Let’s be honest. Blogging is not for everyone because you, as a blogger, have to stay on top of the trends in blogging in order to be seen and connect with an ideal audience. If you didn’t know what people like these days, then your blog might get passed over within seconds. (All it takes is a click!)

Not only are you faced with appealing to your audience with current trends, but you’ve also got to keep that content fresh and more reasons for your reader to come back. So, I thought it would be important to discuss the current trends in blogging and what “HACKS” you can tackle this summer to gain more ideal readers and have a fresh blog.

You’re an influencer instead of a blogger

That’s right. The term blogger is headed on its way out. Bloggers these days are not only interested in writing great content. They’re typically interested in influencing their readers to do something, whether it is improving their business, their health, or their love life – bloggers are not solely interested in writing content. They are out to help and make a difference. In fact, many bloggers prefer the term influencer because they aren’t solely writing on their blogs. Some of them have tens of thousands of followers on Instagram or twitter and their words are being shared with the world in bite sized junks.

If you’re looking for more ways to become an online influencers, you can download this useful list of 9 tricks to becoming the influencer you always wanted to become with your blog.

Stop worrying about page views – It’s all about the engagement

You may have thought the number of views you have on your google analytics report was something to care about, but you’d be mistaken. If you’re getting 100 views a day and no email subscribers, then you’re doing something wrong. If you truly want to be an influencer within your niche and help people, driving engagement from your readers should be something you are striving for everyday. It’s less about the numbers and more about the impact.

Are you connecting with readers and making an impact with your blog? Here are some ideas for attracting more email subscribers and engagement.

Graphics are key!

People love imagery. We’re visually creatures with multiple senses that stimulate us and gives us strong desires to do things. If a blog has great graphics, its no wonder it will stimulate an emotional response from readers so that they share it with their friends and subscribe too. Now that bloggers are going with more minimal website designs, those graphics are becoming more and more important. Using the right tools and graphics, with the proper branding techniques, will elevate your blog to the next level. If you’re not careful, you could over do it. So, the key here is KISS (Keep it simple, sweetie). You can read this past article I wrote to learn more about the different types of photo styles you can use for your blog.

Most bloggers know about Canva and Pic Monkey for creating website graphics, but don’t forget about other unique free resources too. We offer and send out free monthly and trendy stock photo packages to our subscribers to help with your graphics, which you can sign up for here.

I also use Creative Market for inspiration and the occasional free goody or paid goody, which you can check out here.

One lengthy article to rule them all

You may have gotten the impression from the first item on this list that writing blog content isn’t that important. Although influencers are making waves other ways via Instagram and SnapChat, the long written blog post is here to stay – and it just got longer! In fact, blog posts over 1000 – 3000 words are becoming more and more common place that readers now expect it. If your posts is less than 700 words, you’re risking losing that reader in less than 10 seconds, because let’s be honest, most readers skim for the important details and facts. If you’re article is about 500 words – chances are they’ll find what they need quickly and get going on to the next thing.

So, making it a habit to write blog posts that are epic and over 1000 words should become your goal this summer. This may mean writing only one blog post per month, and that would be just fine! Yes, you need to keep your content fresh, but you also need to provide value to your reader, and blog articles with over 1000 words that provides useful information will make them want to share it and love it. That is way more important than shorter weekly or daily blog posts just so you can drive up your page views.

Here are some more ideas of what to fill your editorial calendar with.

Comments are a thing of the past

Engagement with your blog doesn’t mean more and more comments either. Bloggers are finding that comments are not converting any more readers into brand fans and would rather not manage the whole comment response thing either. What they are finding through, is that it’s far better to offer ways for readers to share and comment about a blog post via social media. This means, instead of responding to someone’s comment on a blog post, you’ll be commenting and responding to twitter followers and instagram followers. Which is great, because it makes for a more social and engaging experience for everyone.

Conclusion

The trends we’re all seeing are helping bloggers become more influential within their respective niches. People are finding their voice and their content is really starting to show it through their long form articles, they way they engage with their audience, and the graphics they use.

If you’re looking for more ways to be on trend with your blog and become an online influencers, you can download this useful list of 9 tricks to becoming the influencer you always wanted to become with your blog.