One Year Birthday: 14 lessons this blog has taught me in the past year

One year ago, I published my first article here: Why You Need a Web Presence.

A lot has happened since then, and the growth has pleasantly surprised me. My readership has increased between 50-70% each of the past 6 months, and that figure is accelerating. More importantly, I’ve met some brilliant people and learned more than I ever could have without blogging.

I’m very grateful to each of you who read my articles, leave a comment, and send a tweet or email: it’s great learning with you. As a way of giving back, I wanted to share some lessons I’m seeing from this experience.

1) Listen to, and write for, individual people

In the first couple months of this blog’s existence, I actively solicited input from potential readers. I literally sat down with hotel owners and marketing professionals, and asked which topics they wanted to know about. The feedback I gathered in person, on the phone, and by email has added a lot of clarity and direction to my writing process.

Each time I sit down to write an article, I’m writing with specific people in mind.

2) Know why you’re blogging

Whether you’re trying to spread ideas or sell a room, this affects everything from the content and style of your posts to your marketing and distribution tactics.

My mission is to empower hotels with the latest internet marketing tactics, so they can book more rooms and serve their guests better. This gives me focus in everything I do.

3) Plan for search optimization from the start

More than half of my readers each day come directly from a Google search.

One of the reasons I named my blog Hotel Marketing Strategies was for the keywords. I wanted to be #1 on Google for that term, and was able to accomplish it fairly quickly. After that happened, I set my sights higher – to be the top results on Google for Hotel Marketing Blog. That too, I achieved.

Now, I’m the #2 website for the ultra-competitive Hotel Marketing keyword – competing with firms with millions in revenue that specifically target that phrase.

4) Blog design is important

I made the mistake of using a sub-par template on this site for far too long. A couple months ago, I did a comprehensive re-design of the site.

Maybe it’s not the prettiest blog around, but my statistics are showing people are reading more articles and staying around longer.

That’s all that matters to me.

5) The Thesis WordPress theme rocks

Yes, they have a lot of affiliate partners saying the same thing…but I’m just saying this because I’ve grown to love the flexibility of the theme. No commission needed!

6) Create an editorial calendar

Bloggers are publishers. Publications have an editorial calendar to manage and plan content. The same benefits apply to anyone with a blog.

7) Mind mapping is a great way to generate post ideas

Darren Rowse explained the process on Problogger, and it’s been one of the most helpful tips I’ve ever come across.

Twitter is probably a blogger’s most powerful tool

From feedback to research to promotion, I haven’t seen anything like it since I started blogging in 2002. In fact, I’ll be publishing an article next week on why Twitter is your blog’s best friend.

9) Email might be better than RSS for subscriptions

I’ll be honest: I’m bit of an RSS fanboy. Maybe it’s because I was involved building one of the first RSS publishing tools, or maybe it’s because I personally subscribe to dozens of blogs via newsfeeds.

So I wouldn’t have learned this unless I was listening to you. Based on feedback I received, people wanted to get updates by email. After asking around a bit, it turned out that a one-email-per-week was best for everyone.

Which is what I now offer here.

10) Leave your blog to grow it

Whether that is writing a comment on another blog or meeting up with a blogger in person, you need to get out there and interact with others.

Isolation slows growth – you need to be a part of the larger community to be successful.

11) Publish good articles elsewhere

After search, articles on industry websites have consistently been the top way new readers find this website. It goes back to the purpose of your blog. Mine is to spread ideas, so it doesn’t matter if people read content here or on another site.

12) But be careful with full syndication

Briefly syndicating all my content to a popular blog exchange actually hurt my Google rankings and overall traffic. The targeted distribution described above has worked far better for me.

13) Keep testing new things

I’m always trying something new. Sometimes the experiments fail, sometimes they do really well.

You never know until you try.

14) Stick with it for the long haul

Depending on your niche, the top bloggers say it takes around 6-12 months of full-time publishing to start getting traction with your blog.

I’m in this game to stay, and that commitment makes me invest more time and resources here.

I’m just getting started!

What’s next

There are a bunch of new projects in development, but right now I’m writing an ebook that explores how the hospitality industry can attract more guests with blogs.

If you want, you can get a notification when it launches.

Again, thanks for being a part of this blog, and I look forward to continuing learning with you!