These are the best books about blogging but not only that. After all, I work to keep my reading lists diverse, since creativity comes from everywhere. So I’ve also included titles in this required reading for bloggers list that are about productivity, remote work, creativity and much more.

Because here’s the deal: You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You don’t have to figure out how to grow your blog or get more done or write a stunning headline all by yourself. Stand on the shoulders of giants. You’ll save time while figuring out how to write a better blog. That means blogging will be more fulfilling for you—and your readers will benefit, too.

So don’t wait any longer. Scroll down to check out my and other writers’ recommendations of required reading for bloggers. Then request these best books for bloggers from the library, download them on Audible or put them in your Amazon cart. Finally, get reading. A better blog is closer than you ever thought possible.

This post contains affiliate links. By clicking and buying, I earn a small income at no extra cost to you.

12 best books for bloggers to read now

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Biggest takeaway: To win the war and beat Resistance, sit down every day and just create.

The first thing Steven Pressfield does in this incredible 165-page book is rename procrastination. He calls it Resistance. He asserts it’s every writer’s job to show up daily, do the work, and overcome Resistance. It’s what separates the pros from amateurs. He readily admits that it’s the hardest thing to sit down and do it, thanks to Resistance.

What grabbed me and woke me up is his description of your unlived life. All that keeps you from using your divine-given talent and living that life is Resistance. The first part of the book is spent going over all the ways Resistance can and does show up in our lives. How we use it, and how it uses us. You will recognize yourself there.

In the second half of The War of Art, he gets down to combating Resistance. It’s becoming and acting like a professional. The show must go on. So you show up, no excuses, and do the work. Don’t look at the outcome or weigh the results as you’re working. No over thinking, over planning, or questioning. So that’s how I blog, now. I act like a professional and do the work.

You can easily download this book (for free using this link to an Audible trial) and listen to it while you’re on the move!

-Cindi Conley is a suitcase-checking traveler and storyteller who creates the blog Traveling Later, every day.

The 4-Hour Workweek

Biggest takeaway: The 4-Hour Workweek taught me that the most important step toward location independence is taking action today.

Among self-help readers, The 4-Hour Workweek is practically considered a cult classic. The author, Tim Ferriss, details how he reduced his work hours and attained location independence through a wide range of techniques. 

Some of the biggest lessons I learned that was relevant to my blog pertaining to location. Ferriss describes how he lived in places with cheaper costs of living, including South America, Germany, and Asia, to stretch his income and reduce his working hours. 

When I read this book that’s great for bloggers, I was months deep in research about moving abroad. I was reading way too much and not taking enough action. This book helped me truly internalize the fact that I could live abroad and make not just a good living but an excellent one. It helped me actually book a plane ticket and get moving. 

Ferriss mentioned so many interesting ideas I hadn’t thought of like automation, product testing, and hiring virtual assistants. Even if you aren’t ready to use these techniques yet, they open your mind about what’s possible in your business.

Though it was written in 2006, digital nomads and bloggers will benefit significantly from reading the 4-Hour Workweek—especially by learning how to reduce their hours and work from anywhere. 

-Carly Matthew is a travel blogger, digital worker, and English teacher working in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. You can read about her adventures on her travel blog, CarlyMatthew.com.

Blog, Inc.: Blogging for Passion, Profit, and to Create Community

Biggest takeaway: While there is a basic blueprint for blogging, it takes a lot of hard work and ingenuity to make blogging work as a business. But, it can be done!

One of the first blogging books I read, one in which the tips have stayed with me over the years, was Blog, Inc.: Blogging for Passion, Profit, and to Create Community by Joy Deangdeelert Cho and Meg Mateo Ilasco. I picked up the book because I was already obsessed with the work of the blogger behind Oh, Joy!. Joy Cho had created an empire in her passion and it so closely related to my own passion that I was eager to get any and all tips on how she did it.

The book for bloggers covers some of the very basics of starting a blog, which is helpful for beginners. Topics such as picking out a blog name, the anatomy of a blog, and blogging platforms are all covered covered. It then transitions into taking those basics up a notch and monetizing the system and using your blogging skills in other avenues of profitability.

My favorite part of the book was reading the stories of other successful bloggers. It made it easier to picture myself as someday being among the elite storytellers who could turn their passion into a decent paycheck.

You can download this in an audiobook format for free with my link to an Audible trial!

-Jenni Bost is a lifestyle and entertaining blogger over at A Well Crafted Party where she shares tips for celebrating this crazy thing called life. In addition, she offers a free blog planner printable and blogging tips over on her site, A Well Crafted Blog.

SEO the Easy Way: The Complete SEO Strategy for Bloggers

Biggest takeaway: If my post isn’t on page 1 of search engines, then it might as well not exist.  But it can be on page 1, and this book shows you how.

In my 10 years of blogging (and 2 years of taking it more seriously), one book stands out as pivotal to my blogging education.  SEO the Easy Way – The Complete SEO Strategy for Bloggers, by Laura Lynch, has finally managed to teach me the SEO skills I’ve pretended I didn’t need to learn.  Every time I would consider learning more about SEO, I was immediately overwhelmed and would retreat from the idea, thinking if I just used alt-tags, then all would be well.  

SEO the Easy Way is so highly recommended by other bloggers, and so often, that I broke down and bought it.  Lynch’s writing style is very personable and down-to-earth, and most of all, it’s easy to understand.  The book is 129 pages, and you can download it to read online, or print it out as I did.

I finished the book a month ago.  I’m tracking stats in Google Analytics and Search Console, and in that month, my search engine traffic has doubled.  Eight of my blog posts are now on the first page of Google, for a combined 21 keywords. I do write a narrow niche blog, so ranking is easier for me than for others, but even I’m astonished by the statistics.  SEO the Easy Way has forever changed the way I approach blogging.

-Heather Hicks writes about outdoor adventure travel with kids in Oregon at Oregon Outdoor Family.     

The 12 Week Year

The 12 Week Year by Brian Morgan is an excellent book for anyone who gets overwhelmed when it comes to planning for the year…like me! While it’s not specific to blogging, the system taught in this book is applicable to blogging and as well as other aspects of life.

The 12 Week Year teaches us to create goals that we work toward for 12 weeks. Of course, these goals relate to our overall vision for our blog. Then we act as if each 12 weeks is a year. This eliminates procrastination and creates momentum as the actions we take today have a much more immediate effect on the 12 week goal.

We can see much more quickly which actions are getting us closer to our goal and which ones are not moving the needle as we anticipated. This allows us to course correct right away as opposed to waiting to see what happens at the end of the year.

I also enjoy this book for bloggers because it’s not a complicated method. It simplifies blogging and creates a focus for 12 weeks that can then shift the next 12 weeks.

I highly recommend reading it to help with creating a vision and plan for your blog. Or, if you’d prefer to listen while you’re taking your morning walk, you can download it for free using my link for an Audible trial!

-Katie Minahan blogs at Just Chasing Sunsets about solo female travel.

Building a Story Brand

Biggest takeaway: It’s crucial to use stories to connect with our customers and readers.

If you’re struggling to write compelling emails, clickable website copy or double tap worthy Instagram captions Donald Miller’s Building a Story Brand will set you on the right track using his seven step framework. Inside he teaches you to think of your customer as the protagonist in your brand’s story. When the customer encounters a problem, a guide (you) will show up to give them a plan and call them to action.

By positioning your customers as the hero in the story and your brand as the guide (think Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi) you will allow them to gain confidence and succeed. Miller uses classic Hollywood storytelling methods to create story gaps or mini cliffhangers. Your customers will stay in touch and keep coming back for more because of the basic human desire to find resolution in the story.

As an added bonus he also has an online program to walk you through the seven steps and start creating compelling stories of your own. If you’re eager to start injecting more story in your copy I highly encourage you to check out Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller.

-Kristi Westberg is the creator of Indoorsy Camper, a blog devoted to finding balance and happiness by cultivating creativity and connecting with the outdoors.

Take Your Life Back: Finding Freedom through Location Independence

Biggest takeaway: I need to utilize the skills I do have and not wallow on the ones I don’t have… yet.

I found the book, Take Your Life Back: Finding Freedom Through Location Independence, by Leah Davis, at a time when I needed it most. I had recently left the career I’d been building for a decade to sprint off to New Zealand for three months, and I knew I wouldn’t return to it when I came home. I needed something that was flexible, in my control and capitalized on my natural skills. I had been blogging in my spare time for four years at this point but didn’t know where, or even IF, I belonged in the blogging world. I felt like a failure since I had managed very little traffic and zero profit in that time span.

After reading Take Your Life Back, I realized that many of my skills could benefit other bloggers and entrepreneurs. I’m organized, creative, have great attention to detail, love creating systems, and enjoy project management. So, I decided to become a freelance virtual assistant. This role has positioned me to learn from successful bloggers and entrepreneurs and apply that knowledge to my own pursuits with great success.

-Brittany Quaglieri, a freelance virtual assistant and founder of She Goes With Purpose, where she shares destination information and health + wellness tips for travelers.

The Million Dollar Blog

Biggest takeaway: Pick two social media channels to focus on instead of worrying about mastering all of them.

I read The Million Dollar Blog by Natasha Courtenay-Smith when I first launched my blog Destination>Differentville. It was a point when I was excited, enthusiastic, utterly clueless and massively overwhelmed. 

The book uses advice and interviews from top bloggers like Seth Godin and Vicky Psarlas (HonestMum.com) to explain how to find your niche, boost page views and make money—giving heaps of practical tips for beginners along the way.

However, as inspiring as it all was I didn’t know how I was going to do all these things while holding down a demanding full-time job.

Then, in the chapter on social media one paragraph jumped out at me and I’ve used it to keep me focused ever since. It’s the idea of ‘Main and Maintain’ and Courtney-Smith suggests choosing two social networks that are your main focus and you throw your heart and soul into growing and feeding—and two where you have a presence, posting say once a week to just keep things ticking over.

It also gives you a four-step process to help you find out which yours should be. I haven’t panicked about fitting it all in ever since.

-Helen Foster blogs at Destination > Differentville, where she shares unusual and off-the-beaten-track suggestions for things to eat, see and do.

Get Rich, Lucky Bitch

Biggest takeaway: Everything that I want is possible, there is enough in the world, and I am enough.

Money blocks come in all shapes and sizes and the book Get Rich, Lucky Bitch, by Denise Duffield-Thomas, has been really helpful in acknowledging and getting rid of them and for general mindset work. In relation to blogging it might be the belief that only others will get success or that it’s too hard to make the big amounts of money or maybe not even possible.  It could even be as simple as feeling worthy of success.  

The book gives ideas on how to combat all these kinds of blocks, which I’ve found really helpful for my blogging journey and also in lots of other areas of life. It also taught me not to get bogged down with others beliefs around money, success and business and gave me new insights on it all. All in all it’s a really interesting book that has changed my business and really my life!

-Kirsty Bartholomew is a travel blogger obsessed with history at Lost In Landmarks.

Better than Before

Biggest takeaway: I learned how to trigger habits like sitting down to write by pairing that task with my morning cup of tea.

Better than Before by Gretchen Rubin has been a transformative read. This book extensively covers habit formation and creating long-lasting routines around your personality type. I loved Rubin’s matter-of-fact style yet soft touch when discussing hard to change areas of our lives. She’s incredibly personal.

I’ve literally told every one of my friends to read this book – especially if they have any sort of habit they would like to shift.

Better than Before helped me develop meaningful engagement with my own blog, Closed-Loop Cooking, by illustrating how I could reinforce sustainable habits around daily writing and content development. I was feeling overwhelmed with the number of items in my to-do list but having the structure of a habitual routine really made it easier to approach. It definitely helps to know your personality type out of the four she references, Upholder, Obliger, Questioner, and Rebel (you can find out which one you are in the back of the book.)

This book encouraged focus and definitely helped me to grow my blog. Can’t recommend Gretchen Rubin enough!

-Hawnuh Lee writes about creating a sustainable kitchen at her blog, Closed-Loop Cooking.

Meditations

Biggest takeaway: Whenever blogging seems challenging, or the blog’s readership seems low, I recall Marcus Aurelius’s words, “Neither worse than not better is a thing made by being praised.”

I have been reading Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius, for a few months now, and this book—which is known as the greatest work of Greek and philosophical literature—has helped me immensely in my blogging journey.

If my articles don’t get the appreciation I think they deserve, I move onto the next writing piece I am working on. For I have started believing that neither would praise nor would critique increase or reduce the inherent beauty in a piece of art that I have honestly created. 

Writing is my art. I started blogging for my passion for writing, not for being the number one blogger. Though I feel happy when readers comment that they loved my poem or could relate to my essay, I do not depend on their admiration. 

My indifference to whether the blog went viral or is just sitting in a corner existing helps me write without worrying about the results. I wake up every day with a smile on my face and with a pen in my fingers, and I write and blog. 

-Priyanka Gupta is an itinerant blogger from India who has left her investment banking career to travel the world and write about it at On My Canvas.

Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People

Biggest takeaway: Don’t go to every single networking event because you “should.” Figure out where you thrive and take advantage of those opportunities. You’ll show up better and make more genuine connections.

This brilliant, science-based book by Vanessa Van Edwards has been a game-changer for me. As an awkward introvert who only appears to be confident and outgoing, Van Edwards’s tips on how to authentically connect with others—and make a lasting impression—has been so helpful!

In Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People, she walks through the science of first impressions, the myths we tell ourselves about networking, and how to actually feel comfortable with networking (which, let’s admit it, nearly all of us hate).

Later in this book for bloggers, she dives deeper. Van Edwards outlines how to move acquaintances to friends and then trusted go-tos. Her practical guide for being your genuine self and still expanding your professional network is a must-read for bloggers.

I enjoyed listening to this book when I was on the go, and you can too (for free) using this link.

-Catherine Ryan Gregory—that’s me, of course!

Your reading list for bloggers

Now that you’ve read about other bloggers’ book recommendations, I know you’ll be clicking over to Amazon or requesting books at the library. Or better yet, get a free audiobook by using this link to Audible!

Reading is one must-do step to build a better blog. You don’t have to come up with all the brilliant ideas to network more authentically, write better blog posts, build community and master SEO on your own. Why not read the best tips, guidance and advice from the experts?

I know you’ll find plenty of inspiration in this reading list for bloggers. Do you have suggestions, too? Share them in the comments—I’m always looking for books to help my blog!

PS – If you’re looking for podcasts and other resources to improve your blog, check out my post on the best free blogging resources you should be using right now.

The post Required reading: Best books for bloggers building a kick-a blog appeared first on To & Fro Fam.

I know these free blogging resources will help you grow your blog, too. That’s why I put together this list of blogging tools. Below, you’ll find recommendations for the best SEO tools for bloggers, resources to think of new post ideas, writing tools to improve your craft, stock photo sites and design resources—all free!

I’ve used every single one of these, and they’re all free, so I have zero incentive to get you to use them. That means that you can trust I genuinely believe in these free blogging resources. I know you’ll love them, too.

So don’t waste any more time! Read on to find your new favorite (and free!) blogging resources.

Free SEO tools for bloggers

Search engine optimization (SEO) is both a crucial way to help readers find your blog and a sometimes intimidating new skillset, especially for beginning bloggers. That’s why free SEO tools for bloggers are so helpful.

In a nutshell, SEO is a way to write your blog posts and fill the back end of your blog with the information that google and other search engines need to direct traffic to your content. Every SEO expert will tell you good SEO starts with good content, but free tools to help with keywords, metadata and the like don’t hurt, either!

Here are some of the free SEO tools for bloggers I use and recommend.

Yoast

Yoast is the gold standard free SEO tool for bloggers and other entrepreneurs. It’s an easy, reliable plug-in for WordPress you can install in one or two clicks. It’s also one of the first, most important blogging tools for beginners.

Once you have it installed, scroll down to the bottom of the page as you’re creating a page or a post. You can fill in your target keyword, which will help you analyze how well you’re using that keyword for SEO. (It flags you if it doesn’t find that keyword often enough in your text, or if it’s not in a headline or in your title.)

What’s more, you can—and should—edit your page or post’s metadata with Yoast. Click “edit snippet” and write a short summary of your post, containing your target keywords, in the meta description field (look for the arrow below). This is the text that will show when you end up on a Google results page.

Google

Wait, Google? Yes, Google.

There are two places on this search engine that can be phenomenal resources to improve your SEO keywords. First, type a keyword you’re considering writing about into the search bar. Notice below the search bar, Google tries to predict what you’re looking for. These are long-tail keywords other people commonly look for—and they’re a great place to generate ideas for long-tail keywords.

Secondly, scroll to the bottom of the search results page. You’ll find related searches that can help you get more specific in your own keywords. You can also use this free resource to come up with new blog post ideas. Just remember to cross-link the related blog posts within your site to teach Google what’s related—and to help readers delve deeper into a topic they care about.

Keywords Everywhere

If you want to get even more information out of your Google searches, add the Keywords Everywhere Chrome extension to your browser. After signing up and verifying your account, which takes less than 5 minutes, you see this whenever you search something on Google:

This free blogging resource shows you the search volume, which is important for researching which keywords you want to target in your blog posts.

The search volume for your original keyword is listed directly below the search bar; related searches are to the right of results.

Free tools to generate blog post ideas

Ubersuggest

This free resource for bloggers from online marketing expert Neil Patel lets you plug in an unlimited number of keywords for keyword research. The summary shows the number of monthly searches and the estimated competition for SEO ranking.

Scroll farther down in Ubersuggest to see suggested long-tail keywords as well as the ranking results for the keyword you entered.

Here’s how to use the list of ranking pages: Notice what they have in common, then beat them at their game. For example, when I entered “Portland restaurants,” the ranking pages listed numbers of the best restaurants in PDX—38, 40, 10 and 10. So to begin to build SEO clout, I’d increase the number in my own Portland restaurant post to at least 50. This section also lists the ranking pages’ domain authority (DA) so you can see what kind of competition you’re up against. 

(To learn how to increase your DA, read my post on boosting your domain authority without paying a dime.) 

Quora

To be a helpful resource, you need to inform, amuse or inspire. And if you’re looking to help readers solve a problem—a goal nearly all of us bloggers have—then you need to know what those problems are!

Enter Quora, where anyone can submit a question that other users can answer. You can use this free resource for bloggers in two ways:

1. Research audience challenges. Subscribe to the categories in your blog niche (for example travel) and then keep tabs on what people are asking. Use those questions as inspiration for future blog posts.
2. Answer questions in your niche. Take 10 minutes and respond to a question where you have authority and insight. Then at the bottom of your answer, post a link to one of your blog posts that relates or goes even more in-depth. You may get traffic back from your answer, and you’ll gain authority and credibility. 

Answer the Public

Plug a keyword into Answer the Public and a fraction of a second later you’ll get dozens of blog post ideas. This free blogging resource creates a web organized by question type (how, why, what, etc.) all about your keyword.

These questions are all searches actual people have typed into Google or another search engine. That means there are people just waiting to read your post on this topic.

Your readers are likely searching for these questions. Help them find you—and show up in search results—by answering their questions directly!

Title Generator

If you’re still fishing for not only blog ideas but catchy post titles, click over to the Title Generator from Tweak Your Biz. You enter a keyword, and lists of blog post titles pop up in different categories, from questions to lists to snark. Not all the blog post titles make sense (though the silly ones are hilarious!), but there are gems in there that are guaranteed to help you generate blog post ideas.

Friends and family

When I started To & Fro Fam, I sent my blog and links to my favorite posts to friends and family with kids of their own. In my email, I asked them to share with me the challenges they face with family travel. Here’s what I wrote:

Here’s where my request for help comes in. I’d love for you to take a look at the blog and then write me with a problem, challenge or question you have about family travel.

People I trust and care about responded with questions—topics I’ve since turned into blog posts. You can do the same to come up with new blog post ideas.

Free blog writing tools

Headline analyzer from CoSchedule

CoSchedule’s free headline analysis tool can help you pinpoint if your blog post title is ready to go live—or if you need to keep at it. Even better, it makes suggestions on how to make your blog post headline more powerful and ultimately more clickable.

Power words printable from CoSchedule

While you’re over on CoSchedule’s site, download the free power words printable. It lists dozens of high-emotion words, which can make a headline stick out to readers.

I keep this saved in a Blogger Resources file on my computer. Then, if I’m having trouble writing a compelling headline, I open up the printable and scan it for ideas to pump up my headline.

Test your email subject lines

Writing a subject line is a lot like writing a headline—you need people to open an email just like you need them to click to read a post. CoSchedule makes a free email subject line testing tool where you can see how your subject lines measure up.

Of course, the tool also suggests ways to improve. With a little work, you should be able to improve your subject lines for email marketing—and therefore increase engagement with your followers.

Free stock photos for bloggers

Roughly 99% of the photography on To & Fro Fam is original and taken by me. That said, I occasionally need a more generic photo.

Free stock photos for bloggers are a fantastic supplement to your own photography. These sites provide images you can use for personal (not commercial) use free of charge. It’s good form to credit the original photographer and even link to her or his site.

A word of caution: Relying too much on free stock photos is a trap. You’ll lose a consistent visual brand (since photos are taken by so many people in varying styles), and you run the danger of using the same photo as dozens of other blogs. So use free stock photos sparingly and work on your own photography skills!

That said, here are my favorite free stock photo sites for bloggers.

Unsplash

Unsplash is my favorite source of free stock photos for bloggers. This stock photography site has the deepest library of images for free that I’ve found, and I’ve had great luck searching via keywords.

I also like that when you download an image, photography attribution information pops up, which makes it easy to give credit to the photographer.

IvoryMix

You need to sign up on IvoryMix, which is free. Then you’ll get log-in access to download these beautifully styled shots. They tend to be feminine flat lays that stick to a monthly theme, with bonuses for seasonal or holiday topics.

If you’re looking for pretty, free stock photos for your blog, IvoryMix is your go-to resource.

StockSnap

I’ve found that StockSnap offers many of the same images as Unsplash, though I prefer Unsplash’s user interface. That said, if I don’t find what I need in the other free stock photography sites, I’ll visit StockSnap to see if they have something different.

Exposure

Exposure is a new tool that aggregates free stock images from other sites. What I like about Exposure is that it surfaces photographs I hadn’t found in other sites. It’s easy to use and includes a variety of photo styles.

Free design resources for bloggers

Canva

Canva is my go-to resource for designing pins and the occasional Instagram post. It makes my list of free resources for bloggers not only because just about everyone uses it, but because for basic design, it’s super easy to use. Canva is also one of the most critical beginner blogging tools you need to use now (if you don’t already).

Yes, if you are a professional designer, you’ll want to invest in the Adobe Creative Cloud. But for bloggers who just need to create pins and images for Facebook, Canva does the job.

Font Squirrel

Want to use a font that the rest of the world isn’t using? Then scroll through the options at Font Squirrel, yet another one of my free resources for bloggers. Just double-check they can be used free for commercial use, if you plan on making any money with something you design with the font.

Click on categories like Script, Hand-drawn, Geometric or a whole slew of other tags to find what you want without scrolling through a zillion fonts.

Coolors

Need ideas for new color schemes? You can scroll through Pinterest for an hour, or you can zip over to Coolors. The free site builds a palette of five colors that go together beautifully.

How to grow your blog with free tools & resources

So what do you think: Will you give any of these free blogging resources a try? Do you use any already? And finally, do you have recommendations for free blogging tools I should give a go? Please comment below!

I’m excited to hear how these free blogging resources help you reach your audience, design gorgeous graphics, master SEO and more. Let me know when you see changes!

PS – If you want your blog posts to rank higher in search results, don’t miss my deep-dive into how to increase your domain authority for free. The strategies will help you climb SEO rankings!

The post 18 free blogging resources + tools you need to use right now appeared first on To & Fro Fam.

I started this family travel blog in spring 2018, and just like every brand-new blog, my DA was in the dumps. (New sites automatically start at a domain authority of 0.) Over time and as you write more blog posts, your domain authority will gradually rise—but without intentionally trying to raise your domain authority, your growth will be slow.

So I went about figuring out how to increase your domain authority faster. And I found these effective, free, low-effort hacks to increase your domain authority.

Now the most important thing you can control that will increase your domain authority is to produce really good content. That means regularly writing new posts that help your readers and being consistent in your posting schedule. I’m writing this post from the assumption that you’re already blogging regularly and are working to make those posts thorough, well written and informative.

In this blog post, I’ll share exactly how I built online credibility and increased my DA from 3 to 21 in less than 6 months. And I share each strategy here so you can raise your domain authority, too!

How to increase your domain authority steadily and efficiently

So you’re wondering how to increase your domain authority—welcome to the club! Before we dive into my strategies to increase your domain authority steadily, we need to cover some basics.

First, what the heck is domain authority?

Domain authority is the internet’s way of measuring how often your blog is referred to, or name-checked, via links. If it feels icky like a high school popularity race, that’s because it is… kind of.

But with all else that Google and other search engines do, it’s in the interest of the customer—the person who is searching for the information they need.

Domain authority is a measurement between 0 – 100, and it takes into account many factors, including how many inbound links your blog has. The more sites and pages that link to your blog, the more credibility your blog has, and the higher your domain authority will be. The higher your domain authority, the more likely search engines are to refer readers to your blog.

But not all links are created equal. A linkback from a site with a high DA counts more than a site with a low DA. And a linkback from a page or site that’s in your niche is more valuable than one from an unrelated topic.

Extremely well respected sites—think Wikipedia or the Washington Post—will have extremely high DAs. Your blog will surely have a lower domain authority—but that’s not necessarily a deal-breaker!

After all, you just want to have a high domain authority in relation to other similar blogs. So since this is a family travel blog, I want to increase my domain authority in comparison with similar blogs if I want to outrank them in search results.

Generally, it’s easier to increase your domain authority the lower it is. So it’s easier to go from a 5 to a 10 than from a 45 to a 50.

What is my domain authority?

To start with, you want to check your domain authority. You can google “check your domain authority” and a bunch of free sites will pop up.

I use this domain authority checker.

Write down your domain authority so you can track how it changes depending on what DA hacks you use, how many posts you publish, and how long your site has been live.

I set a reminder in my calendar to check my domain authority and other statistics on the last day of every month. That way I can track improvements in my blog’s presence online.

Strategy 1 to raise your DA: Be an expert

Now that you understand the fundamentals of DA, let’s work on how to raise your domain authority.

The folks who designed DA intentionally made it difficult to directly affect it. After all, you can’t increase your popularity by talking about how cool you are; your popularity depends on what other people think of you.

Same with DA. You need to increase the number—and quality—of linkbacks to your blog to increase your domain authority.

The absolute best strategy I’ve found in getting high-quality linkbacks to my blog has been HARO.

What is HARO, and how does it help increase your domain authority?

Help A Reporter Out (HARO) is a platform for journalists, bloggers and sources to get information from experts. That can be bona fide experts (like a biomedical researcher) or simply people who have a first-person story to share.

To use HARO, you sign up as either a reporter or a source (or both). For the purposes of increasing your domain authority, we’ll talk about using HARO as a source.

You then click the boxes you have an expertise in. This blog is focused on family travel, so I just clicked travel. Then, three times a weekday, you’ll receive an email with “queries”—requests for information or help from people writing about a topic where you’re an expert. The emails will look something like this:

Many of these queries aren’t right for me as an expert on family travel, but sometimes they’re spot on. The trick is to find the ones you’re uniquely qualified to answer—that way your response is more likely to get picked up, and you won’t waste time on responding to queries that relate to your niche only peripherally.

You answer a reporter’s question using the email form, which goes through HARO so you don’t actually correspond directly with the writer. The reporter may or may not use your information, but if they do, they’ll link back to your blog. You can see which of your responses has been accepted on your HARO dashboard. And—bingo!—you just got a high-quality linkback. You’re on your way to increase your domain authority!

Strategy 2 to raise your DA: Collaborate with other bloggers

No matter how often you check and respond to queries on HARO, though, you shouldn’t stop there. After all, if you’re reading this post on how to increase your domain authority, you’re dedicated to growing your DA steadily—so you don’t want to sit back with just one strategy.

That’s where my second domain authority hack comes in: collaborating with other bloggers.

Who should I collaborate with?

There are several factors you want to consider when looking for bloggers to collaborate with.

1. You want to collaborate with bloggers in your niche who have a similar target audience. That way, when these people who have never come across your blog read your brilliant insights, they’ll click over—and start following you, too.
2. You want to collaborate with bloggers who publish high quality content. Take a look at their previous posts—are they thorough, helpful, well written? You want to associate your blog with other strong blogs.
3. You want to collaborate with bloggers who have a strong DA. (Look up their domain authority with a DA checker.) Remember how linkbacks from sites with high DAs count more? This criteria will help grow your domain authority faster.
   That said, don’t discount working with bloggers with low DAs, especially at the beginning. When you’re just starting out, links from most places will help—and they definitely won’t hurt!

Where do you find bloggers to collaborate with?

Fellow bloggers frequently ask me where to find like-minded people to collaborate with. Here’s where you can find them:

1. Facebook groups. Join blogging groups on Facebook that have a collaboration component. There are a zillion blogging groups and it can be hard to find ones that work for you—much of this is by word of mouth recommendations or trial and error. My best practice advice is to find a blogging group directly related to your niche—that way you weed out a lot of collaboration requests that simply don’t make sense for your blog.
   For my family travel blog, the Female Travel Bloggers Facebook group run by Female Travel Bloggers has been the best source of collaboration opportunities. (You have to request to join it.)There is a collab post each month where members post collaboration opportunities that I often respond to.
2. Pinterest. Join group boards to find other bloggers writing about similar topics. Reach out to them with a collaboration idea. Maybe you can write two posts together by each contributing tips—then cross-promote the posts on your social media.
3. Your blogging circles. Blogging is a super friendly community, and you surely have other blogger friends. Start a group thread to brainstorm a post topic where you can all contribute a few tips, recommendations or ideas—then write it together, linking to each other.

How to use collaboration to boost your DA—without investing hours + hours

Some threads you see on these Facebook groups are requesting guest posts—that’s not what I’m talking about here with collaborating with other bloggers. (More on that below.) So what exactly do I mean by collaborating with bloggers?

The most efficient way to gain strong linkbacks and increase your domain authority is to contribute a small amount of original content to a post that collects a bunch of tips, recommendations or ideas from a group of bloggers.

Take, for example, the post 13 Midwest Hot Spots by Katherine at Bright Lights of America. She did a round-up of the best destinations in this often overlooked area of the US. But she didn’t write all the content; instead, she got recommendations from a bunch of bloggers (including me).

This kind of post, which includes usually 100-200 words from a number of bloggers, is a great way to collaborate and increase backlinks. For Katherine’s post, I spent probably 5 minutes writing about Detroit murals in Eastern Market and formatting a photo she could use. In return, I got a quality backlink and introduced my blog to her readers and followers. I, of course, also promoted the story on all of my social media channels, so it’s a win for everyone!

By regularly collaborating with bloggers, you’ll increase backlinks—and increase your domain authority.

Strategy 3 to raise your DA: Guest Post

I left this domain authority hack for last because it’s the most controversial of the three. Guest posting is when you write an original post (or rewrite/repurpose old content) along with images for someone else’s blog. The guest post contains one or more links back to your blog and social media accounts.

Why is guest posting controversial? Let’s look at the pros and cons, especially related to how to increase your domain authority.

The pros of guest posting

1. Expand your reach. When you write a guest post, you reach new readers. If you guest post on a related blog, chances are their readers are interested in what you have to share, too. If they like your guest post, they may click over to follow you, too.
2. Leverage social media networks. When you write a guest post, the host blogger will promote the content on their social media—bringing you to an even deeper pool of potential fans.
3. Build clickable backlinks. Most guest posts will allow for multiple links back to your blog, providing even more quality backlinks to your blog. In addition, if a reader commits to reading your whole guest post, they may be more likely to click to your blog, which tells search engines you’re super-relevant. That will help increase your domain authority.
4. Reuse content. Guest posts need to be original (after all, search engines may penalize your site if the text shows up verbatim elsewhere). But you can still talk about the topics you’ve written about on your blog. Consider covering a familiar topic specific to the host blog’s audience, cobbling together tips from several posts, or getting either broader or deeper on a topic you’ve already written about.

The cons of guest posting

1. It’s time-intensive. Guest posting takes quite a bit of time. Consider how long it takes you to write an original post, and if the benefits are worth that time.
2. It takes up your content. Would the topic of your guest post be better suited to your own blog? Why put your best content on someone else’s site?
3. You don’t have control. When I write or accept guest posts, I always make sure I’m clear about how much either person has the ability to edit/change things. But when your words are on someone else’s site, truth is you don’t have power over those words anymore.

When should you guest post?

I rarely guest post—I find my time is usually best spent developing my own blog and content, and that collaborating with other bloggers by writing short tips gets me the most bang for my buck (aka time and effort). That said, it’s sometimes worthwhile to guest post to increase your domain authority.

Here’s when I would consider guest posting:

1. The blog has a high DA. If the host blog’s domain authority is high, the quality of the backlinks may be worth the time and effort you’ll spend.
2. The blog has a big, engaged audience. You may gain new readers and expand your audience by guest posting.
3. The guest post ask is easy. Maybe you can write about a topic in your sleep, or there’s a template a host blog asks you to follow. If it doesn’t ask that much of you, go ahead and guest post.

Recapping strategies to increase your domain authority

In this post, we’ve covered how to increase your domain authority with three straightforward strategies. You also learned what domain authority actually is and how to influence your DA.

From becoming an expert source to collaborating with bloggers and guest posting, you’ve learned solid strategies to increase quality backlinks to your blog. I think you’ll agree these strategies are doable, even with your busy blogging schedule.

Increasing your domain authority is well worth the effort. After all, with quality backlinks to your blog, search engines will consider your blog a better resource for searchers. And that, my blogging friends, will help more people reach your blog—and read the amazing resources you create!

Do you have questions? Please, comment below!

The post How to increase your domain authority: I brought my DA from 3 to 21 with this hack appeared first on To & Fro Fam.