Becoming a blogger is actually very easy, all you need to do is just start a new blog and write about the topics you like. That’s super easy, right?
Now, when we talk about how to become a successful blogger, you will definitely agree that there’s a lot more you need to go through before you can have a large audience and make thousands of dollars every month.
This is something I’ve had to learn myself, and I know I’m not yet where I want to be so I need to keep learning more and more every single day. Today I’m sharing with you these 6 lessons every blogger needs to learn before becoming a successful entrepreneur.
6 Lessons Every Blogger Needs to Learn
1) Success takes time, dedication, and patience.
If you’re serious about blogging and you really want to become a successful blogger, you need to think about your blog like any other business out there. There are many businesses out there, but not all of them are successful.
Producing great content that keeps people engaged is not an easy task to achieve, therefore, you need to be patient, but also consistent. This is what I mean, the most successful bloggers I know of, were not really the best writers when they were blogging as beginners – they didn’t have thousands of Twitter followers when they started.
Look around and stare at what other bloggers are doing, think about the things that you can do better and start doing it, and do it consistently. That is definitely going to set you apart, but it’ll take time to see those results, so be patient, be dedicated and consistent.
2) You need to give a lot before you start to receive
Blogging is all about sharing what you know with other people who know a little less than you do. You don’t necessarily need to be an expert in order to help someone, you just need to know a little more than them.
Make sure you’re focusing on helping people out rather than getting a lot of benefit for yourself, successful bloggers add value to their community, they focus on helping people out as much as they can and that’s the reason people keep coming to them over and over.
Here’s a list of things you can do to add value to your community:
- Find forums and social media groups related to your niche
Go there just to answer questions for people. This is not only going to help you add value to them, but you also have the chance of bringing Free traffic to your blog if you can come up with blog posts to answer the most common questions.
- Add value through comments in other blogs
This is also very practical and it works for adding value to your audience and bring traffic to your site. Don’t leave a comment on a popular blog if you don’t have anything that would answer other people questions or really contribute to enriching the content of the post.
- Add value through guest posting
Yes, guest posting is also a way to add value to your community, not only you add blogging tips and value to a new audience of people that you’d be able to reach by guest posting in other sites, but you also add value to the community of fellow bloggers.
If someone gives you the great opportunity to publish something on their site, you have a chance to impress them. Take time to research the whole blog and find out what type of content creates more engagement so that you can publish something they have not covered yet.
By doing this, you’re building strong relationships with other bloggers and grow your audience since many people will read your blog, and most likely feel engaged with it.
3) Treat your Blog Like a Business, Invest in your Blog.
This is truly a common mistake even among experienced bloggers who have been around for years. Many people start blogging as a side business while they continue to work in their regular jobs and most of them tend to quit their job as soon as they’re making some money with their blog.
That’s a HUGE mistake!
This is what I mean… When you quit your job because you are already making as much money with your blog, you’re simply switching from one job to another. Yes, you’re treating your blog as if it was your job.
And I don’t want you to misunderstand what I’m trying to say… Yes, you obviously want to dedicate as much time as you can to your blog, your business, but you also have to think about “Scaling your Business”
Here’s what I’m trying to say… If you want to become a successful blogger, but you start spending your blog’s income on paying your bills, buying food, etc. You’ll have no money to invest in your blog’s growth.
Here are a few things you can invest in before you start spending your blog’s income in yourself:
- Get a better hosting company (Many people get started with shared hosting because that’s cheaper).
- Invest in Premium tools to make your job more efficient.
- Hire a designer and improve the look of your blog.
- Hire more people to work with you and produce more and better content.
- Invest in marketing solutions.
4) Looking at your Stats will not get them up – Schedule your activities
It’s normal to be anxious about getting results when you know you’ve worked so hard, but you’d be surprised to notice how much time you spend just looking at your analytics when you should really be working on the things that will give you results.
Scheduling your daily activities can help you increase your productivity a lot.
Start by making a list of things that represent high priorities, things that you know you have to do every day no matter what, also look at those tasks in which you have a deadline, and the end you add the ones that have more flexibility, but you still have to do them.
Make your list of daily activities, weekly activities, and even monthly activities, and stick to it with discipline until it really becomes a habit. This is going to save you a lot of time and make you a lot more productive.
5) Become a better blogger by reading more
I always get surprised to see how people really don’t understand the power of reading, and this also applies to bloggers. Many bloggers don’t develop their skills by reading books or even reading other bloggers blog posts, which can really improve our knowledge and writing skills.
I rarely see people talking about the last marketing, business, or self-development books they’ve read. But yet, they want to become successful, now guest what?? Successful people read a lot, they just develop the habit and they read a lot because they want to become even better.
If you want to become a successful blogger, read what experts in your industry have to say, read what they read, learn about the strategies they’ve used, and implement them with your own blog.
Like I’ve always said, if I’m trying to do something that someone else has already done, why do I have to make the same mistakes they’ve already made. I’ll rather learn from their mistakes and do what they did, but faster.
Here’s a list of some of my favorite books, in case you want to start reading:
- The Compound Effect, by Darren Hardy.
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey.
- Rich Dad Poor Dad, by Robert T. Kiyosaki.
- The 21st Century Business, by Robert T. Kiyosaki.
- Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman.
You can also consume your favorite’s bloggers eBooks, if you ever want people to buy your eBooks, why don’t you buy theirs.
6) Know your audience and write for them
Yes, I know blogging is about sharing with other people about the things you like, but if you’re blogging for business and not just for fun, if you really want to become a successful blogger, you need to know your audience, those are your potential clients.
You can run surveys from time to time and asks your audience what are the things they’re struggling with, ask them what type of topics they want you to cover, how they want it, and when they want it.
You can also put this in practice with your social media groups, in forums and even asking the people in your email list.
Once you get to really know your audience, you’ll be able to engage with them in a better way, you’ll know exactly what they’re looking for and how to present your products to them.
Now, it’s your turn to take action… Are you ready to become a successful blogger?
Leave your comments below, and if you liked this article, please don’t forget to share!!
Sometimes i love reading, sometimes i hate it. It all depends on my anxiety level. But i understand reading helps in your blogging journey tremendously 🙂
Pro tip: YouTube and audiobooks may also help people who aren't always in love with reading, although written communication can be more effective.
Another thing about successful blogging is to create something epic or spectacular in some way. Think of the Skyscraper technique, but not necessarily for articles. Rather, implement something that drives people to keep coming back for reference – over and over.
To give a blatant example, I have a growing list of guest blogs that accept guest posts (in the thousands, at this point).
Another example involves the ProBlogger job board, as people have come to know ProBlogger primarily for the jobs rather than the content (in my opinion, anyway).
Likewise, a blogger could implement a weekly or monthly contest and give away anything relevant to their audience (a business blog could give away an Amazon business book as a gift, for example).
All in all, strive to create something memorable on your blog. It doesn't have to be conventional articles. Just help people and stand out in small, creative ways 🙂
Thanks, Ronald and Sue
Elvis
Hi Elvis,
Thanks a lot for the comment, and thanks a lot for stopping by.
You rock buddy!
Patience! I need some! Great tips! Thanks!
Patience is key Jemina!
Keep pushing really hard and be patient, if you're doing the right thing the results will come.
Thanks for reading!
Great article. Thanks for sharing the knowledge.
Thanks for reading Docket.
You rock!
Hey Ronald, great piece of content. Yes, success indeed takes a lot of time.
“I start early and I stay late, day after day, year after year, it took me 17 years and 114 days to become an overnight success.” – This quote from Lionel Messi sums up it all.
The difference between successful people and ordinary people is, successful people focus on long term results whereas the latter group look for shortcuts. Successful people know that it takes a lot of time (mostly years) to build a profitable online business that actually makes decent profits.
It also takes money to make money online. If you treat blogging as a business, you’ll never hesitate to invest money on it. Whether it is outsourcing content or hiring SEO agency or buying SEO tools to build your blog – it is all investment that gives you better ROI in the long run.
I couldn’t agree more with you on reading more books. Leaders are readers. If you don’t prefer reading, make sure to at least learn through audio books which are also fun. I personally use Scribd for listening to audiobooks and finishing at least one new book every week.
Great post Ronald. Keep up the great work!
Hii
Sue and Ronald,
The six lessons over here will help every blogger in making their blogging successful. These tips are one of the basic tips on should follow to make their dreams come true. No matter, If you are a blogger or an internet marketer the lessons featured in this post is really going to help you in achieving your goals.
I like all your tips especially – Tip no. 2,3 and 6.
Thanks for sharing.
Praveen Verma
Hey Praveen,
You're right! These tips actually represent key principles to achieve success in life, no matter where you are or what your business is about.
Thanks for stopping by buddy!
Hello,
The Perfect lessons for bloggers. Very impressive and informative post. Personally i really like the number 3, 4, 6 lessons.
Many Thanks
You are so welcome, Cheryl.
Sue
Thanks Ronald for the great post with loads of helpful topics! I look forward to following the blog.
Hi Ganesh,
Thanks for reading. And thanks for the beautiful comment!
Cheers!
Amazing Writeup Ronald! I have been following this blog for a week now and I must say posts are really nice and informative.
I have recently joined the world of blogging and the information you've provided is helping me a lot. Not only just in blogging, but these lessons are suitable for every type of business you are doing.
Keep the good work Ronald and keep writing such informative posts.
These tips for blogging is very successful way for fast blogging.
Thanxs ronald for sharing this great post.
Hi Rohit,
Yes, Sue's blog is just awesome. You'll find a ton of valuable content here, so stay tuned.
Thanks for the comment and welcome to the blogging world!
Cheers.
Thanks for the comment Anil,
That's absolutely right! Many days of getting up early and staying late, and then when success finally comes to you, people think it just happened overnight.
If being successful was an easy thing to do, then everybody would do it, but the truth is that success is there for anybody who is willing to be strong enough to claim it.
Cheers.
The most amazing article for Bloggers! Definitely recommending it to all my blogger friends.
Thanks for your comment, Vishrant!
Sue
I really do agree with these principles. I like the first one the most–1) Success takes time, dedication, and patience. Some people think they'd earn right after they start blogging and they expect so much from it. Anyways, thanks for sharing these lessons. Every bloggers should read this.
Thanks for your comment, Albert!
Sue
Very useful and great stuff. Thanks Ronald for sharing. looking forward for your next post.
Thanks a lot for the comment.
I'm glad you liked the article.
Hi Sagar,
Thanks a lot for reading man. I'm glad you've liked the article.
I agree that one needs to treat their blog like a business. A lot of bloggers don't do that and wonder why they aren't getting any traction. If one was to open a brick and mortar business (a fashion store for example) they would take it very seriously. They would market it, keep a record of their accounts, and all that. But I guess because blogging is an internet business, we tend to think it's so much different when in reality, it's still a business that needs attending to.
Love this comment, Sheeroh! Businesses need investments in time and money.
Thanks so much.
Sue
Hi,
Good article and the content and description,confidence for becoming a sucessful blogger.This Six Steps will make a sucessful blogger.keep going with this type of content.