3 Most Important Things you Need to do (and avoid) to be a Successful Blogger

If you Google “How To Be A Successful Blogger?” it will take about .47 seconds to give you 107,000,000 results. There are countless sources of information with a goal to teach you how to be a successful blogger. Articles, videos, podcasts, ebooks, even paid crash courses with other bloggers! Whether you are building a house or a blog, there has to be some sort of structure: a base or a blueprint. When I first started researching tips and tricks about blogging, the same words kept making an appearance: “originality”, “honesty”, “transparency”. No offense, but obviously I already know that dishonesty, lies and knock-off work won’t get me far. 

This article is short and simple and highlights what I believe are the three pillars to absolute blogging success. They are no less obvious than the recommended tactics above – however the 3 most important things you need to do to be a successful blogger that I am going to tell you about have to work simultaneously as you build (or rebuild) your blog. They are the cornerstones for ultimate blogging success and the engine for blogging nirvana. I wish someone taught me this on day one!

1. Content is King …

Your content has to be P E R F E C T. My biggest flaw used to be that every time I finished a piece of writing I’d post it right away. A mixture of excitement and sighs of relief caused me to post articles that had silly spelling and grammar errors. I always suggest writing a blog post over a few days – you’d be surprised at how much easier it is to come back with a fresh mindset, new ideas, and a clearer head to notice past errors. Sleep on it, re-read it on different days, send it to a friend or hire a freelance editor (especially for paid work). Every piece of writing that you put out has to be of value to your reader, otherwise you are just keeping an online diary. Whether you are telling a personal anecdote or sharing interesting facts – it has to be portrayed in a way where the reader easily recognizes the value of both. Bottom line is it’s better to spend more time perfecting your work than releasing posts just to populate your website!

… Consistency is Queen.

Consistency and content work hand in hand, always. As a blogger one of the most important things you should get educated on is SEO. SEO, Search Engine Optimization, in a nutshell is your website’s ability to show up in search engines organically (meaning you don’t pay for your work to show up).  So when you Google anything, the websites that show up on the first few pages of your search are well optimized and considered to be most relevant. SEO is a long and tiring conversation for a whole other blog post but I bring it up because if you don’t post great content consistently, you won’t win this game.

Consistency is a relative term and many people will have varying opinions about the optimal posting schedule. In a perfect world, releasing daily quality posts is the key to long term success. Personally I try to post weekly or multiple times a week. This is not an easy task because to write good content you have to be in the mood to write and good content also means it needs to be optimized. Optimized content abides by “SEO rules” and makes it easily searchable by search engines (I’ll leave the SEO research up to you!) Search engines need to see consistent content or else they won’t consider your work relevant. Beneficial tactics for staying consistent are pre-writing your posts to publish at later times or by accepting guest blog posts! Keep in mind that you always want your readers to come back and if you’re not posting on a consistent basis, readers will lose interest or forget to return.

2. Your Content Has To Do One Of Three Things:

Look, I believe that people are inherently good but they also have a heightened sense of self-interest. There is nothing wrong with that. Personally, I expect some sort of return from almost anything that I dedicate my valuable time to, whether its an self fulfilling feeling, monetary, etc. It is no different with blogs and every blog should be able to do one or more of the following:

1. Teach

2. Save Time

3. Inspire

4. Bonus: Save Money!

Sharing knowledge is one of the most invaluable things you can give to your audience and if you do it in a simple way, you are bound to succeed. Fun facts are a great way of sharing information, however always make sure to fact check. If you’re sharing a personal story, tell your audience what you learned from it! You get the point. Saving your readers time is another fantastic way to build a loyal audience – add links to your articles, use bullet points, create recaps of articles or page jumps to different sections. Teach your audience a new skill if you can, especially a skill like saving money! Finally: Inspire. I am a huge fan of beautiful photography and personal stories – there is no better way to build a loyal audience than by being relatable. If you can inspire even one person to follow your footsteps – that’s already a vital measurement of success.

3. Don’t Do It For The Money or Freebies

I didn’t think that this would be one of my most important pillars for blogging success but after receiving an influx of emails from aspiring bloggers and influencers about approaching brands, getting free hotel stays, landing partnerships, etc … I realized that this is an important point that needs to be made. When I started Elona the Explorer, I knew nothing about the blogging/influencer world. I had no idea that affiliate links existed or that you can sell ad space on a website – I was not in it for the money.

There is nothing wrong with having a long term objective of monetizing – but if you can’t master your content with the points listed in #2, and if you cant master that content consistently … you won’t be able to monetize. Period. I am a firm believer in multiple streams of income so I strongly encourage everyone to avoid putting all their eggs into the blogging platform. Having a blog is absolutely an asset for your brand and can lead to incredible benefits but it does not guarantee an income stream unless you really, truly commit and build a loyal audience. Most successful blogs took years to bloom to fruition and if you are looking to make money or approach brands read this.

To recap, here are the 3 most important things you need to do (and avoid) to be a successful blogger:

1. Content and Consistency.
2. Content that teaches, saves money, saves time, or inspires.
3. Don’t do it for the money!