How often should you post new blog posts? How long does it take you to write a good article? What kind of topics should you cover? These questions are common for bloggers who want to build their audience and earn some extra income from blogging.
Blogging has become very popular over the years. In fact, according to Statista, there are now more than 2 million blogs worldwide. This number continues to rise every year. If you want to start a successful blog, then you need to follow these simple steps.
It takes time to build a strong readership base. The key to success is consistency. Once you get started, don’t stop posting quality articles. Your goal is to create a community of loyal followers who love reading your content.
Build the Foundations Slowly
When it comes to backlinks, you want to build the foundations of your blog slowly. Link velocity matters. Too fast, too early is not a good thing.
Many bloggers tend to follow black hat or aggressive manual backlink-building techniques to see their results sooner. They might get their desired results, but not for long term.
Their backlink profiles could look unnatural and unsustainable. If you keep following such methods, you’ll end up losing out on quality backlinks. Instead, focus on developing high-quality, natural backlinks that grow alongside your content. Here are some tips to help you do just that.
- Don’t rush it
- Be patient
- Focus on getting quality backlinks
- Make sure your backlink profile is sustainable
- Avoid irregular spikes in your backlink profile
- Maintain consistency in your post frequency
- Build trust with other websites
- Use social media as an effective tool
- Keep building relationships with influencers
- Get featured on blogs
Track All of Your Metrics
Monitoring your blog is crucial. You need to know what works and what doesn’t work. You want to improve and make sure that your efforts are paying off.
However, sometimes it’s hard to keep track of everything. There are many tools out there that help you do just that. One of those tools is Google Analytics. It’s free, easy to use, and gives you insights into how people interact with your site.
Google Analytics reveals user information including where they come from, what keywords they use to find you, and even what browser they’re using. With this information, you’ll know exactly what works and what doesn’t work for your audience. You can also see how much traffic each post gets, how long visitors spend on your site, and how often people return. In addition to tracking visitor behavior, Google Analytics helps you understand where those visitors came from, and what they did once they got here. For example, you might see that most visitors arrive from Facebook, but some actually land on your homepage. You can then take action based on that insight.
Monitoring analytics is like having a personal assistant. You don’t want to miss something important. If you do, you might lose followers, traffic, and even revenue. To avoid such situations, you must keep track of everything related to your blog. This includes things like how many visitors are coming to your site daily, monthly, yearly, etc., what keywords people use to find you, where those keywords come from, what countries they originate from, how much money you earn per month, etc.
If you’re a blogger, you probably already know about Google Analytics, but there are plenty of other tools out there that can help you monitor your blog’s performance. For example, you could install one of the following plugins to see how well your posts perform:
- WordPress Dashboard – A plugin that allows you to view stats directly within WordPress.
- Yoast SEO – An extension for WordPress that helps you improve your rankings.
- StatPress – Another plugin that gives you access to statistics without installing anything else.
- WP-Meter – Allows you to measure the progress of your blog.
- WPMU DEV PRO – Provides you with detailed data about your site’s performance.
Wherever you are on your blogging journey, keeping track of your performance metrics is critical to the maintenance of a successful blog.
Build a Personal Brand With Your Blog
The most important part of building a personal brand is establishing it. You don’t want to spend hours and days creating a blog, writing articles, and posting videos, just to find out that nobody cares. If you are serious about building a personal brand, you must make sure that you establish it properly.
You might think that there isn’t much to establish a personal brand. However, I believe that every single person should have one. Here are some tips to help you build a personal brand.
1. Start blogging. Blogging is a great way to establish a personal brand because it gives you the opportunity to write regularly without having to worry about deadlines. It also allows you to express yourself freely. When you start blogging, make sure that you post quality content. If you’re trying to build a personal brand, you shouldn’t aim to rank high in search engines; rather, you should try to attract readers. So, focus on publishing interesting posts.
2. Create a Twitter account. Twitter is another great tool to use to establish a personal brand, especially if you’re looking to grow your audience. There are millions of people on Twitter, and chances are that you’ll reach thousands of followers within a few months. As long as you publish quality content, you’ll see your follower count growing steadily.
3. Build a YouTube channel. YouTube is another great place to build a personal brand. Not only does it give you a chance to talk directly to your target market, but it also provides you with the opportunity to engage with your audience. You can upload video tutorials, product reviews, and even live streams. Just remember to keep your content short and sweet.
4. Start a Facebook group. Facebook groups are very powerful tools to use to build a personal brand because they allow you to connect with like-minded individuals. For example, if you run a fitness center, you could start a Facebook group where members can exchange ideas and ask questions. This is a great way to build a strong relationship with your clients.
5. Get active on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a professional social network where companies and professionals meet each other. If you’ve been working hard to establish a personal brand over the past few months, you should definitely join the site. Once you sign up, you can start connecting with potential employers, colleagues, and friends.
Track Your Competition
There are definitely some blogs that are similar or even better than yours. You might want to find out what makes those sites different from you and why people like them. They could be doing something right that you aren’t. Or it could be that you don’t know enough about blogging to compete against them. Whatever the case, there’s no harm in learning from others.
The first step is to figure out who your competitors are. This isn’t always easy. Some bloggers work alone while others run large teams. Some use paid advertising while others rely solely on organic traffic. And some are just starting out and haven’t built up much of a following. But once you identify your competition, you can start looking into what they’re doing well and where they fall short.
Once you know what you’re up against, you can start thinking about ways you can differentiate yourself. Are you offering a special type of content? Do you offer a particular niche audience? Is there anything else you can do to stand out from your competitors? These are questions you should ask yourself. After all, if you’re trying to build a successful blog, you shouldn’t be competing with someone else. You should also be competing with yourself.
Find a Topic or Niche That You Are Passionate About
If you want to start a blog, you might think that choosing a topic is easy. After all, there are thousands of blogs out there already. But finding one that fits your personality and interests is another story. If you choose a topic you don’t care much about, you’ll find yourself writing less often, and eventually giving up on your dream.
So how do you know what topics you really love? Start by thinking about things that make you excited, happy, angry, sad, frustrated, inspired — whatever emotion resonates most deeply inside you. Then look around your life and ask yourself questions like “What am I good at?,” “Where do I excel?,” “Am I passionate about this?,” “Do I have something unique to say?,” “Does this interest me enough to spend my free time learning about it?”
Once you’ve identified a few potential topics, take some time to research each one thoroughly. Read books, articles, watch videos, talk to people who are experts in the field. Do whatever it takes to learn everything you possibly can about your chosen topic. Make sure you understand why it matters to you, and whether you’d be willing to put in the effort needed to become an expert in it.
Choose a Topic That You Can Debate
When it comes to blogging, there are many different types of topics that people discuss. Some bloggers prefer to stick to one specific topic, while others like to talk about anything and everything under the sun. Whatever your preference is, make sure that your chosen topic allows you to express yourself freely without worrying about offending anyone.
If you’re having trouble finding a topic that fits the bill, try asking friends what they think about certain issues. If no one seems interested in talking about a particular subject, consider starting a discussion group on Facebook or another social media site. This way, everyone involved gets to voice their thoughts and feelings on the same issue.
The biggest mistake many bloggers make is avoiding a topic because they don’t want to debate with other people. If you are passionate about something, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks; just do it. But if you find yourself saying things like, “I care what everyone says,” or “Everyone hates me because I think my way,” then stop blogging. Your passion isn’t strong enough. A blogger needs to love their topic.
You can start out with a controversial subject, such as politics, religion, parenting, or relationships. Or maybe you want to talk about your favorite hobby or sport, or even your personal interests. Whatever you decide, always remember to keep the discussion civil. Avoid name calling or insulting comments. And try to avoid making sweeping generalizations.
Choose a Topic That’s Not Highly Controversial
On the flip side, as your blog grows and more readers find it, some visitors will disagree with your views so much that they take issue with you personally. They might comment, email, tweet, or even post something nasty about you on social media. When this happens, it’s important to know how to handle yourself in such situations.
You don’t want to respond to every negative comment, but you do want to make sure that you’re responding to the most hurtful ones. And you definitely don’t want to engage in name calling or personal attacks.
Some topics are more likely than others to attract this type of visitor. For example, political and religious subjects are usually highly controversial, because there are many different sides to each topic. Other topics, like parenting and nutrition, tend to generate less conflict.
If you’d rather avoid this type of interaction, choose a topic that isn’t too highly controversial. Topics that are too touchy will lead to unhappy interactions that could damage your relationship with readers.
Don’t Be Like Everyone Else – Offer Unique Value
One thing we often hear about blogs is how much work goes into producing high-quality content.
We know that writing is hard, but when you take a step back, you realize that there is something else that makes content stand out from the rest.
The world of blogging is full of great advice about how to build up your readership, grow your traffic, and increase your social media presence. And while most of those pieces of advice are sound, they often fall short because they don’t take into account one very important factor: your audience.
Your job isn’t to create content that’s exactly like someone else’s; rather, it’s to provide something different. By doing so, you’ll help your readers connect with your ideas, and they’ll feel compelled to keep coming back for more.
So, what does that mean for your blog? Well, it means giving your audience a reason to stick around. What makes your blog stand out from the crowd? Why should people read your articles over anyone else’s? How can you use your unique voice to attract followers and encourage them to become loyal fans?
Choose a Topic That You Would Get Enjoyment Out of Researching
Blogs are a great place to write about whatever interests you. They’re especially good for those who like to talk about things they know well. But there’s one aspect of blogging that makes it different from writing articles for print publications. If you want to make money from your blog, you must make sure that you enjoy researching the topic you’re writing about. Otherwise, you won’t stick with it long enough to build a large audience.
Choose a topic you enjoy researching. There are many different areas where you can research, and you can find plenty of information online about each of them. If you don’t like doing online research, there are always books and magazines to turn to.
You might think that writing about a subject you know nothing about isn’t much fun. However, once you start blogging, you’ll quickly discover that you enjoy learning about your chosen topic even more than you thought possible.
Does the Topic of Your Blog Have a Chance to Grow Beyond 20 Articles?
Finding a niche isn’t just about finding something that no one else does. You want to not only write about what people are looking for, it also has to be big enough that there’s plenty of space to grow into it over many months.
Finding a niche is desirable, especially if you want to build up a large audience. But it has to remain broad enough so that there are plenty of topics left over once you’ve published 20 articles. If you attempt to cover everything under the sun, you’ll likely end up writing about the same thing again and again.
You might even start getting bored with your topic.
This is where the concept of “niche creep” comes into play. Niche creep happens when you narrow down your focus too far, and eventually you run out of things to write about. This could happen because you don’t like what you’re doing anymore, or because you feel like you’ve already covered every aspect of it. Either way, you risk ending up with a small number of posts that aren’t very useful to anyone else.
The solution here is simple: Find something that interests you, but isn’t too specific. Then, use that interest to guide you toward finding similar niches.
After publishing a few articles, you’ll see whether this approach works for you.
Blogging Success Is Seldom an Overnight Phenomenon
When you see a successful blog, they have likely been spending months to years building a solid foundation.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither was that blog that you see that’s pulling in 6 figures.
Success takes time, and the overnight success you might see on some blogs is just that – an illusion.
When do you plan on beginning your own successful blog?
