7 Things I Would Do Differently If I Restart My Blog by Sristhi Agarwal

For the handful of people who know me from social networks or people whom I have met in person, I would love them to know more about what my life is like as a full-time blogger. My progress is a mix of personal & professional and I would love to share it with people more. If I restart my blog, I would update my “About Us” (Including pictures of my workplace, how I spend my day, reach & network with influencers globally, etc.)

Only after starting my blog, I decided on exploring what channels will bring traffic for me. I think this was my mistake. Maybe I should have taken a note of it before. I neglected sources like Pinterest. If I start again, I would make a list of traffic sources.

(PS: These channels will differ for every blogger based on the niche they are working on, the audience they are serving and personal interest, of course!)

I did try my hands on Amazon Associate but had little idea of how affiliate marketing works. Simply adding the affiliate links to the products won’t work. So now I’m learning how affiliate content is worked out. Since it is one of the biggest monetization sources, I would love to plan an affiliate strategy and make a list of products I would like to promote, if I ever start again. (This is a work-in-progress and I’m closely following Gaurav Madaan & Gaurab Borah to keep up with the affiliate trends)

I want to share all my knowledge and experience with other beginners in the form of a free course. I still haven’t done it. But this is something I would love to do if I start my blog again. In fact, this would be my first offering to anyone who ends up on my homepage. (As of now, there is an ebook on SEO of a blog post.)

A free course would have covered more aspects of blogging and also a sequence of how a blog should be planned. It’s already in my to-do list and I hope I will add it soon.

The main reason I started my blog was to earn out of it. I wrote more than 100’s of blog posts for companies and digital agencies as a content writer before launching my blog. I was confident that I could write quality content but didn’t make a plan or list of income sources. Today, I’m working on channels that will help me monetize but yes figuring it out earlier would have been a winning strategy.

I am an avid follower of Neil Patel’s Blog & videos. I find his advice useful & practical. It’s like getting all the information you need on blogging under one roof.

In one of his videos, he stated a great engagement trick. There is a website where you can buy tools from developers. These tools can then be added on your homepage or anywhere on the blog and people who end up using these will be spending more time on your website.

I think this was a great suggestion and this is something I can implement if I start again. Though it's never too late and I’m still searching for that one tool that is applicable or related to what I do.

I believe every blogger is a one-man army. Amidst figuring out so many things and planning topics and keywords and design of the blog, I missed on some SEO techniques.

Doing the on-page SEO of a blog post is not the only SEO you need!

You need to maintain your site by doing essential steps like submitting your blog for Search Console, making a sitemap, adding analytics code to all your pages, choosing an SEO friendly theme for your blog, getting an SSL certificate, etc.

While I knew most of these things, I still lacked info on how to correct a 404 error, factors affecting the loading time of the website, etc. It’s not that these things are tough to execute, it’s about understanding that these things are essential besides posting engaging content. If I restart my blog, I would love to be more educated and plan my SEO.