- Do you want to start blogging?
- Do you already blog?
- Do you have a niche to blog about?
1. Posting frequency matters, but not as much as persistence.
It’s no secret that the more quality content you publish on your blog, the faster it will grow. However, there’s something that’s significantly more important than your blog’s posting frequency — persistence.
The key to success in blogging is small but regular and consistent actions over a long period of time.
Building a blog is not easy, and requires a huge amount of effort to reach a tipping point.
2. Know the 20 percent that drives 80 percent of your results. There is a saying that 80 percent of the effects are typically the result of 20 percent of the causes. What does that even mean??
In the context of blogging, 80 percent of your traffic will usually come from 20 percent of your content. Eighty percent of your profits usually come from 20 percent of your products or advertisers, and so on.
The blogs that grow the fastest leveraged this concept and used it to become more effective.
3. The importance of good timing and owning a niche. It would be very difficult to build a social media and technology blog as successful as some out there, starting today. Many of the most successful blogs we know of today are successful in large part thanks to their timing.
Timing plays a key role in the equation of success, and it’s evident when we look at the most successful blogs of today.
While the ships may have sailed for starting high-traffic blogs on wide topics such as social media, travel or cooking, there is a limitless and ever increasing myriad of niches that are up for the taking.
Find your niche. What is that you have the makes you unique?
4. Over the long run, useful content usually beats viral content. You might think from reading web-marketing blogs that viral content is the be all and end all of digital marketing. Over the long run, though, useful content usually outperforms viral content.
What you say should be useful to your read. When you figure out your niche, think of who your typical reader would be. Is it someone like you? What would you find helpful or interesting? Blog about that.
5. Building traffic takes time, but this time can be reduced with planning. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither were some of the most successful blogs out there today. Building a high-traffic blog requires time, but this time can be reduced with careful planning.
Careful planning can be the difference between reaching a million visitors in six months or 60 months. By knowing specifically how you intend to reach your goals, you maximize the likelihood of hitting them.
The more specific your plan is, the sooner you can reach your goals.
6. Utilize the power of compounding. It’s called the “Flywheel effect.”
The flywheel is a huge heavy metal disc mounted on an axle. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to turn. The first revolution may take days of pushing all day and night, but as the flywheel gains a bit of momentum the second revolution takes a tiny bit less effort.
After weeks and months of pushing the flywheel it finally reaches a point where it spins faster and faster under its own weight. The flywheel is a great analogy of how building a blog works.
What this is really referring to is the power of compounding. Building a successful blog takes a tremendous amount of effort, but over time, the amount of effort required to keep it growing, and earn an income from it, decreases.
Just like the first year of starting a savings account, the first year of blogging is always the hardest, as the power of compounding is yet to kick in.
7. Using stakes to overcome the emotional challenges. Growing a blog is an emotional challenge that requires will, passion and persistence. Successful bloggers need a driving force that keeps them persisting through the hard times. Give yourself an ultimatum….what happens if you are not successful? This will motivate you to keep moving forward.
In summary. Learn from the success of others. First, the opposite of what works can also work. The other truth is that what worked then may not work now.
By being effective, persistent, patient, and focused, you can improve your odds of building a successful blog — as those before you did.