Years have past since I’ve been following successful bloggers from to Neil Patel to Brian Dean to Sonia of Copyblogger. Although these people may differ in their personality, writing style, blog appearance, or blog niche; nevertheless, I figure they’ve some few things in common. In the form of habits/character/practices. As bloggers, these are traits we can acquire and emulate.
#1 Successful bloggers usually avoid blogging in the wrong niche and they stay loyal to a niche.
Recently I wrote an article. Actually, the article is to land on a beauty blog (I only got to know about this when I look it up on Google).
More so, the person managing the blog is a guy. He chose to be writing in the beauty niche -- for whatever reason I don't think is my business, though. To make matters worse, he's got his picture on the about me page of the blog.
How awkward -- a guy writing posts like "how to choose the best foundation powder for your oily skin!"
Simple: he’s into the wrong niche. How am I so sure? Paying me to write for him to start with, was absolutely unnecessary. This is a niche he was supposed to be seen as an “expert.” Remember he's recommending some products.
His blog users, by the way, expect him to have used or used those products for his customers (assuming he has a beauty outfit or some sort) with pictures or videos to support his claims.
I ran a check on the performance of the posts, and very well his website, needless to say, they were poor.
Chances are, likewise, that on your daily trawl of the web you might have stumbled on a lot of websites whose contents are disjointed in many ways. Including those on your website.
I’d say stay focus since you can.
And if you must diversify your niche (sort of) be sure you're in tune with your overarching niche. It’s one of the attributes of successful bloggers that I’ve learned over the years.
Perhaps you missed it but I’m hear to remind you. On the web you're writing, first, for the visitors who will be visiting your site; then, for the search engines. These two have agreed, over the years, that you center your focus around one topic, blog extensively about it, and in turn, you'll be indexed and seen as a go-to place for subject matters relating to that area of interest or expertise. I guess it’s a simple rule to follow.
#2 Successful bloggers define their blogging goals and mapped out strategies to achieve them.
The thing is, most blog owners are keeping their blogs for the business that's why you’d see affiliate products here Google ads there.
But this is not to say there aren't folks who are using their blog to plug away, catch fun, or even rant. It all boils down to what you want to achieve with your blog.
If you've noticed, regular blogging favors a website in search ranking. It’s the way most successful bloggers have come to graft their name in the heart of their loyal readers. Their readers know they won’t have to wait forever until they read another post from their beloved blogger.
I know blogging is a full-time job. But in the worst case scenario, add more information to your most read post and update it. Plan ahead your blogging calendar and blogging frequency.
But understand also that there’s no crime setting up a blog and just posting whatever you like, whenever you like, and however you like.
The bottom line is, know what you want from your blogging efforts and use the smartest white hat ways to achieve them.
#3 Successful bloggers are often not particular about themselves.
With smart internet comes smart users. Your website visitors for one will start avoiding your blog like a plague the moment you won't stop talking about yourself. Like, who cares anyway?
While you wrote an eBook and sold it your blog readers at a ridiculous prize. They bought the eBook nonetheless, because of the trust they have in you.
Often I get surprised about blogs and websites that keep selling ads spaces without just one eBook that readers and site visitors can download for free. No winning contests. No free giveaways. Just ads. Affiliate products. Ads. Affiliated products.
Hey, it doesn't work like that. Or you think your blog visitors are fools? As a blogger in the soccer niche, with all of that money you have earned from AdSense and affiliate marketing on your blog, when last did you host free giveaways for your blog readers who are ready to predict correctly the scoreline between Chelsea and Arsenal?
You may never know how powerful the word FREE is until you try it. Most successful and smart bloggers are using it. And it’s because it’s effective.
#4 Successful bloggers are humble.
You can't know everything -- it's not just possible. Whenever your blog readers draw your attention to any unfounded information on your blog, instead of rubbing it on their face, own up and modify your posts. (Brian is an apt example. On several occasions I’ve seen him modify his post and apologized for the prior misleading information).
I've come to discover that most big bloggers are in the habit of not apologizing when they're found misinforming the public. They got away with it but you may not, especially if your blog is at the developing stage.
While you may, in fact, lose some visitors because of the misleading information, I can assure you a whole lot of them will stick around only because you decided to own up.
And don’t be rude to comments that are “unique in their viewpoint.” If you disagree with a commenter or their comment, disagree politely.
Plus If you pair blogging with other activities you may find you're always short on time. Regardless, reply to comments on your posts.
#5 Successful bloggers avoid false and misleading information.
In the point preceding this one I already made it bold the impact this can have on your blog. That’s why most successful bloggers that I know invest in stats and do their due diligence when sourcing for information.
One first false information could be ignored but I do not know about the second or the third especially when alternatives to your blog are rife.
#6 Successful bloggers may have annoying ads and pop-ups on their blog, but they didn’t become successful from obstructive ads. I've stopped visiting a popular blog for this same reason. Full-screen ads and pop-ups that'd show up again once I load another page. It's really annoying.
Your ad should in no way interrupt the activities of your blog users. Once this becomes the case, be ready to either lose traffic or count the number of lost traffic.
I'd say be strategic with your marketing especially when you're a new blogger and has everything to lose.
Those big bloggers will review a premium product on their blog and tell you it’s good. They’ll tell you they used it to get more conversions. They'll then guide you into making a purchase. They could be affiliates of the plugin; they're simply doing marketing. They really have nothing to lose.
But using such plugins on your blog could have you losing site visitors and, then, a lot of visitors in monetary value.
The really successful bloggers aren't those who betray their audiences, and they don't betray their audiences’ trust in them by shoving down their audiences’ belly information they might not require or that they might find offensive.
#7 Successful bloggers are not poor in the use of the language.
As inconsequential as this might be, you could be losing traffic solely for this reason. If readers can’t understand what they just read, it’s no-brainer they won’t return.
You don’t have to become a professor in the English language, though, until you get your blog message across to your blog readers.
Use simple and clear words. Use short and sweet paragraph. Avoid verbiage. Most successful bloggers rose through the ranks being simple and clear with their message.
#8 Successful bloggers post regularly.
Agreed you’ve dedicated readers. But will they have to wait forever before they get to read another post? Granted you could become inundated with a lot of activities — if it’s something you’re aware of beforehand — write a lot of posts and schedule when each will go live. Never abandon your blog readers.
#9 Those successful bloggers may have plagiarized at one time or the other, but they didn’t become successful by plagiarizing others’ posts.
Rather, most learn their lesson the hard way. Plagiarists, plagiarism -- Google hates both. Your blog can be deindexed if found culpable. There are different tools online to check your posts for plagiarism just to be on the safer side.
One thing you’ll find synonymous with most successful bloggers is that they keep updating their blog with fresh and useful contents.
In turn, they’ll earn lots of backlink in the process. Backlinks are one of Google's metric for determining useful contents. It’s “Google’s kind of post.”
So rather than duplicating, scrapping, and spinning posts, why not invest in some fresh contents?
#10 Successful bloggers invest in their blog and blog posts. One of my favorite bloggers is Brian of Backlinko. One reason I like his personality is that he doesn’t “hide” more than is necessary.
In one of his posts he talked about how he hosted a particular influencer to launch just to get his opinion on what later culminated into a high-performing blog posts.
At another time he said in one of his posts that he paid the graphic team a sum of $150 to prepare an infographic he used in one of his blog posts.
You can’t be a graphic designer, a developer, an SEO expert, a writer, an editor, all at the same time; that’s the truth you don’t want to hear.
But I can bet your blog will require a couple of these professional services going forward. And they cost money if I must add.
Now over to you -- which of these practices of successful bloggers are you in the habit of using (or not using)? Plus, how are you faring?