5 Key Aspects Of A Succesful Blogger
Shortcut your success, and become the next big blogger
With the rise of the internet, many new job opportunities have been created. People are starting to refuse the previous interpretation of a successful carrier, the 9–5 life, and embracing the new ages way of being successful.
It might seem as though with all of these new online media such as Youtube, blogging has died out, but it seriously hasn’t and is thriving just as ever. With more people using the internet today than ever before, there is an enormous audience, reading blogs daily.
With this, a lot of money is hidden in this business, and a lot of opportunities are available for people like you and me. People can make from four to five to even 6 figures a month.
However, unsuccessful blogs do occur more often than not, and it usually lies in these 5 key aspects. Although quite simple, they are an extremely important factor in the boost of your success and can determine whether you'll end up quitting after a couple of months, or reaping your success.
1. Monetize Monetize Monetize
When you start your blog, you're going to be loaded with motivation that will make you pump out articles left and right. But just like a sugar high, this will quickly fade, and you'll get unmotivated quite quickly.
Therefore, you must start monetizing your page from the very beginning, even if you're first few paychecks consist of only a few cents. It might not seem worth it, but believe me, that I am speaking from experience when I say that even a little bit of money gives you an amazing feeling of reward, and boosts your confidence.
Not only that but when you grow your readership, you want them to be accustomed to the ads on your page so that they don’t get frustrated by your abrupt switch.
One of your main sources of income on your blog should be AdSense. These include the small pop up ads that appear on your website, which can add up to a very big portion of your earnings.
First, you should use Google Adsense, as this is the easiest AdSense platform to start with, and even though it doesn’t pay that much, it's just the right thing to keep you going in the beginning.
Once you have established a stable monthly readership, you can go ahead and get a more intermediate, or advanced Adsense account. This will pay you a lot more but is also really only worth it until you have grown a little.
Next, you want to focus a lot of your attention on Affiliate Marketing. This is going to be you're second-largest, or maybe even largest, source of income, and is, therefore quite a big deal that needs to be done right.
If you ever mention a product or object that can be bought, naturally, in your blog post, you can link it with something called an Affiliate link. Basically, this means that if somebody proceeds to buy that product mentioned in your article, you get a percentage of that sale. A commission.
I stress naturally here since you do not want to fill your blogs up with what seems like a bunch of ads for a quick cash grab. If you like a certain product, and it comes up in the article, you can link it for the convenience of the reader, so that they can purchase the item, while supporting you.
Once again, in the beginning, you are going to want to start with Amazon Affiliate links, but then when you start growing, you can graduate to better affiliate programs which will offer you more commission.
Finally, there are sponsored posts, where you openly advertise a product. It’s very different from affiliate marketing since you usually do not get a commission, and instead, a fixed rate which has been decided on previously. This means that you will have built some sort of business relationship with the brand, and will be representing them in your article.
In the first few months of your blog, this type of revenue will probably still be non-existent, but once you've grown a little, you might start to get offers from different company’s. Be sure not to accept any offer, and really look for the company’s you would like to represent, and which you know your audience would enjoy and/or benefit from.
This and too many sponsored posts can lead to your blog dying out because of how fake, and shallow it has become.
Remember that it isn’t wrong to want to make a profit, just always stay genuine.
2. Find Your Niche
The belief that the more you diversify, the better doesn’t really apply in the blogging world. Spreading your wings too far means that you don’t have much grip on anything, leading to a failing blog.
At the very beginning of your blogging journey, this is more important than ever, since people will be reading your blogs more for the information they obtain than because they love you as an author. If you keep writing in this certain niche, you'll attract an audience who loves that topic, and you will always be the first on their list to come to when they want to know anything about it.
Your personality will also help speed up the process of gaining a loyal viewership so be sure to let that seep into your writing as well.
It's all good and fine to have a lot of different things which one enjoys, but don’t write about all of them. When picking your niche try to not be too specific that you won’t have a wide enough audience, but also don’t get too vague, as people will easily find a lot of your blogs uninteresting.
Some niches do of course have a much wider audience and more potential, but this also means that there is more competition, which you wouldn’t face in a less popular niche.
Personal finance, for example, is a very popular subject, that also pays very well, but since a lot of people are writing in this niche, it's difficult to stand out. Fishing, on the other hand, is a much less popular topic and attracts a much more niche audience, who are easier to captivate in your articles.
The most important thing, however, is to pick a topic to write about, which you truly love, and could talk about for days on end. Your readers will notice a difference if your passionate about your writing, and if you're just doing it because you think you need to.
This will also mean that it is easier for you to keep going, as you will hopefully not have to force yourself to stick to your writing schedule if it is already fun for you. Or at least it should be easier.
3. Have A Social Media Campaign
Social media is going to be one of your biggest tools to attract an audience to your page. Therefore you must utilize it correctly so that you can reap its full benefits.
At the very beginning of your blog, you will most likely become overwhelmed with the amount of marketing you have to do. I know from first-hand experience what it feels like trying to be present on almost every social media platform.
Very quickly you'll find yourself in burnout, without much to show for it. Therefore it is always best to go into creating your blog with an advertising plan.
Instead of being mediocre on all platforms, you’ll want to be concentrating all of your time on the platform that has the greatest return.
For blogs, you'll find this to be Pinterest as you can always link everything back to your blog. Research as much as you can into how to leverage Pinterest to the best of your ability, so that instead of trying to be everywhere, you obtain a strong, and big presence here.
Of course, there are other great platforms, like Instagram, and Twitter, but in the first few months of your blog, you mustn’t get overwhelmed, so it is best to stick to just one (Pinterest).
Once you have established some solid ground, you can most definitely venture off onto other platforms, and start diversifying.
4. Learn SEO
Another huge factor for the traffic on your site will be SEO. SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. This is the tool used by Google, to rank blogs for specific keywords.
As you may know, a vast amount of creators post blogs on Google, that touch on the same subjects. So, when a Google user searches for something, Google needs to rank the blog posts through SEO.
As a blog owner, it is your responsibility to research into this field, learning as much as possible about SEO, so that you can rank higher than your competitors.
I can’t explain it in full right now, and will probably write another blog post focusing on this subject alone because it is quite a large topic, but in short, you need to use certain keywords, with which you want readers to search for your post, a certain amount of times in your articles.
I know this can sound like a pain to have to learn about SEO since you want to concentrate on your writing and less on how it ranks in Google. But trust me, if you invest at least a little time every day into learning more about SEO you will already be miles ahead most other starting out bloggers, cutting them out of your list of competitors.
5. Know the Power of Your Email List
Getting readers to come to your page is one thing, but keeping them there, and turning them into loyal, worshipping fans is a totally different story. Luckily, the technology of today has enabled an easy, and direct way to access and address people individually, no matter how many, without much work.
Emails are the best way to continue to contact your readers and keep in touch with them and is a crucial part of keeping a blog. To make your reader stay with you, you need to build a very personal relationship with them, making them feel special.
Readers will rarely come back to your blog, unless they know that you have posted a new article, which is best communicated through their email, telling them this.
Starting to grow your email list, isn’t only good for marketing new articles, but practically anything that you want to do, or offer in the future can be advertised through your email list. If for example you created a course or wrote a book, you can leverage your email list to get your first customers.
Right now you might think that you won’t need this, but it is an amazingly useful thing to have, and your future self will thank you if you start growing it now.
Getting the email of your readers should always be done with an offer. Giving them value, in return for their email. You could offer your new spreadsheet, on how to set up your business in ten steps, or your e-book on personal development. Whatever it is, it should be based around your niche, and offer value to the reader.
Then, as for the content of the emails, you always should start them out by offering your fans value, and content for free upfront (like a new article), and then raise awareness of the things you have created that are for sale. This way they will build a loving relationship with you, without feeling like they are constantly being bombarded with sales pitches.
The difference between a blog with an email list and one without one is tremendous, as it offers a pretty steady, and constant flood of views.
To all the people who have started their blogs, or are thinking about starting their blogs I wish you the best of luck on this adventurous journey. I know that it really is a lot of hard work, and dedication, but it does pay off in the end.
Don’t be discouraged, if the results aren’t immediate as blogging is a long journey that takes time and patience. The five tips above are some of the most vital lessons I have learned throughout my own journey, and if followed you will see results.
Wish you all the best.
Happy blogging!
