Blogging Tips – Omit the Noise but Leave the Signal

Hello everyone and welcome to Bloggie Friday. If you’re not into blogging, please don’t go away, why don’t you catch up on some of the posts you might have missed in the past – you’ll find a selection of posts to help you with the ‘art of aging and living the good life’ right here: Popular Posts 

Mentoring with Caz

Today I’d like to tell you about the most awesome mentoring session I’ve just had with Caz Makepeace from the very well known yTravel Blog. Now that she and Craig have finished their 18 month road trip around Australia, and are settled in Burleigh Heads, Queensland for a while, Caz is taking on a very limited number of people to mentor … so if you’re interested why not send her an email Here and request pricing before she gets all booked up?

Caz and Craig know so much about online publishing and blogging, creating products, working with brands, organising sponsorships and just well, making a living from their blogging endeavours. So I was super amped to be able to speak to such a legend and get such honest feedback and tips about ways I can serve Lifestyle Fifty readers better.

Afterwards Dave asked me if I’d learnt enough about blogging for him to retire anytime soon 😉 Cheeky!

Getting rid of the noise

The phone session went so fast, but I gleaned an incredible amount of information, and found out a lot about Lifestyle Fifty – not only what I’m doing right and wrong, but getting to grips with understanding how best to help my readers.

It was like Caz was in my head. She just cut straight to the chase, got rid of all the noise and negativity I had in me, as she saw through everything I was trying to achieve – I was grateful for her honesty. My head’s in a bit of a spin this morning (maybe Caz is still rattling around in it!) because now I have a long list of tweaks and improvements to implement.

As Caz said told me, it’s important to make improvements but don’t stress, just do them over time.

When I go crazy because I can’t find a big block of time to do things, I always tell myself that 15 minutes a day adds up to a big chunk of time after a month.

Keep on learning

I started blogging in 2010 but didn’t start Lifestyle Fifty until 2012. Both blogs flat-lined for quite a while.

We all start out ‘little,’ not quite knowing what’ we’re doing or who we’re writing for. We all start with a limited amount of skills and maybe only a couple of readers. Which is why it’s necessary to keep on learning new things, discarding what doesn’t serve you any longer, reminding yourself about things you’ve conveniently forgotten and keeping up to date with new trends.

Yep, it’s important to keep on getting rid of the old noise and searching for new signals – via mentoring and workshops.

How to grow your blog organically

I bet right now if you have a blog, you’re comparing it to someone else’s and possibly feeling overwhelmed? I know I often do.You might not have much of a following yet, but as Caz told me …

Whatever the size of your following you will grow it organically if you consistently show up and help your readers achieve their dreams, or conquer their fears or problems. Have a story to tell, and be confident in delivering a message via your own experiences in a clear and succinct way.

Goals fuel motivation

At a Problogger conference a couple of years ago in Queensland, Darren Rowse told everyone to, “Know your goals because they fuel your motivation.”

“If you don’t know where you’re going you’ll end up somewhere else,” said Yogi Berra

And I think that a main goal many of us might put forward is to, ‘grow our blogs’ which can translate into ‘get more traffic.’ Which is all well and good, but Caz said, “Your goal should be to aim at having a big impact on the readers you already reach rather than trying to increase traffic for the sake of numbers,” and this is echoed by Darren who has said previously, “Look after a small group of readers and they’ll multiply.”

Motivating Action List

1. Look at your blog stats and decide where the ‘sparks’ are – and by that I mean, what type of posts do your readers seem to like most?
2. Why do you think they are popular? Do they contain helpful information for your readers that pertains to their dreams or fears?
3. Choose the most popular post and try writing it from a different angle using different facts and a different heading.

You might also be inspired by : 13 Blogging Tips for irresistible content

Credit: “Omit the noise and leave the signal,” is a phrase used by Leo Babauta in The 4 Pillars of Writing Exceptional Blogs

Right now, why not share your biggest blogging problem in the comments section below?