Virginia Bloggers

Author: virginiabloggers@gmail.com

  • How I Created an Instagram Content Strategy with 3 Simple Questions

    “Hey, you’re supposed to like my photo!!” I said to my husband as I saw him scroll past my Instagram post.

    “It’s literally just a picture of hummus. Why would I like that?”

    It might sound a bit harsh, but I realized he had a point. It was just a picture of hummus with a caption that said: Saturday snacking! Why would he like that photo?

    A few years ago, I didn’t have much of an Instagram strategy. I would look for a decent photo from my blog and post it on Instagram. I didn’t spend much time thinking of a caption or a reason why someone would want to see the post.  I wasn’t offering my audience any value. I wasn’t giving them a recipe, sharing a tip, inspiring them with a story, or making them laugh. I was just posting a photo because I felt like I was supposed to be active on Instagram.

    Since I wanted to grow my Instagram, I realized that I needed a plan. Here are the questions I asked myself as I created a content strategy:

    1. What is the goal of my account?

    For me, I want people to feel like healthy eating is easy and attainable. I want to show them that recipes don’t have the be difficult, expensive, or complicated. Snapping a picture of hummus wasn’t doing much. But sharing my tips for how to make smooth hummus at home? That’s is something my audience will like, share, save, and comment on.

    2. Who am I trying to reach?

    For years, I spent so much time trying to connect with other food bloggers. And while I love meeting other food bloggers, they’re not actually my audience. My audience includes busy moms, stressed-out young professionals, and meat-eaters who want to add some plant-based meals into their diet. Once I thought about who I was creating content for, it became easier to create relevant posts.

    3. What will someone gain from this post?

    Every post should have a purpose. Whether I’m sharing a recipe, a healthy tip, or a personal story, I want my followers to feel inspired or informed. I want every single post to be useful to my audience. So before I hit publish I ask myself “How will this post help my followers?” Thinking about this can also help you write captions. If the goal of your post is to help them figure out what shoes to wear with their sundress, say it! Explain how your post is going to help them with whatever they might need.

    I know Instagram can feel frustrating and it’s easy to blame it on the algorithm. But take a few minutes to step back and think about your goals, your audience, and your purpose. Are you adding value to your audience? What would make someone follow you?

    Share your Instagram handle in the comments below so we can see your latest posts!

  • How to Remove Broken Links on Your Blog

    How to Remove Broken Links on Your Blog

    If you’ve been blogging for more than a few months, you may have broken links hiding on your site. Luckily, this common problem is easy to fix!

    What are broken links?

    Broken links are URLs that no longer link to an active page. The link is still clickable, but it doesn’t take the user to the desired destination. Having a lot of broken links on your site can hurt your ranking in search engines.

    What causes broken links?

    Broken links can happen for several reasons. Maybe you linked to a site that no longer exists, or perhaps you changed the URL for a post and forgot to create a redirect. If your site allows users to link a URL in the comments, you may notice a lot of broken links from old comments.

    How do you fix broken links?

    There is a free plugin called Broken Link Checker that can make checking links quick & easy. Plus, you can easily bulk-remove any broken links you don’t need anymore. This tool can also help you find places where you might have accidentally linked to the wrong place.

    When I first ran this plugin, I had hundreds of broken links on my site, mainly from blog comments. I was able to quickly bulk select the broken links and unlink them, so the comment remained, but the broken links were removed. Now, I can regularly check to see if there are links to fix.

    Here’s an example from Virginia Bloggers:

    broken links plug in screen shot

    I found a couple of URLs that weren’t working anymore. It was easy to jump to the URL and see where the problem was. The first one just needed an updated URL, and the second link was from an old post that I removed. It only took a minute or two to fix it!

    Fixing or removing broken links can help improve your blog’s SEO, so it’s a good thing to do regularly. If you have questions, leave them in the comments below!

  • 3 Mistakes I Made When I Started Blogging

    I started blogging 11 years ago, which means I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way. Since it started out as a hobby, I didn’t have any kind of strategy. I didn’t need a strategy at that point! But once I started to think about my blog as a business, there were a lot of things I had to change. While the laundry list of mistakes is long, today I’m going to share my top 3 mistakes!

    My Blogging Mistakes

    1. I didn’t start an email list right away

    I knew I needed to start an email list but it just seemed too daunting. I didn’t know where to start so I just didn’t do it. Don’t wait another day! If you’ve been dragging your feet on starting an email list, now is the time to start! Even if you don’t start sending emails right away, you can at least start collecting email addresses for later. You can even start with just one email a month if that’s all you have time for. The sooner you start collecting email addresses, the sooner you can build your list! Remember, your email list is something YOU own! Don’t rely on social media platforms! (P.S. if you need an email platform, I love Flodesk! You can use my affiliate link to get 50% off.)

    2. I was afraid to reach out to brands

    I was hesitant to reach out to brands so I relied on influencer networks for all my collaborations. Networks can be a great way to meet brands and earn money, but don’t be afraid to reach out to a brand you’d love to work with! If you’re just starting out, offer a blog post in exchange for a product. Or reach out to a local brand that might have a small marketing budget. It can be as simple as sending a DM on Instagram to get the conversation started. Don’t be afraid to ask!

    3. I was hesitant to invest in my blog

    If your budget is tight right now, think about how you might be able to earn a little money that you could quickly invest back into your blog. If you have an eagle eye for grammar, could you offer editing services for another blogger? If you’re an expert photographer, could you offer to do product photos for a local brand? Look for ways to earn money that you can quickly invest back into your blog. I remember when buying a $300 camera felt like a huge investment. But as my blog started to earn more money, I was able to invest more back into it and I was able to see the return. (Years later, I invested in a $3,000 camera and didn’t even flinch. As you earn more money, it’s less scary to invest money back in your business!)

    How long have you been blogging and what’s one thing you’ve learned? Share in the comments below!

  • Video Editing Made Simple

    Video Editing Made Simple

    This post contains affiliate links which means if you sign up for InVideo, I get a small portion of the fee, at no additional cost to you.

    I’ll be the first to admit that video is not my area of expertise. While I’m getting a little better with practice, it was the editing software that really intimidated me. While I’d love to eventually learn all the complicated video software programs, I just don’t have time for that right now.

    That’s why I almost fell out of my chair when a blogger friend told me about InVideo. It’s basically like Canva for video. It has tons of templates and video formats so whether you’re creating an Instagram story or a YouTube video, you can find exactly the right template. You can also build videos from scratch.

    I’m sure you’ve heard that video is the way of the future. Brands are willing to pay more for video content. Search engines are looking for video content. Instagram algorithms are all about video. But video can be intimidating and the software programs can be time-consuming to figure out.

    That’s why I was THRILLED to find this solution. InVideo makes it super easy to add text overlays or background music, and they have a huge library of music, stock photos, and videos to choose from!

    You can stitch videos together, whether it’s a screen recording from your phone or a video you shot on your DLSR camera. You simply upload the video clip then drag it and drop it into InVideo. You can add text, music, remove the sound, or add special effects.

    I love that the templates are an easy way to get started, but you can also start from a totally blank canvas if you want to build your own. Their media library comes with tons of stock photos and videos. I signed up for the Business account which means I have access to more stock photos and videos, but there are still great options with the free plan!

    I literally can’t believe how much easier it is to edit video with InVideo! They have different plans depending on what you need, and the free plan offers tons of features! I signed up for the business plan, but the free plan offers plenty to get you started!

    Here’s an example of a video I made for a sponsored post. I put my phone on a tripod, shot the clips individually, stitched them together, sped up the footage, then added music and captions!

    If you’re looking to get started with video, I think this is a great option. I love that it’s so easy to use!

    Give InVideo a try and let me know what you think!

  • 5 Things I Did to Reach 100K Pageviews

    5 Things I Did to Reach 100K Pageviews

    A few years ago, I set a goal to hit 100,000 pageviews. I’d been blogging at I Heart Vegetables since 2010, but I didn’t really take it seriously until 2016. In order to hit my goal, I focused on a few key areas that I knew would drive long-term, sustainable traffic. I hit my 100K goal in January of 2018!

    5 Things I Did to Hit 100K Pageviews on My Blog

    If 100,000 pageviews feels totally out of reach, that’s ok! These tips can still apply whether your goal is to hit your first 100, 1,000, or 10,000. The good news is, I’ve found that once you get the ball rolling, it gets easier to grow. I’ve heard from a lot of other bloggers that once they hit 100,000 pageviews, it was easier to keep growing. Here’s a snapshot of my pageviews from November 2017 to November 2019.

    I wanted to walk you through some of the strategy shifts I made over the past few years, to really grow my site.

    1. I started learning about SEO

    I know SEO can feel technical and scary but it was the #1 thing that helped me grow my blog. Over 50% of my traffic comes from Google searches and that’s really good. Google search traffic is high-quality traffic because it’s people searching for what you have. So what did I actually do to take SEO seriously? I worked with an SEO expert to do an audit of my site. I invested $800 (which felt like a huge amount of money at the time) and he gave me dozens of updates and changes that I needed to make on my site.

    It took me months to update old content, remove expired content, fix a URL issue, add alt tags, add headers, and fix a number of other problems. It wasn’t an immediate return on investment. I waited for months to see a real shift, but it worked. And as I fixed old content, I learned how to effectively create content moving forward.

    2. I wrote about content people were searching for

    One thing I learned in my SEO research was that I needed to create content people were searching for. It might be fun to make a “quinoa and feta with edamame bowl” but if no one is searching for that, the recipe won’t create any traffic. On the flip side, if I know people are searching for a “watermelon mojito smoothie” and there aren’t a lot of recipes out there that fit the bill, that’s a good recipe for me to invest my time in. It shifted my overall content strategy and forced me to plan ahead. I can’t just throw together what I have in my pantry and make a new recipe. I really have to think about what types of recipes people are looking for.

    3. I cut out tasks that weren’t driving traffic

    I took a look at how I was spending my time and realized things like Instagram were a total time suck. I still invest time in Instagram but I’ve significantly cut back on the time I spend on the platform. I don’t spend much time on Twitter and I’ve hired someone to handle basic social media scheduling so that I can focus my time on other things. Since Google and Pinterest were my two biggest traffic drivers, I focused my time on SEO and Pinterest.

    4. I stepped up my Pinterest strategy

    Pinterest is a great traffic driver for me as a food blogger, so I really focused on a pinning strategy. I signed up for Tailwind so I could easily schedule my pins and I joined a number of Tailwind Communities to find content to share and to get other people to re-pin my content. This helped me grow my Pinterest traffic, which has led to 30K-50K pageviews per month. (P.S. If you want to try Tailwind, you can use my affiliate link to join Tailwind Communities for free!)

    5. I updated old content instead of creating new content

    I didn’t stop creating new content entirely but I spent a significant amount of time updating old posts. I went back through every piece of content and either spruced it up or no-indexed it from my site so that Google would no longer take the post into consideration. When updating old posts, I took new photos. added more information into the content, and refreshed the recipe, if necessary. I updated the format of the post to use proper post headings and subheadings, and I make sure my recipe card was completely filled out with things like prep time, nutritional information, and serving sizes.

    A lot of the work I had to do wasn’t glamourous or interesting, but the work paid off. And once I hit 100,000, it felt like it was easier to keep the ball rolling.

    Here’s what my traffic looks like from November 2017 to November 2020.

    I hope this helps inspired you no matter where you are on your blogging journey! If you have questions, let me know in the comments!