21 Tips Health Bloggers Need to Know Now

I gave away free blog coaching calls to 10 health bloggers for two main reasons:

1) To learn as much as I could about what problems real health bloggers face, in order to make this blog better.

2) To learn if I could provide enough value to offer blog coaching as a paid service.

I'm happy to say that the calls were a huge success, on both counts.  I haven't finalized the details about exactly what type of services I'll offer, but look for more on that in the coming weeks.

But even more importantly…

I learned a TON about what information health bloggers need to know, now.

The good news, for you, is that even if you didn't win one of those free calls, you still benefit, right now.  This post contains 21 of the most important concepts that came up time and time again during the free coaching calls.

Sure, no list can replace personalized, targeted coaching for your specific blog.  But chances are, most of these tips apply to you, just as they did to so many of the bloggers I talked to.  (And that I'm giving this information away is a perfect example of #13 in action.)

The 21 Most Crucial Tips for Health Bloggers

So enjoy the fruits of 10 hours of carefully examining 10 blogs and in depth conversation with the awesome bloggers behind them.

This is valuable stuff.  I hope you put it to use.

Search Engine Optimization

1. SEO is more about getting quality links than about tweaks of meta-tags or anything else.  If you've tried SEO and nothing's happening, you need to get more links.

2. The best way to get quality links from bigger blogs is to guest post.  You have to actively seek out opportunities.

3. Linking out to other bloggers with related topics is great for building relationships and for SEO. Having a huge blogroll probably is not.

4. SEO and social media are two sides of the same coin: Bloggers and others with the power to link use social media, so when your stuff spreads on social media, it gets seen by people who can link and help your authority in Google's eyes. Search engines follow people. (I wish I could remember who said this; I learned it from Brian Clark at Copyblogger.)

Social Media

5. Pick one or two social media channels to really commit to and get good at. Build a following of people who look forward to the stuff you share (most of which is NOT your stuff). Then when you do share your stuff, they'll care.

6. Use Twitter as a research tool. Figure out what the top bloggers and Twitter users care about, since they're the ones you want links and retweets from. Then give it to them.

7. Write headlines so good that people want to share them even before they read your posts.

8. If you have written homerun posts that didn't spread or attract the search traffic you had hoped, go back and delete the opening paragraph about your dog's trip to Niagara Falls. People don't want to share stuff when it has that fluff at the beginning. Then promote it again. Do this on any post that you're linking to in a landing page.  Finally, stop writing about your dog's travels.

Making Your Traffic "Sticky"

9. When someone new shows up at your blog, you have a few seconds to hook them. Put links to your absolute best stuff, either landing pages or individual posts, right there on the homepage so they'll find it, bookmark it, and share it.

10. Make your About page about the blog, not you. Think of it as a sales page, with the sale you're trying to make being a subscription to your blog. Put a "Subscribe" link or email form at the end, as the call to action.

11. Make it easy to subscribe to your blog. Don't forget that most internet users have no idea what RSS is, so make it clear that they can get posts in their inbox.

12. Use your blog title, tagline, and navigation links to make it immediately clear to a new visitor (and Google) what your blog is about. Ask someone who doesn't know to make sure it's obvious.

Making Money from Your Blog

13. Absolutely, positively don't hold back your best stuff because you want to sell it one day. If you want to build a readership, you have to give away great content for free.

14. Most health blogs seem to be more about entertainment than education. Focusing on education is a way to distinguish yourself, and it's a lot easier to monetize with e-books, membership sites, and other information products than entertainment is.

15. If making this switch seems scary, realize that your readers won't abandon you because you fail to tell them about your day a few times.  Write a couple really informative posts and promote them, pay attention to the results, and use that information to decide what direction to take.  (Want to see it in action?  Look at a few No Meat Athlete posts from November or December of 2009, and then look at everything since then.  Readership has gone up 25-40% every month since I made the shift.)

16. If you're trying to sell something, the sales copy should emotionally engage the reader, stress benefits to the reader rather than features of the product, and better say "you" way more than it says "I."

17. On second thought, your blog should read that way even when you aren't selling something.

18. Study copywriting if you want to get better at this type of writing.  I like Robert Bly's book (affiliate link).

19. The area above the fold is the most valuable on your blog. Replace low-paying ads with links or graphic ads for your own stuff.

20. Especially if your blog is part of a business, email autoresponders are a great way to establish trust over a period of time.

21. Think of blogging as "content marketing": You give away tons of free information to establish so much trust, credibility, and authority that buying from you is a no-brainer.

Really, I hope you put this stuff to use.  Learning is worthless unless you take action.