It's been a busy old month for new music releases so I thought I'd share with you the vinyls I've picked up lately. My last vinyls post was one of the most popular I've ever done so I hopped onto Amazon and ordered some more!
John Mayer - The Search For Everything
The latest release from John Mayer is easily his best work since the incredible blue-athon that was Continuum. The Search For Everything combines many of his best sounds and spans many genres into a single record including some acoustic tear jerkers as well as the more recent blues-filled sound you'd find on Paradise Valley. A true masterpiece from start to finish. Available here.
Paramore - After Laughter
I wasn't quite sure what to expect for this upcoming album but i'm so happy with what we got. A lot of bands change their style over the course of their career and Paramore is no exception. After Laughter is a mixture of old and new. Its a new place for paramore, but its what they excel at. The album has the standard tone, themes and pacing of a regular paramore, in an 80s style. The old paramore style may be dead, but the new one thrives in this mixture of songs that show the real feelings behind the past 4 years that paramore have been away for. Available here.
Harry Styles - Harry Styles
If somebody would have told me a year or two ago that I would one day buy an album from somebody in one direction I would have never believed them. But here I am with the first solo effort from Harry Styles in my possession and wow, i'm blown away by the 70s pop-rock vibe. It will be interesting to see how many one direction fans turn away from this new style that Harry is going down, but it will be equally interesting to see how many new fans are picked up along the way.
It is an album that deserves to be heard, and this guy should be applauded for taking such a huge risk and proving what a truly talented singer-songwriter he is. Don't turn your nose up just because he was in a boy band, Give him the chance and the credit he deserves for crafting such a brilliant first solo album. Available here.
So those are my new vinyl additions for the past month, what do you think are their any more new releases I need to consider? You can check out my first vinyl arrivals post here.
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If you've not come across the term Domain Authority (DA) before, then simply put it's a measure of between 1-100 of the quality of your website in terms of SEO. This is SO IMPORTANT for the blogging community because your score will go along way to determine the ranking of your content in search engines such as Google. Allowing users to organically find your blog content via search is the holy grail when it comes to our community because it means focusing less on broadcasting your latest and greatest post all over your social media, and more time writing the next post!
Generally speaking, a DA of 25 is a good benchmark for a quality website that contains SEO friendly content. Brands often request a DA of at least this standard before working with potential influencers to ensure that the blog on which their product/service will be promoted will be beneficial for them in terms of additional traffic to their own site.
How to increase DA
The first question you're probably asking yourself is "Well what's the domain authority for my blog?". Well I'm glad you asked! Head over to Moz Open Site Explorer and enter the URL of your site to find out just that. There's a couple of key stats to take note of here:
DA Score - Authority of the entirety of your site (www.theguyontrend.co.uk)
PA Score - Authority of a specific page of your site (www.theguyontrend.co.uk/p/advertising)
The easiest way to increase your domain authority is gaining quality external links to your blog. The best way to do this is simply by commenting on blog posts you enjoy and making sure to include a link back to your website. If the blog you commented on has a high DA and you get a decent number of clicks back to your website from that page then it will benefit your own authority score. Simple right? Just remember, increasing your DA is no quick process mainly due to that fact that in can take some time to get relevant clicks back to your content once you start leaving lots of comments and secondly sites like Moz only update their stats around once a month - so keep checking back regularly to see how your score is improving over time.
Another great way to improve the DA score of your site is some simple SEO house keeping. Little tasks like remembering to include meta descriptions, title tags and cross-linking to other content on your site throughout your posts are quick wins when it comes to tackling your score.
Always remember to go back and check your old blog posts for any broken images and especially broken links. Google will instantly spot these and punish you and your DA score. Linking to a product on ASOS that no longer exists? Change it. Linking to an old article that's since been moved? Find it and update the link. All of these little bits of blogging admin soon pile up but will ultimately improve the score of your website and allow you to confidently reach out to brands and improve your site's ranking on search engines.
Lastly, remember that your DA will generally increase in line with the age of your website so these things can take a lot of time. I've only been blogging regularly for just over a year and have so far managed to keep my DA pretty stable at 12/100, which is still very much below average but I've noticed it improve significantly over the past few months as i've started to add new SEO-friendly content to the site on a regular basis.
I hope you've found these tips helpful, do you have any more advice on growing and maintaining a healthy DA for your blog?
1. Anthony Algae Facial Cleanser - £36
Don't let the name put you off with this one! The Algae facial cleanser contains Azulene - a known ingredient in algae but also has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties so it's perfect for reducing blemishes and softening the skin. There's also a heavy presence of lavender here so if you're a fan then this is definitely for you.
2. Aesop London Travel Kit - £50
This fantastic travel kit for Aesop contains loads of travel-sized skincare essentials - perfect for a long weekend somewhere. No need to bring a huge bag of lotions and potions. The London kit is all you need. There's shampoo, condition, bath oils and much more. It's also an affordable way to try out some of Aesop's best-known products before you go all in and purchase the full size versions.
3. Diptyque Mimosa Scented Candle - £24
There's no better way to burn your hard earned money than candles (sorry I couldn't help myself!). I've never been lucky enough to own one from Diptyyque but this Mimosa scented one sounds incredible! They'll burn for around 60 hours which makes them pretty pricey but from visiting several of their stores and testing out the scents it seems worth it to me!
4. Kiehls Daily Reviving Concentrate - £38
This one's a must buy! I've been using the equivalent night time concentrate for around 3 months now and it's fantastic. It takes some getting used to as it's extremely oily on the skin and certainly doesn't feel like it's going to do anything good to your skin. But when you wake up in the morning your skin instantly feels nourished and softer. So this is the versions for applying before the day ahead. Round the clock visibly healthier looking skin sounds like the dream to me!
5. Tom Ford Noir Eau de Toilette 50ml - £54
Did I mention Space NK sell fragrances? They've got a wide selection and this is certainly one of the ones I'm so excited to add to my collection one day soon. Noir is made up of citrus and notes that create a fragrance that can be worn in the office or out to a formal event. It's also pretty reasonably priced for a Tom Ford scent at £54 - most of them are just under £100!
6. Kiehls Ultra Facial Cream - £24.50
Lastly, here's one of Kiehl's most popular products that I'm still yet to try out for myself. It's hyped up as a 24-hour moisturiser than you're supposed to combine with the aforementioned day and night concentrate oils. It ensures your skins remains soft and healthy-looking throughout the day, which sounds perfect. No need to top up during the course of the day.
Get £10 off your first order at Space NK by using this link.
When you're constantly comparing your blog to others it can often be difficult to be happy with the content you're creating and making sure it's truly unique. Does your latest post really fit with the other content your readers are enjoying or is it an excuse to gain additional views and followers? Never create content just for exposure.
Spending hours over not just the words in your post but also the photography and links is so important, why waste all of that work on something you're not actually proud to call your own? Now i'm not saying there's anything wrong with chatty life update posts.. in fact this is kind of turning into one of those now I think about it, but you always have to make sure you're being true to yourself and your content as you write. Here's my 5 sure fire ways to create content you can really be proud of...
Write posts you'd love to read yourself
Kind of an obvious one I think, but re-read your post a few times after you think you've finished creating it and just make sure it's something you'd enjoy reading and that it meets the description of the title. I'm assuming you're creating content for followers that have the same interests and passions as you do? So just make sure it actually meets the brief if that makes sense. If you came across your post on another blog would the title alone make you want to read on? This also rings true when it comes to sponsored posts. Getting paid to blog seems like a dream come true for most content creators but never agree to a paid post if it doesn't match the theme of your blog - readers will be able to see straight through it!
Partner up
Everyone hits a brick wall sometimes when it comes to blog ideas. You can read my post about it here. It's so frustrating scrolling through Bloglovin reading all kinds of different posts and wishing you had a killer idea that would both engage your readers and get them sharing it all over social media. The key to keeping your readers coming back is fresh new content posted regularly and sometimes the best way to achieve that is teaming up with a fellow blogger for a collaboration or guest post. I always find I'm much more creative and ideas come quicker when i'm writing something with another blogger and it's also a great way to get your name out there and reach new readers.
Create a schedule that works for you
Most bloggers these days are combined to force their love of writing with a full time job.. blergh. There's very few bloggers that are able to quit their job altogether to focus on their blog, which I actually think is quite a good thing. I enjoy the fact that blogging is more of a hobby as it never seems like a chore and certainly not something I'm forced to reply on for income. If you're busy 9-5 for most of the week like I am then creating a schedule for creating and posting content is essential if you want to put the most time into each post as possible, rather than cramming writing into a Sunday evening which is something I've found myself doing for too long now.
There's loads of planners available on Easy or Amazon but I find the best way to plan your content out over a month is just a simple calendar template from either Evernote or Google Docs. That way you can plan your content on the go and create checklists to make sure you've done your links and image alt tags etc. for the best SEO.
I always try and allow 30 minutes each evening after work just to brainstorm new ideas and write short descriptions of each post - that way when it comes to actually sitting down and writing them I've got some clear direction on what needs writing next.
So that’s it there’s my advice on creating content you’re proud. I hope it helps! Do you have any more tips to share?
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