How to be a Successful Blogger

Reaching ‘successful blog’ status is hard. Blogging can be pretty daunting and a bit like venturing in to the unknown. But if you align your working ethos and habits to those of successful people, you’ll be much more likely to get your blog where you’d like it to be – whether that’s a blog full of amazing quality writing, a base of thousands of loyal and relevant readers, or brand opportunities lining up in your inbox. Here are some of our top tips for becoming a successful blogger.

1. Form new, productive habits

Success Story has created a great infographic on the habits of successful people, where you can see the real difference working with a positive, creative and helpful manner can make. Whereas less successful people are likely to take action before they think, talk too much and have a sense of entitlement or hold grudges against others; successful people are those who think for the long term, track their progress and compliment others and want them to succeed.

If you are in the mindset to constantly learn, be accepting of things you have done wrong, set goals and targets, and share your ideas with others you are much more likely to succeed as a blogger – and in your work life in general! Training yourself to handle situations in a calmer way, work with greater passion and have a more thoughtful balance in your life, and you will be a success in everything you do.

There are many articles on how to train yourself to form new habits, for example James Clear provides some great insight articles on how you can train yourself everyday to exhibit the behaviours that will shape your life in the direction you want it to go.

2. Learn from other successful bloggers

Don’t be afraid to be observant of what’s worked with other bloggers in the past. There is a reason that some have become successful – take some time to look through their archives and see their progression from newbie blogger to blogger extraordinaire! What have they done that made them grow their following and the amount of people and brands who interact with them? Did they provide an incentive to get more people to sign up to their newsletter, or run a giveaway?

Think about any elements of popular blogs that you can emulate on your own blog using your own style or tone of voice. It may sound like ‘copying’, but being observant of what has worked for others is actually a very basic learning strategy.

3. Be as active as possible

Being active, and active in BOTH directions, is key to cementing yourself into a blogging community. Share articles on your own site of other bloggers you like, as well as just tweeting about them. Or even write a post every month on which bloggers you’re currently enjoying and add something thoughtful about why you really want them to succeed. You’ll have other bloggers asking to be featured in your posts in no time!

Reply to all the comments left on your blog, consistently come up with new blog posts, and actively push your content on social media and start conversations about your posts with other users. Engage with other bloggers in the same way that you’d like engagement on your blog.

Building up a successful blog takes a lot of work and a lot of dedicated time, therefore you need to be active and you need to be consistent. This means building up the time you spend working on your blog as another new habit!

4. Ask others and assess

When you’ve been working on your own blog for too long, you’ll begin to lose sight of what could be improved from an outsider’s perspective. Take a step back every now and again, and ask for some critical advice from regular readers, other bloggers or friends who won’t be afraid to evaluate your blog and give you an honest opinion on any improvements that could be made.

Setting goals for yourself is important, but if you’re really hard on yourself and tough on your goals, you may not realise that you’ve already achieved them, or that they may need tweaking to adjust to any changes that have arisen. Getting an outside opinion or verbally talking through your goals and your achievements with a fellow blogger or friend can really help you gain some perspective on where you’re going next.

Do you have any other tips for the road to blogging success? Share them with us below!