how to become a successful blogger

What does it take to hit the big money as a blogger?

Blogging has come a long way since 1994 when the first blog, links.net, went live. Today, starting a blog is super easy, and millions of people are earning a living off blogging.

However, with the blogosphere becoming flooded and competition for traffic becoming stronger, success is not guaranteed. We can help!

Whether you’re a first-time blogger or you’ve been at it for a while without seeing any success, this guide is for you. Read on, and you’ll learn exactly how to become a successful blogger.

Learn the Technical Side of Blogging

You want to start blogging because you’ve got lots of content to give the world. But to do that, you need to first set up the platform.

Some aspiring bloggers take the fastest route, which is to hire a professional to design and develop the blog. This is actually a smart move since you’ll start off with a professional-grade blog, but it’s prudent that you also know what goes into building and maintaining a blog. It’s key to running a successful blog.

Picture a scenario where your blog goes offline soon after you’ve published a much-hyped blog post. If you don’t have a web developer on speed dial, it can take several hours or even days to get the blog back online. However, when you have a fairly good grasp of how blogs work in the backend, you might be able to resolve the issue quickly, saving yourself a lot of trouble.

As such, take some time to learn web design and development basics before you start your blogging journey. You should be able to troubleshoot and fix common technical problems.

Define What Being a Successful Blogger Means for You

Well, what does being a successful blogger mean apart from making millions of dollars off your craft?

Money is indeed the key success metric here, but not everyone is in it for money. There are ultrarich people like Bill Gates who blog actively. They’re not doing it for the money, but rather as a platform to reach their audiences.

As such, it’s essential to define the kind of success you’d like to have. Perhaps you want to build a blog that becomes the go-to source for authoritative information. Or maybe you want to build a budding community around your blog.

Starting with the primary goal of turning your blog into a money-making machine is not advisable. It means you’ll start pursuing monetization quickly and aggressively, risking turning your blog into a commercial platform. This will drive your audience away.

Settle on a Niche

Think of your favorite blogs. What do they have in common?

They’re likely niche-focused. That’s why people have favorite sports blogs, cooking blogs, hunting blogs, and so forth.

It’s fine if a blog covers multiple subjects, like LMSVU, but as a solo blogger, you might not have the resources to produce quality and regular content on various subjects.

Pick a niche and focus on it. Your niche choice should be informed by a few important factors, including your interests, level of competition, and monetization potential.

If you’re an automotive engineer, for example, starting a car blog would be right up your alley. You know a lot about cars and you have professional credibility. It’ll be easy to pump out lots of quality content and establish your blog as an authority.

Evaluating the monetization potential of a blogging niche means looking at the numbers. How much is the average blog in that niche pulling in? Are there plenty of advertisers?

Define Your Audience

If you have a car blog, anyone who’s interested in cars is your audience, right?

Not quite. It also shows you haven’t defined your audience, a big mistake.

You need to identify your ideal blog reader by age, gender, race, location, and even political preferences. With a detailed reader persona, you’ll be in a better position to hit the right notes with your content and build a loyal readership.

For example, if your car blog focuses on classic cars, your target audience is predominantly male and in their 50s. Look at any classic car group and you’ll make this observation.

Create a Content Strategy

Content is the cornerstone of every blog, but it’s the quality of content and its delivery that will determine the performance of the blog.

This is why you need to develop a content plan. It fleshes out the kind of content you’ll be publishing, and the schedule of posting it.

Depending on your niche and the resources at your disposal, you may want to do both written and video content. Instead of posting new content every other day, having a schedule enables you to utilize your content efficiently and maintain consistency.

For instance, let’s say you decide to publish a new blog post on Tuesdays and Thursdays. With ten blog posts, you have content that covers five weeks. Plus, your readers will naturally come to expect a new post on those days.

Without the schedule, you might end up posting all ten posts within a week or two. Posting too much content too quickly can erode your credibility, and a haphazard posting schedule kills reader trust.

Pursue Monetization Opportunities

If your goal is to make money blogging, you must explore different ways to monetize. Old methods like Google AdSense and referral programs still exist, but unless your blog is attracting lots of traffic, you aren’t going to make any meaningful money.

Today, you stand a chance of making money blogging if you reposition yourself as the product. For example, once you’ve become an authoritative blogger with a sizeable audience, you can become an influencer who gets paid to promote a product or service.

You can also become a subject-matter expert, charging to speak at events or do interviews. Gradually, your revenue streams will increase and your direct or indirect blogging income will blow up.