Since I got so much love for my last post about blog stats (and how to keep them in perspective so you don’t drive yourself crazy), I thought I’d share a little more about blogging!
Today it’s in the form of 3 simple things you can do today to optimize your blog!
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Hey all! Hope you had a great weekend! Mine was spent mostly… 
cleaning. all. the. things. [And pinning all the things. Obviously.]
Mr. Dave was out of town shooting orange flying discs with his fancy new gun (please recall that we were both born and bread in Nebraska, so this is a fairly normal thing where we are from.), I was left to my own devices..which turned out to be doing some massive cleaning slash organizing.
I can only take a tornado of a home for so long before I go bonkers. It really does help when I don’t have much for plans or a Dave to say, “Oh I was going to use that for…” when I’m trying to get rid of some junk. I may or may not live with a pack-rat (whom I love dearly!).
I really should have taken some before and after pictures.
Anywho,
when I wasn’t cleaning or doing a weekend shift at the cafe so I could sleep in Monday (great decision, let me tell you) or telling my Sims what to do, I was working on blog things.
You see, in addition to getting in cleaning #allthethings moods, I also get into optimize #allthethings on the blog moods.
What does it mean to optimize your blog?
Well…it depends on what you want to optimize, but basically it just means to make it more awesome. I’ve been working on a number of things to make each post I write count. Who doesn’t want to get the biggest bang for their buck when they spend hours putting together quality content??
Money and Blogging:
Some of these products I’m going to discuss are free and some of them cost money. When I started my blog 4 years ago, I would have never dreamed of spending a dime on it, but long story short (one that I will discuss in a different post) I am now working to make money blogging and sometimes to make money, you gotta spend money.
Through the countless hours I’ve spent obsessing over my blog (with much trial and error and money spent in areas that probably weren’t worth it), I thought I’d share some tools that I’ve come to love and with which I’ve come to find real value. 
I really think these things can help boost blog traffic which means you are getting more eyes on your lovely posts you’ve worked so hard on!!
(Note: there are a couple of affiliate links coming up! I only become an affiliate when I truly believe in a product and as always…I appreciate your support for my baby blog!)
3 Ways to Optimize Your Blog Today:
1. Optimize your blog ‘s mobile site.
There are tons of mobile users now that read blogs on their phones..and the numbers increase by the day! But until recently, I totally ignored my blog’s mobile site.
Seriously, mine was bad guys.
I have started reading more blogs on my phone and happened to check on Diary of a Semi-Health Nut about a month ago when I realized it took about a year to load and it just looked… weird.
Not cool.
Who has time for a page to load on their phone? My guess is that most people click out of the page after 30 seconds. 
Through lots of searching and looking through reviews, I found a pretty sweet plugin called WPtouch. Since I’ve downloaded it and played around with the different themes I’ve noticed many other bloggers use it too. That made me feel much better when I decided to download the pro version: WPtouch Pro.
The pro version has more options with themes, sharing and customization. Pretty much I decided to buy it because of one theme I wanted that worked for both mobile AND tablets as well as the ability to show ads, but I’ve gotten so much more out of it!
It won’t have all of the blog widgets from your site, but it will open a zillion times faster (all of those widgets take TIME to load) and you can add some of those options back on with the WPtouch customizations (colors, fonts, themes, add-ons, share buttons, follow buttons, related posts, etc)…things that even I, a non-programmer can figure out.
In a world where we are constantly on our phones, it’s best to make sure your blog works well on mobile devices!
2. Optimize your blog ‘s e-mail subscriptions.
Davida did a great vlog on why e-mail subscriptions matter and it really made sense to me. It’s a great way to communicate directly with your loyal followers and a great way to ensure readers receive your latest posts!
Honestly, I never cared much about my e-mail subscriptions and had no idea what those subscribers were getting sent to their inbox (probably something super boring from my RSS feed!) BUT I have seen the light!
Now I use the free version of MailChimp and have created and formatted my e-mails that go out so it looks pretty, professional and I also give subscribers a few different link options to choose from right in the e-mail (recent posts, current giveaways, recent recipes, etc.). 
I also recently e-mailed my subscribers and notified them my last giveaway was ending soon and I had many clicks showing that was appreciated!
I like that MailChimp is free, fairly easy and has stats so you can tell which e-mails are being opened and which ones actually drive traffic to your blog. You can even check your stats (although not too often, remember!) on your phone with the mobile app!
Speaking of e-mail subscriptions, you should probably sign up for an e-mail subscription now because I’m working on more exclusive content for e-mail subscribers! (PS MailChimp’s affiliate program benefits both the NEW user AND the referring user!)
I am also using a tool that has a giant pop-up called OptinMonster that encourages readers to sign-up to subscribe via e-mail. Initially, I wasn’t sure on spending money on something like this, but in just the past month, I’ve had 19 conversions, or 19 people, sign-up for e-mail subscriptions using the OptinMonster plugin. I’m gonna be really frank with you and say that I barely have over 100 e-mail subscribers right now—so that’s huge!
There are so many options on customizing OptinMonster and you can also make sure it only pops up once every x days for an individual user (so as not to bug your lovely readers too much!). You can even set it up so it only pops up on the second page a user visits since that means the reader is more likely interested in your e-mail subscription.
E-mail subscribers create a loyal following and drive traffic to your site, so definitely consider adding something to encourage readers to sign-up!
3. Optimize your blog with quality images.
I’ve been using Picmonkey the past couple of years and just love it. Why? It’s easy, quick and looks professional. My good designer friend Calee has even complimented my graphics more than once after I started using Picmonkey.
Yes, I have to be online when I use it, but right now I am not willing to spend over a thousand bucks and hours of time learning just to edit my photos with Photoshop. (Sorry, Lee.) Not just yet anyhow. Who knows when I will take the plunge?
This isn’t to say I use the free version of Picmonkey, because I do use the “royal version” of Picmonkey. Honestly, I was just tired of not being able to use all of the “royal” features (fonts, overlays, editing tools) and since it costs the price of a cup of coffee per MONTH and I feel like I use it on a daily basis, it’s worth it in my book. Plus it’s freaking fun and addictive if you’re a creative nerd like me. 
If you like the images and graphics on this blog…I’d suggest taking a look at Picmonkey. I’m no graphic designer and really am not great with computers, so this should show you how simple PicMonkey is!
Optimizing your blog images is a key way to get in good with Pinterest. You know, that site that is many bloggers’ top refferal for traffic!
And that, my friends is another story as well!
[Tweet “3 ways to optimize your blog for better traffic today! #blogging #bemoreawesome”]
I hope this post was helpful! I am also planning at least 3 other posts about blogging including: making money, growing your Pinterest following and a PicMonkey tutorial (or ten!). Please let me know if you want me to clarify anything or if you have questions! I don’t know everything, but I’ve definitely learned a lot over these past few years! 🙂
I also have a sweet giveaway coming, I’m hosting the monthly nutrition/fitness/health link-up Did You Know this Friday, and a delicious recipe involving bacon coming your way…stay tuned!!
Tell me….
Do you use any tools like these? Which ones?
Are you using my mobile site right now? What do you think? Is it easy to comment?
PS I’m all about Pinterest this year, so I would LOVE IT if you could pin one (or two!) of these images. <–Use this handy dandy button to display the whole list of pins (if you’re on a mobile device, this “pin it” one works best!). If there is a link below the image, make sure to use that link to pin as it links to the source.
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Great ideas! I use WP Touch, not pro, and I like it. I should probably revisit my settings though. And you’re not the only one who has mentioned email newsletters lately…I think that’s a leap I’m going to have to take soon. Thanks for sharing!
Have you ever tried the photo editing site Canva? I used to use PicMonkey, but now I’ve switched. They have more items and the only time you pay is if you use certain items, but you pay per item, not an overall fee for the month. In the few months I’ve been using the site, I’ve never needed to pay for anything. Also, it SAVES all your designs to the site, so you can edit them later or revisit images you’ve uploaded, etc.
Seriously the “newsletter” isn’t so bad once you have it all set up and formatted the way you want it to look! Mine goes out automatically every day when there is a new post now! And if I want to send a message to my e-mail subscribers, I already have my template all set up!
I haven’t even heard of Canva, but heading over to check it out right now! 🙂
Great tips, I did not know about a lot of these. I need to spend some time on my mobile site, but unfortunately I use blogger, so I cannot use the link you recommended 🙁 Thanks for sharing, I will use the other tips!
Oh man, I used Blogger for about 3 years so I know the pain of not being able to use all of the WP tools! I’d say just switch over haha but it’s a pretty big deal to make the switch. Glad some of this helped you! 🙂
My thing with Mailchimp is that you yourself would have to design the newsletters, instead of them going out automatically with whatever new post you have.
Hey Linda! I thought that too, but it’s not the case! If you have an RSS feed, there is a way to have MailChimp just send your new posts each day and that’s exactly what I do! 🙂
Linda- It may take a few mins to set up the email on mailchimp, but once it’s done it will send out automatically. It also looks significantly nicer than any of the wordpress or feedburner RSS feeds. Just my two sents.
Amanda-Thanks for including my video. Which reminds me, must do part two!
Exactly, Davida! I guess I should have said that work does go into it, but then it will automatically send each day (or week/month depending on how it’s set up).
YES! Please do part two!!
On your suggestion I started using Picmonkey (the free version), and I love it. I’m terrible with technology, but its an easy way for a newbie blogger to make decent looking photos with text overlay.
Seriously, I’m obsessed with Picmonkey! So easy and it makes a huge difference!
Posts like this are great for getting ideas on how to improve our blogs. Thanks! I recently found out how easy it is to use Picmonkey to add words to photos.
I absolutely love Picmonkey! Glad you enjoyed this post!!
I am SH*TACULAR when it comes to photos on my blog, LOL!! Oh and I need some EXTREME HELP when it comes to cleaning up the FOOTER in my blog too!! Help ME??!?!?!?!
Omg have you seen my footer? I have a hard time taking things off haha and if I do…I add other things!
Get thee to Picmonkey! So easy to use!!!
I love Picmonkey too. Also debating whether to invest some more blog… you are right though you have to take the plunge to make money!
You really have to think big picture when investing in your blog! If small changes can make you money down the road then it’s worth it in my opinion!
Great tips, lady! Once I start tinkering with things on my blog, I find that hours upon hours can go by without me even noticing… or even having much to show for it in the end! It’s crazy how much goes on behind the scenes when you blog. Right now I really have to get my e-mail subscriptions in order. I have Hellobar and MailChimp, but I still need to work on setting them both up properly. Womp, womp.
Omg seriously! I have to limit when I mess with my blog because YES hours can go by! I might be doing a MailChimp tutorial and I think I will include setting up the Hellobar too because I had issues with getting it to link to my MailChimp list at first. I had to start a new Hellobar item after setting up MailChimp since it wouldn’t show my list.
What great tips! I will look into MailChimp for sure, and PicMonkey is fab!
Yes definitely look into MailChimp and use the link in the post! We both get a credit once you sign up..even just using the free version!! 🙂
Picmonkey is my Favorite!! I’ll admit to still having no idea what I’m doing with my mailchimp/hellobar accounts… I know they’re supposed to be linked but as far as I can tell I haven’t quite gotten that right yet. It’s so true what you said about falling down the rabbit hole in terms of time once you start working on blog stuff 😉
Picmonkey is my favorite too!! Let me know if you have questions about linking your Hello bar! I had to start a new thing on the Hello bar since I opened my MailChimp account after. 🙂
And yes…blog improvements suck hours out of my life and sometimes I end up changing everything back to where it was haha.