Hello From DearBlogger: Blogging 2018 Predictions

Hello Readers!

It’s a new year now, rather quickly eh?

Welcome to Blogging 2018 🙂

We all want to make sure we take what we learned in 2017 and use it to grow our blogs in 2018.

Well in this article, I propose a solution to this desire, this problem.

Do what you do best. Do more of it. Do not mimic others. Dig deeper. Do more of what made you GREAT in 2017.

At the end, I’ll propose a challenge for you guys. Can’t wait to see you there!

2018 is a new year, but not really

The whole concept of a new year is a really excellent one.

Especially for us hibernating under snow covered barns in the midwestern United States.

It allows us to hit reset and shed old fears and restraints in a belief that this year can be different.

That little bit of push forwards can actually make huge differences. For example maybe you take a business meeting you had been avoiding. Maybe just a call or a skype. That little bit of traction and idea generating can lead to a new writing gig that pushes your business forward this year.

But at the same time, like the pessimists say, it’s just another year, another day.

Blogging 2018 is a hoax. It’s just an extension of the blogosphere we’ve always known!

I actually do like when folks say this, because it reminds me that we don’t have to do anything drastically different this year.

For example, in blogging 2018 vs blogging 2017:

• WordPress is still growing fast than ever
• That means honing your skills as a blogger, online marketer, teacher, or designer is increasingly valuable
• Helping people start a blog and learn WordPress is still valuable
• More people will still try to find shortcuts to success and attempt to ruin good business models for us (advertising, affiliate marketing, email marketing)
• Coffee is still a healthy addiction
• Pizza is still an unhealthy addiction
• Will test both above theories regularly
• The more you can get piece of the WordPress pie, the better!

Some things never change.

People read blogs.

But if you believe that sentence, then somethings do change.

For example, how people read blogs, where they go, what Google shows us, and what designs work will change.

And that’s what makes New Years (plural) great. Because we can distill what we learned in previous years, take the good and leave the bad, and move forward harnessing the media hype if we want.

Blogging predictions 2018: how the blogosphere will change

I can break down my blogging predictions into three categories: service, products, and rankings.

Service blogging predictions, what I mean here is that the services you offer to readers on your blog or website are going to be more valuable than ever. The better service you provide to more people, the more successful you are an in turn income you generate. People are going to like free, direct advice more than ever because our attentions spans our only getting shorter. So the same strategies of cutting fluff, writing direct copy, all good. Additionally, free incentives will be at a premium. Free eBooks, PDF downloads, free guides, free phone-chats, everything free will be consumed at increasingly larger rates. You can never have enough free guides on your site. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t charge for some, for example, eBooks too! You should! Because it helps people distinguish between offers. But make sure people can find your free content within about 5 seconds of being on your site.

Products in blogging are expanding. People love products. If you don’t have a “my favorite online products” page with those cute affiliate links, make one. Even if it just includes you theme, hosting, email provider, etc. Make one! You’re going to need this page to refer people to. You can also beef up a blog with real products – like merchandise. Using woocommerce most themes let you add simple products pages. Or if you’re one step beyond this, consider offering real live event tickets or affiliate marketing for events like ProBlogger.net, SocialTriggers.com, and other big names in the blog conference sphere do.

Rankings, aka Google rankings, are the single most important piece of my own blogging operation. That’s because I don’t spend a ton of time marketing on Pinterest, Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, etc. My idea for Google rankings, which I love helping you guys with when you just start a blog, is to create blog posts that pull in massive amounts of traffic. You can create blog posts that rank in Google by following the methods that’ve worked for us all decade: research your competition for specific search queries, then out write them. Then, armed with great posts, get out there and guest blog for huge sites and really show off. Not in a bad way, just show off what you’ve created for the world to inspire others! Guest posts are a great way to let lose and try new tones in your writing. You can become a blog superhero through guest posting, and it all leads back to better Google rankings.

What do you think? Did I miss any important blogging predictions? I surely did — let us know in the comments!!

Do we accept guest posts still?

Yes! Now more so than ever.

If the second half of 2017 was any preview to the future, Dear Blogger can be an ideal place to launch you blogging career to bigger and better heights.

Whether you make a blog with one of our tutorials, are an inspiring blogger with you own blog already and have revolutionary ideas to help the blogosphere, are a budding small business, or just have the itch to write, we want to hear from you!

We’ll have plenty of new guest blogging contests to kick of the year too, with prizes for writers and commenters alike 🙂

What is Dear Blogger up to in 2018?

Ok so let’s cut to the chase.

What will you get here, why read onwards, what’s up at the HQ?

In 2018 I’ll be delivering:

Daily answers to your YouTube comments. The way this works is you guys comment, I answer questions via a video. In the video we try to have fun. YouTube makes me publish every day, I have to in order to keep you guys (my subscribers) so this our way of coping 🙂

More blog posts like the 2013 days. Wow. Has it been that long since we learned Why Blogs Fail to Get Traffic and How To Write Confidently? Guess so. Not sure what happenened in 2014-2017, but I really hope to publish more this year and reconnect with you guys who commented in the early days.

In short, in the past few years we’ve start a YouTube channel (success) and a forum (not a success).

This year I hope re-channel efforts back to the blog to focus on what matters when we make a blog today. It’s obviously not PageRank anymore, but what is it? What matters to new bloggers today?

You can bet we’ll find out.

Where is DearBlogger going this year?

Travel stops this year include (and for all the stalkers out there I do love free coffee and sharing tips in person):

• Panhandle, Florida
• Vail, Colorado
• Santa Barbara, California
• Saigon, Vietnam

That’s all so far for this year, it should be keep blogging happily in 2018, but the last minute travel bug will definitely find it’s way into our lives.

Where will you be this year? Your blogging 2018 challenge…

That’s what interests me most.

1. Where will you be traveling and most importantly where will you be blogging this year?
2. Do you have high inspirations to guest post more, or create more content locally?
3. Do you plan to travel to conferences or just dominate from your kitchen, garden, living room, bedroom etc?
4. What can we do here to best assist you in blogging? 

For example, I’ve been open in talking about how to specifically write blog posts to get more traffic and how to create income streams through affiliate marketing, but sometimes advice just doesn’t rustle trees. Sometimes the world goes unchanged and traffic whizzes right by the right destination. What sort of content would help you the most this year?

Now would be a good place to disclose a goal for 2018: 100K of “you guys” on YouTube.

I know it’s a little nuts. Considering we currently site at 22K and shameless promo has never been our thing ever. At the end of 2016 I actually met with a friend in India who said that if I was smart about things, I could have 100K subscribers in a year. I wasn’t smart. I didn’t put myself out there enough.

But this year, that changes. Blogging 2018 is a whole new ball game. I’ll be putting myself out there more, and networking with other great YouTubers to try and bring more value to you guys and grow overall.

My challenge for you guys

It’s always daunting starting a new year, especially when the last year was good to you!

For example, if you wrote 10 posts last year and 5 of them went viral, how can you ever replicate that?

Well, you can.

You can always improve.

Blogging 2018 is here to stay (for a year).

So in this challenge, I ask you to drop us a link to your best post of 2017, and tell us 1. why it was your best and 2. how you plan to write the amazing sequel.

What did you learn from this epic blog post in 2017 that you can use to create a post of greater magnitude in 2018. We’re all ears and ideas. I’ve definitely been there, 2013 was a year of great posts, and 2014…wasn’t. We don’t want to decline. We want each year to be better!!!

That’s where I’ll end this post. I really do hope to reconnect with you early followers (here or on YouTube) and eager newcomers this year.

P.S. On our YouTube channel we’ll do the daily answers every Mon-Fri. I may need more everyday examples of ways I can write “please subscribe” at the introduction to each video. Help?? 🙂