What is the first thought that pops into your head when you hear the word ‘blogging’? You probably immediately jump to a specific goal. Depending on your position and motivation, blogging means different things to different people.
Some want to start a blog as a personal endeavor, to write in an online journal. Others want to start a blog to share their work with others to look good for employers. While others create a blog with the sole purpose of making money.
Unless you’re using a blog as a simple online journal with no intentions of attracting more people (and money), blogging takes a lot of work! A blog requires a consistent and purposeful effort to not only build but also maintain.
Do you have what it takes?
A lot goes into a successful blog from work, luck, life circumstances, and more but are you, personally, cut out for it? Let’s find out.
If you find yourself nodding in agreement to all of these traits and haven’t started a blog yet, what are you waiting for?
Table of Contents
1. Giver
The first and foremost trait of any successful blogger is giving. Building and sustaining a blog people want to read is a purely selfless endeavor at the beginning of your journey. It takes a long time to write content and get discovered. You must be willing to go through times when you’re writing for 1, 2, or 10 readers.
At first, the journey will seem insurmountable and frustrating. This is why you should always pick a niche you’re interested in. Never choose a niche just because you think it’ll make money sometime or purely for potential traffic.
You must be willing to give your time and a little money to set up a decent blogging platform. You have to give, give, give with no expectation whatsoever.
If you get some readers within the first few weeks, that’s great! But don’t depend on outside interaction to motivate you.
2. Motivated
Are you the type of person that gets all hyped up about a project, starts, and then always ends up quitting? If so, blogging may not be for you.
Building a successful blog takes time, usually years of consistent work. If you don’t have the motivation and discipline to stick with it, you’ll quit and move on.
Many people get impatient if they don’t see immediate traffic and money. It happens to everyone. I’ve spent hours on posts thinking my readers will love them to find out they get no traffic whatsoever.
You must have the motivation inside of you to keep going regardless of what you think. Building a blog is similar to building a business as an entrepreneur. You must be willing to take a risk if you believe in your blog enough.
3. Productive
Anyone can throw up a blog and puke out some posts that provide no real value to your reader. You’re not only wasting your time, but you’re also wasting what few readers you will have’s time.
A great blog post takes time to write. You must be strategic about what you write about and how you write the content. Due to the time it takes, bloggers must be productive! You must fight that urge to watch an hour of Netflix vs. making progress on a new blog post.
You must have some kind of personal task management system for yourself. Personally, I use Omnifocus and Notion for my projects and tasks. You’re probably dealing with a lot more things than just a blog. Recognize that and create a system!
4. Learner
If your ego is the size of an elephant and you can’t seem to fit through a door because your head is too big, you’re going to have a rough time blogging.
Just like with any endeavor, blogging is a knowledge journey. The more you work at it, the more you know. The more you know, the further you go. It’s that simple.
When I first started, I knew absolutely nothing about SEO. And frankly, I didn’t care about it; I just wanted to write. But I knew knowing SEO was critical to my blog’s success, so I bit the bullet and learned.
Learning a new skill you don’t necessarily want to is a skill in itself, but you get used to it. If you care enough about succeeding at blogging, you will learn whether you like it or not.
Ask others for help in forums like the r/blogging subreddit, reach out on Twitter to people, take courses and read blogs! You don’t have to spend a lot if any money to learn how to become a successful blogger!
5. Promoter
I saved the best and least loved trait for last; being a promoter. How do you feel when you try to sell something? Do you clam up, feel guilty or just ignore it altogether? If any of these, you’re not a promoter.
Building a successful blog isn’t just writing quality content; in fact, it’s not even working on your blog at all! Your blog could contain the secret formula for bringing about world peace, but if no one knows about it, it’s worthless.
You must possess (or work on having) the innate ability to promote your blog wherever you can.
- Drop your link to posts that help people asking for it in forums
- Syndicate your blog posts on other platforms
- Share your posts on social media
You must be willing to get out there and make yourself known!
