So you’ve decided to be a blogger. Well done! But how do you know that you’ll be successful? Are you sure that you have what it takes? There are over a billion blogs on the Internet – how can you be certain that yours will be one of the top ones? And keep in mind, to be in the top 1% of blogs, you only need to rank within the top 10 million on Alexa and that is still a sea of content in which your beautiful, thought-provoking blog is a mere drop. I will get into the various essential aspects of a successful blog in another post, but for now I think it is important to first look at what exactly the characteristics of a successful blogger are. After all, your blog is going to be as good as you are.
1. You have to be an expert in something
It may seem obvious, but as a blogger you need to have something to say. All of us have that thing that we are good at: it may stem from a career or from a passion or hobby, or even from life as in parenting. But whatever it is, you have to make sure that you set yourself up as the authority on that subject. If you’re going to write about a subject, you need to be an expert in that subject. When you know what you’re talking about, it also makes it so much easier to write content – you get into the zone, and it just comes.
See more on choosing themes and topics in this post.
2. You have to distinguish yourself from the rest
Considering this sea of information out there, it isn’t enough anymore to have a variety blog. Sure, you want to write about food, and that is awesome. There are millions of food blogs out there though, so how are you going to distinguish yourself? You might want to write about food from a specific country or region, food for families, quick meals, healthy options, LCHF – there are many options. But by creating a niche for yourself, you make it so much easier for people looking for your specific content to find you.
3. Dedication
Blogging is a lot of work. Take note that I don’t call it hard work: if it’s HARD you’re not right for the job! But it does take a lot of dedication. I have written on the right posting frequency in a previous post and to post every day or several times a day is a full-time job. But even to post 3 times a week like I do takes commitment. In order to build up your content and following, you’ll need to post original, thought-provoking and value-added content on a regular basis. Most people start out blogging while they have a day job until they can let go of that to blog full-time and commitment to your blog is the only thing that’s going to get to write a post after a challenging day at the office. Which brings me to my next point:
4. Perseverance
Blogging is fun: you get to work for yourself, earn an income, play around and the options on the internet are endless. But it doesn’t necessarily happen overnight. (I have to put necessarily in there because of course some blogs do turn into massive success stories overnight!) I started this blog with the notion of If I build it, they will come. This is the SLOW approach however, and while it worked for me, it took me way too long to figure this whole thing out. Which is why I’ve decided to write about it so that you don’t have to stumble along in the dark. But if you stick to it and see it through, blogging is massively rewarding. So much so that I can’t go back to the life I had before.
So these are my top 4 characteristics of a PRO blogger: you have to be an expert in something, you have to distinguish yourself from the rest, you have to be dedicated to your craft, and you must have perseverance. If you can check all 4 of these, you’re good to go!
I’d love to hear you thoughts on the characteristics of a successful blogger – please add to this list in the comment section below.
Happy blogging!
PS: if you’re wondering where I’m getting the gorgeous images that I use for the PRO posts, click here or on the SC Stockshop link in the side bar!
