ProBlogger: Reading Roundup: What’s New in Blogging Lately?

Reading Roundup: What’s New in Blogging Lately?

Posted: 10 Feb 2017 05:00 AM PST

After taking some time off over the holiday season on my blog, I’ve been thinking about things I normally don’t have time to – and I think those things have been reflected in today’s roundup! Things like going back and optimising older posts for SEO, thinking about my blogging origins and how they’re influencing my blogging future, and getting back to my first love: writing.

So take a minute to think beyond the surface of create content/promote that content, and think a bit bigger picture. Where are you at?

2017's Four Most Important Ranking Factors, According to SEO Industry Studies | Search Engine Journal

It feels like SEO rules change so constantly it’s hard to keep up, but this post was very reassuring.

Optimizing Meta Descriptions, H1s and Title Tags: Lessons from Multivariate SEO Testing at Etsy | Etsy

Get ready to reduce the length of your title tags!

My Writing Process, Revealed | James Altucher

I find it fascinating to see inside the minds of writers, the people who spend their lives creating content. The one thing that’s always the same? It’s never linear.

5 Ways to Boost Facebook Engagement for Your Business | Cheerful Lime

Swap “blog” for “business” and the tips still apply. Know your audience. Give them what they want. I also can’t say enough about experimentation!

Without Emotional Advertising, Your Landing Page Won't Work. Here's How to Get It Right | Quicksprout

If there’s no feeling, there’s no finance ;-) How much does your landing page appeal to emotion?

9 Powerful Time-Saving Tips to Help Grow Your Brand on Instagram | Buffer

I hear quite often how much people would love to be able to create their Instagram posts on desktop, and this post explains how. I also love a bit of advance scheduling! Quite a few schedulers have announced long-awaited Instagram scheduling options.

LinkedIn Just Rolled Out A Redesign—Here’s How To Clean Up Your Profile | Fast Company

It’s getting to be so that if you’re ignoring LinkedIn, you’re ignoring greater brand awareness, networking, and even traffic. When was the last time you pimped your profile?

Working for free (but working for yourself) | Seth’s Blog

You might find, as a blogger, that you get asked to promote a product or write an article for no monetary compensation whatsoever – they offer the “exposure” drawcard instead. When is that worth it for you? Is it ever?

“The clients you get in the future will be the direct result of the clients you take today. The legacy of your work down the road will be related to the quality of the work you do today,” Seth says. What is your legacy?

Where Fashion Blogging Began | New York Times

While it feels like blogging has been around forever, it’s interesting to go back and see how it evolved and where you could possibly pinpoint a difference between “web log” and “blog”. It’s also interesting to think about the difference between having a hub where you went to hang out with like-minded people in 2010 or 2011, and the disparity of users now that everyone has their own blog or social media account they’re trying to raise the profile of. It’s harder to rally a community, and blog engagement is harder to come by, it would seem.

I often find that by looking back at the beginning of blogging, and the beginning of my blog in particular, that I get a true sense of where I want to take it. This is my ninth year of blogging, and while the landscape has changed so, so much, I’m reminded that I don’t have to.