5 Important Tips for Bloggers!

I've been blogging for just over a year (March 2015, marked one year for Little Beauty Bug) but as I've continued in my blogging journey one thing has become very apparent to me. We are all trying to get noticed, whether it be by other bloggers, media or companies of all kinds. Over the past few years I've studied in the Marketing field and graduated in June 2015, combine this with my passion for blogging and I hope that I bring that forward from the way I organize my blog, to the way I write my posts to the way I conduct myself on social media. Because of the variety of interests I have and because blogging has really become a sole part of my life, I thought it might be beneficial if I shared my top 5 biggest tips for beginner bloggers, or any bloggers in general. This will spam everything from design to social media and so many more simple little things you can do to help improve your blog, boost your traffic and be the blogger that you ultimately want to be.
Design & Branding; The first major step to starting any blog is to make sure you have a design idea in your head and the branding to back it up. For those of you who already have existing blogs, you can still do this by changing small parts of your blogging style or design. It's important for me to have a clean and bold layout with a variety of white space so your viewers don't get lost on your pages. Don't clutter up your main pages too much and keep everything really simple, really important but really eye catching to all parties who come onto your blog. I think it's also important to stick to a theme or style (your branding essentially), like for example whenever I do one of these 'tips' posts I also use the same laptop preview image in the post as a title image. Maybe your theme can be a catchy saying at the beginning of every post, or maybe it can be the way you style your images. The possibilities are endless. Having this really strong overall design to your blog as well as good branding will make your blog stand out in the minds of your loyal readers as well as help new readers remember the blog and important aspects about it. Also don't forget companies could be coming onto your blog so make sure its professional, stands out and is appealing to them as well while still having your own sense of style.
Social Media; One of the biggest things as a Marketing Professional that I could ever tell you is social media will become your best friend and learn how to use it. Twitter is the main form of social media that I really focus on because it personally gives my blog the best reach. There are, however, other platforms that I use including Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram. It's up to you to choose which platform of social media best fits your overall blog style, but another huge tip that I can ever give to someone is don't try and use EVERY single outlet possible. Try and focus on two or three that you think you will like and try and learn as much as you can about those platforms so you can really bring your blog to your readers that much easier. 
Negative Feedback; Point blank; you are on the internet and anyone can see what you post or design and anyone can comment on it and voice their opinions. Be ready for negative feedback, hateful comments or even people who just want to get at you. But remember you are a blogger and you are allowed to have an opinion as well, but the biggest and bravest thing you can do is ignore the downright mean comments and use the negative feedback to your advantage. Fuel your fire with it, is what I always say. It's important to again remember that if you are looking to get noticed by bloggers or companies that they are looking to work with professionals, not people who go around on their blogs or social media accounts and do unprofessional acts. If blogging is something you take seriously and really want to do, you will learn how to conduct yourself around the negative aspects of the internet. I know it seems pretty basic, but it's one thing I and every other person had to deal with and something I think that sometimes needs to be retold.
Blogging Breaks; When you start blogging everything can seem great, you're doing what you love you're connecting with people and then all of a sudden you don't know what to write about. And then all of a sudden you haven't posted on your blog for 2 weeks and you don't know what to do. One of the biggest things I had to remember when I got in this situation was that this does not mean my blog is going anywhere and this does not mean that I will wake up one day and everything will be gone. Take a deep breath, search through your makeup collection (if you're a beauty blogger) and search other blogs for ideas. Use the tools in front of you, like other bloggers and Pinterest to start generating ideas. Learn from your down time and take everything in and eventually all of a sudden you will have so much to write about that you won't stop. Blogging breaks are completely okay and they allow you to open up that creative mind again that might have been lost by the stress of 'having' to get a blog post up that day.
Blog For You First; The biggest and best tip that I can ever give to a blogger is to remember that you started your blog for yourself, whether it was to write more, to be creative or whatever. The blog was created for you and it should always be something you enjoying doing first and that your readers enjoy reading second. If you are blogging for numbers or money, you are in it for the wrong reasons and chances are your blog really won't go that far. Remember it's all about the person behind the blog and if you aren't happy that mean's you aren't producing 100% amazing content and chances are your readers can feel that. Blog because you love it, not because you have to do it!
What are your holy grail blogging tips? What's the one stand out thing you've learned from blogging?