There is understandably a lot of chat and concern in the blogging world about the impact of ChatGPT and programmes using Artificial Intelligence to produce content. I strongly believe that while it is right to recognise the threats these advances pose we also need to acknowledge they bring with them opportunities and more importantly, they aren't going to go away. ChatGPT might be the buzzword right now, but there are many other programmes working in a similar way. The point of the internet is to make information easily available which inevitably means others will use that information, combine it and produce something new. 

I asked ChatGPT the same question after writing this post. I think bloggers are safe for now

I knew that I had written the best post on the subject. It was more comprehensive than anything else out there and clearly written. It should have performed brilliantly, but I wasn’t getting the expected traffic. After I changed the post's name click throughs from Google doubled overnight. Find out what I did and why it worked below.

Why changing the name of a blog post can increase click throughs from Google

If you have read any posts advising how to get traffic to your blog you should be under no doubt that SEO is really important. It is the best way to reliably get traffic to your site which can ultimately translates into providing an income. Absolutely key to SEO though is choosing the right topics to blog about and that can be a challenge. Fortunately there are lots of apps and tools out there to help. They can help you choose keywords for posts and even plan the content, but are the paid for tools really worth it? Not always. So before you splash the cash find out how to decide if you should invest based on your current blog size and growth strategy.

Will a paid SEO keyword tool make your search traffic grow?

I absolutely love blogging and the flexibility it has given me over the last few years to earn a living, but what advice would I give to someone considering giving up their full time job to blog? “Don't do it!" Or at least not until you have thought very carefully. 

I have been blogging for over 10 years and in that time I have seen many people leave jobs to work on their blog full time, with mixed success. I have also seen many people who have decided that the right thing for them is to go back to work. A blog can earn the same amount or more than a traditional job, but the self employed life isn’t for everyone and it might be an idea not to give up your day job before you are absolutely sure you are ready.

Is giving up your job to blog full time the right choice for you?

Argh I can’t believe I just turned that down. Did I do the right thing? If you find yourself asking these questions then let me reassure you: the answer is probably yes. Everybody loves to be offered money and exciting opportunities and the more you need the money the harder it is to turn down. Add in the social expectation of saying "yes" and many of us feel that we shouldn't turn offers down. But often saying no is the best thing to do. When you get offered opportunities you need to think about whether they are right for you and your business.  If you want to grow a successful business you should only say yes if it's right for you.

Saying "no" to new work opportunities can be the best thing for your business

I recently read a press release by a company looking for reviews and it set off alarm bells in my head. A quick bit of Googling and I discovered the company didn’t have the history it claimed and wasn’t located where they said they were. I don’t know if everything else was real, but it was enough red flags to stay clear. If influencers work with that company and share the information provided in good faith they would be misleading their audience. It might not be intentional, but they would still be misleading them. 

It is widely known that you need to optimise websites and blog posts for keywords, but the importance of choosing the right keyword is often overlooked. Your page can be optimised perfectly for a keyword, but it needs to be one that people are actually searching for and where the competition isn’t too high. So how do you decide what topics to post about and how do you choose the best keywords?

Think about what you write about, your niche, your main topics and start there. Think about what people might be searching for in those areas and make a list. Need help with ideas? That’s ok the internet can help, after all that’s where people are searching for the answers you want to provide.

It's not just about optimising your posts, first you need to choose the right keywords

Making a living as a blogger or influencer is a flexible and rewarding job, but the income often isn't reliable. How bloggers make the most money shifts over time and the opportunities for earning across social media platforms change.  When it comes to being a blogger or influencer it is wise advice not to put all your eggs in one basket. You need to ensure that you are protected against changing circumstances.

Diversifying your blogging income can help make your earnings more reliable

There are a huge number of professional bloggers earning money through their blogs and with more people starting to monetise every day one of the questions asked a lot by bloggers is: how much should I charge? This post is a guide to how much you should charge for a sponsored post, guest post or link insert. It doesn’t cover brand work (which you should be paid more for), but rather work where you are being paid to place a link. 

A Guide To How Much To Charge for Guest Posts and What To Consider

If you want people to find your content online then it is critical that is well optimised for SEO. You can use a plugin which will give you tips (Yoast is popular with Wordpress based bloggers), but it pays to have a basic understanding of SEO yourself. You can easily make some simple changes to your existing web content to make it more likely to be found when people search for topics you can help them with. How do you do this? There are a few tricks that help search engines understand what your content is about which are explained in this post.

Understanding a little bit about SEO can really improve your success in search results

You might love writing, but if you have chosen to publish a blog rather than a private online notebook there is a good chance you want people to actually read it. If you are checking your stats month after month and seeing hardly any visitors it is disheartening so how do you get more people to read your blog?

8 ways to get more people to read your blog post

What Is DA?

DA stands for Domain Authority. It is a ranking metric created by Moz to give a quick way to assess the authority of a website and how well it is likely to do on search engines like Google. All websites have a DA, although it can take a while for new websites to get picked up. The DA of a website will be somewhere between 1 and 100, the higher the number the more authority a website can be considered to have.

You can check your DA for free on Moz

When I tell people "I'm a blogger" the most common question I am asked is “how do you make money through by blogging?”.  The answer tends to be a little longer than most people are interested in, other than those interested in having a blog themselves, but fortunately for those wanting to earn through their blog there are lots of ways you can make money. While there is nothing wrong with having a “hobby blog” (a non-monetised blog you do just for enjoyment), most people will want to at a minimum cover their costs and many bloggers earn a good regular income. So how can you make money with a blog?

There are lots of ways you can earn money through your blog

If you are thinking of starting a blog there are a lot of things to think about, so where do you start? Whether you are considering adding a blog to your business website or starting a blog from scratch here are 5 things to think about before you start.

For a successful blog you need a bit of planning before you start