Blog Audit Challenge 2021

Taking our blogs to the next level

Given the success of the Blog Audit Challenge 2020 I've decided to bring the challenge back again this year. Are you ready to improve your blog? 

You might also like: The Social Media Challenge 2021

Welcome to the Blog Audit Challenge 2021

Whether you took part in a past version of this event, or if you're new to the idea of a blog audit, I hope over the next 12 months that we'll improve our blogs together. 

FYI if you did take part in last years Blog Audit Challenge know that this year won't be the same challenges as before. There will be a few elements that repeat on what we did last year but for the most part the content we'll be covering is new for this year's challenge. 

The Challenges:

Want to join me? 

Sign-up is easy! Simply write a blog post, tweet, Facebook or Instagram post announcing your participation and leave a link to it in the comments below!

Don't forget to promote your participation in the Blog Audit Challenge 2021 by using the following graphic in any blog posts you do connected with the challenge along with a link back to this site. 

Looking for inspiration for your book blog? Check out 101 Blog Post Ideas For Book Bloggers.

Blog Audit Challenge 2020

Welcome back for another month of challenges for the Blog Audit Challenge 2020!

I hope you did well with the July challenges. Remember to link up your progress reports on the 8th August in the Link Up. 

Each month we'll concentrate on a different area of our blogs.

Life is strange for most of us this year with Coronavirus, Lock-downs, etc... If you fall behind with the monthly tasks don't worry. Just catch up when you can. This challenge lasts the whole year. 

The Challenges:

#BlogAuditChallenge2020

August Challenges

Our focus for August is on content gaps. 

We've already looked at our past and current blog content in previous months of this Blog Audit Challenge so we should now have a better idea of the type of blog content we want to produce and why. We've tidied up our older posts and strengthened our writing style, voice, and design. Now it's time to work on filling any content gaps.

A content gap is the difference between what a person is searching for and what they find online. It's the content that is missing from your blog. 

The August challenges:

1. Analyse your current content and look for content gaps

What blog posts are doing the best in terms of traffic and engagement? Is your blog missing additional blog posts that could add to those topics? When you worked on your plan of action for the January tasks you should have identified the direction you want to take your blog. What content are you missing that will help you get closer to your goals for your blog?

2. Visit other blogs in your niche and see what they offer that you don't

I love visiting other book bloggers sites to see what types of content they are producing. It's a great font of inspiration. 

You might also like: 108 Book Blogs To Follow

Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting stealing other people's content. That is a big no no. What I am saying is that if you come across a great blog post on another site on a topic that fits a content gap on your own blog, you can use it as inspiration to write your own unique view of the topic. 

For example, if a blogger did a blog post listing their "top 10 books of all time" you could do the same on your own blog. The books wouldn't be the same. The post would be in your own blogs style, and design. You just adapted the idea for the post. 

This can also be a great way to connect with other blogs in your niche because you can give that blogger a shout out in your post as being the inspiration behind your post. "I saw this blog post about .... on the ....blog and thought it was a great idea. Here's my take on the topic..." (This also does wonders for external link power that we looked at in the June Challenges).

By the end of the month you should have a good list of blog post ideas to fill your content gaps. 

Free downloads: You can grab copies of all the extra materials for the Blog Audit Challenge 2020 for free here. 

Save the Date!

The September challenges will be posted on 2nd September. The monthly link up post for sharing your August progress will be on 5th September. 

You might also like: Exploring CTA's: Different Types of Calls To Action To Use in Your Blog Posts

Don't forget to promote your participation in the Blog Audit Challenge 2020 by using the following graphic in any blog posts you do connected with the challenge along with a link back to this site. 

Blog Audit Challenge 2020

Welcome to the first month of challenges for the Blog Audit Challenge 2020!

Each month we'll concentrate on a different area of our blogs.

The Challenges:

#BlogAuditChallenge2020

January Challenges

Our focus for January is on strategy. Before we jump into updates, tactics, and the more technical SEO aspects of our challenge, we need to lay the ground work and create a plan of action. 

The January challenges will help give us direction and serve as inspiration for the following months.

The January challenges:

1. Create a mission statement for your blog

Sometimes we lose focus of what our blog is about. We drift from topic to topic and can lose sight of our main theme, and in some cases even the reason why we blog. 

Creating a mission statement for your blog will help you remember why you decided to start blogging and what you want your blog to offer it's readers. 

2. Do a SWOT analysis of your blog

If you want to improve your blog you need to look at it like a reader would. What are your blog's strengths and weaknesses? Now look at opportunities and threats. What tools could help you improve your blog? External things that could help you achieve your blogging goals? What external things could be stopping you from reaching your blogging goals?

3. Research

Research others in your niche and see where you can improve. What blogs do you like to read on a regular basis? What is it about them that keeps your interest/do you like/makes you visit? Build an inspiration list of things you could try out on your own blog.

4. Create a content schedule

When it comes to planning your content schedule you need to be realistic. Whilst you might love the idea of posting fresh content every day, or even multiple times a day, that might not be practical for the life style you lead. It's a LOT of work! Two or three posts a week might be more doable. Take into account your other obligations (job, kids, etc...) and work out how much time, and when, you'll have to work on your blog. Once you know that it's much easier to work out a content schedule.

From the above three points you should have a pretty good idea of the sort of content you want to be publishing on your blog. Now you know how many posts you're aiming for each week put the two together and try to work out a rough calendar for your blog (at least a month worth of posts). 

Task number 4 is particularly important as it will help give you an idea of what sort of things you need to work on within your older posts during the rest of the Blog Audit Challenge.

Free download

To make the tasks easier I've created a pdf that breaks it down. You can grab copies of all the extra materials for the Blog Audit Challenge 2020 for free here. 

Don't forget to promote your participation in the Blog Audit Challenge 2020 by using the following graphic in any blog posts you do connected with the challenge along with a link back to this site. 

Save the Date:

The monthly link up post for sharing your January progress will be on 1st February. The February challenges will be posted on 3rd February. 

You might also like: Ways To Write More Creative Book Reviews

Blog Audit Challenge 2020

Welcome back for another month of challenges for the Blog Audit Challenge 2020!

I hope you did well with the October challenges. Remember to link up your progress reports in the Link Up on the 7th November. 

Each month we'll concentrate on a different area of our blogs.

Life is strange for most of us this year with Coronavirus, Lock-downs, etc... If you fall behind with the monthly tasks don't worry. Just catch up when you can. This challenge lasts the whole year. 

The Challenges:

#BlogAuditChallenge2020

November Challenges

Our focus for November is on Press and collaborations. 

We've already done a lot of work towards this months challenge already during the previous months of the Blog Audit Challenge. 

The November challenges:

1. Create a media kit for your blog.

This one file can save you tonnes of time and energy. A professional, up to date, media kit with all the important information about your blog and brand ready to share. 

I already covered the topic of what a media kit is and why you need one in a previous post so I won't go into too many details about it here. 

If you don't have one already now is the time to create one. If you do have one it's probably time for an update. Since I did my last update my stats have changed considerably. Hopefully yours have too. 

2. Work on your Press page.

A great place to upload a copy of your media kit (make it available as a downloadable pdf for easy access) is on your press page. 

Your press page is where you post any materials that could be useful for the media in general (this could be anyone from other bloggers who might want to include you in a feature to TV and radio). Fans will also enjoy using it to keep up with the latest information about you and your brand. 

Items to consider:

• Your media kit
• Social media links
• Official photos and graphics (headshot, events, logo, etc...)
• Press releases
• Place you've been featured

3. Collaborations

In previous months of the Blog Audit Challenge we've touched on the importance of developing readership, building relationships, and being social with others in your niche. Now let's concentrate on leveraging those relationships.

I'm not surprised to see that a lot of the most viewed posts on my blog are ones where I joined forces with others. When you do a blog post that features other people those people drive traffic to the post. They share it on social media. They add the link to their own blogs.

Collaborations are also a great way to keep your content fresh and interesting for your readers. It introduces them to different points of view. 

Collaborations isn't limited to you hosting others on your blog. It includes you being featured on other blogs too... and not only. Why not try some social collaborations too?

Task 1: Do a collaboration on your own blog. 

This can be anything from hosting a guest post or interview, doing a feature post about someone/a business, including quotes from others within your blog post, or working together with another blogger to write a blog post together. 

Collaborating on a blog post with others can be great fun. Do you and another blogger have different opinions about something? Do a post where you both share your views about it. Readers will get a much more rounded picture of the topic.

Task 2: Get someone to host you on their blog. 

The type of content you do will depend on you and the host but it's a great way to reach a new audience, gives you a quality backlink for you site, and strengthens your brand. It's also good for the host as you will be promoting it and bringing new readers to their site. 

You might also like: 108 Book Blogs To Follow

Free downloads: You can grab copies of all the extra materials for the Blog Audit Challenge 2020 for free here. 

Save the Date!

The December challenges will be posted on 2nd December. The monthly link up post for sharing your November progress will be on 5th December. 

You might also like: Exploring CTA's: Different Types of Calls To Action To Use in Your Blog Posts

Don't forget to promote your participation in the Blog Audit Challenge 2020 by using the following graphic in any blog posts you do connected with the challenge along with a link back to this site. 

Blog Audit Challenge 2021

December Link Up

You might also like: The Social Media Audit Challenge 2021

Don't forget to promote your participation in the Blog Audit Challenge 2021 by using the following graphic in any blog posts you do connected with the challenge along with a link back to this site. 

Don't forget to drop by the other links to show your support. 

Blog Audit Challenge 2020

Welcome back for the final month of challenges for the Blog Audit Challenge 2020!

The Challenges:

#BlogAuditChallenge2020

December Challenges

We did it! We're now in the home stretch. Thank you to those of you that have joined me in this adventure over the course of this year. This month we'll be taking a closer look at how we've progressed during the Blog Audit Challenge 2020. 

You guessed it, our focus for December is on know your stats. 

The December challenges:

1. Check your analytics

Whilst most blogging platforms have their own built in stats section where you can view pageviews etc... taking a more in-depth look at the analytics of your site can work wonders. Google Analytics is free to use and offers some great insight into the workings of your site. Check your stats with them here:  https://analytics.google.com/analytics/

Yes pageviews are important. Increasing the traffic to your site should be one of your top priorities as a blogger. Having good traffic to your blog can be a great way to secure sponsorship and other benefits too so the higher the better. 

Pageviews aren't the only stat you should be looking at though. Another important stat you should consider is the session duration of your visitors. How long are people staying on your site when they visit? Again, the higher the better. You want to keep your bounce rate to a minimum, and ideally have visitors clicking from one blog post to another... to another. 

If you remember we discussed this back in the June challenges when our topic for the month was targeted to links. A good place to check to see what internal links are working on your blog is the "user flow" which will show you the post that brought the visitor to your blog and which posts they then clicked on from there up until they left your site. Once you do this you will then know which older posts you can improve to increase session duration for your site. 

You might also like: Want To Increase Your Blog Traffic? Ways To Upgrade Old Blog Posts

With analytics you can go further into demographics of your visitors, interests, location, the technology they use to view your site, and more. All of which is information you can use to improve your blog. 

If you're new to analytics, or even if you've used it before, I suggest taking at least the beginners course offered by Google at Analytics Academy. It's completely free, doesn't take much time to do, and teaches quite a lot about the different elements of the analytics dashboard, why they are important and how to use them. You can even earn yourself a free certificate of completion to add to your CV. Here's mine:

2. Use your stats to plan for the new year

Where is your traffic coming from?

Which are your most popular blog posts?

Which are your least popular posts?

How can you improve your bounce rate and user flow?

Is your blog mobile friendly?

What worked? What didn't?

Use what you've learnt during the Blog Audit Challenge 2020 and from studying your blog statistics to build a solid plan for your blog for 2021. 

3. Plan your content calendar for January

Map out the blog posts you intend to create for publishing to your blog in January so you can start the new year with a bang. You can of course, plan further months too if you wish. 

Take into consideration information like "which days get the most traffic" when scheduling posts for publication. 

Also consider how you promote your blog posts and use social media to build your blog brand. Think about what changes you could make, new sites you could try out, etc...

You might also like: 108 Book Blogs To Follow

Free downloads: You can grab copies of all the extra materials for the Blog Audit Challenge 2020 for free here. 

Save the Date!

The monthly link up post for sharing your December progress will be on January 2021. 

You might also like: Exploring CTA's: Different Types of Calls To Action To Use in Your Blog Posts

Don't forget to promote your participation in the Blog Audit Challenge 2020 by using the following graphic in any blog posts you do connected with the challenge along with a link back to this site.