Since the dawn of blogging, bloggers have been creating communities of fans based on their specialties and passions. From fashion & beauty, to decorating and even cooking blogs, I have seen many of my favorites take off to blog superstardom. This superstardom for some, includes now making a living off of writing about their interests, with advertisers and affiliates helping to make this possible.

Photographers don’t seem to be hitting the same mark though. Specifically, photographers who are targeting the general public as their target audience (not necessarily the ones targeting other photographers). Why is this?

First off, if you are comparing the two types of photographers, I think it’s pretty obvious that readers are flocking to the photographers with products (workshops, etc) to learn! This means they are sharing things of value, right? Well, photographers whose target is the general public are sharing their imagery, but that has less value to people. Gorgeous images are great, but being able to learn and grow from a blog will keep them coming back for more. Plus the more variety of content you come up with, the more your blog will stand out from the rest. At the moment, most photographers blogs blend together in a big blur of the exact same types of posts.

From my research, it seems clear to me that other blogs create more variety and excitement by sharing, offering more things of value and creating more variety than most of us photographers do. They offer giveaways, have contests, ask questions of their readers, and so on. I don’t see many photographers doing this. We, for the most part, stick to just showcasing our work. While it is still necessary to show our latest and greatest, we also need to find a balance so that we don’t come across as boring or, even worst, self absorbed. It all comes down to thinking about our readers more and encouraging their participation.

With every post, you should be considering your audience. Think about your dream client and what they might be doing at the moment, where they might read your blog from, their greatest desires as well as their biggest fears. Who are they? Put yourself in their shoes while you begin your writing process. What is it you think they want to learn about? How can you help them with something? Or better yet, how can your business help them with something? These are things you will want to try to address in each and every post.

A few other blogging tricks that can help make your blog more popular:

Get Inspired

Make it a habit of looking at successful blogs in all sorts of different categories. You can learn how to be a better blogger by studying how they interact with their readers. Dissect their most popular posts and ask yourself how you could apply the same principles to some of your own blog posts.

A few of the top blogs according to Bloglovin.com (pulled from different categories):

The Beauty Department http://thebeautydepartment.com

Coco & Kelley http://www.cocokelley.com

A Beautiful Mess http://abeautifulmess.typepad.com

Confessions of a Pioneer Woman http://thepioneerwoman.com

Casey Leigh http://www.thewiegands.com

Fashion Toast http://www.fashiontoast.com

The Skinny Confidential http://theskinnyconfidential.com

Smitten Kitchen http://smittenkitchen.com

Design Sponge http://www.designsponge.com

Make your blog drop-dead gorgeous

If your blog is a cluttered mess, people are not going to want to stick around for very long. But if it is smartly designed, people aren’t going to want to leave it!

As an ex-graphic designer, I can attest to the ability of a pro being able to create something gorgeous for you. In fact, almost all of the bloggers that have risen to fame hired someone for this very reason. However, I know this isn’t always feasible for everyone. For those of you that can’t afford a designer, there are some great inexpensive templates to be found these days that you can put together yourself. Just make sure it is cohesive with your brand, is easy to read, has attractive design elements that not only speak to your brand but your ideal client.

Be Unique

Being unique is the single most important thing you can do for your blog...and business! Be different! Be you! Your objective is to stand out from the crowd. Make it a priority to find what makes you unique and show that to the world.

Share with your audience

• Read a book lately that you just know your potential clients would love too? Share the amazon link with them with a little review.
• Have you found a blog that might interest them? Well, share the link, girlfriend!
• Have a favorite beauty tip? Don’t be stingy. Talk it up!
• Ask questions. Get them involved.

Sharing is caring. Your readers will appreciate that you are so generous with them.

Give them something of value...for FREE.

Think you don’t have anything to give? Think again! You are a photographer who takes gorgeous images!

Get out there and do a photo shoot specifically for your blog readers. I suggest safe subjects like flowers, nature, street scenes, or whatever tickles your fancy really. Then create a download for that image that they can use as their desktop image (for example).

Create a Series

A series, if engaging enough, will keep readers coming back time and time again. Consider creating a series on a weekly roundup of interesting tidbits or a monthly 'Fashion for Photo Shoots’ series. Look to different magazine’s, in their Table of Contents, for other series ideas.

Series can be done weekly or monthly, just make sure you keep to your schedule with them, otherwise readers will come to think you aren’t doing them anymore and will quickly fade away or find another blog that stays on it.

Build Relationships

Get out from under your own blog and begin sharing in other blog communities. Again, think like your ideal client. What blogs would she be most interested in? Seek them out and become a regular by adding interesting comments to their blog posts. This is a great way of networking from the comfort of your own home.

There are rules for commenting though, so be sure to abide by them. When commenting, you do not want to come across as soliciting. Do not enter your website information in the comment area itself. That is a big blogging no-no. But, DO enter your url in the specified spot for it under where you enter your name. If your comment is engaging enough, people will click your name to get to your website.

Guest Bloggers

Invite other bloggers that you admire to be a guest blogger. Your readers will enjoy seeing you branch outside of your business this way by showcasing people you think they will find interesting.

Giveaways and Contests

If you want to increase your readership in a hurry, offer a giveaway or contest. I recently did this by going out and finding an item I wanted to give away (it was a very affordable necklace and bracelet set), then photographing it and blogging about it. Easy peasy. The easiest way to select a winner I have found is with a site like random.org.

Be a Tease

Stretch posts out into two or three parts, so that your readers make sure to tune in the next day. Hint towards upcoming posts to build excitement. Post a behind the scenes video or an element or detail of a past post. Keep them on the edge of their seat!

Schedule Posts

Scheduling posts is a huge time-saver and will save you when you just don’t have the time to blog anything. Afterall, we are all busy enough running the rest of our businesses, right?

Scheduling posts works especially great for series. You can push out 5 posts in one day and just schedule them all out to be published on specific dates. This can also work wonderfully for guest blogger posts, and well, anything really.

Watch your analytics

After you have begun experimenting with these different types of blog posts, you are going to need to figure out which ones stick. This is where Google Analytics comes in. You can see what your most popular posts are so you can be sure to create more like them! You can see where your readers live and where they are finding you. You can even set up goals to track more specific things like your contests, how engaged they are, and so much more. Google Analytics is, by far, the best tool to be able to see how effective your posts really are. Although, comments are always nice too!

So, now that you have a few new blogging tools under your belt, it’s time for you to get out there and start experimenting. Have fun with your blogging endeavors and your readers will have fun right along with you!  And, before you know it, Superstar blogger status, here you come!

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