How To Run A Successful Blog With Dee Thompson
After over a decade of running her successful blog, “A Dash With Dee”, Dee Thompson, a seasoned blogger shares insight on how it is to run a successful blog.
Dee Initially began her brand as a makeup blog (Liner & Glitter & Glow) before eventually shifting to a focus on her personal life. Dee saw the shift as a mixed opportunity not only would she be able to create content she liked on a wider range of topics that interested her, but it would also open up to more financial possibilities.
This room opened up to earn an income through affiliate groups and brand collaborations. However, when making money it’s best not to get carried away. Instead, we should stay true to ourselves and our brand. Dee makes sure to note that if something doesn’t work for you, you can say no, just when you say no make sure to communicate why it wasn’t successful so that you keep those relationships.
When setting up your blog she emphasizes the importance of first starting with a style guide. A style guide sets a code of rules for how your brand is presented through your writing and overall aesthetic making it easier to maintain a cohesive, distinct identity as your platform evolves.
From there, we want to optimize our posts to reach our audience. As we learned from Dee, you want to stay up on trends and a great place to source the latest and upcoming trends is Pinterest. But we also want to create “evergreen content” which will always stay relevant and will help you find new audiences all year round.
Tracking how well posts do is important as well and can be done through Google Analytics is the easiest most universal method of sending monthly progress updates and it’s free. When checking these analytics you want to look at how people are reacting to them. Not just likes alone but who’s commenting, sharing, and reposting.
Creating mailing lists also helps retain the audience that you already have. Mailing lists send updates to those who sign up on your page. A great way to keep your audience up to date and remind people who haven’t been so active that you’re still creating content.
Finally, Dee offers one last piece of advice, the best thing is to stay true to your niche. As long as you’re doing something you like you will stay motivated and continue doing it. But remember you’re in a creative business and you may get writer’s block or feel burnt out. So always remember that it’s ok to take a break.