8 Ways To Improve Your Blog *

-This post is in collaboration-

I really enjoyed writing my post about how to increase your DA score a few weeks ago, so I'm back with another blog post about all things blogging. In this post, I'm talking about some ways you can improve your blog and I'm hoping this post will be helpful, especially to any bloggers who are new and still getting to grips with running a blog and how it all works.

Change your theme

If you're using a standard Blogger/WordPress theme and want something a bit more eye-catching or customisable then I highly recommend you change your theme. It's super easy to do! Well, it is on Blogger anyway, I'm not used to WordPress but I'm sure a fellow WordPress user would help if you reached out. I actually buy all my themes from Etsy now after the whole fiasco with ~that~ company (if you know, you know) and they're really affordable. My latest theme which I think looks a lot more professional than my previous one and is a lot more customisable was just over £10 which is such a bargain! I've also noticed that I've been getting more opportunities since changing up my theme which is crazy. Just make sure you check the description when buying a theme just so you know how much control you have over it and what you can and can't change or add etc. You could also buy or create a banner for your blog to brand it or re-brand it. I made the banner on my blog by downloading some free graphics on Pinterest (I just put "flowers graphic" and there were loads to choose from), I then downloaded some free fonts from Da Font and installed them and then I just played around with what I had downloaded and chose the one I liked the most and I'm still using it like two years later.

Get your own website URL or go self-hosted

I highly recommend buying your own URL (so you have .co.uk or .com etc at the end of your website name and not yourblogname.blogspot.com) not only does it make your blog look more professional and that you're taking it seriously, but it also means that you'll then be able to start growing your DA score which is what you usually need in order to work with brands and companies on sponsored blog posts if that's what you're aiming to do in the future. I personally use GoDaddy and have done since I started my blog, it's around the £20-£25 mark per year and it was fairly easy to set up (You can find out how to set up your URL by searching it on Google). You can also go self-hosted which means your website is completely on its own and you have more free will with how your blog looks and performs. However, going self-hosted does come at a cost (we're talking in the hundreds mark per year) and I personally don't feel the need to go self-hosted as I'm getting by absolutely fine on Blogger.

Work on improving your DA score
Once you've got your custom URL set up (which I would recommend doing first before jumping into the deep end and going self-hosted) you should start trying to increase your DA score which is basically a measurement which tells people how well your blog is performing on search engines. If you're looking to work with brands/companies on paid posts then they usually want a DA score of at least 20. I've got a blog post that I put up a few weeks ago all about increasing your DA score here which you might find helpful. 

Can you make your photos look better and/or more eyecatching?
If you feel like your photos could be better then you can make some simple changes to improve them. If you're on a budget then you could buy some affordable props from the likes of Home Bargains, B&M, Primark and Sass & Belle to fill in any spaces (I always like to pop things in the corners of photos) and to just make your photo stand out a little more. You could also maybe buy a softbox light set to make your photos look brighter if you struggle with natural lighting. I got my softbox lights for around the £60 mark on Amazon and I honestly wouldn't be without them. Or it's within your budget you could buy a proper photography camera. Personally, I don't have the spare money to buy an expensive camera right now so I just use my iPhone 8 for all of my photos and I've been using softbox lights since 2016 which I think really helps, especially in the winter months. I also feel like softbox lights really help when it comes to editing my photos in Lightroom because they "lift" easier if that makes sense. I'm not saying my photos are perfect because they're definitely not but they're a lot better than they were when I first started out. If you want to give your blog a boost by going self-hosted, getting a new theme, buying a new camera along with some camera equipment, you could consider getting a loan from https://www.sofi.com/personal-loans/ as long as you know you will be able to pay it off. This way you can make a start on your "new" blog now instead of waiting until you've saved up the money. I'm due a phone upgrade early next year so I want to see what the camera is like on my new phone before buying a proper photography camera and new equipment but it is something I'm considering. 

Make sure all of your links work on your blog's home page

Next is a super simple one which is just to just double-check and make sure all of your links to your social media and blog email work on your blog. You could literally be missing out on new followers to connect with and potential collaborations just because you haven't double-checked your links.

Use snappy enticing titles 
Try to make your blog titles intriguing and enticing to your readers so there's more of a chance they'll click on the post and read it. So for instance for this post instead of putting "Lee Stafford Hair Apology Range Review" I put "Let Your Hair Know How Sorry You Are With Lee Stafford's Hair Apology Range".

Use a spell checker like Grammarly for extra help
I use Grammarly for both spell checking and to also give me an idea of how my post is coming across. So for instance, right now it's telling me that this post is coming across as formal, appreciative and friendly. I use the free edition and I find it helps me loads. I type really quickly so sometimes I do make the odd mistake here and there and sometimes you just completely miss a mistake when reading through your post because your brain automatically reads it in the correct way, right? Grammarly is also an extension so you can turn it on and off as you please too.

Make sure you're writing about something you love and actually want to write about
Lastly is to just make sure you're always writing about something you love. Don't write about things for the sake of it because you think it will help you grow as a blogger or get opportunities. You can tell when a blogger's heart isn't really into what they're writing about.

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