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Did you know it took 250 years to carve the citadel of Petra into the rocks? That’s right – into the rocks not built by rocks! The good news is these 50 history blog tips can be built into your blog a lot quicker. So, let’s get started…

1. Add a call to action (CTA) into every post – never leave dead ends.
2. Know what you want from your blog long-term so you don’t waste time on the wrong things
3. Pick the niche you want rather than the one you think you should
4. Automate as much as you can but don’t lose the personal touch
5. Research before you pitch a guest post. Make your content a good fit for them and you
6. Read your posts out loud before you hit publish.
7. Done is better than perfect. Everything is fixable
8. Lean towards the marketing technique that comes naturally to you first. Video? Podcast? Writing?
9. Try and add a unique spin to popular historical topics and anniversaries
10. Make 80% of your posts evergreen. Let them live forever! Discover more about evergreen posts
11. Have a consistent simple brand but don’t get hung up on it
12. Don’t be too clever with your blog name so people can find it
13. Start promoting brands you love long before you approach them with sponsorship or affiliate ideas
14. Pique curiosity in your blog post’s title to encourage clicks. More on blog post title techniques
15. Productive is not the same as busy. For every session write down the three things you must complete
16. Create processes for the things you do all the time and look where they can be done quicker
17. Consider batching your efforts. In the mood for writing Instagram captions – go for it and save them on your phone
18. Don’t neglect your ‘About Me’ page and make it about your reader and what they can expect, not you. Read more tips
19. Make sure your blog is easy to navigate – think about your menu – ask someone to find something and report back
20. To help with search engines blog at least once a fortnight.
21. Put internal links or related links within your post to help readers and search engine spiders looking to list your pages find more
22. Search engines like posts of around 1500 words but mix it up a bit. Never try and hit a word count with filler fluff
23. Break up your posts with images, subheadings or lists!
24. Focus your social media where your readers hang out not the most popular platform
25. Don’t hide behind the research – it could be endless.
26. If you’re writing a post over 2500 words maybe a series would work
27. Try and aim for consistency, frequency and quality
28. Make sure you back-up your blog – easy to forget but painful if it all goes wrong
29. Don’t build your castle on someone else’s sand. Social media platforms can end or choose to end you. Consider a mailing list to reach people directly
30. Have a planner. If you’re strapped for time being organised is crucial. Check out my Ultimate History Blogging Planners here.
31. Never think you’re not qualified enough to write about history. It belongs to everyone regardless of the job you hold, the school you went to or the letters you do or do not have after your name
32. Establish a blogging niche – it will help you direct your content, marketing and attract the right people to you
33. A plan without deadlines is just a bunch of ideas. Try 30 day and 90 day deadlines.
34. Treat your blog like a machine not a baby. It needs process, automation and output.
35. Multi-tasking hurts your brain. Focus on one thing at a time.
36. Make your efforts go further. Turn one piece of researched content/writing into as many as you can.
37. Don’t be afraid to showcase your archives
38. Canva is your friend! You can do everything you need simply and for free. Plus, the mobile app is good too.
39. And, create templates on Canva. My brand is red and gold. Every time I need a new Insta image, I duplicate the template, give it a new name and swap out the image. Ta-Da
40. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is free. At its simplest choose a phrase to describe your post and smoothly integrate it into the URL, title, first paragraph, sub-headings and scattered around the text.
41. If you’re on WordPress (which I highly recommend) use the free plugin Yoast. Its traffic light system is a non-scary way to guide you about keywords and good SEO practice.
42. Interact with people for the love of it. Enjoyed a post – tell them. Got an answer to their question – share it. You’d be amazed by the power of goodwill.
43. Internet searches are increasingly becoming about answering questions. Think about how some of your blog posts can help people. For example, listing all the period dramas, film or book releases coming out so they don’t have to search themselves.
44. Write for people with short attention spans who are on their phones. Maybe you work on a laptop and in preview, all looks lovely. But, do you check your post on your phone too? Huge images, awkward wrap text, massive paragraphs that looked ok on a bigger screen are all off-putting to readers.
45. Make your posts easy to share. Add icons to the top or bottom and it’s ok to ask people to share it too
46. Choose a blogging platform you can control and looks professional especially if you have plans to monetise. For a small cost, you can set up hosting and one-click WordPress. And, stick to a domain name .com
47. When you choose a domain name imagine saying it at the end of a podcast episode. Question – “So, where can people find you?” Answer “You can find me at www.histpeopleukilovebesthillscott.com” : (
48. Install Google Analytics. Knowledge is power and it’s nice watching graphs go up!
49. Videos are the way forward and will boost your traffic. Take a look at your latest written post and condense it down into the top 7 things readers need to know about Robert Dudley, for example, then signpost them to your website
50. So, the last of my 50 history blog tips is to get a professional email address connected with your blog. Mine is elizabeth@smarthistoryblogging.com and can usually be obtained through your web host as part of a package. But, use contact forms on your blog, not an email address as you’ll get a lot of spam.

I hope these 50 history blog tips help you on your blogging journey. If you found them useful please share it with a fellow history blogger who might find them beneficial too.