11 Powerful Blogging Tips To Help You Become A Successful Blogger

This is a guest post by Erik Emanuelli, who is a successful professional blogger and an active ABC member. He is sharing the knowledge and experience he gained during his five years of blogging journey. ~ Editor

With more than 1 billion websites out there (data updated to February 2014), it is clear that a lot of people are aware the Internet is full of possibilities.

Today, it only takes a few minutes to get a new domain name and build a website.

All this is very attractive and tempting, raising our hopes to be a successful blogger.

However, achieving success as a blogger isn’t that easy.

During the latest 5 years, since I started my online journey, I saw many bloggers quitting.

It was not because they were not good enough, but because they could not reach a full-time income working with Internet (or at least, enough to live with).

You want to receive a good monetary compensation for your efforts (Jon Morrow is making $100k per month).

So the question is: “How to Become a Successful Blogger and Make Money Online?”

Tips to Become a Successful Blogger and Make Money Online

Here are 11 blogging tips you need to consider if you want to take blogging seriously, with mention of resources and tips I found useful during my online experience.

1. Passion

All the most popular bloggers have a great passion for what they do, and you can feel it reading their content.

Without that, you cannot go very far.

Internet is full of blogs with ten or twenty posts (or even less), with thin content (most of the times created with automatic software), just with the purpose to make a few bucks with Google Adsense.

However, the time has changed. Search engines are constantly being updated to ensure a positive experience for their users.

Tip: If you want to make money with your blog and be a successful blogger, my suggestion is thinking about a topic that you would like to write about every free moment of your day (in this way, you should be able to find the right subject for your site).

2. Niche and Keywords

Choosing the right niche, together with your keywords, already affects half of your success as a blogger.

Recently, thanks to a great tool named LongTailPRO, I started a site niche project (to be monetized with Amazon and Adsense later on), for a long tail keyword I found with low competition and a decent amount of monthly searches.

After finding your niche, understanding your audience is the next most important step, in order to be able to create useful articles only for those specific users (e.g. creating content that satisfy their needs or problems).

Tip:  SearchMetrics is a tool you can use for SEO purposes, with many features. You can analyze specific websites, and gather interesting data, such as visibility, back links and more. I like the social ranking option, and the keywords ranking tool is great to find interesting opportunities.

3. Constancy

As many other businesses offline,  also in the case of blogging, you will see the fruits of your work over time.

It took me more than 3 years to start creating a solid income online, while still working full time at another job (I believe that 12-18 months could be enough to create a steady monthly revenue if you can dedicate all your time).

Try to publish your posts with constancy, and you will be rewarded by search engines, receiving a traffic increase.

It is very important that you decide the timing to publish your content.

Think about your duties and commitments, and choose between posting everyday,  two or three times or just one article a week. Then stick with this program.

This is very important, in order to respect your readers and build a solid base of fans.

Think for example of a blogger that publishes a post everyday for two weeks and then disappears for a month. This attitude, rather than retain visitors, will make them runaway.

Tip: I use tools like ViralContentBuzz and Triberr to reach more people and amplify my audience. You do not want just to get more shares for your content, but also build more connections.

4. Personality

As a good blogger, you should have the courage to show your personality and not be afraid of it.

It took me three months when I started my first website, before displaying my picture with my face.

People need to know who you are.

You should explain what YOU think,  expose yourself, and assume your responsibility for what you write.

We may even say that a good blogger is brave.

Tip:  You can learn a lot from experienced people in your niche. Seeing how, you can prove your personality and transfer it in the content of your blog.
Don’t be afraid of guest posting, it is still a great way to increase your audience and improve your authority (creating links through guest blogging should be the last benefit to consider).

5. Connections

Connections are everything. Both online or offline.

As a successful blogger, you should be able to establish a productive dialog with the public on your site.

Involve your visitors within the content, push the comments, ask questions from your visitors, you may even ask them for some help!

Try to respond to all comments, even the critical ones.

As a good blogger, you should share your knowledge with your readers. It is a fundamental thing. Don’t be greedy.

You should give away at first.

Also, take some time to create connections outside your website.

How?

Share other bloggers content, comment to awesome posts, help some people.

From time to time, you should share some of your secrets, or personal tips, something that you have learned with years of experience.

Tip:  I use MyBlogU, to find opportunities to showcase my knowledge. Through the interview section, you can find relevant topics and submit your answers, to be then featured on the blogs of other users. It is great to increase your online reputation and authority as a blogger (and to build new connections too).

6. Quality Content

It is always the same suggestion, the first and most important one.

In a few words, if you want to become a famous blogger, it is essential to know how to create quality content for your audience.

We can say that the content is of quality when it solves a real problem for people in your niche.

Content is the king! 

If you keep writing fantastic content, your visibility and popularity around the web will increase, along with the traffic to your site.

Tip: You should build a mailing list from the day one of your blogging careers. GetResponse is a great tool to use for email marketing. Give your subscribers the best of your knowledge and content, and don’t be afraid to show your personality.

7. SEO

As a successful blogger, you should master the SEO techniques.

You need to know how to optimize the content of your blog, while writing for your readers.

After all, it is pointless to have a blog full of high-quality content, which nobody reads (because they cannot find you!).

Be sure to respect the most important aspects of Search Engine Optimization (on-page and off-page).

Even today, getting links to your blog is very effective.

The more frequently your site appears on the search engines, the more visitors you will receive.

Tip:  Try to write long, detailed posts that mesmerize your readers. This way, they will mention and link to your site naturally (this is called,  link baiting).

What are some effective techniques for building links? Check out Matt Cutt’s video for it.

8. Correct Writing

Your authority or web reputation, also pass through an impeccable spelling, grammar and syntax in your articles.

Writing skills also means knowing how to involve your audience, through a personal and lively prose.

Keep writing, and you will learn how to do it better.

In essence:  your authority on the web depends on the quality of your writing and style of communication.

Tip:  I use Grammarly to improve my content.

9. Multimedia

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Adding images to a post makes your communication more effective.

Remember to optimize the images with SEO techniques. For that you need to use your keywords in the description and take care of the alt text or tags.

Be sure to choose pictures that match your content.

Moreover, remember to use not only images, but also try audio and video files to enhance your posts.

Tip:  Consider using podcasting as an alternative method to communicate with your readers.

10. Design

“There is not a second chance to make a good first impression.”

Design is the dress of your blog. In other words, your theme.

I use Genesis framework for my main sites (plus, some other professional and good looking themes for my niche blogs).

It is your responsibility to find an artwork that expresses your taste, and which, at a glance, perceives the type of communication that you want to create between yourself and your audience.

Tip: Avoid any unnecessary coding on your blog pages, or Java Scripts in the content area, or even worse flash objects.

11. Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

This is one of the most basic rules for a good investor.

And since you’re investing your time to become a full time and successful blogger, you cannot focus all your resources on one single project or source of income.

I own several websites and I earn through different revenue streams.

Of course, you need to maintain your “main blog”, which identifies you and know where to focus the most of your efforts. This will be also the place where people can find you.

But having different projects, websites, products or services, will give you more chance to be successful.

This year, I want to build 2-3 niche sites (I have already achieved excellent results with the first project) and monetize them with Amazon affiliate program (and eventually Adsense), in order to make at least 500$/month for each of them (stay tuned on NoPassiveIncome blog as I’ll reveal the exact steps which led me reaching success with my first niche site).

Also, since the last few months I’ve built my personal website (domain with my name), where I offer my freelance writing services.

I’m aware, I’m very far from becoming a good writer (I am very picky and I do just enough), but as far as I am concerned, I have accomplished many things in the last 5 years.

My first language is Italian, and I speak Spanish much better than English (even though in the last few months I have improved a lot).

What I want you to understand is that you need to have a plan if you want to earn online (and make it for life).

Think out of the box, be different, and always try something new. If you fail, you would simply have found another way to not be successful.

In fact, I have failed a lot and learned so many lessons until today.

I want to conclude with the motto that has accompanied me during these years online:

Be Real, Be Honest, Be Yourself! 

Conclusion

I hope these insights could help you improve your site or your blogging journey.

Remember, using the right web tools also influence your chances to become a successful blogger.

Over To You –

Do you have any other blogging tip or information to add or any other suggestion, based on your blogging experience?

Please, share your views in the comments below, thanks!

Photo Credits: FreeDigitalPhotos.Net