You just have different goals, and that’s OKAY too!
Glad you weren’t annoyed with me. 😉 Let’s hang out again at a blog meet up soon.
I always make sure I have Evernote opened when I go on to your blog; I know I’ll be taking notes. This is great advice, I think I’m going to add a landing page soon, and I’ll definitely add an author’s box to my posts. Thanks!
Wow, thanks Erica! Let me know when you switch your blog up with a landing page.
Side note, how do you like Evernote?
I’ll definitely know when I have a landing page, and I absolutely love Evernote. I swear it just keeps getting better. I’m going to write a post on it soon. I’ll let you know about that also. 🙂
Awesome!
Thank you for posting this! Here are some things from my notes.
The titles of your blog posts should include the words and phrases that people search on.
Three things you should do when starting a new blog:
1) pick a topic.
2) look at similar sites, see what they do.
3) follow successful, similar blogs.
Blog for six months, at least; most people quit after just three.
Love your additions Louise!
Great tips! I am in the process of narrowing down what I write about but it’s hard because ideas come from everywhere. I do know that you shouldn’t write about something unless you have a passion for it. The homepage idea is great and that’s part of the reason I chose the theme I did.
I think you’re doing a good job at narrowing down your topics. Most of your posts are related to celebrations in some way – party food, gift ideas, holidays. Then you mix some DIY and family in.
Your home page is great!
The home page wasn’t something I had done, but spent the weekend restructuring the posts to make one. It’s not live yet (I need new images), but am interested to see the changes.
Julie, the benefit of the author box is for when people land directly on that page. It’s just a little, personalized thank you for stopping by, at the end of the post.
You’ll have to let me know when it goes live! Thank you for your answer about the author boxes.
I have mixed feelings about an author box on a website with only one blogger. Can’t people just go to the sidebar for the same information? The narrow your niche thing, that I need to take into consideration since I just blog about whatever interests me, since it is my personal blog after all. Thanks for sharing the tips!
A lot of people start out blogging about whatever interests them at first. And that’s fine if all you ever want your blog to be is a personal blog. If you want to start blogging as a profession then that’s when you would want to narrow in on your topic a little more.
You’re right, they could just check the sidebar. I like Bianca’s response above. I just like to make things easier for my readers. Especially since a big chunk of them read my blog on a mobile device, and my sidebar isn’t active there.
Hey Krisite! Thanks so much for sharing my post! I am all about finding a niche if you want to get serious about blogging! “Put yourself into your blog” is so great. I would say that has been the number one lesson I’ve learned about blogging that has brought great results- and new opportunities! Great post! -Margo
It is hard for us techy bloggers to put ourselves into the posts. I’ve been trying to go through my older posts and add more of “me” in them lately. They are more engaging that way, instead of text book like.