3 Easy Ways to Learn from Other Bloggers

I think you’ll agree with me when I say:

It’s hard to stay up on everything you need to learn as a blogger!

But, does it have to be so overwhelming?

It actually becomes a lot easier if you just adopt smart strategies and figure out ways to learn from fellow bloggers. In this post we’ll talk about 3 easy to implement strategies you can employ to learn from your fellow bloggers.

Strategy 1: Read their stuff!

This one seems obvious, but you’d be surprised by how many bloggers don’t set aside time every week for reading content from other bloggers. And that’s a mistake because…

Studies have shown that regular reading is a common trait among highly successful people. Check out this Huffington Post article on the reading habits of ultra-successful people. If it’s a habit that Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, AND Oprah all recommended then perhaps you should take note. So…

Get on it and start improving your reading habit!

Strategies that may help you cultivate a healthy reading habit:

• Set aside reading blocks every week – It’s not enough to say you’re going to do it, you actually have to plan for it by setting aside a discrete block of time.
• Separate out reading for your business from reading for pleasure (unless they are one and the same) – These are both important. Reading to advance your business shouldn’t have to compete with Harry Potter and the Quidditch World Cup. Schedule out time for both so you don’t find them competing with each other.
• Curate your reading list – You can’t read it all. Prioritize things that are immediately applicable to your current area of focus. Bookmark the rest and return to them when appropriate.

You should be reading posts from other successful bloggers in your industry to learn from their strategies, but also from bloggers who blog about blogging and entrepreneurship so that you continue to up your entrepreneur game as well. You are reading to not just glean content ideas, but also to learn about the strategies and mechanisms involved in a successful business.

A few useful blogs about blogging and entrepreneurship:

• Copyblogger – focuses on copywriting, content marketing, and content creation.
• Problogger – tips for growing and monetizing your blog.
• Quicksprout – focused on in depth content and marketing strategies for bloggers.
• Ok Dork – actionable business advice for entrepreneurs and other successful people.

There are lots of these, so find the ones that match your style and work best for you. ***ahem…cough…like maybe this one? :)***

But with so many choices out there, you’ll definitely want to curate your reading list and focus on the content that is most valuable for your business RIGHT NOW! When you come across these and other articles you can bookmark them and come back to them during your reading blocks or down the road when they are in line with what your business needs.

A few tools to help you with this:

• Pocket – a tool for easily saving interesting articles, videos and more web content for later enjoyment. Save to Pocket once, view on any device later, even offline.
• Feedly – a news aggregator application for various web browsers and mobile devices. Compile the feeds from all your favorite websites all in one place for easy viewing!
• Evernote – a cross-platform, freemium app designed for note taking, organizing, and archiving. Save and organize your favorite notes or web page excerpts for later access.

And while you’re improving your reading habit, why don’t you improve your reading efficiency? Check out these easy to incorporate tips for increasing your reading speed (How to read 300% faster in 20 miutes) from Tim Ferris.

Strategy 2: Spy on them

That’s right, it’s time to don your best James Bond tuxedo or your best Sydney Bristow alias and prepare for your next mission, spying on other bloggers. But…

Before you think we are about to enter dark and sinister territory, this is not that. If you get caught in your underwear hiding in the bushes outside of your rival blogger’s headquarters then that’s on you, I’m not advising that. Why would you be in your underwear? I have no idea, but that isn’t that how those stories always end when you see them on the news? 🙂

What I’m talking about is using industry standard tools to gather information that gives you a better picture and understanding of your industry by allowing you to peek at other blogger metrics and to get a glimpse of what they have going on behind the scenes.

A few of my favorite tools:

• Similar Web – you can use similar web to get a glimpse into the metrics of another site: their estimated traffic, their traffic sources, etc. They also have a very handy chrome plugin that does the same thing. You are limited in the amount of information you can see on the free plan, but it’s still quite useful.
• Moz SEO Toolbar – known simple as the “Mozbar” for short, MozBar gets installed as a chrome plugin and allows you to pull SEO metrics like Domain Authority, Page Authority and more for any webpage you are visiting that has been indexed by the Moz database.
• WP Theme Detector – a free online tool that will try to determine what WordPress theme a site is using along with any plugins they have installed. It doesn’t always pull all information, but it pulls a lot and can be super helpful when you’re wondering what theme another site is using or what plugin they are running to achieve certain functionality.

There are others of course, but the above 3 are a great starting point. Learning about your industry and learning about what tools and strategies other bloggers are employing is just smart business. Then, it’s up to you to determine what is right for your business. This isn’t about following the herd or stealing ideas, only about educating yourself and then using that education when developing your own growth strategy.

Strategy 3: Network with them

Strategies 1 and 2 are great, but when it gets right down to it, nothing beats building strong relationships. There is no better way to learn from someone then being able to reach out and ask them. But…

Building meaningful relationships takes time. Here are some resources to help you along the way:

• The Ultimate Blogger Outreach Guide – Before you start SPAMMING everyone within the interwebs you might want to take a look at this guide and make sure you understand the right way to approach outreach.
• Contactually – a service/tool that makes it easy for you to store your contacts and build your relationships.
• Boomerang – gmail add-on that makes it easy to schedule emails for later or set email reminders. Super helpful when keeping track of outreach emails.
• Facebook Groups – Facebook groups are a great way of finding and networking with other bloggers in your niche.
• Linked In – look for other bloggers you can connect with on Linked In.

So that’s it! 3 super easy ways to learn from other bloggers. Start employing these tactics today and watch your blog grow.

Thanks for reading! Drop a comment down below and let me know:

What are your favorite strategies for learning from other bloggers?