Blogging is an effective marketing tool. However, it’s a competitive field to venture into. Many blogs just come and go because of better and more active blogs. To make things worse, Google rolls out plenty of algorithm updates that may penalize a website.
To survive the harsh realities of blogging, you have to be technically skilled. Here the top skills you should learn in order to save your blog and keep it alive this 2015:
Photo Editing
Many bloggers today still commit the mistake of using overused stock images. That appalls many readers; and photos under copyright law might get a company slammed with legal cases. Not to mention, these mistakes can damage a blog’s reputation.
The best solution to avoid these errors is to make your own images using photo editing tools, such as Photoshop. Guy Kawasaki advocates the use of these photos, and even promotes Canva, a graphic design website, to help bloggers.
With this tool, you can pick a beautifully designed template for posters, social media or infographics and add them to your site. You can also change the fonts, colors and photos to fit the design to your liking. Basically, the tool makes anyone become a good designer.
Improve this skill:
Use Canva designs as inspiration and try to copy them using photo editing tools. For an excellent, lower-priced alternative to Photoshop, you can try YouZign. This relatively new software has everything you need to create professional designs on the fly.
Also, you can check out YouTube videos that give a step by step process on how to use Photoshop and other photo editing software, like YouZign.
HTML and other Coding
Coding is helpful in making simple image, font, and page adjustments possible. That is why it is important that bloggers know how to code.
It’s too bad that basic coding is not enough to compete with other businesses that own responsive and modern designed blogs. Remember, free blog themes will only get you so far. So, step up the game and study how JavaScripts, iframes and widgets work. You also have to learn HTML, PHP and CSS coding.
Improve this skill:
You don’t have to be an expert coder to design your blog, but at least learn more than the basics so you can efficiently optimize it. You can take free interactive classes from Codecademy and Dash General Assembly to learn the basics of coding. You need to familiarize yourself with programming syntax as well.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Google algorithm rolls out often, so you have to be updated with the latest trend in SEO. Your SEO skills in keyword research, on and off page optimization and data analysis can help generate more traffic, and likewise create more income for your business.
Improving your site’s traffic is difficult. But with time and the proper SEO strategy, you can slowly achieve your marketing goals.
Improve this skill:
It is quite hard to study SEO and traffic generation, etc., in a short period of time since it is a vast field and there are so many different courses available on these necessary skills.
But you can gain a thorough understanding of how to make all this work for you if you follow this online course that you can pick up for less than the cost of a McDonalds meal. Alternatively, you can read SEO tips online and apply them on your blog.
Social Media Management
Most websites have gone social and there is a reason for that. A 2015 report by “We are Social” tells that there are 2.078 billion active social media users in the world. It is predicted that it will increase by 12% or 222 million of the world’s population every year.
With that said, you have to build your own social media accounts. Choose from several social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn. Manage them well, and these accounts will help improve your online business presence, readership, sales and customer relationship management.
Improve this skill:
Look at social media accounts from a business perspective and analyze which content you post gets better engagement. Then sign up for a free plan at Hootsuite and you’ll be able to start saving a ton of time managing all your social media accounts.
Web Analytics
A blogger with no analytic tool is like a soldier at war without knowledge about his enemies. He doesn’t know what he is doing, so the result is not always in favor of him
Every blogger should know how to read and analyze an analytic tool because it can help predict how good or bad your blog is doing and what you should do to improve it.
It is a bit tricky to use analytic tools because it is mostly about analysis, assumptions and predictions. But with the help of your marketing experience, you can master this tool to your company’s advantage
Improve this skill:
Google provides plenty of resources for you to develop your analytic skills. They even provide training and certification through their free Analytics Academy
Design and Functionality
A compelling web design has proven to attract readership. As harsh as it may sound, online users judge a site’s worth by looking at its visual appearance. If your blog looks outdated, they’ll get out, and you’ll lose a potential client.
Design skills is not just how you develop the codes of your site, but also how viewers see the logo, spacing, color, and typography you use. Do the colors suit together? Is the layout trendy and modern
Improve this skill:
Aside from looking at your favorite website and analyzing how they create their designs, you can also see tutorials about the elements of design. You can also take the Fundamentals of Design class by Codeschool.
Audio/Video Editing
“Content is king,” expert marketers say, but bloggers often limit their content to articles and pictures. “Convert with Content”, a digital marketing website, said that businesses should incorporate videos in their marketing campaigns because they improve engagement rate by 200% yearly. In relation, experts also predicted that 79% of web traffic will come from videos by 2018.
With these statistics showing how people favor videos, you must mix up your blog’s content and feature viral videos, conferences and news clips. You also have to learn how to produce and edit unique videos. In addition, it is important to add captions to improve accessibility
Improve this skill:
This skill is relatively easy to learn. You can watch video tutorials and practice with free video editing tools like VSDC Free Video Editor and Windows Movie Maker.
Conclusion
It takes time to become comfortable with using these skills, so you have to further hone them by
- Enrolling in online classes
- Reading plenty of books/blogs that provide tips and tricks
- Interviewing more experienced people and learning from them
- Practicing hard
Blogs are great marketing tools, but it is so hard to compete with the competition for search engine results. You have to step up the game and learn these technical skills that will improve your blog traffic, engagement and return on investment.
Do you think these skills save your blog and help it survive in 2015?
Tell us your opinion in the comments section down below. 🙂
About the Author:
Ethan Harvell is a blogger and a marketing associate for Superiorpapers, an academic resource center for students. He also writes for different websites and newsletters, and shares his knowledge about marketing and education.
Featured image:
Technical Skills That Will Save Your Blog
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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