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Bloggers Guide: Make the most of Black Friday 2022

Successful bloggers usually have more than one channel of online income. For most bloggers, the basic income channels are ads, link selling, providing services, selling affiliate and referral offers. While most things related to blogging revolve around these channels, the smart bloggers also look for greater opportunities to make more money from the same proven ways of income.

One such opportunity is known as the Black Friday and the Cyber Monday sales.

Most new bloggers always come to know about this huge online sale when the sale is already running and like most others, they start buying rather than selling. To make things easy for the new people and perhaps a gentle reminder to the old folks that Black Friday 2022 is almost 40+ days away, enough time to plan for it, write content and perhaps even start making some landing pages for the extra sales.

Before getting into it further, here’s a quick overview of what Black Friday is all about. So Black Friday is considered a shopping festival that happens once in a year, usually towards the end of November and lasts for almost a week. During this time most online retailers gives the deepest discounts to attract a lot of sales.

Now, think of it as a marketer and a blogger where you can offer these discounts to your own audience and earn referral and affiliate sales? If this idea gives you the positive vibes then read on as this article will guide you to set up an income channel out of this upcoming Black Friday.

Look for products in your niche

You already have a small audience, be it blog readers, social media followers, email lists or YouTube subscribers. All you need to get started is the products. If you choose your black Friday affiliate products wisely, some of your existing following base might just buy it before you even get started with your marketing.

Plan your social calendars

It is all about planning much in advance because when you are in the moment, you just won’t have enough time. Set up tweets, make them ready but don’t send them out. Set them to go live during the black Friday, but here is the catch. The discounts won’t be visible until the last few days and that is why you have to edit those tweets and shares with the actual link and discount codes. Still, having the catchy images and text ready make things easy.

Make it Catchy

Whether it is a blog post or a landing page or even a social media status update, everything is in the copy. If you make it catchy, people will buy it. Think of it as a flash sale where people need to take a quick action. The offer might not be available tomorrow, the stocks might get all sold out if you take that moment to re-think you’re buying decision, and in all honesty, that is mostly the case.

HashTags

While we already covered how a social media content planning can help you in the process of black Friday marketing, but this is just the basic idea. Most of the social media marketing that targets various products is done by chasing hashtags that are best suited to convert into sales. These hashtags needs to be product targeted and should cover the deep discounts the offer has to provide.

Write posts in advance

If you are planning to promote your black Friday offers by writing blog posts then prepare enough content in advance. Write posts targeting most items that you are trying to sell. Optimize your content with long-tail targeted products. Consider posting some content in advance because these articles needs to rank and you need some time to build some links to these posts.

Pre-Plan your AutoResponders

Usually, black Friday emails are short and up to the point. They have their links, their discounted rates and perhaps some coupons and other details. No point writing long emails when the user is looking for quick information about the product details and are hurrying to buy things before they are out of stock.

Always re-check availability

Since too much goes on during these shopping events that it becomes almost impossible to make sure that everything is going correctly. In these times, the biggest issues are 404 pages and products being out of stock. Since most content is already created, be it social media status updates, blog posts, landing pages or emails, everything has links to product pages and if these links fails and gives a 404, it is your loss. So always make sure to keep checking if the product page links are working and the products are still available. If something goes wrong, edit quickly and replace it with a relevant competitor.

Plan your promotions

As a blogger you always promote your content, be it social media shares and tweets, emails, commenting on other blogs and so on and this same process has to be done with black Friday content as well. Make sure to write down these promotion steps too so that you don’t find it difficult to do this process. Search for other blog posts that are related to your content and comment on them – that is a quick way to get attention directly from a targeted customer.

Tweak your site

Your website should look good during such an event. If you have distractions in your sidebars or your page loading is slow then it is time to fix those so that your buying customers have a good experience shopping on your website. While as blogger we don’t directly sell, but it is something that the targeted customer does not really understand – most people just think that they are still shopping on your site while they had already clicked on an affiliate offer and moved to a shopping portal to make that purchase.

Try a bit of PPC

Most blogger don’t try out too much of Pay per Click but at times like these when there is so much to sell, giving facebook ads a bit of a try does not really hurts. Start with a small budget and see how it goes. If you get good sales then give PPC a bit more room in your promotional channels.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are yearly events, they happen only once a year. If you make it well, you will get all the sales that you need – some people even make fortunes during these shopping events but if you fail to hit something big then you have to wait for a whole year to get this opportunity again.

Most new bloggers miss out on this opportunity because they realize this too late and they fail to act. Luckily, we still have time and as of today, we have as many as 40+ days to go into this black Friday 2022. Let’s make this happen!

Start Focusing on What’s Important

If you find yourself having difficulty completing daily tasks then perhaps it’s time to start focusing on whats truly important. We can all agree, keeping busy is not the same as being productive, meaning we all have tasks or activities our lives can do without. The end result is to ensure we make the most of our time.

As a blogger our daily or even weekly task first and foremost is creating new content for our readers. Tho our day may be filled with social media, email, web surfing, exercise, eating or family our most productive and demanding task is our blogs.

Stop Multitasking

You may take a second read over this statement but I’m not joking and I stand by this, we multitask way to much, find ourselves busy but hardly productive. Life doesn’t need to be busy, we need to find ourselves more productive. If you want to eat, take time and eat, do not eat and do research. Dedicate time to research and ensure it’s without distraction.

Start Focusing on What’s Important, Not What’s Immediate.

When we find ourselves “busy” we may also feel overwhelmed or high anxiety. Multitasking can cause much unneeded and unwanted life and work stress, stay focused on one task, become productive and efficient without distractions.

Tips To Avoid Distractions

Get organized with a to-do list
Put away or mute devices
Focus on one task only
Complete the task at hand

Blogging Momentum Takes Time

From the first post of the week to the last, nothing about blogging is fast. In fact some could say blogging moves at a snails pace. I personally find this to be very true! Mind you this can change drastically when we all have different expectations of what momentum may look like.

Consistency

If we want to see a forward momentum from our blogs we need to provide some sort of longevity when it comes to our consistency. This can be broken down into two main elements, content creation and targeted topics. As humans we like things to be consistent, hence why some of the largest most successful restaurant food chains take pride on their consistency of food products, preparation and delivery.

Content Creation

It’s of most importance to create content with some form of consistency, in this case our example will be a specific day we write on, or days if you write more than once per week. For example, if you are going to create content every Monday, ensure the content is ready on this day every week, your audience will come to expect this from you.

Targeted Topics

Stay within a specific niche, give your audience what they want to read, not what you feel like writing. At times this can be most difficult and can even seem like a daunting task but it’s your responsibility to ensure the content your readers like is ready to read and is on topic! Over 400 million blog posts are written everyday.

Being Productive

The last 2 weeks have been a challenge for myself. Creating content with my kids being home is not easy. This requires me to be more productive and efficient with my time, I find scheduling is the only way to accomplish my daily tasks.

Gaining Blog Momentum: Never Assume Instant Success

Planning your tasks and scheduling your week can help you become very successful with accomplishing your daily and weekly tasks. Its not a full proof method of finishing your tasks but it sure helps you to stay organized and to be aware of what needs to be completed. Some of the tasks I schedule are as follows,

Content Creation
Social Media Sharing
Content Research
Blog Commenting
Blog Comment Replies

Not everything can be scheduled but trust me, if it can, make sure to start doing it! Make sure to read over one of my previous posts on increasing a bloggers productivity!

Make The Most Of Your Time

If you’re an online stay at home blogger with kids, you’re likely struggling right now to find time and write content. I’m just like you right now, and I’m reaching for any minute I can get to write my next blog post.

As humans we are creatures of habit, and like many I enjoy writing my posts first thing in the morning with a cup of coffee and a fresh mind. Mind you, being taken away from my WordPress dashboard to help the kids has brought some new and interesting ways to write fresh content.

One thing for sure, I get to step away from the post, allowing my mind to venture into many directions changing the feel and outcome of my actual posts. The distraction surprisingly also helps with writers block and allows me time to think. As I write this post, I have literally stepped away several times already!

To make the most of our time we have to schedule our day to the best of our ability. Setting mini daily goals is also a fun way to ensure you’re making progress. Ensure to open the dashboard so you’re inspired to actually post. If you can, write posts in advanced helping you avoid unforeseen busy times.

Schedule Your Day (social media and content creation)
Set Mini Goals
Open The Dashboard
Write in Advanced

If you’re looking to increase your productivity please make sure to read one of my previous posts where I discuss tips that can help you become more productive.

I’m not very productive during the evening but perhaps you are, you can always save your content creation time slots for the evening after the kids are in bed! Evening blogging may be the perfect option for some, but it’s simply not for me!

Morale of the story is, when you have a free moment, get to work! Don’t let it pass you by as the next moment of opportunity is not guaranteed to anyone, especially as a stay at home parent.

Move Outside Your Comfort Zone

Hello Blog Engage readers and welcome to another year of great opportunity! Happy New Years and Welcome to 2022! This year let’s do something great! Let’s do something different! Whatever we do, let’s move outside our personal comfort zone and obtain new goals we would had never before!

The magnitude of our discomfort can vary drastically with everyone. Some can be as simple as starting a blog, perhaps even writing within a niche that challenges you more intellectually. I want us all to set new goals that make us try harder to obtain new success.

New Success Awaits

When we reach for new ideas and opportunities we bring upon us new success. I understand change is difficult and at times the simple idea of change brings stress and self doubt. Tho this is true, we don’t want this feeling of self doubt to stop us from moving outside our comfort zone, we cannot be the demise of our own success.

Blogging Is Uncomfortable

Do what makes you uncomfortable with your blog

Content shared is easily content judged! The simple basic fact that what we write is open to ridicule from everyone on the internet, including our influencers. This makes most bloggers feel extremely uncomfortable. Perhaps even one of the reasons it took me so long to start blogging here on Blog Engage. Not everyone experiences being uncomfortable with blogging but we have to recognize for many its a real challenge.

The More You Write

Good news, the more we blog, the easier it gets! This is the positive news! So whatever you do, don’t give up. Surround yourself with positive people that have similar interests such as other bloggers. Join blogging communities that bring you close to these potential blogging friends!

I look forward to blogging in 2022 and reaching new goals myself! I hope we get to grow and have success together in this online journey. Please don’t be shy, say hello, subscribe to the blog and stick around! You will only find success sticking around these parts!

Increase Blog Traffic With These Basic Tips

One common goal we all have as bloggers is to increase the amount of blog traffic we are receiving to our blogs. If you’re new to blogging and found yourself here wondering why blog traffic is so important, put it like this. The local mall where you’re from needs to drive human traffic in order for the stores inside to get sales. Online blogging is not much different, we need visitors to our blogs which in return leads to earning more money.

Write Better Titles

There is no secret that content is what drives traffic for bloggers. Creating more exciting titles for your readers is a sure fire way to increase your blog traffic. Write content that engages the reader and leaves them wanting more! However writing better titles only gets you so far, you must equally create exciting and fresh content.

Social Share Icons

Mare sure to add some social sharing options directly to your blog posts. If visitors enjoy the content they are very likely to share with their followers and friends. Make sure to have this option easily available for visitors. Referral traffic from visits and blog readers are so important.

How to Easily Double Your Traffic from Social Media

Improve Content With Imagery

Bring your blog post to the next level with the right imagery. Nothing is more attractive in a great blog post then an image that satisfies the audience. Images can make a boring blog post exciting! Most bloggers fail to understand the power an image has and how the audience reacts to a quality image. This is what made infographics so successful in blog posts.

Implement SEO Strategies

Ensure you’re helping Google find your blog. Thankful WordPress does an amazing job right out the box that may satisfy most bloggers in regards to SEO. It doesn’t need to stop there you can dig deeper and help your blog rank higher overall increasing your organic search engine traffic. If you’re not familiar you can use Google Search Console to help position your site in search rankings. Google shows you how using Webmaster Tools!

Newsletter Marketing

Nothing beats igniting a post like a quality email subscribers list. Mail-chimp provides an easy to use and fun way to start collecting your emails from blog readers. The process is extremely simple and easy for users to subscribe. This is a great way to boost your traffic, when you publish to the blog, you can also email all your subscribers notifying them of your latest post.

What are some of the methods you’re using today to help increase your blogs traffic? Are you using some of the ones mentioned in my post? I’d love to hear your personal experience on how you managed to increase bog traffic! Leave a comment below!

Overcoming Your Fear Of Others Opinions

I can only imagine how many people have stopped blogging and gave up, simply based on the opinions of someone else. Did you know as humans in society we base the majority of our decisions solemnly on how others will judge us?

Learning how to put your true values before the opinions of others is something we all struggle with in our lives. This statement is so true, many often find themselves trying to live someones best version of their self.

The influence and opinions of others does not always translate into a negative experience, in many situations it can be of great value, positive an helpful. When the opinions of others stop us from starting a blog, and blogging about what we truly value, than it’s an issue and needs to be addressed.

How to stop making decisions based on what other people think

The Need For Approval

Can you imagine logging into WordPress and trying to write a blog post when in the back of your mind is the thoughts of being judged? If you want to have any chance of success you need to find a way to eliminate this need for approval and you need to overcome your fear of other peoples opinions.

This daunting overbearing weight of needing someones approval is a never ending struggle many of us are challenged with. It affects our lives, family, employment and more. You need to break free from these chains in order to be a true version of yourself as a blogger and content creator.

The Fear Of Failure

Your chest is heavy, your stress is high and you fear the failure of approval or acceptance for your latest blog posts. Anxiety has never been so overbearing and out of control. I know it’s harder to do then say, but if this is you and how you feel when blogging… you need to find a way to overcome these doubts and fears. In my experience, it gets easier with every blog post.

Do you struggle with blogging due to the fear of other peoples opinions? Have you overcome these fears? If so, how did you manage to find success? Care to share your own experience, please do leave a comment below!

Bloggers Don’t Let Failure Bring You Down

We have all felt the pressure that comes with failure. At some point in our lives we experience different magnitudes of what is known to be failure. As bloggers failure can come in many forms, most often based on what we perceive to be important to ourselves or others who have influence on us. Most times you can sum failure up into a matter of one’s own perception.

Failure is not always a bad thing, though in the moment can be a significant negative influence, failure also brings out the organic process to which we learn our greatest lessons in life. Strive for failure? I think not, but don’t find yourself overlooking the lessons that can be learned from ones failure.

Technical Failure

Understanding the technical elements of owning, managing and operating a blog website is a daunting task, but is possible. There’s so many things to learn from a technical standpoint and some of them include.

Upgrades
Plugins
Themes
Hosting
Maintenance

Yes, the list can go on forever, these are simply the basic fundamental technical challenges you will need to learn and master to become a blogger. These are the beginning steps needed in order to start on your own journey to become a blogger. The failure rate during these stages is extremely high, many people simply give up. Can you imagine that? The potential blogger giving up before they even wrote their first article ?

The Content Creation

This discussion is happening among the largest online content creator teams and is a struggle for most bloggers and business. Simply put, lack of content creation ideas stops the majority of bloggers in their paths. If you can manage to create great, fun and exciting content, you may find yourself among the elite with an actual popular blog. Content is hard to create, but not impossible.

The morale here is we need to be okay with failure when it happens. We should adapt, change what we need and try again. Don’t let failure bring you down, don’t let failure drive you to quit. Can you keep up with blogging?

Blogging is a great way to earn extra money, either by offering a product or service of your own, and or creating affiliate and referral sales from your traffic. Giving up is what most people do, are you like most people ?

How To Increase A Bloggers Productivity

Yes, the dream of every blogger, to be productive, efficient and to make the most, out of the least. The phrase “I’m going to be a more productive blogger this year” comes around, well quite frequently this time of the year.

As the holiday season and celebration of the new year approaches us, we find our self reflecting back on what we have accomplished, who we have become and perhaps set goals to do a better job next year. Whatever your “better” needs to be, we need to recognize ways to increase our time management allowing more time to focus on our improvement, and not the task.

Start Scheduling

As a blogger we have several ways to be more productive and the first major game changer is to start scheduling everything. Schedule your blog posts and also schedule your social media sharing. WordPress allows you to write your blog posts and schedule them for later dates. This helps you to write posts in advance opening up and clearing your schedules during busy times of your lives. If you can write in bulk, do it!

Schedule Your Social

Go Social With Buffer or HootSuite and start posting your Tweets and Facebook shares in advance. It’s very easy to use these services and for most of us we get away with the free version. If you have a need for more than the free limited accounts offer, then use both Buffer and HootSuite together to manage all your social media accounts. Scheduling your social media will help you save so much time as a blogger, in fact in my opinion it’s a must.

How to Create a Social Media Posting Schedule (Free Template and Tools)

Separate Writing From Editing

If you can manage to schedule your posts in advance, it will also allow you to separate the writing from the editing. Proof reading and editing takes a lot of time from a bloggers perspective, typically done in the same sitting. If you can separate these elements it makes for a more productive writing session. When I’m at my best I set posts for Wednesday and Friday 8am. I have these posts written 48 hours before hand allowing me to edit 24 hours prior to going live.

Stick To The Plan

When you make a plan, try and stick to it. If you were honest with yourself when making the plan it should work. If you start to feel the stress and start to hit failure within the first two weeks you need a new plan, one that’s more realistic with your commitment level. Be fair to yourself and set goals you can achieve not goals that will create stress and failure. Read my latest post on why bloggers fail. Let’s make sure this doesn’t become you by following these basic tips on being a more productive blogger.

5 Ways to Avoid Blogging Burnout

In my previous blog post I discussed the top reasons as to why most bloggers quit blogging. It’s the sad truth, most bloggers really do quit and never look back. Today we want to discuss steps we can take as bloggers to ensure this doesn’t happen to us.

Blogging can be so much fun, fulfilling and engaging, but it can also be difficult, time consuming and overwhelming. If you’re here, perhaps you’re at the breaking point and asking yourself, is it time for be to quit?

Make Time For Yourself

This morning, traditionally I would be posting in the morning, not afternoon. It’s been a busy hockey season, both my boys play full time. I’ve also started a lifestyle change where I visit the local gym for some exercise. I decided this morning that my personal health was more important then posting an early article. Take the time you need, and make time for yourself.

Stop Being Hard On Yourself

It’s important to set goals, create a weekly agenda and try our best to be the most productive and efficient as we can. It’s also okay if you don’t reach your goal. I think the most important part of setting goals is not obtaining them tho that is the “goal” it’s the fact that you care enough to set a goal and monitor the results.

Lower Your Expectations

This is a difficult reality to face. Perhaps you thought you would be further, larger, more popular than you really are. Perhaps you wanted more comments, more social engagement? Sadly most of us, and I’m confident to say it’s the majority of us that experience this feeling a lot. “Where we are” is so relative to our own objectives, opinions and expectations, this also woks in partnership based on what type of blogger we are.

Create The Detailed Plan

If you’re at the point of quitting it means your expectation are far to high for your commitment level. You need to reduce the amount of time you’re spending on your blog, or in some cases opposite and spend more time blogging. Either way, if you have the right plan implemented you will have an easier time to find success and happiness when blogging. You need to schedule your posts, write them in advance or be prepared to commit the days you’re required to. Following your plan will be key as well to finding your happiness when blogging, nothing feels better then creating a plan, sticking to it and seeing it through!

Take a Break, Step Away

Nothing is wrong with taking a break, this can be any duration starting at one day to a month. This will be something you need to determine. We don’t want you to hate blogging, if it’s come to this, it’s time to take a break, and step away.

What are some of the strategies you have used to reduce the chances of blogging burnout? Have you ever experienced it? If so how did you overcome it?