Are you struggling to be a successful blogger? Maybe you sat down one day and saw so many other online bloggers making oodles of money and thought: why not me?
You had a million ideas pop into your head and decided to start writing a blog.
That’s how most of us get started. We dream of owning one of those high earning blogs and then reality sets in. It’s not happening!
I get it. When I started blogging I started with enthusiasm and excitement! I had dreams of a high earning blog and published posts on a regular basis.
- Month one went by with nothing.
- Month two went by with nothing.
- Month three I started pulling in a little traffic, like 70 visitors! But no money came in! Yikes. I had second thoughts about what I was doing. Was I wasting my time?
- Month four things started booming. I got over 2,000 visitors and a high conversion rate made me over $500 in just a few days. That was just the beginning.
I was hooked! I decided to be a successful blogger so I could walk away from my day job.
I studied the habits of the most popular and prosperous bloggers and started incorporating those into my online journey.
In this post I have 5 habits of successful bloggers that will help you develop the behaviors you need if you really want to achieve your goals.
I believe you can!
Habit 1 – Successful Bloggers Do Their Research
Did you sit down one day and think of something to blog about? You may have thought it was the best article you ever wrote but no one read it.
It’s a crappy feeling indeed. But, this is the best advice you’ll ever get about how to make money being a blogger.
Do your research!
You are not writing articles for the entire world. You are not writing article for yourself. You are writing for a targeted niche market.
- Who is your target market?
- What type of content do these people want to read?
- How can you serve your audience?
Successful bloggers know that it is not about them. It’s about their audience. Once you understand who your audience is, you must do your research to understand the type of content they are searching for.
That’s where keyword research comes in. I don’t write a single article without researching the topic first. I typically spend more time researching a topic and my audience needs than the amount of time it takes to write the post!
When you find those gems that your audience actually is craving to read, that’s when you will start becoming a trusted authority in your niche market.
Understanding your audience needs will help you to better serve them. People ask questions all day on the Internet. YOU can answer them.
Habit 2 – Successful Bloggers Write Organized and Concise Posts
How do you want others to perceive you when they read your blog posts? When you start writing a blog, it’s easy to blab on and on with lots of fluff.
That is not what your audience wants. They want to learn something from you.
People are busy so give them what they want!
Keep your posts concise. No, I don’t mean short. Just get to the point.
Make your posts easy to navigate and digest. For example, I read blog posts that have no structure at all. Just huge blocks of text that go on and on.
I can’t read that stuff!
Divide your article into short paragraphs that a person can easily digest. Use bullet or numbered lists when possible and don’t forget to use compelling subheadings! Learn more about writing structured blog posts here.
People scan most articles and your subheadings give a person a nice way to easily navigate your article. Your subheads should support your title.
Habit 3 – Successful Bloggers Track and Analyze their Traffic
I was talking to a blogger recently and asked which of her posts got the most traffic. She didn’t have a clue.
- Every high earning blogger knows:
- Where their blog traffic comes from.
- What their most popular posts are.
- What their readers care about.
- What their readers respond to.
- What links get the most clicks.
- What search terms are the most popular.
- What countries are visiting the blog.
Knowing this information will help you to create the content that your audience wants and will continue to keep coming back for more!
4 – Successful Bloggers are Constantly Learning and Implementing
When you are learning to how to make money being a blogger, you’ll be faced with a huge learning curve.
You must keep learning and putting your new skills into action. If you don’t keep learning, you will not succeed. That’s all there is to it.
You’ll have to step out of your comfort zone. And know that this is not easy street! It’s hard work but well worth it if you do it right.
I earn a full time income and left my job in 2011. I know you can do this too!
I want to caution you to be careful about whom you learn from. Here are two examples I want to share:
Don’t Take Advice from People who Know less than You do
In a blogging group, a month long blogger asked a question. An experienced blogger answered it and another new blogger answered. The answers were very different of course.
The person engaged in advice from the other new blogger because it was easy. Of course it was because the person was not knowledgeable enough.
The advice from the experienced blogger was more difficult to implement so it was ignored. If you do that, you will never succeed.
Don’t Take Advice from People who Have no Track Record
If you plan to buy a training course or pay for blog coaching, make sure the person has a track record and the experience to teach you correctly.
I saw a blogger promoting an ebook about getting traffic. But there was nothing about converting that traffic to leads, customers or anything.
In fact, the person never earned a penny. Is that who you want to take advice from? Do your homework.
Habit 5 – Successful Bloggers Creating High Value Content
Every piece of content you create should be high quality. There is so much mediocre stuff on the Internet. People are tired of it and want more.
When you first start writing a blog, it’s all new so your posts may not be high value. That’s understandable. As you continue blogging consistently, you will get better and better as you learn.
Video: 3 Ways to a Successful Blog
It’s better to write one epic, high quality blog post a week than it is to write 5 mediocre ones a week. You will build an audience that views you as an authority in your niche when you deliver amazing content.
It takes more time to write it but it will be worth it.
Final Thoughts
Although there is a lot to learn about blogging, I’ve given you five habits of successful bloggers to get you started! Blogging can be a very lucrative endeavor when done correctly.
Which of these habits are you already doing and which ones will you implement?
Need a Blog Mentor to Show you the Way? Contact me here and set up a free call.
Thanks for some great tips. I agree with your points, there are far too many bloggers out there who are impatient and want results ASAP. It’s a lot of hard work mixed with trial and error. Being organised and planning your posts in advance is also a great help and eases the pressure.
My pleasure. I agree. People think that they don’t need to do the hard stuff. But Internet marketing is just like any business. It takes planning and daily action to make it successful.
Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your insights.
Lisa
Thank you Lisa. I’m literally so thankful for all the wonderful tips you have put here. Been struggling a bit with my blog, I really needed this. Much love
My pleasure! What are the main things that are challenging for you with your blog?
Best,
Lisa
As a new blogger, these tips are absolutely awesome! I will be referring back to this post constantly. Thanks so much for sharing!
Great post, but I am wondering. When you started blogging, what changed in Month 3? What did you do differently?
Hey Cassie!
That is an excellent question. As I continued blogging, I kept learning and upleveling my skills of course. But the most important thing about blogging is that it is a passive marketing strategy. Since I use search optimization to get traffic, it takes time and patience for Google to give your blog some high ranking love! I have blogging friend who didn’t experience success for 6 months. With any passive marketing, time and patience are your best friends because it cannot happen overnight.
I hope that helps. Feel free to contact me if you have more question.
Lisa