How To Build A Successful Blog

Just as any other business blogging needs consistency. And because blogging ist about writing you need to write or publish any kind of content on your blog – this can be also video, audio or a tutorial illustrated with pictures. But the main point is that you need to be consistent. Without consistency your blog isn’t getting anywhere but will remain a hobby. I really learned it the hard way. I literally worked day and night but my visitors were anything but impressive. What did I do? I posted in forums, commented on blogs, added links to directories but even when I got people to the blog the problem was that I simply didn’t have enough there so they would stick around and dig deeper into my site – and finally sign up for my newsletter so I could get in contact with them again.

One day I was fed up and browsed the other websites. I figured that there must be a difference between my site and the site of my competitors. And yes, there was – while I was trying to drive traffic to a nearly empty site they wrote – sometimes two or three times a day! I decided that enough was enough and started writing. I told myself that, if I wouldn’t see any difference after two months of publishing content daily I’d simply quit but I wanted to be sure that I really couldn’t do it so I challenged myself.

I wrote for three months in a row, daily. Visitor numbers increased from thousand something per month to over 8,000. Wow! And yes, that blog finally started to make money. Yes, it was so easy in the end, I just did what a blog expects – adding content. If you look around in the Internet Marketing Sphere people will tell you to not write just mediocre content but the best content you can. No question, that is true but then, the best content is content that answers my question, isn’t it?

So content which is straight to the point and optimized for just one topic, that is, what I consider great content. When I type a keyword in Google I don’t care if the writer has answered my question in 1,000 words – I care that he has answered my question.

So my conclusion:

In order to have a successful experience with your blog whether that is defined as earning money, getting a lot of visitors, or another goal all together it is important that you create a plan and follow through with your plan for the ultimate chance at success. An empty blog won’t get visitors, and without visitors, you can’t be successful. Therefore your first goal should be to get targeted visitors to your blog. Getting visitors requires posting regular keyword rich content.

 Here are some keys to build a successful blog

Know Your Why

Why are you blogging, who are you blogging for, and what is your goal? You need to write down these things so that you can always look at it to ensure that each step of the way you’re remembering why you’re doing it, who you’re doing it for, and what the end result will be. Having this written down is no different from any business owner who creates a business plan and mission statement. It is an important step, don’t skip it. Often we are not really clear about this but in order to be successful we have to be.

Know When & How

Are you going to blog daily, weekly, or on another schedule? Are you going to write all your blogs, or create some video blogs? Maybe you want to create a podcast too? You can do one, or all, mixing it up will keep you and your viewers/readers from getting bored.

Research Keywords

The best way to ensure that you attract visitors that you want to your blog, visitors who are interested in what you have to say,  is to plan the keyword rich content that you’ll offer your visitors. You can use Google’s free keyword tool or Market Samurai to research keywords for your niche. Market Samurai is in many ways much better to use than the Google Keyword Tool because it delivers all data you need at once. With the free tool you have to gather data from different places. So if for nothing else, I’d try Market Samurai for the convenience it offers. You can grab a fully functional 14-days trial here. You should easily produce 100’s of keywords, pick some low competition keywords to focus on because the high competition keywords will be more difficult to rank for.

Create an Editorial Calendar

Use an editorial calendar just like professional publications use. WordPress has a great plugin called Editorial Calendar which enables you to look at each month at a glance and enter topic ideas for the future. Then when you’re ready to write, simply look at the calendar and start writing based on the calendar. You can also create a simple calendar using Word. Take into consideration your keyword research when picking topics to write about.

Make Time

Treat blogging as a job, with a schedule for time to write, or record for your video blog, and time to edit and post the results.  If you plan it out for each week, month and year in advance you’ll find that you’ll be more successful. If you are working a day job and getting your blogging business started be realistic about how much time you can devote. Schedule in time to work, and time for rest. Slow and steady can win the race too.

After all, blogging is “just another business”. If you just work on it from time to time, you most probably won’t see results quickly. But, if you stick to a schedule visitors and therefore money will come in.

Filed in: Blog • Blogging Tips
Tagged with: build a successful blog • make money blogging