Browsing Tag

Blogging

My year in overview

Wrapping up 2016 and getting ready for 2017 couldn’t be more exciting. This year was very important for me and the blog and all what I have done over the past five years finally materialised.

I started the blog in 2011 as a hobby. Over the past years I did an event management degree, volunteered at events, did internships and was employed. When I started the blog my aim was to network with the global events community and share my experiences. Over the years it evolved, and by recognising gaps in the market in event education, my goal became to create educational content for event professionals. This I achieved with #EventPlannersTalk Twitter chat and Live Events.

Blog post every day in November – I’ve made it!

Done. Accomplished. I’ve completed the “Blog post every day in November challenge”. First of all it’s a great feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment as I’ve never done something like this before, in the six years of blogging.

Beginning of the year when I wrote my resolutions, I decided that in 2016 I want to take the challenge and blog every day during one month. As an event blogger, I always found it difficult to blog every day because I go to so many events which take place usually in the evenings, or go to events twice a day, or go on fam-trips with tight schedules, so it felt almost impossible to blog daily.

How to increase traffic to your event management blog

On Monday I participated in #EventBlogChat, a monthly chat for global #eventpros that takes place every first Monday of the month from 9 – 10pm GMT. This month’s topic was about how to increase blog traffic and was a good topic to kick off the year as this year I definitely want to increase mine.

High blog traffic doesn’t come from itself or overnight, you need to actively promote your blog online and offline. If you google “how to increase blog traffic” you will come up with an overwhelming number of results, tricks and tips on how to improve your traffic. But in this post I want to keep it very simple for event planners, share takeaways from what other successful event bloggers experience.

Create content others want to share

Megan suggested that she has been looking at what similar, more successful blogs put out that gets shared and also, what she would want to read or what she have enjoyed experiencing, both professional and personal.

Rosa looks at what content gets more attention on social media and Cecilia added that she looks at trending content from others and what conversations you can contribute/ add value to.

Lastly I added that I experience with different types of content to see what works best and stories that are based on personal experience and learning are shared more.

Use social media to increase traffic to your blog

Rosa suggested that social media platforms are helpful since a lot of people love sharing stuff, although there’s a lot of competition.

I added that bloggers must use social media to promote their content and promote same article multiple times across various platforms. Social media allows bloggers to reach out to their target audience and also improved SEO.

Caitlin suggested engaging with regular readers, understanding their interests and questions and tailor towards that insight.

Cecilia said to use social media as your blog’s marketing tool and share across platforms to amplify exposure, e.g. – promote in relevant groups on LinkedIn and forums.

Lastly, Megan added to repost on social media when a current event coincided with a past post.

Collaborate with other bloggers, brands or events

Cecilia said that collaboration with other bloggers or brands can help reach new and different audiences and I added that other bloggers, brands and events that have big numbers of followers can increase your exposure.

Promote your blog offline

Don’t underestimate the power of face-to-face, especially in an industry as ours where “people buy from people”. When networking at events, talk about your blog, connect with your audience and accept speaking engagement to expose yourself to new audience and talk about your content.

Guest post on other blogs

Guest posting on other blogs is recommended, according to Cecilia, because sharing expertise and experience diversifies your blog content for your audience, good for your SEO and you can gain new readers.

Set goals

Last but not least, you can improve your traffic only by comparing it to your previous analytics, therefore it’s recommended setting up goals how much you want your traffic to increase over certain period of time. Best tool to track your progress is google analytics to see new and returning readers, bounce rates, source/ medium, SEO and more and try to improve with each blog post.

What other tips do you have for event bloggers?