How to Make a Successful Blog in 3 Simple Ways
Table of Contents
When I decided to take up blogging, I had no idea about how to make a successful blog. Nor did I have any plans to make it reach a wider audience.
Perhaps such is the case with most of the new bloggers. Was it the case with you too?
Actually, the definition of success in blogging could differ from blogger to blogger.
Nevertheless, you will certainly agree that the popularity of a blog is one of the major aspects of success.
Not that presently my blog is successful by any blogging standard, but I’ve been able to reach out to more people than I initially anticipated.
I simply followed the blogging tips as mentioned in my earlier post, and started writing quality blogs posts. But that wasn’t enough.
Your blog needs traffic to be successful. Right?
So, I did something more that I learned from other bloggers and their experiences, and combined it with my own blogging experience and personal qualities.
Here, I’m sharing my secrets of successful blogging as I’ve implemented on my blog. This is with the aim to help you to make your blog successful without spending extra bucks.
“Blogging is best learned by blogging…and by reading other bloggers.” ~ George Siemens
My Blogging Experience
Before I start talking about successful blog and blogging, I’d like to tell you the story of my personal blogging journey.
- One thing that I did when I started blogging was to have a vision. That’s right, I had a picture of how my blog should be in terms of looks, popularity, and content.
- I had a strong self-belief that I can make my blog successful and that was the first seed I implanted in my mind. With time, efforts, and patience, I started reaping the fruits of success in little bits.
- I knew the only tool I had with me were my strong feelings to share the resources of my knowledge and experience. I had this strong passion about blogging, which I feel is essential to achieve success.
- I had great interest in the topics about family, parenting, relationships, and health, about which I started to write about in my initial blogging years.
- Yet my blog was not a hobby blog for me, as I was serious about it from day one. I wanted to make it successful in terms of popularity and a way to help people.
- I made a goal to make my blog as one of the top family blogs and I developed a plan as well as a strategy to reach the goal. However, I’ve now developed and transformed it as a personal development blog.
- My devotion to the blog became stronger each day as more and more people started commenting, sharing, and appreciating my efforts. I decided to put my other writing blog on hold and go solo with Aha!NOW.
- I did my work with dedication, and tried to be as perfect as I could, based on the amount of knowledge and experience of blogging I had at that time, and left no stone upturned.
- With determination and discipline, I created a place for myself in the blogosphere.
I remember that it had been only been a few months of blogging and my blog visitors would say that they felt as if they’ve been reading my posts for a long time. I had in fact written only 15 posts by that time!
Therefore, learning from my own blogging experience, I can without any doubt say that all these are essential personal qualities that a blogger needs to have in order to be successful.
Must read: 4 Personal Qualities That Can Make You Successful
These 11 personal qualities are the main 11 players you need in your team or self for your blogging success.
Once you’ve this solid foundation, you can start with learning the skills and techniques of the trade. But no tricks, I should warn you!
I believe in playing a fair and straight game and have never adopted any wrong practices in blogging to try to achieve quick success, which is like ripening the fruit before its time.
But I knew that you don’t get too far by just plain and simple blogging!
“The bottom line is that blogging is like sex. You can’t fake it. You can’t fake passion. You can’t fake wanting to engage with the public. If you do, it will ultimately be an unsatisfying experience for both the blogger and their readers.” ~ Kevin Anderson
Difference between Simple Blogging and Successful Blogging
What is plain and simple blogging?
When you blog openly to express your feelings and for the sheer joy of blogging, something that many hobby bloggers do – you can call it as plain or simple blogging.
Such hobby bloggers don’t bother about the rank, traffic, Google updates, comments, social media, SEO – and all those things.
They just blog for the love of blogging – as and when they want, and about what they want!
I don’t say that’s bad. Isn’t this initially what blogging was meant to be?
However, blogging has come of age and its gone “PRO” and commercial in a way! A blog can be a source of earning if it is successful.
Successful blogging is about creating a successful blog and making money from it, or helping others by providing them useful information.
Therefore, a lot depends on your outlook on blogging, and your blogging purpose.
What are my views on how to create a successful blog?
Try to reach out to the maximum number of people, get your blog to the best ranks, rule the SERPs, and possess an indomitable social media presence.
Now, that isn’t too much to do, is it?
I also thought the same. But having been in the blogosphere for nearly three years, I gradually learned how to make a blog popular.
Let me share my experiences with all of you.
“As I have repeatedly written in one form or other, blogging is not about writing posts. Heck, that’s the least of your challenges. No, blogging is about cultivating a mutually beneficial relationships with an ever-growing online readership, and that’s hard work.” ~ Alister Cameron
How to Make a Successful Blog
What I’m going to tell you about making your blog successful is probably nothing new that you haven’t heard from blogging experts or probloggers.
But since these are right from my own personal experiences, I value them a lot. I thought of letting you know about them in a very simple and non-technical way.
I learned and concluded that there are ‘3M ways’ to make your blog stand apart and make it one of the successful blogs out of the many out there.
[highlight color=”eg. yellow, black”]The 3Ms are – Making, Marketing, and Managing.[/highlight]
You can actually club the entire steps to successful blogging into these three processes. Here’s more about them.
Making the Blog
I’ve already written a post about how to create your blog from scratch as mentioned below, so I assume you’ve already covered those steps and we can move forward.
Not to be missed: Blogging Tips – Basic Steps to Create Your Own Blog
Do you wonder why people don’t visit to your blog or they are lesser than you expect. Well, one reason could be that your blog is not search engine ready.
No doubt your blog should have helpful and informational matter that is genuine, original, and relevant. Besides that you need to write quality content that helps your readers.
However, creating content is not just writing good or great content, but also implementing good SEO strategies in it.
It takes me hours to write one blog post – do you wonder why?
- That’s because I conduct my deliberate research to provide accurate and reliable facts, which doesn’t cost me a dime, but does require a lot of time!
- Furthermore, I spend more hours searching for the relevant keywords from Google Adwords, which again is free.
- The clock’s hands make more rounds when I search for the appropriate pictures, find relevant quotes, and select related videos from free sites.
- Then I read and re-read, and have it proofread by someone. I’m glad my hubby is my second pair of eyes! You could try using free services like Ginger and many others that help enhance the post.
- Not to mention the final touches in my WordPress dashboard and the umpteen previews before I finally hit the publish button.
In fact, you too can make this an ideal blog creation procedure, but don’t forget to use keywords in your posts – just a few sprinkled around, or else you’d be missing the magic the post can bring to you!
Nevertheless, the work of making the blog doesn’t end there. In fact, it’s only the beginning of creating a successful blog. You need people, lots of people to read your great content, for which you need to promote your blog.
Marketing the Blog
Promotion. Promotion. Promotion.
Just like any other commodity or product, your blog too needs promotion and publicity.
Even if you’ve great content on your blog, you need to market it to a wider audience in order to garner substantial traffic.
Just as word of mouth is the best form of publicity in a traditional business, similarly the social media and networking in blogging are important.
You need to leverage the social media.
It doesn’t happen on its own, unless you make the consistent and deliberate efforts!
- My maximum referral traffic comes from Facebook, though lately Pinterest has caught up as my best source of blog traffic.
- With its new features and innovations, Google+ is becoming a big source of traffic, and the good thing is that it also influences your standing in the Google SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). No wonder my organic search jumped 15% this month as part of my total blog traffic.
- Twitter and Triberr spread my blog posts to thousands of bloggers, and brings in quite a many of them to the blog.
But what particularly increases my return visitor traffic is the engagement that I have with the people who comment on my blog.
I try to reply to every comment on my blog, and make sure to comment on the commenter’s blog. Also, I never forget to share their posts on the social media, which most people forget to do!
You need to indulge in commenting to market your blog.
This way I’ve developed good relationships with many bloggers, besides publicizing my blog for traffic that I hadn’t tapped earlier.
Also, remember to bookmark your blog posts on various free bookmarking websites like Stumble Upon, Reddit, Google Bookmarks, etc., and let people access your latest posts through RSS feed.
I’ve just mentioned a little bit about blog promotion here, but if you want to go to the depths of promoting a blog then I’d suggest you to visit none other than Ana Hoffman’s blog and read her post on promoting a blog post.
Though some probloggers do promote their work, there are some exceptions as their blog promotion is mostly carried out by their fans themselves. This happens only with time, however, they still need to manage their blogs.
Managing the Blog
Sometimes even if your blog is ready with SEO content and publicized broadly among all social platforms, you still might not receive as much traffic as you expect.
In such a case, you need to check on the technical aspects of your blog.
What I include in technical aspects is your blog’s interface, speed, and other features apart from the content.
You know that Google considers the speed of your blog as one of the aspects for including your blog in the SERPs. If you’ve a WordPress blog, then I can suggest a few things to speed up your blog.
- Have few plugins if possible. You can use the free P3 Plugin Profiler to determine which plugin increases your blog’s load time and remove it.
- Lighten your blog by reducing the image file sizes with Smush.it.
- Install the free version of W3Total Cache and instantly experience dramatic speed boost.
- Use the free CloudFlare to secure and speed up your blog. Or if you are ready to spend a bit, then try MaxCDN for making it easy for your visitors to access your blog around the world.
Though not speed related, but don’t forget the free SEO plugin by Yoast! It does add to your blogs success.
Next, you need to enhance your blog in terms of usability, making it searchable, and designing it in a way that it looks good.
If your blog isn’t managed well, you might lose out many of your new as well as return visitors.
So, finally what you need to do is mainly follow these five steps and be happy about your blog:
1) Write great content
2) Implement good SEO
3) Leverage social media
4) Indulge in commenting
5) Tweak your blog
Now that you know how to create a successful blog, are you ready to implement these suggestions?
These are only the basic steps, as I know there’s a whole lot more that you can do to enhance your blog, which I shall be taking up in my later posts.
Remember, success in blogging requires consistency, self-confidence, self-belief, and the determination to hang on, besides your effort and time. Good things come to those who wait. 🙂
However, never ever forget that blogging is all about helping people, learning from others, and sharing what you know – isn’t it?
I hope I’ve been successful in doing the same through this post. 🙂
Here is to your success in blogging. 🙂
“Blogging is an art, same as any other method of self-expression. Some are better at it than others.” ~ Hugh MacCleod
Oh, I need to tell you that I’ve made some changes in my guest post policy. If you’re interested then you can read about it at the blog or get the information in your mail by subscribing to the Aha!NOW newsletter. 🙂
Over to you –
What else would you suggest to make your blog popular? What do you do to boost your blog traffic? Share your blogging tips about how to make a successful blog in the comments.
Photo Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos
Great article Indeed.
I have been blogging since 1 year, But in earlier can’t understand, how to be a successful blogger. I agree with you that Blogger should write quality content and interesting topics. No matter how you decorate your article, ultimately what matter is Content, topics.
Have a great day ahead !!
Hi Harleena, thank you so much for these tips. It sounds like I have a lot to learn about blogging! Honestly, the SEO stuff intimidates me, but I guess I’ll have to plug my nose and jump in. I don’t think my content appeals to a large audience, but these tips will certainly help me get my audience reading my posts.
Hey Harleena,
My ‘to do list’ is a mile long and yes it is all your fault. Mind you I am grateful to find advice that I understand and able to apply it. However I never thought it was going to be as easy as writing. The challenges you have overcome or learnt in three years, gives me comfort. I am in no hurry, but I am eager. This week is about SEO for me. Mastering that, or at least giving it a whirl. I have obviously grown a little because had I read this post several weeks ago, I would have felt overwhelmed yet I feel determined and challenged now. But now you give me SERP and I have just come to terms with SEO. My my a hard task master. Anyway I just wanted to drop a line in and say it is always a pleasure reading your blog advise. Certainly not the lazy person wanting it all to happen. Alright I’m off to Yoast SEO educate and keyword research. Talk soon.
“Blogging is about helping people, learning from others and sharing what you know” You know I started off with this motto and somehow I got lost within the flood of suggestions from “pro” bloggers.
The three M’s you discussed are really important and I think a blog’s success greatly depend on how well you manage these three M’s. Creating a quality social network and branding yourself is really important. And I think once a blogger gets that done, he’s bound to achieve his blogging goals.
Hello Harleena,
This is very helpful special for a beginner like me. Hope to learn more from you. You are helping a lot of people like me. More power !
Maelynn
Thanks for the great tips! I started my own blog about a month ago and I’ve been increasingly interested in .. increasing .. my readership! 🙂 (I’ve been finding page views to be addictive! It’s likely driving my partner mad, “Baby! I got 50 page views today!”) Aside from robots, friends, my mother, and the occasional person on twitter, I haven’t had all that much luck, unfortunately. My guess is that my content needs to be search engine optimized, perhaps less about my every day life, and of course I need to be more active in the blogger community! I only got into this type or personal blogging because I used to love to read personal self-improvement type blogs in my free time (when I had free time), though, so I don’t really want to deviate from that too much… in any event, I’m going to try to implement some of your suggestions! Here I am, implementing one now! 🙂
Very informative article, indeed.
It will be very helpful for people like me who are just starting their websites or blog.
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Mam,
Sorry for the late coming.
Awesome post to make our blogs successful. I really enjoyed and absorbed every information you shared.
Yeah the first 11 things you nentioned is essential for success. We have a clear vision in our mind in order to get succeeded. Self belief is an important factor. If we think we can’t do, then we can’t. Can is the word of power. So think we can, then nothing is impossible.
Interest is a huge influencer of success. Because we don’t like to do a thibg which we are not interested in. So dream success in a field of interest.
Having a goal will quicken our journey to success. To achieve that goal, we have to make plans or strategies.
Patiencecis the key to success. Nothing comes overnight. So it is provided that keep working hard and success will come by its own.
It is now I started worrying about SEO and Alexa rank. When I first started worrying, I hadn’t an idea about these exist.
I really like the idea of 3Ms.
Creating killer content is essential. Because no other king defeated content till this moment. So content is the king.
It is now I understood that SEO is queen.
And thank you so much for introducing a new tool, ginger Mam.
Promoting outlr content is important, right? on my starting days I believed that visitors come by their own. We have nothing do to bring traffic. It was one of my misconception.
I have account in FB, G and twitter. Mam some bloggers says sharing our content in FB groups is a pure waste of time, isn’t it?
I created an account in Reddit but it is a little difficult for me to share.
Will start my account on both Pinterest and Stumbleupon. My blogging friend Umpathy Sekhar also suggested me to join Pinterest.
Thank you so much for the awesome list of plugins. I am using all of it.
I have one query Mam. Is keyword research that much important? I didn’t start it. So asked.
What to say more Mam. Stunning post. Keep going Mam.
Once again thanks for creating ABC.
Regards,
Rahul
Hi Harleena,
I really want to create a successful community like aha-now and i know its gonna require time and effort.
Its most difficult for as i am presently a part time blogger. But with straight to point articles like this i can learn a few things and stay put.
Cheers.
Thank you for giving some valuable tips to become a successful blogger.I hope this will help me a lot…
Hi Herleena,
This is one of the most awesome article that I have ever came across. Even though I found this article really late but I am glad that I found it. I always feel that if you believe in your hard work then no one can stop you from achieving your goals. Making an successful long term blog isn’t a easy task. But if one just keep motivating themselves and just keep on focusing on your hardwork than anyone can make wonders and can achieve milestone in blogging career.
Your blog has always motivated me and this post is an example. Its not been a long while I found your blog as I am into this blogging field from just 3-4 months. However, I really loved your this article. Thanks for sharing. Peace.
-Shaswat
MybloggingClub.com
I think a big key is finding your voice and niche, which is part of writing great content. I also think being consistent in your posting habits is key at the beginning. I believe the search engines like that and it also helps with your followers, so they know when to expect a post.
Hello mam,
I am new here, really shocked to see the no. of comments and how long some comment is :D.Really inspiring! 😀 These days I am spending half of day in my blog to improve its status in this blog-o-sphere. I want to make my blog successful and people like you mam, making my job even more easy by providing such great tips.
Thanks for sharing.
Harleena I liked your blog and also read your interview on bloggerpassiondotcom, Just wanted to ask one question .After putting all this effort on your blog how much you are earning. As you already stated that your main source of earning is Adsense but still tell me some tips about online earning.
Thanks In Advance ..
Hello Harleena,
Great article!I’ve been blogging for about 2 years, But in earlier can’t understand, how to be a successful blogger. Yes, I agree with you that Blogger should write quality content and interesting topics, and should always try to post one article per day.
Thank you.
Hi Harleena,
I can see this is some ways that you wrap in 3 easy ways. I like ‘3M ways’ that you pointed out in this article, along with the details explanation.
I feel social media like Pinterest, StumbleUpon, and Twitter is a great way to increase traffic to our blog. Since social media is widely used by people. That’s from me, correct me if I am wrong 🙂
I will apply the methods in this article, I hope my blog can be as successful as you have. Thanks for sharing this with us, Harleena.
Hoping you have a splendid weekend ahead.
Regards,
Nanda
Thanks for tips Harleena. I would implement these tips to my blog for making it successful. Can you help me out for the same?
Hello Harleena,
this is really a very motivating post from you, Personally I love the part where you mentioned Vision, Self believe, goals and strategy.
I think that is all one needs to start a very successful career as a blogger. Though some persons actually started blogging without having all this in place, they just blog base on their passion for it but still will arrive at this point when they will consider this factors.
Also you did perfectly very nice by mentioning the keywords tools that can increase our researches for more valuable info when creating contents.
I have really benefited from today’s tips.
keep writing …all the best!!!
Harleena, another great post. My problem is having enough time to do all of these things and run a law practice. Not enough time in the day to do all I can and with tax season starting I am going to be hard pressed to do all I should for my blog and website.
Hello Harleena,
Every time with your blog I am learn many new things. Here you add wonderful blogging tips and happy to read your blogging success story. Nice saying that blogging successful story is varies from blogger to blogger. Some say its for their content quality, its deep knowledge about SEO marketing and designing etc. But I am not think so…. Thanks for sharing these points I am surly remember these all in future on blogging with my new blog. Please fell free visit my new site and share your experience.
Hi Harleena
Thank to post this helpful article, its a motivating article for any upcoming blogger. After reading this article, I’m sure its not hard to become a successful blogger. I will apply your tips to my blog.
I must say that this is just a full information packed blog post not only for the beginners but also for those who are trying hard to meet success in the blog sphere.
I would like to say a little that with launch of Google Humming bird, one should not considered SEO as dead. SEO was there, is there and will always be there but creating a social media popular content is always a better choice to achieve success.
Pouring all the energies and investing complete effort on SEO will not help much in long run as Search Engines are keep upgrading their strategies as they please to offer better search experience to its users.
But if you know how to create social media optimized content that other likes to share, this will help you go a long way.
Just visiting for the first time. First read your guest post you made on adriennesmith (dot) net and was impressed. Indeed you have the awesome gift of passing across your message in the simplest format. Thanks so much for sharing and keep the flag flying.
Wow..this post is packed full of good information Harleena, you didn’t leave anything out my friend!
When I first started blogging it was to help people and of course make an income. I didn’t realize how much work was involved because I was had the mindset of a “simple” blog. Like Ellen says, it’s a labor of love but so worth it!
I’ve had some traffic from Pinterest too, which also took me by a wonderful surprise. 🙂
Thanks for putting this great post together Harleena! Newbie and seasoned bloggers can find this post very helpful!
Hope you’re off to a great week my friend!
I have just started my blog and not able to mange my day. Confused about how many articles i need to write in a day and how much time i need to spend for marketing and many etc .Please share with us how do you plan your day and what are other things you do in a day.
Hi Rajendra,
Welcome to my blog! As for me, I write two posts in a week, though I started with weekly posts. I think you should adopt the pareto principle or the 80-20 rule, though you can tweak it as per what suits you, so you spend more time on the promotion of your posts.
Ah.. time management and planning the day for a blogger is very important. I think I might write a post on the someday, so you better stay tuned. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous week ahead! 🙂
Hey Harleena,
I read your complete post and honestly speaking that today you inspired me a lot. This article is the perfect for newbies to make successful blog.
I like the bottom content where you have said that everything we have to keep patience in blogging, self-belief, consistency etc. because when we start we start blogging somewhere behind in our mind we always think that when we will started to earn money from it.
Thanks for producing such worthy contents.
Hi Sajid,
I’m glad you found the post inspiring. Yes, this post was written especially for the new bloggers to help them in their blogging journey.
Ah.. patience, that’s a must in every field and any work you do, along with other helping personal qualities. You’ve to go slow, and better have a road map before you so your efforts are directed towards your goal and they do not go waste.
Thanks for stopping and have a great week ahead! 🙂
Hi Harleena,
I started blogging three months ago and I am trying my best to provide good tips of blogging but I am not getting readers now. I know that unique content and quality is all in blogging but I am not getting any thing of which I dreamed till now. I think that I will be getting one or two readers by the first month and 10 to 15 readers by this onth but nothings seems to be happen.
But I will never leave my hope. I am trying to make good relationships with other great bloggers like you so, that they can give some tips. I know that commenting and connecting are two things that is need in blogging but people are making it feeling spammy. I want to be commenting superstar like hope that this dream will come true one day.
I don’t know much big blogs because I am new to it can you see my blog and tell me bad thing that might you seen. It will be appreciable for me. I have to do hard work to get my dream come true.
Thanks for this wonderful post.
~Sahil Dhull
Hi Sahil,
Welcome to my blog!
First off, I’m bit curious about your age, if you don’t mind, because as I can guess from your snapshot, you seem to be very much in your mid-teens. If that’s so, then you’ve certainly done a commendable job with your blog and you’ve a great future ahead in blogging.
You need to have patience and persistence if you want to make your blog successful. Remain consistent in providing good quality in your own voice, and follow the other tips as mentioned in this post. You’ll certainly get results.
Assess your methods and your blog to find out if you’re lacking somewhere, and if you’re really promoting your blog as you should.
This is the best thing you can do – never lose hope, and I appreciate that spirit. Sometimes things take time to click. I can suggest to always follow the commenting rules wherever you comment.
There’s no substitute for hard work and its good to dream. Wish you all the best in blogging!
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts and experiences. Have a great week ahead. 🙂
Fantastic tips, Harleena!
I am getting more serious about my blogging, and I have two sites between which I divide my attention. I need to take a look at both of them with fresh eyes, and implement your suggestions. While that creates more work for me, it’s labor-of-love work. That’s the best kind. 🙂 Peace.
Hi Ellen,
I agree that managing more than one blogs is not an easy task. I too have another blog, but the kind of attention and work Aha!NOW demands of me, sadly I’ve to neglect the other blog. I know there are people who’re able to manage multiple blogs and I just wonder how they do it!
I hope and wish that you’re able to work successfully on both your sites.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great week ahead! 🙂
Connecting with other bloggers who share your passion is a great way to connect and grow your blog when you’re first starting out! (Heck, you’ve done a heck of a job doing that here).
it’s not always easy starting out … but once you start to build that momentum and adding subscribers, it gives you the motivation to keep creating and keep growing!
Hi Ricardo,
Welcome to my blog!
It’s really a pleasure to have someone from Copyblogger to come and visit my blog. 🙂
Thanks for sharing such a great tip for making your blog successful, it sure helps the blog to grow when you connect to other bloggers who are as passionate as you.
I totally agree with you that the initial phase is filled with doubts and fear of failure and uncertainty, but your consistency and persistence pays out.
I call myself a work-in-progress and have miles to go yet to become a successful blogger. 🙂
Thanks again for stopping by and sharing your wonderful thoughts and hope to see you around. Have a great week ahead! 🙂
Harleena, I am sure glad you blog.
You are good at it and I love reading what you write.
Pinterest is proving to be good for me. So is StumbleUpon. I joined Tribber several years ago, but I have done nothing to really use it. I see that many recommend using it. It is good to know you found it helpful.
Thank you, Malika
Hi Malika,
Thanks for your kind words.
It’s good to use as many ways to promote your post, and these are just a few of them. You can also use the social bookmarking sites apart from Stumble Upon,, and join groups in Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn too. There are so many possibilities and it becomes difficult to do them all.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great week ahead! 🙂
Hi Harleena,
All the things you mentioned here are true. A true blogger doesn’t really care about the SEO, social media, or the search engine. They just blog for the sake of blogging and just have the PASSION in doing it. I’m that way. Many times I don’t really check the Google Keyword Tool what’s the word I should include there. Sometimes I would check my headline to see if that’s what people are searching but that’s about it. The technical part of blogging I don’t really care much.
But it’s a MUST, isn’t it? For instance, if we are to maintain our blog, we must update old plugins and continue to keep the platform at the latest version. All of this work is hectic and yet all I wanna do really is just BLOG…LOL!!
That’s good to hear that your husband are your second pair of eyes! I check my husband too but very rare. When I was in college doing research paper and writing, I refused to consult to my husband. Since my husband was born in America and his native language is English…and I just grew up into speaking and learning the language…English wasn’t really my first language, it’s my 2nd. When I consult my husband, he ends up correcting my English and grammar. And I thought that was nice…BUT if I rely on him I will never learn how to write my OWN research paper. It turned out that majority what I wrote in school was an A paper! And so, by being determined to write my own paper without consulting him was GOOD for me.
The good thing I like about the new Information Age in comparison to the Printing Age is…when I used to design for a newspaper, if I misspelled a word and it goes out on printing then I am deeply screwed because my boss will definitely not appreciate that. Printing cost a lot of money and we cannot afford to make ANY mistake! However, in an online publishing it is more forgivable and we definitely have more MERCY when we make mistakes here online.
When I publish my articles, I am constantly reading it over and over before it’s published. And even if I do that, the next day I am always finding either I forgot a letter or misspelled it. Or, the sentence structure was wrong. There is always something wrong. So whenever I get my hands on it, I am always correcting my work. We can’t do that on a PRINT article. But only on an ONLINE publishing. Sorry, no husband to help me either. I just do it myself. However, BEFORE I publish my first ebook, this will definitely get proofread first before it goes on PDF. My sister majored English and she’s pretty good at this and she will be my editor.
Pinterest seems to be left behind when it comes to social media for me. Most of the ones I used for sharing are: Facebook, Linkedin, Google+, and Twitter — those are the Big 4 for me. But I want to implement Pinterest there more and more since the sharing on Pinterest seems to last LONGER than any other social media I’ve known.
…and oh I almost forgot Triberr. I love Triberr.
Anyway, like always…you always nailed down some of the ingredients what to do and not what to do. I’m beginning to catch up more and more and I’m pretty happy about this. I will catch you later and have a great Tuesday!!
Angela
Hi Angella,
Wow, this comments might easily beat one of my best ones! 😉 I’m glad you decided to unleash your thoughts and views on successful blogging and add your personal experiences to make this comment and post more valuable.
I totally agree – “a true blogger doesn’t care about SEO, social media, or the search engine.” You just need to be a passionate blogger, and at the same time, deliver quality and make your posts meaningful to its bits.
Having said that, it really helps if you be smart and acknowledge the present trends and the requirements from the point of view of the search engines, however, you don’t have to cater our posts entirely for that purpose. But the future of blogging is going to be as you say and do – just write giving what you think will be useful to people.
Yes, blogging comes with added responsibilities and tasks that you need to carry out, and I understand how you feel – how wonderful wouldn’t it be if we were to just write the posts and do nothing else for the blog! 🙂
It may not be obvious to the new bloggers, but these extras tasks and tidbits do really take a lot of your time and efforts, and sometimes it can be too taxing. Yes, I’m lucky to have a helping hand as far as the proof reading and technicalities matter and my husband really gives me a breather that I require so badly! 🙂
I admire your determination to go all by yourself in writing your research papers, and learning on your own is definitely very rich and strong in nature. English isn’t my first language too but I’ve been using it since my childhood so I guess that’s the reason I can express myself clearly.
You’re right about the advantages of online publishing over print publishing. As bloggers, we do have the liberty to make mistakes and correct them later, but then we should not take it for granted and keep making mistakes, which then becomes a bad habit. However, I agree that in spite of multiple proof readings, you sometimes still find small or silly mistakes and see the scope for improvement. It’s good to know that you’re such a hard worker and that your sister will be there to help you in your first ebook, which I shall look forward to! 🙂
Yes, do try and implement Pinterest as it has time and again surprised me with the traffic it brings to my blog, even long after the post is published. Triberr, I agree, is fantastic too as a smart tool for blog promotion.
Thanks again for stopping by and contributing such a lovely comment, and I really appreciate the time and effort it took to do that. Have a great week ahead! 🙂
Hi Harleena,
Well that was the best article I have read about creating a successful blog, aside from your tips on how to create a quality post and how to market it on social media website. Your concentration on the self esteem of the blogger and how he should be ready to be successful and how he should understand how to create his blog is the most important factor. There is a lot of bloggers whom created great blogs and had good traffic but not all of them was successful and the missing part was how they are behaving towards their blogging experience was the problem. Thanks for lighting us up to take our blogs to a next level.
Hi Qasim,
Welcome to my blog!
I’m flattered by your appreciation – thank you for considering this as one of the best posts that you’ve read on this topic.
Yes, the personal qualities matter in each and every thing you do. In fact, it’s only the good habits that make a person successful, apart from the skill or talent, isn’t it?
Also having a plan helps you how to go, where to go, what to do, and so on. And you’ve stated another blogging truth that getting a good blog traffic isn’t enough, but then what you do and how you deal with it is also important.
As you become successful in blogging, you also shoulder responsibilities and have to live up to the expectations.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your wonderful thoughts. I appreciate it. 🙂
Hi Harleena,
Thanks for this awesome post.
Yes you are right – all the points you mention in your article are very necessary to understand for everyone who wants to become a successful blogger. Blogging is not only about writing good content, sharing your article among right place is too necessary.
Hi Swapnil,
I’m glad you like the post.
You’ve stated the secret of successful blogging for the new bloggers – write good, promote greatly! Promote like hell, as Cole says in the previous comment, and leave no stones upturned.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. 🙂
An excellent post Harleena.
Your 5 steps are right on the money. Too many bloggers I believe subscribe to the idea presented in Field of Dreams: If you build it, they will come. I always tell my clients that if we build it, and promote the hell out of it relentlessly, they will come.
Hi Cole!
Welcome to my blog!
I take your words as compliment because they come from a web specialist!
You’re absolutely right – no product sells like hot cake if you don’t let people know about it – so you’ve to promote or advertise. Blogging is no exception and the 80-20 rules works here as well!
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your valuable advice. Sorry that I’m replying a bit late and wish you have a great week ahead! 🙂
Hi Harleena,
Have a vision… from the beginning? Difficult for most people. Make a plan? From the beginning? Difficult for most people.
I think the most common path is to start somehow then learn, then fail, then find your way, then succeed.
I tried to plan things, of course, from the beginning. In time a lot of things changed and very few things from the initial plan are still alive.
In the beginning you are not so sure what internet marketing is, what blogging is etc. You may have a general, vague idea about what you want to do and this will be the starting point.
The only way you can do things systematically, organized etc. even from the beginning is when somebody (an experienced internet marketer and blogger) helps you step by step. He or she gives you a course and it mentors you, assist you in everything you do until you learn the whole process.
Most people do not have this chance. They wander from here to there and learn by trial and error.
I think this is the most walked path.
Have a wonderful day
Hi Silviu,
That’s right – a vision from the very beginning! Knowing where you want to go and what you want to do really helps you plan how you can do it, and what all you’ll require to make it a successful task.
If you can picture yourself or your blog as you really want to look after being successful and at the top, it will help you inspire and motivate yourself on a continual basis.
Any business or venture without a plan becomes risky and is susceptible to fail, isn’t it? I feel the same is the case with blogging.
And this is why and what the post is all about – so the new bloggers can have a better idea, get a bird’s eye view of the entire journey, so they can plan their own journey keeping the vision in mind.
I totally agree with you that there nothing like learning on your own – stumble and rise. But it’s also wise to know beforehand what are the pitfalls and what really works learning from others’ experiences.
I wrote this in an earlier comment too that it’s good to keep changing your strategy with the changing times or trends, but your ultimate goal remains the same.
I’d say it’s better to go to war field being prepared, and you should know what you’re entering into. May be we didn’t really start our blogging journey as such, but we can help the new bloggers make a better start, can’t we?
I agree that having a mentor is definitely the best way to start in blogging. Nothing works better than that!
But alas, as you state, most people tread the path making trials and errors, and though some do reach their target, but then it either take more of their valuable time and efforts, and the resultant journey wears them down.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your views and experiences, and I hope the new bloggers gain by it. Sorry for this late reply and have a great week ahead! 🙂
I have found wonderful post on your blog.This informations is very required for new blogger.I like it and i applied on my blog also. I have one request you that please write a post about how to choose proper keyword for increase a traffic by search engine. New blogger require this information to increase a traffic.Thanks once again for sharing this info.
Hi Sameer,
Thanks for appreciating the post and I’m glad it was really helpful to you.
I’ll surely take your request and may be write the suggested post, but meanwhile I’d suggest that you go through the plenty of existing posts on this topic by blogging experts, and I’m sure you’ll really benefit by them. Having said that, even if you follow some of the steps that I’ve mentioned in the post, you’ll attract better site traffic. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and have a great week ahead! 🙂
Hi Harleena,
My name is Kerry and this is my first visit and comment on your blog. I found your article through Facebook. I have read your this post carefully and found it very very valuable for new bloggers. As I am also operating a blog and struggling to make it successful like yours. I hope your tips will really help me to make my blog successful.
Thanks
Kerry Tiwana
Hi Kerry,
Welcome to my blog!
I’m glad that you like the post and found it valuable.
As for my blog, it is far from being successful, but yes I can say that I’m trying all that I can and that it is on the right path. I’m sure you’ll find the tips helpful, as I did.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you don’t mind that this reply comes a bit late to you. 🙂
First of all I loved the quotes used in article.
Secondly I salute your efforts to write such awesome content as well as your awesome journey to reach here.
Blogging is changing tremendously and many new bloggers are rising daily, but creating impact needs too much efforts as well as dedication.
The point where you discussed about Simple Blogging and Successful Blogging is very valid and I too support it. I have seen many successful blogs who never target any SEO, who never care about backlinks and never care about Google algorithms. They just keep writing and creating wonderful shift in society, and that are the qualities which a true blogger must have.
Blogging is an awesome journey which goes like this –
1. We make our mind to start a blog.
2. We brainstorm the niche.
3. We start writing. Writing itself is an art and I am happy to say that you have developed this art very well and I love your style. 🙂
Once we are good in writing the next task comes as promotion.
4. We learn promotion techniques. As all internet marketers say, “For any article’s success there are 20% efforts on writing and 80% promotion.” So promotion itself is a big science. I am learning it slowly. 😉
5. We create links with people (you are doing it very well), and then finally we share their work.
6. Finally we are on the verge to become successful.
So it is a complete journey which we cover step by step only.
Thanks again !! Truly awesome content.
Hi Kulwant,
Welcome to my blog! Though this is a bit delayed, but it is indeed a warm welcome. 🙂
I’m so glad that you liked the quotes and the post content too, and that coming from a blogging professional sure means a lot to me.
I agree that blogging is becoming popular with time and as it gets crowdier, it gets tougher to be successful. And, then you not only really need to know everything about blogging, but also have strong and best personal qualities to carry out your blogging tasks.
I think Google is trying exactly what you summarized about how a true blogger should be and how blogging should be done. It should be directly from your heart, chiseled by your mind, very informational, and to the point, and of course, helping. The concept of keyword density is almost out and soon the Google algorithms will be quite equipped to know what the post is all about without the need of you telling it. So, it becomes all the more essential to write meaningful posts, and the rest will happen on its own, right?
Your steps to creating a blog are right on, and each one is important. I’m glad you like my writing style and I take that compliment happily. 🙂
The pareto 80-20 principle applies everywhere, and blogging is no exception. I totally agree with you that we need to make maximum efforts on promotion, and that’s a must especially for the new bloggers.
Yes, you need to develop a network and relationships in blogging, and interactions really create a value for yourself as a blogger and your blog.
Thanks for elucidating the steps for successful blogging and adding more value to the post. Thanks a lot for stopping by and hope to see you around. Have a great week ahead! 🙂
Thank you for sharing your experience. As a new blogger, I’m a sponge absorbing as much information as possible along my journey. Some of your tips are new, others I’ve heard before. However, your delivery is inspiring!
Hi Nicole,
Welcome to my blog!
I’m glad you like the post and hope you benefit the most from it.
Thank you for stopping by and see you around. 🙂
What a AHA post Miss. Harleena and one thing I would like to add here that If we want make our blog successful most important thing Patience should must be there then it will take you to the Success. Thanks for a wonderful content.
Have a nice week ahead.
Regards
Karan oberoi
Hi Karan,
Welcome to my blog!
I’m glad you like the post. You’re right – patience is a virtue that ever blogger needs to have to make the blog successful.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts, and sorry for a late reply. Have a great week ahead! 🙂
Hi Harleena,
First, it’s really a great pleasure to post a comment here after such a very long time! Yes, though I’ve peeped in a few times in the recent past its been a long time that I voiced my opinion here.
Again, let me say congratulations on your new blog look. When I saw it sometime ago, I thought of saying congrats but somehow never did it. So, let me say it now: CONGRATULATIONS!
On this post, I cannot but say you have hit the nail on the head. After going through the post I wholeheartedly agree that every one of your posts have always been a hit and not just what one read on many other blogs – re-echoing nothing but what others have said!
Knowing that you were very clear in your mind on what you wanted from the beginning is definitely the secret to your successful posts. I can confirm that many never had an iota of what they were going into. Personally, I’ve changed my strategies a couple of times but my end goal have always been my focus. Till this time I’ve never turned from it and I think this is what every blogger should learn and not being tossed here and there by whatever comes.
And then on those personal qualities, this is really the bane of many others. I’ve come to understand that no matter how many courses or tools you buy, if you lack these qualities success will always be an illusion. Just listened to a motivational talk this morning one thing I re-affirmed from that talk is, you can never rise above your mindset! I advise therefore that every blogger reading this post should really concentrate on those qualities and imbibe them.
Finally, thanks for those 3Ms of successful blogging! What a way to succinctly put the whole thing together – Making, Marketing and Managing! This will definitely be a maxim in the blogosphere for a long time to come.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Chadrack,
It’s really nice to see you back on my blog after a long time, but sorry that I took this long to reply to this comment.
Ah..the look of the blog, well this was done in January this year as I wanted to start the year a bit differently and I’m glad you and all others like it. 🙂
I’m glad you like the post and when I was writing it, I made sure that I write only what I’ve truly experienced and learned over my blogging journey. What I’ve written may also be found on other posts, but I tried to spill out all the secrets and the things that worked for me.
Yes, I knew from the beginning that the blog is not for me, but for others and I need to cater to their liking and their needs. And the fact that I’m a writer myself made things easier for me.
I wrote this somewhere else too that changing strategies is not a bad thing to do, in fact, that’s a sign that you’re flexible and ready to change as per the need, and that’s good. Yes, I know many new bloggers just don’t have any clue at all, and this is the reason for this post.
It’s great that you always had the end goal in focus and that is very important as you suggest. The means and ways change, but the end remains the same. And, if you can’e even decide the end, then you need to stop and reassess everything, right?
You’re right – you cannot ignore the personal factors and the qualities you’ve, as the skills or methods you learn are of no use if you don’t have the will and patience to use them, or if you’re not wanting to put in hard work or to change. You definitely need to change your mindset – the mind is the best tool to achieve success, isn’t it?
Thanks for all your words of appreciation and I really hope that all new bloggers adopt and benefit from the 3Ms. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your deep thoughts that surely add value to this post, which I really appreciate. 🙂
Hey Harleena,
You know what? With just those three simple tips, you said a mouth full.. making, marketing and managing is really all you need in order to really build enough momentum to really get your blog going. I just started using those plugins and it’s been helping wonderfully. I was actually forced to because the weekend before, I had problems getting to my blog and had to call tech support. I had to get rid of a lot of plugins that I wasn’t using that was causing a lot of problems. With that said, I have less problem, the speed has improved, and I can go on living LOL
Thanks for sharing this must needed info!
Hi Sherman,
You’re right – I think you can generalize the 3M concept to any business, and not only blogging. But the detailed steps in this post are specific to blogging and yes, it more or less covers everything.
The plugins that I mentioned in this post are the very basic and essential ones. Of course, I’ve many other plugins too, but these really help and they’re for free! I’m happy that they helped you resolving the problems at your blog.
Yes, as a rule in general, you need to delete the plugins that you don’t use frequently, and installed them as and when needed for optimum performance and greater security.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts and experiences, I appreciate it. And, sorry about this late reply, hope you don’t mind it. 🙂
Hi Harleena! Interesting post!
I consider myself a “simple” yet “successful” blogger and I know several more like me, so I’d like to ask you, how exactly do you measure success? The “simple” bloggers I know, who are hobby bloggers are doing the 3M’s as well. So I guess I’m confused on your definitions above.
Hi Bren,
Being a simple blogger is not bad, as I’ve already mentioned in the post. Some people really want to treat a blog as a personal journal and there’s nothing wrong in it. However, those who wish their blog to become popular and receive lots of traffic need to do things a bit differently. I’m sure you’re simple as well as a successful blogger, because success is a relative and subjective term, as I said in the post.
Ways of measuring success would depend on how you define success. Here in this post I defined success as popularity, and you measure it by the amount of traffic your blog receives. Having said that, your idea of success can be different and valid too. As far as the 3M’s are concerned, just doing isn’t enough as what matters is how you do it. I think if you go through Ana Hoffman’s post whose link I’ve provided in the article, you’ll realize that we don’t normally do all that is required to make our blog popular.
Thanks for stopping by and bringing up interesting questions to contribute to the post. I appreciate it. Sorry this reply come a bit late to you. 🙂
OMG! It was a long post! But I loved it! I felt that it was a complete post. None of that, “Tune into my next week’s post for more of the same” Good job! I need to keep a copy of this. I never heard of Smush.it and many of the other things you stated here. Thanks.
Hi Nathasha,
Welcome to my blog! I’m glad you like the post in spite of it being long.
I do try to make my posts complete, however they can never be comprehensive enough as I’m not an expert and I believe that the posts are incomplete without the readers comments and feedback. I feel breaking a post into two parts is not doing them justice, its like keep them hanging just for the sake of traffic!
I’m sure you already used Smush.it by now since this reply is late, and you benefited by it.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your views, and hope to see you around. 🙂
Until i started treating my blog like a business, I never got any positive response. Now i get email responses,etc. I’m happy my writing is reaching out to people now. Great post again. I truly like your style of writing
Hi Abraham,
I’m glad that your efforts have paid out and that you’re getting responses to your blogs. That’s really an achievement and I’m sure you’ll go to higher levels with time and effort.
I’m glad you like my writing and I thank you for stopping by, and hope to see you around. 🙂
Hi Harleena,
What a wonderful post, I knew your blog was passionately for your family and relationship life but coming into the real blogging world is a great move. I don’t really started blogging as a fun but I was confused that blogging was money making machine, though it is if one know how to go about it but it is all about patiences and passion. Becoming a successful blogger or how to blog successfully is all about achievement and what others have been able to learn from your personal/our experience which some considered to be the way of learn not the best for me though.
Hi Adesanmi,
I couldn’t resist writing about blogging because being three years into it, I believe I’ve gathered such experience that I can share, when I see even those who’re just three months into blogging and doing it!
Blogging does earn you money, though I’m not much for it, but yes with patience and passion you can do it. Achievement and success in blogging is a subjective term, and I agree with your views.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts and experiences and sorry that this reply comes a bit late to you. 😉 Have a great week ahead!
Harleena ,
You are an inspiration to me. I am connected to you on Facebook and always love to read your posts. A blog can be successful only if you have genuine & quality content. It engages the users on your blog.
Hi Jitendra,
I’m happy that I’ve been able to provide inspiration to you through my blog.
You’re right in that good quality content is a must for a blog to be successful.
Thanks for stopping by and sorry for this late reply. 🙂
Very nice tips i must saying providing great and quality content for your readers sure helps to bring them back and also refer someone to your blog. I love the 3m strategy of making,marketing and managing your blog properly these are sure ways to help your blog grow.
Hi Bob,
Yes, content really matters and consistency of providing good content too is a big factor that I’ve observed in order to make your blog successful. I’m glad you like the 3Ms!
Thanks for stopping by and sorry for this late reply. Have a great week ahead! 🙂
Harleena this is a wonderful post.
I’t a topic that been published many times on various blogs. But yours is written from the heart. I can see how much your blog means to you and how much you’ve put into it.
You’ve shared some great tips and I wish I’d known a lot of what you said before I started blogging. I rushed in head first and I don’t think I did a good job. My blog still has lots of work to do. It’s far from successful.
I’ve got some thinking to do about its future. I might even start again from scratch. But this time I would do it differently.
What I do know is that one of the ways to make your blog successful is to write for your readers. Not for yourself! It’s about them at the end of the day. That’s where I went wrong initially. I made my content too much about what I wanted to say, never mind about the people I was hoping would read it.
Anyway lessons have been learnt. Thanks for this great post.
Have a good weekend. 🙂
Hi June,
I’m glad you like the post.
Yes, this post is from my heart, as you’ve rightly guessed it. I really looked back and collected all my thoughts and feelings, and my experiences to present them before the new bloggers. My blog is my baby, and I’m still learning to be a good blog parent! 😉
I guess there are very few bloggers who tread the right path and do all the required things right from the start. So, we’ve been in the same boat. I think what really matters is the time you give to your blog, apart from the tips that I’ve mentioned in the post – it really requires lot of time and effort in the right direction to make a blog successful.
You can choose whatever way that suits you to rebuild your blog, but I’ve heard from experts that domain age and authority is a factor in rankings, so you may want to retain your domain name at least, just a suggestion.
You’ve hit the nail on the head – your blog has to be for others, and that’s the reason they would be interested to read it, unless you’re a celebrity and they want to know each and everything of what you do and you think!
However, putting across your thoughts and views is not bad, in fact, I do that only, and that’s what makes it different from other blogs because I’ve my own views and voice. But then, there something to take back for the readers.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts and experiences and don’t mind this late reply. 🙂 I wish you success and a great week ahead!
Hey Harleena,
I finally made it by and what a great post. You have really shared pretty much everything that is needed and I appreciate you also sharing how you got started and your thoughts on what you not only wanted your blog to look like but to achieve.
I think for a lot of us we may have had some thoughts on what we wanted from it but I’ve never been good at visualizing what I want to accomplish. Of course when I started mine I was on a different path.
To me blogging is so rewarding although at times challenging but you’ve definitely laid out all the perks Harleena. Thanks also for including things like compressing images and plugins that will help you understand the performance of your plugins. I know that a lot of bloggers get started never understanding everything that’s involved. I think I may have backed away had I known it all but I’m so glad I didn’t. I wouldn’t be where I am today.
Thanks again, I say that a lot I know, but you share so much great information with every topic you dive into. This one is just the same.
Have a beautiful weekend.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne!
I know you’d be pretty surprised to get a reply to the comment you made about three weeks back! I know I’ve to better my commenting strategy and learn more from you. 🙂
I’m glad you like the post, and it means a lot coming from you. As of now, my blog is far from what I had envisioned and dreamed of, but I know I’ve to learn and improve a lot, and my aim is certainly possible to achieve.
I feel it’s good to change and adapt if and when needed, and the ability of making adjustments is surely a characteristic of intelligence. So, what you’ve done is quite commendable.
Blogging is definitely challenging, but as you say, rewarding too – if we do it the right way, and do the right thing at the right time too!
Yes, as a starter, I must say that I too was almost blank, and it took a lot of time and efforts to know what I know now, which isn’t a level of being an expert, but certainly it helps me to manage my blog. I know you’re a tough person, and as they say that when the going gets rough, the tough gets going, so that’s what you did! And, this is what all new bloggers do – never get intimidated by the challenges you face, because there’s always a solution and a way out.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing more of your valuable thoughts and experiences, which mean a lot to me as well as the new bloggers. Have a great week ahead! 🙂
Hi Harleena,
These are very useful tips and I agree with responding to commennts and engaging with your readers! I didn’t know about Cloudflare. Will definitely check that resource!
Hi Roshni,
Though a bit belated, but certainly a warm welcome to my blog! 🙂
Now I faltered on this one, didn’t I? But this happens sometimes as blogging surely keeps you busy and there at times when you lose your rhythm. However, I make sure that I reply to the comments and thank the commenter.
So, thank you for stopping by on my blog and yes, Cloudflare works good for me. 🙂
Hey Harlenna!
Great to see that Pinterest is one of your referral traffic sources. I love Pinterest! What’s great about Pinterest is that it’s growing faster than Facebook did since inception. I love the tips that you have laid out regarding getting more traffic and making your blog a successful blog. You can’t do SEO and rely on organic traffic. I strongly believe you need to leverage social media. The way I look at organic traffic vs referral traffic is that referral traffic gets you traffic ‘now’. Organic traffic is more of a long-term strategy that will get you traffic on the back-end, write it once, pays dividends at the long run. Both strategies are needed to build a successful blog. Loved this article and hit home for me. Thanks Harleena!
Hi Nate,
Traffic from Pinterest has certainly boosted on my blog in recent weeks. On certain posts, it is just unbelievable!
For me, it is just next to Facebook as the best referral traffic source, and I really wouldn’t doubt that it is growing faster than Facebook.
Honestly, my Google Analytics shows that my organic traffic is about 20% and I’m content with it, but I don’t depend on it, because with the changing Google algorithms, you never know what happens next, so you really can’t have a fixed strategy for it. But referral certainly works and you can have a strategy for it. My referral traffic is about 50%, so that’s my main strength and the time I spent on leveraging social media is definitely worth it.
You’re right, referral traffic is the traffic “now”, but with my experience of Pinterest, you can say that it works for long term too! I feel organic traffic is something that you should do but you shouldn’t bother yourself with much and put your money where your mouth is!
I’m glad you liked the post and sorry that my reply comes very late, but nevertheless, thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts and views, I really appreciate it. 🙂
Great explanation, I’m also try to gain traffic from Pinterest maybe still new and need to do more things again.
100% agree with 3M!
Hi Khairul,
Welcome to my blog!
Sorry for my late reply, but I’m glad you like the post and the 3M. Pinterest definitely works good for me, and it can for you too.
Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Hi Harleena
I am going to start my comment by agreeing with everything Carolyn said. You have an amazing successful blog in every way. As Carolyn also said you are first to comment on so many blogs and are just an amazing example. Sometimes I wonder how you get first everywhere given you have a family as well 🙂
The post covers so much. It is almost a product in itself.
I started blogging as I came online to build a network marketing business I was in at the time. I was told I needed a blog as my home.
I had never seen myself as a writer and to this day I do not think of myself as a blogger. It is interesting really as I now love it but unlike you I am not a professional writer. Now I know you do not have to be but I still have a bit of a block.
I also so dislike the tech side. I have a tech help person who helps me out so that is great for me.
I do only basic SEO but I almost always do keyword research and then on page SEO. The only time I do not care is when I write about my Dad passing or some personal issue.
You are amazing Harleena how you put out such frequent awesome content.
Thanks for your contribution to the blogging world.
Sue
Hi Sue,
Well, thank you for saying that – I think you both are too generous 🙂
Ah…being the first one to comment is not a big deal I’d say or perhaps I’m a little lucky because of my time zone, which fits in well as that’s the time I start blog hopping and have lots of blogs that show up in my RSS, so I just keep taking them up one after the other. However, those that don’t fit in into my time zone, you’d notice that I’m not the first one to comment there. 🙂
I really don’t have anything to sell other than my own experiences, so I hope this product sells well!
Absolutely! Our blogs are our homes and we must treat them just like that. I can well understand how you started blogging after having read your life’s journey in your recent moving forward series.
I think with time every blogger becomes a writer because of the amount of writing they’ve to do, which is what we need – practice to become perfect, isn’t it? And I think you write wonderfully well, so I don’t quite agree with you there 🙂
Ah…the tech side is my problem too, though I’m glad my hubby’s there to help me out at times, or else one just reads and learns online.
Yes indeed, and I think that much of SEO is enough too, more so with Google’s latest updates, SEO isn’t all that important, yet a little is if one wants to be visible in the search engines and tap that traffic too, isn’t it?
I need to be more consistent Sue, and more than anything else, it’s a commitment I make to myself and my readers, but at times it’s just not possible to stick to a strict schedule with kids and family around – if there’s some emergency with them. I guess at such times my readers are wonderful and must be understanding the delay in an odd post day.
Thank YOU so much for stopping by and for your words of appreciation that made my day 🙂
Hello Harleena,
Your article is full of excellent info! I’m fairly new to blogging, and I was intrigued by the Pinterest traffic you have. I’ve just started adding my posts to Pinterest. I love finding eye candy images, and it’s fun to share these. As for monetization, I haven’t really tried anything, but would like to learn more. Thanks, I’ll follow and have a look around!
Welcome to the blog Jan!
Nice to know that you liked the info shared 🙂
Oh yes…Pinterest works wonders! There are a few posts on this blog that have actually gone kind of viral on Pinterest and they keep bringing traffic on the days when otherwise one doesn’t do anything much, or holidays and weekends. Who wouldn’t want that, isn’t it?
I agree with you, Pinterest IS addictive and once you are there, it’s tough to get away. But they say a picture can say a thousand words and it surely does. I hope this post helps you in more ways than one and brings you success in blogging 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your views 🙂
If I knew blogging was so complicated, I might’ve rethought starting Traffic Generation Café. lol
Spot on, Harleena. Creating a blog that’s read involves getting into the hearts and minds of your readers and without commitment, patience, and willingness to learn it just won’t happen.
Thanks for so much food for thought and including TGC as well.
Hi Ana,
You know blogging is made easy because of people like you, and you’re one of those who get going, when the going gets tough. So, I’m glad you started TGC. 🙂
I’m happy to hear words of appreciation from a Problogger and I’m glad you find my advice worthy enough. You’ve very rightly put it up in a nutshell that without the personal qualities of commitment, patience, and willingness to learn, you make it tough to create a successful blog. As blogging success is all about “getting into the hearts and minds of your readers” – that’s so true, and coming from you, it makes more sense now.
Thanks for taking out your precious time and stopping by my blog and contributing your suggestions. You know I always appreciate it. 🙂
Harleena, great post and a great read. Glad to see you are reminding us all of the importance of writing high quality content. Attraction is key, but you have to give your readers a reason to stay and return. Thanks for sharing these tips and have a great day!
Welcome to the blog Tom – good to have you over 🙂
Glad you liked the post, and yes, these are reminders for wonderful bloggers like yourself, though I hope they can be of help to the new bloggers or those who don’t know about what it.
Oh yes…quality content IS the key, everything else comes secondary. Yes indeed, if your content is good, there’s no reason your readers won’t return. Besides, you also need to build relationships with your fellow bloggers and that DOES work like magic for your blog 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and contributing to the post 🙂
These are great tips. When I first started blogging, I chose the wrong niche which made writing very difficult for me. I have a hard time writing unless it is about topics that I am readily familiar with. When I decided to give blogging another try, I created a blog with a very specific niche. It was successful but it was to focused and I decided to expand my horizons. So this is how Uplifting Families was born. 🙂
My experience has taught me to pick a subject or subjects that you are passionate about and don’t give up. 😉
Hi Christy,
Glad you liked these blogging tips and could relate to them 🙂
Yes indeed, some bloggers choose the wrong niche only to realize later and change over, though I’m glad your switch over happened soon. It IS important that whatever niche you choose, you are comfortable to write about it. I’ve also come across some technical blogging friend’s who gave up their tech blogs because of the same reason, and are onto things they can relate to better.
Nice to hear about how Uplifting Families was born, and it’s good if you can incorporate the positive changes and expand the horizons to make it better. You are absolutely right there – if you are passionate about something, you are bound to do well in it because you love it, so there shouldn’t be any reason to give up!
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your blogging journey with us 🙂
Hello Harleena Singh,
To be a successful blogger, it takes time & patience. There are lots of bloggers failed due to lack of interest to learn & have no patience. Its a long article but not boring. You pointed all key points very neat & clean way. It will be a good recipe for every blogger.
Happy Blogging & continue your success journey 🙂
Hi Ahsan,
Absolutely! Just like any work or business takes time and patience, similar is the case with achieving blogging success.
Most bloggers start off with a lot of enthusiasm but leave off due to various reasons, or aren’t consistent, which also results in some of them closing their blogs.
Glad you liked the post, and yes, though my posts are a little long, I do make sure that I break them up in bits that can be understood easily.
Thanks for stopping by and your well wishes 🙂
Hi Harleena,
I too got distracted and did not finish you post, so have not commented – until now. You wrote such a long and detailed/informative post. I will only comment on some details because I hope I am doing most of it correctly. The engagement part I need to get better at – i focus too much on the technical, which is part of my “web developer” side. But I am slowly learning and trying to comment on at least 5 blogs a day. The plugins are also interesting and I also had issues with W3 like Mayura said. I found the javascript files were not loading correctly and actually slowing down my blog. So I move to Total cache and now I have about 3seconds which is ok for shared hosting I think.
Keep up the great work
ashley
Hi Ashley,
No worries at all, and I’m glad you found the time to stop by and comment 🙂
Yes indeed, and that’s the case with most bloggers too, or perhaps those who are really into blogging find less time for interacting or social engagements, though it is essential if you are wanting to build relationships, isn’t it? 5 is a good number to start with, though the more the comments and visit, the more the numbers increase 🙂
I can understand if you had problems with W3TC, as the same plugin can fare different for different people as all have different settings and conditions. I respect your suggestion about Total Cache, but since I haven’t tried that so I vouched for W3TC as that worked for me, but I’d suggest the readers to try them all out and choose the best that fits and suits them.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your views with us 🙂
Yes, I believe we are 🙂 Thank you, and thanks for being one of my readers and of course a big thanks for sharing my posts.
Always welcome and a pleasure doing so Linda 🙂
Hi Harleena,
Sorry, I’m bit late to join the party dear 🙂
Nice to see another post under the blogging category 🙂 Very through I must say, and an eye opener.
As bloggers, I don’t think no one had a clear idea what needs to be done when start off Harleena. Yeah, we know what we want, have a faith and dream of the success according our own definition though. Even experts share their blogging experiences, still we need to get to the bottom of it to see what really matters. Isn’t it? 🙂
“Not that presently my blog is successful by any blogging standard” ~ Well, many bloggers would say the same thing (May be except for “blogging standard” part) if they wrote this same blog post 😉 We all have different versions of definitions about our blogging success, and we should respect that even they seems like impossible or out of standards. Nothing’s impossible, eh? 😉
I know that most of us including me find your blog as a successful blog, not only due to helpful blog posts but also as you get many comments and shares on each post Harleena. One factor I really love about you is that you manage your blog and personal life very well 🙂 That’s a BIGGY according to me.
But yet, some bloggers out there measure your blog with factors such as PageRank too. Yeah, you may have not achieved success on those factors yet. I believe you will achieve what you are lacking right now in future 🙂 Wish you all the best dear!
Talking about myself, yet I don’t consider myself as a serious blogger Harleena 🙂 Quite a casual blogger. Else I’d stick to my old posting schedule without slowing myself down. I love blogging but writing is not my best interest though. But the interest in topics I blog about and knowing that they can help others online, keeps me motivated 🙂
I like how you came up with 3M 😉 You always do that. Actually making takes me a lot of time Harleena. Several hours, even for a short post. As you may already know, I’m slow in writing posts and commenting too. However I don’t consider reviewing mine for keywords though. Yet I find necessary keywords being added automatically as I elaborate stuff in the post 🙂
I believe search engine traffic brings us the most targeted audience Harleena. Well, Social Media too. But I think as people really search about what they want and stop by our blogs, we shouldn’t ignore SEO at all. Shouldn’t be too much dependent too.
Like you, I need my facts to be reliable and accurate too. Even I have to update my older posts when things get updated, else visitors find ’em outdated 🙂
When it comes to social media, I never seen a person so much committed to promotion as you Harleena 🙂 Must be taking so much time. But as we all witness here, it’s all worthy. I won’t think I’d go so far, else I’d find blogging is too much for me 😀 lol… See, I’m not that serious 😉
It’s nice of you to share your favorite and useful plugins for WordPress bloggers Harleena 🙂 But one thing I’d like to mention from my experience is that when it comes to cache plugins, I’d like to give credit for both W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache.
I had some problems with W3 Total Cache on some hosts and even a blog on HostGator too. I don’t know why HostGator officially recommends WP Super Cache, but I found some inconsistencies can occur, even with other hosting partners 🙂 If no inconsistencies, good to go.
You have a wonderful week Harleena 🙂
Cheers…
Hi Mayura,
Ah…you know you are never late here, and welcome anytime you find the time, which I know is SO precious 🙂
Glad you liked the post, though it’s mostly what I’ve gone through in my blogging journey that might make it a little different. I agree with you there, very seldom do people have fixed ideas when it comes to blogging, or perhaps people keep changing things for the better, which is good I’d say. I myself have changed SO many things on my blog, and you know that as you’ve been associated with the blog for such a long time now, isn’t it? Each blogger would have different experiences and their journey would be different from each others too.
Yes, nothing is impossible if you put your heart and mind into it. The definition of success too would vary from blogger to blogger. Some are happy the way they are and through all that they have achieved, while some always remain unhappy and keep striving for more, so it all depends on what your level of success is that brings you happiness in the end of the day. For me, it’s doing my best every single day and that is my success story for the day – I sleep a happy and satisfied 🙂
Well, thank you for saying that Mayura, it means a lot coming from you. The success of this blog is not due to my posts alone, but because of wonderful readers like you who like what I write and grace this blog with your visit, and awesome comments, so I need to thank YOU instead. Yes, people are kind enough to share the posts too, and I know of only a few of them who I do thank, but the others – I take this opportunity now to thank them from the bottom of my heart.
You know it’s not easy to manage a blog, a writing career, and my personal life all together and I do have my share of down time too, after all I am only human! But I remain grateful to my husband and kids who are so understanding and helpful, though I sometimes feel guilty for not being there always for them when I am involved in work.
Yes indeed, people tend to measure blogs with page rank, or Alexa and all those things. I agree they matter, but for me blogging is much more than just that. That’s why I said I haven’t achieved success in that real sense as bloggers measure it up to, but I am happy with the little I have achieved. I guess slow and steady does it and I am surely in NO rush at all. Thank you for your wishes too- dear friend.
Ah…don’t call yourself a casual blogger, because you know all your posts are helpful and informative ones, and I learn so much from them. Yes, slowing down is required at times so that you can concentrate and pay attention to other things that also require your attention and for you, your other offline works are priority also. You can call yourself a helpful blogger, which carries much more value than anything else 🙂
I was telling my family about the 3M’s this time and they also said the same! I guess I should give the 4D’s and 3M’s a break now 😉 Blogging surely is NO easy task, and if you are writing a post for people and for the search engines also, keeping both of them in mind, you need to really put in a lot, isn’t it? I agree, with the changes in keywords and SEO, one really doesn’t have to bother much about adding keywords now except at a few places if need be as I’ve even seen my posts rank without any SEO, so a lot of other factors go into the ranking part beside just the keywords I think. Yes, commenting is an art at which you are an expert because of your elaborate and heartfelt comments, that any blogger would love to have on their blog, at least I do! And if one takes so much of time to leave such a thoughtful comment, it does take time and effort.
Yes, that’s why we need to rank in the search engines too, though it’s not always possible to do that, but we can try, isn’t it? Bloggers shouldn’t ignore or leave out SEO completely, instead go with the latest trend and be aware of the Google updates too so that you are on the safe end. So much has changed regarding this in the past few months and it might change a lot more too, so we need to be careful.
Older posts need to be updated, especially where facts, figures, case studies and all details are given. I have a few of such posts as compared. Oh yes…social media is what takes most of my time, but I know it needs to be done. I do a little each day and have divided my day’s routine in such a way now that everything gets a little attention, though I feel I should slow down a bit now. I know not everyone does it, and for many it’s not needed if they are ranking on page 1 etc., but I feel you DO need to make your posts reach the masses, and there’s nothing better than social media for that because the people in various social media are different, and they may or may not be commenters on your blog, and might not be bloggers at all. Nevertheless, there are a few bookmarking sites I still have to tap as those too make a lot of difference.
Ah…those are just a few of the plugins I use and have learnt about with time. I personally did use WP Super Cache for sometime as my webhost Hostgator recommended that, but I faced problems and my site slowed down. But as I switched to W3TC, the site was fast again. So, my suggestions are based on my personal experience, but having said that, I understand that they can differ from person to person. As you’ve faced problems with W3TC and I haven’t. Eventually, one should use what works best for him or her, right?
Thanks for stopping by and adding more value to the post through your wonderful comment as always. Have a nice week ahead as well 🙂
Hi, Harleena mam,
Once again a great post. 🙂
I am agreeing with that definition of blog success depend on blogger’s dream and demands. Parameter for success varies blogger to blogger.
I loved your experience in blogging that contains your vision, self-belief, passion, interest, goal, devotion, dedication and determination. 🙂
This time you came with 3M, Which is as great as your 4D. 🙂
You have mentioned making, Marketing and managing. These are the three pillars what needs to make any blog success, even any business success.
I feel making any thing is easy but making it popular through marketing is a bit tough and it is tougher to manage the popular blogs. These all takes lots of time that you have mentioned, you don’t expense a dime but spend time to search the things which come good for you and for your user as well.
facebook, pinterest , twitter and G+ are great marketing tools. My blog also attract some visitor for these social networking sites.
You have mentioned every possible thing to make a blog success. I don’t need to add any thing more to these tips.
Thank you for the sharing great post.
Have a great week.
Hi Kumar,
Glad you liked the post and could relate to it 🙂
Yes indeed, blogging success differs from blogger to blogger and what might work for me or what I feel makes a blog successful, might not work for another. But for those who want to how to make a successful blog, I’m sure these tips would be an addition to their knowledge, isn’t it?
I’m glad you remembered those 4D’s and yes, this time I thought of these 3M’s, which I feel are essential factors that can make a blog successful, not that mine is all that successful, but this is what worked for me.
I agree with you, making a blog is easy but sustaining it or marketing it is what takes a lot of time and effort, and if you are don’t spend time doing that, you might not be able to reach the masses. Yes, if your content shows up in the top search engine pages, which happens with time, you can lesson your marketing strategies, otherwise you do need to do that.
All the social media networks you mentioned are essential and I think every blogger must spend a little time on all of these because you have different fans and people on each one of these. For example, when I share my posts on Facebook or the groups there, I get a lot of comments and interaction from people, who otherwise do not comment at the blog, so all that makes a lot of difference too.
Thanks for stopping by and contributing your views. Have a nice weekend as well 🙂
Thanks for this advice. I’ll try to put it into practice. I especially appreciate the link to Google Adwords. I think that will be really helpful.
Welcome to the blog Julie!
You are most welcome, and I hope this post helped you in more ways than one 🙂
Oh yes…Google Adwords IS a great free tool and an absolute must if you ever want to look for keywords to use in your posts. Do give it a try 🙂
Thanks for stopping by 🙂
BTW- Do get yourself a Gravatar so that everyone can see who we are 🙂
Wonderful information Harleena. I don’t think there is anything that you missed. Which is how your articles always are. Thank You.
I have found blogging is fun and what really surprises me is the knowledge that we learn from the research we do. Yes, we all have an opinion, but learning to see the over the fence and feel what others may be feeling, helps us grow and become a better person.
And I always love the way you inter act with your visitors. Always answer there comments. It shows that you care what others have to say.
Hugs,
Debbie
Hi Debbie,
Thank you so much for saying that – means a lot coming from you 🙂
Absolutely! At times it makes me feel that my head might just explode if I don’t stop and take a break for a few hours because of the research work we do that helps us to read so much, and also the numerous blogs we keep visiting and reading the wonderful content there, isn’t it? It does make blogging fun, though there’s a lot more than meets the eye 😉
Ah…I DO love the interactions we have at Aha!NOW, thanks to the wonderful readers who find it a place to share their feelings and views with me and everyone here, which is what makes it what it is today. I know I am a little slow in replying to the comments because of the lack of time, but I do make sure I take my time and reply to them 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, and hugs back to you as well 🙂
BTW- Please DO add a gravatar near your name Debbie so that everyone can see you too. I know you have such a lovely picture at your blog when you comment there, you could use the same one 🙂
I have been trying to fix my problem. Not sure when it got messed up. I keep working on the gravator. Thanks for caring.
Debbie
Take your time Debbie, and I think your problem might be because you have two email accounts set up there that need to work with your picture. Also, with Andy’s new update on the CommentLuv plugin, everyone without a Gravatar set up might face problems with all comments enabled blog. Just what’s rolled out today. 🙂
Thanks 🙂
Fantastic post Harleena – and very helpful. All important pieces to building a great blog. It’s very inspiring to see how you put your blog together and the powerful content. Thank you for all you share!!!
Karen
Hi Karen,
Glad you liked the post and I’m happy it could help you in some way 🙂
Ah…I just thought of sharing my blogging journey with everyone because I know what worked for me so far, and perhaps it might help others to build their blogs too.
Thanks for stopping by, and for your words of appreciation 🙂
First of all congratulations for your blogging success! And yes! this is one of the top blog about family matters.
I’m totally agree with you that blogging success means popularity. People spending 20% of their online time by reading web contents just after social networking and searching. So, it is very clear that people love to read the contents. Now the fact is- you have to put your content on that place where traffic is flowing and this is the main point of blogging success. There are many ways to do this. You already have written about this in this post (Writing good contents, SEO, social sharing, etc.).
I also believe that- today we’re measuring blog success not only by the number of traffic we have but also by counting online revenue earned from blogging. So, blogging is becoming a business today! Therefore you should write and promote your blog posts by targeting your audiences as well as a revenue generating system on your blog.
What you think?
Hi Majharul – nice to have you back 🙂
Well, thank you for your well wishes, and yes, this blog is what people have made it today, though gone beyond family matters now I’d say. 🙂
Yes indeed, people love to read good content, and they are bound to stay on longer at your post, if you are able to provide them that kind of quality, isn’t it? I shared the ways I follow that have worked for me, though I know this isn’t what might be working for everyone because there are lots of other ways to achieve blogging success.
I agree with you, for many bloggers blogging means business and making money from their blogs, especially if blogging IS all they do. While for others who are working at part time jobs and managing a blog, it might go at a slow pace and unless they are certain it can give them the returns, they may not want to leave their jobs too, so it all depends I’d say.
If your aim is ONLY to make money, then you do need to cater to those kind of people, though I strongly feel that money should always be secondary, which comes with time and patience. If your content it is helpful and good, or people can relate to it, the traffic will flow in, and once that happens, if you have something to sell, you can. But to follow other unfair methods or means to achive success, shouldn’t be practiced. More so, building relationships with people IS essentail as that builds trust with them, which again works for your success, isn’t it?
Thanks for stopping by and contributing to the post 🙂
Hi Harleena,
An awesome post – and I entirely agree with Carolyn’s comment about the amazing success of your blog – you really shouldn’t underestimate what you’ve achieved.
My only slight quibble is that I don’t think all these strategies are necessarily that ‘simple’. It may seem so, once you’re immersed in it all, but getting your head round social media and optimizing your blog are quite challenging, especially for newcomers. For example, I’ve recently had to enlist the help of Mayura in order to help me speed up my site, because I wasn’t confident to deal with some of the techie stuff myself.
As Sylviane says, and as I know you find yourself, the commenting and blog-hopping is extremely time-consuming – that’s something I definitely wasn’t prepared for when I started out and I still struggle with it. I enjoy it immensely, like Sylviane, but worry about the amount of time it can eat up.
You’ve made me think I should consider getting back onto Pinterest. I cancelled my account a while back due to concerns about all the image copyright implications and concerns about lack of clarity about how you can ensure you’re pinning legally. I must admit, I was never able to spend much time on there, but it did bring me a small amount of traffic, though it was of the more ‘bouncy’ variety, I found. Must have a think about that.
Thanks very much, Harleena, for another stimulating, thought-provoking read 🙂
Hi Susan,
I’m happy that you like the post. And, thank you for considering my blog as successful, though I feel I’ve miles and miles to go to achieve the real success.
Hmmm..you’re right that these strategies are not simple, because blogging as a whole is difficult if you go by the book, and set to do all that is really required to do.
I agree that social media and commenting are the two most effective yet most time consuming tasks of blogging. You cannot ignore blog promotion. Regarding the aspect of managing the blog, I’m lucky to have my hubby around me who takes care of the occasional technical help that I require, like for example speeding up the blog.
I guess most of the people who venture into blogging don’t really think it’s a serious stuff, and so they never bother to make a proper research on how to go about it. If they do, then articles like these may help them know the real picture and prepare themselves accordingly.
Yes, I think you should use Pinterest. Read what Carolyn too has to say about it. I get daily traffic from it, and that too on old forgotten posts. Do make sure to stuff your posts with pics, but then be careful to optimize them first. I always use the images from free sites and conform to their rules by giving them a credit link, so that ways am always safe regarding copyright issues.
Wish you achieve more success – thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your so wonderful thoughts and practical experiences that may help the new bloggers. 🙂
Thanks very much for your thoughtful reply to my comment, Harleena – I’ll have to have another think about Pinterest 🙂
You are most welcome Sue. Yes, do rethink about Pinterest because it DOES have great potential. 🙂
Thanks once again 🙂
Thanks a ton! I am glad I got to read this! I have been blogging over a year now, and I am doing pretty good – but, I need to do better.
Hi Renuka,
Welcome to my blog! Definitely there’s no end to improving yourself and your blog. 🙂 I’ll be happy if this posts helps you in anyway.
Thanks for stopping by and see you around. 🙂
Hey Harleena,
Excellent share and write up on this!
For me, the 3M’s … damn girl! You really nailed it big time.
Honestly speaking, marketing is the most important. Believe it or not … you need to market your website or blog. Without marketing, you are no where. Yes! No where.
You may do all the right SEO but if you don’t really go out there and say, “Hey, I am here!”, you probably won’t get noticed in today’s world.
Thanks for sharing this and take care. Great article!
Hi Reginald,
I’m so glad you liked the post as well as the 3Ms!
You’re absolutely right that marketing is the key to success. But then making and managing are equally important aspects of blogging.
I feel SEO doesn’t much help in creating relations, and over long-term, good relationships are very important for blogs and bloggers.
If you don’t tell people, they won’t know! – you’re so right. Commenting and sharing builds the relationship that creates the required engagement for your blog’s success.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your important thoughts and views. 🙂
This is a great, great post Harleena,
Needless to say that I still need to work on the promotion side of my blogs, but it’s just that I’m time restricted to do it all right now. I know that as long as my JOB will be in the way, my only way is to go around things as much as I can.
I do spend hours just reading and commenting on other posts, and frankly, that alone takes my precious time from other things, but I know that I must do this. However, I know that nothing is a substitute to promoting your posts.
Thankfully I do write pretty fast, and considering, I have my posts up rather rapidly. Of course, I’m sure that it wouldn’t hurt if I spend more time on them. But same story again… time 🙂
I do have the passion, for sure. I simply LOVE to write, share, and blog about it. I blog about 3 of my passions, but the time given I could blog about more of them. I’m finishing up a writing tutorial to come out this month, I’m working on a project to expose my work better and wider, and I will start getting back on a personal development book of mine that so many people are asking me to write.
Thank you so much for this most valuable post, and of course will share it.
Hi Sylviane,
I’m so glad you like the post. Yes, blog promotion requires much time and that’s really a handicap if you’ve a day job or commitment else where. But in spite of all that, you still do your bit and I appreciate the efforts that you put in.
You know I cannot make more than 4-5 comments on average in an hour because as you mention, you need to read the entire post, and some of the existing comments, and then pour your brewing thoughts into that cup of comment box. It all takes time! If I do not comment at other’s blogs, then why would anyone comment on my blog? And what are posts without comments? Incomplete, I would say.
I understand that your lack of time has made you learn the art of writing fast – so that’s something good out of the busyness, isn’t it? Even if I write slow, I still feel like redoing and making more changes in the post, as the scope for improvement is endless.
So that’s your secret too – being passionate about blogging. It doesn’t work without passion. You’re brave enough to have and maintain three blogs. I feel I can’t even do full justice to this single blog – so hat’s off to you!
Wow, a tutorial and book in the offing – you sure love to diversify and expand in fascinating ways. Wish you all the success in your enterprising ventures.
Thanks for stopping by and spending your time to provide value to the post. I really appreciate it very much. 🙂
Hi Harleena,
I respectfully disagree with you. Your blog is successful by EVERY measure! You provide very high quality content here and, as I always say, you never shy away from tackling the tough issues here.
You are the Queen of Commenting for sure, Harleena. You are often the first to comment on blogs and your comments are meaningful and thoughtful. But you got beyond commenting. You share posts more places than anyone else, helping us spread the word about our work.
You have outlined here very important tips for people, especially spending hours on each post. Like you, I have dozens of revisions when I try to make my posts perfect. I don’t generally use quotes (though I savor the ones you use), but I do spend hours on images, finding, creating and optimizing them.
Best wishes for much continued success, Harleena. You deserve it and the world is a better place because of your hard work.
Hi Carolyn,
Thanks for your kinds words and I appreciate your feelings. Yes, I do think that my blog is special in terms of the interaction that happens here, and such quality discussions… it’s not only me but I’ve seen many readers opening their hearts and writing long comments!
Yes, I like to delve into issues that are less talked about but are essential to help better the quality of our life. I do conceptualize commenting as a synonym and part of blogging, without which the posts look barren and spice less! I myself like to read the comments at every post that I visit, and I find great value in there as those words are often directly from the personal experiences of the commentors.
Sharing is another aspect that makes you a good blogger. Sharing is like helping. If I like something, I share, and if somebody share my posts, I share theirs. If my clicking a few buttons can make a difference to someone, then why not?
About my being the first to comment, I confess that I too stand to gain by doing that. However, I can’t, even if I try to, comment just for the heck of getting backlink. If a comment cannot help or give meaning, I think its useless.
Good posts do require time for preparation. I wonder how people can afford to write on a daily basis, or even have more than one post daily! I know you work hard a lot on your posts, and we can see that – your posts speak of your dedication.
Thanks again for such lovely words and soulful motivation. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences and contributing value to the post. 🙂
Very interesting information.I Didnt know so much about Pinterest.I think I will follow this tip.
Well,once I was in Singapore with my son.He was feeling sorry for me as I had very little to do there.It was his idea and he created this for me including the punch line…
From that stage,it is the content that matters
Hi BK,
I’ll give you more tips – use only those pics on your post that you think people will like. So, initially this requires bit of searching for the right pic. But then your efforts are compensated by the regular traffic these pics send to your blog.
I think you should thank you son for getting you hooked on to a great interactive and networking platform. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Wow Harleena, you really covered everything in this post. It sure takes a lot of work to get a blog successful. There are so many more aspects of it than I realized when I first started. I probably would not have started if I had known, right? The commenting and sharing does take more time than the actual writing at times. I’ve found it to be an amazing adventure!
Hi Lisa,
I agree that its not easy to make your blog successful – it takes a lot of hard work and your precious time.
I guess everybody or say most of the people start blogging considering that it’s just simple blogging! But we experience and realize the depth of the blogging as we get into it.
You bet, I don’t know what I’d have done if I knew blogging is such a time-consuming job. But then, we’re enjoying it, aren’t we? So the newbies should not get dissuaded, but do remember, as you’ve mentioned too, that most time is required is for commenting and sharing.
Thanks for sharing your experiences of the blogging adventure. I really appreciate it. 🙂
Hi Harleena,
Making a blog is not so difficult but the matter of discussion is how to make a blog successful which is in fact a very difficult task but the tips you mentioned here can be very handy if we pay attention to them and implement on them seriously. Marketing of blog with SEO strategy can give us fruitful results. This is just my opinion. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Hi Muhammad Saleem,
I agree with what you say – not every blog is successful, as you need to work on them to achieve that milestone. Developing the right personal qualities and using the right strategies and methods really helps.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your knowledge and opinions. 🙂
Harleena thanks for the post.
I learned so much! I love to blog but really haven’t paid attention to the management and SEO. Just like you said “there is more to blogging than writing great post.”
I’m already installing the pluggins, but I think my blog needs work before I really start promoting it. It doesn’t seem user friendly yet.
Hi Andrew,
I’m glad you found this post to be a source of learning. I’ll be more happy if you start implementing everything and then tell me how successful your blog has become! 🙂
Great! you have already started with the plugins, and since I also use them, I’d say you’ve made the right decision.
Here’s to your blogging success. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Hi Hareena!
You’ve posted a nice article as you do! I’m not an old one in blogging but i would like to share my personal experience is that, when I came in blogging, I didn’t know about it too much, But after reading some good posts of others that how to promote your blog etc, has made me so so in blogging!
For being a successful blogger, we should do work with patience! If we have patience and we can wait for result then we can survive in blogging 🙂 Another thing is comparing, if we compare ourself with others then we’ll see some lacks in us and after that we won’t have confidence on ourself. If we just think that we can everything then we will achieve anything!
As up to me I always want to keep in touch with others and i think is the better way to promote your site! I love to talk with my customers and love to comment of others post for building relationships. I use Social Sites for promoting my website as well as I do often profile links on any High PR Site!
Hi Bilal,
You do learn so much through experience in blogging. This is also a unique career or trade where professional bloggers are always ready to help other new bloggers.
Patience is definitely one of the most important virtues to possess by a blogger. Success comes to those who’re hardworking, smart, and patient.
You do need self-confidence, and then it doesn’t really matter if people compare you with others. Sometimes its good to know where you stand in comparison to others, but if you want to measure your progress, then you need to compare your present with your own past.
I think you’re going good with your strategy to leverage the public relations to promote your site. Linking to high PR sites would definitely help you better your rank.
Thanks for stopping by and contributing your knowledge and experience. I really appreciate it. 🙂
Excellent post on how to make your blog successful. Unless you are doing it for a hobby then that’s a different matter. But if want traffic then you must make sure that you engage in SEO, bookmarking, social media and with other bloggers to make it successful.
You are one amazing blogger, I can see how others relate to you on Facebook and how they want to be your friend etc. I am glad that you are following Ana Hoffman, I am a regular on her blog and follow her tips. Well done and hats off to you Harleena.
Thanks for this great post and resources.
Hi Shalu,
I’m glad you like the post.
Yes, it’s not wrong to blog as a hobby. In fact, many such hobbyist have wonderful information on their blogs. But if you look for popularity and earning more money from the blog, you need to do all that is mentioned in the post.
Thanks for your kind words, and that’s an honor indeed. I’m a blogger, and I want to be a good and successful blogger. I’m thankful to all my blogging and social friends as well as probloggers like Ana Hoffman and others who impart such value for bloggers.
Thanks for stopping by and contributing to the post. I really appreciate it. 🙂
Hello Harleena,
This is really a very motivating post from you, Personally I love the part where you mentioned Vision, Self believe, goals and strategy.
I think that is all one needs to start a very successful career as a blogger. Though some persons actually started blogging without having all this in place, they just blog base on their passion for it but still will arrive at this point when they will consider this factors.
Also you did perfectly well by mentioning the keywords tools that can foster our researches for more valuable info when creating contents.
I have really benefited from today’s tips. Do have a unique and splendid day Ma.
Hi Obasi,
I’m glad you liked the post and benefited from it too.
It so happens that we often separate ourselves from the blog, when it come to working for its success. However, it’s more or less like the ride or race, where the combination of our personal qualities and the efforts on the blog both matter. Just like it is between the jockey and the horse, driver and the car – your personal qualities and skills do help make your blog successful.
Passion is essential in blogging, or for that matter in anything to be successful. Like you mention, those who work passionately, will sooner or later realize what it takes to be successful.
Keywords are the keys to organic traffic, and you can not avoid this fact and the truth. Using it you only increase your chances of achieving success.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts and views. 🙂
Thanks Harleena for such a wonderful post.
I have been using the google adwords keyword research tool for a while and I must say that it has helped me a lot to choose the right keywords for my post headings.
Thanks once more for mentioning the ginger tool. haven’t tried it before but it sounds interesting and I will definitely give it a trial.
Hi Ebenezer,
It’s good to know that you’ve benefited from using the Google Adwords keyword research tool.
I have tried the Ginger tool a little, and found it to be helping, though you may find many other similar tools in the market.
Thanks for stopping by and reading the post. 🙂
Great Post, Harleena 🙂
Like you mentioned, Success is very much subjective, but we need all traits you mentioned, to achieve our goals whatever they are.
I haven’t paid much attention of SEO in the post. What I do is write the post and then pick a word to be the keyword, not a brilliant strategy, but it worked for me (I didn’t care much about SEO anyways, although I do plan to not repeat those mistakes in the future). We shouldn’t write for search engines, but at the same time, we should pay attention to them, because they are one of the biggest, if not the biggest traffic source for a blog.
Most of my traffic came through Social media, commenting and guest posting (guest posting the post). I used to do a lot of guest posting; learned a lot from them 😀
One tip I would add is to experiment with our strategies. Try tweaking them, analyze, learn and stick with the best performing strategy (Oh, and don’t forget to write a post on the experiment :D).
Anyways, thank you for the tips, Harleena 🙂 Do appreciate it!
Hi Jeevan,
That’s right, the personal qualities mentioned are essential to the core no matter what your subjective opinion about success is.
Actually, I too think that SEO doesn’t really have a future. I believe that as the search engines like Google develop and grow, they would become less dependent on keywords to make out what the post is all about. So even if you don’t use SEO, and your article is coherently packed with value, chances are that your posts will rise up the search ranks in the future.
However, talking about the present, you do need to pay attention to SEO, and that would be being wise. But I agree with you that we shouldn’t write for the search engines only.
It’s the same case with me – social media and commenting are the two biggest traffic sources of my blog. Though I still have to venture and tap the option of guest posting.
You’re right about experimenting and also having the courage to go differently – there’s no success without taking any risk! Again, this is based on a personal trait, some people are just like that, and they often become the leaders and pioneers.
I’m glad you like the tips to make your blog successful. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your wonderful thoughts and views. 🙂
Hello Ms. Harleena
Thanks for this wonderful information. I am just starting up with my blog and the more I read the more I see what I have to do.
I am starting to believe that I will never write a post,out of fear of not been seen. Or not having the right steps to reach my readers.
Thank you and now back to working on my site’s daahboard.
Blessings.
Elissa.
Hi Elissa,
Welcome to my blog!
I’m glad you like the information in the post. You’re definitely going the right way by reading and learning what to do or not to do.
But I feel you do not need to bound yourself by too many rules and regulations. Just write your heart out and be helpful to your readers, the rest will start falling into its place. 🙂
Wish you all the best of blogging! Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts and views. 🙂
HI, Harleena!
Excellent points here. I haven’t indulged enough in commenting, so my blog is growing very slowly. But I’ve formed a couple of great, new friendships via Twitter through sharing then conversing.
The only thing is that I tend to get lost when commenting. I go to blog after blog after blog…and next thing I know 3 or more hours have passed LOL I suppose I will have to get and USE a timer in order to break up that 3 hours over the course of a week or maybe 3 days!
Thanks for the great tips,
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer,
Welcome to the blog! Nice to have you here. 🙂
I’m glad you like the tips. Well commenting is surely very helpful and good, but frankly I’ve seen many blogs rise to ranks without much of it.
These bloggers indulge in different ways of backlinking on a large scale. But what such achieved rank would not give is relationships like the ones you formed.
I can relate to what happens to you when commenting, as I too tend to get so deeply involved that I lose track of time. I think I’ll too buy your idea of using a timer! 😉
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts and views. See you around. 🙂
My personal tip would be to make sure what you’re writing about is useful for the readers you want to reach. Another it’s adding a call to action, even if it’s just asking them to comment
Hi Linda,
Welcome to the blog!
That’s the crux of blogging! If you’re helping your readers with your post, you’ll definitely be successful. I agree that a call to action helps you make the post more meaningful.
Thanks for sharing such great pointers about how to make a successful blog. I really appreciate it. 🙂
My pleasure Harleena 🙂 I can only hope my posts make help my readers and make a difference in their lives.
They surely do Linda, as I’ve read a few of them myself. I guess as long as our posts matter and help people – we are on the right path, isn’t it?
Thanks once again 🙂
Hi Harleena !
Congrats for the increase in the organic traffic of Aha-now !
I am using all the plugins that you have mentioned and they all work great. Apart from the plugins , you have mentioned some very good strategies for marketing a blog .My blog’s main source of traffic are the search engines and I hardly get any traffic through social media sites ..the main reason for this can be my lack of activeness on social networks. I’d stay active and will see whether it works for me as well.Anyways, thanks for sharing the information .
-Pramod
Hi Pramod,
Thanks for your wishes – I’m lovin’ the boost in organic traffic, though I can’t be more grateful to the social media for bringing me where I’m.
I think you’d surely capitalize on social media if you remain active on them. People are generous and they return your favor, and you develop relationships, that are mutually beneficial.
It’s good to know that you use all the mentioned plugins and that they work for you.
Thanks for sharing your experiences about site traffic in blogging. I appreciate it. 🙂
Hello mam,
You have posted almost everything about how one can get success through his/her blog.
Planning, devotion, interest, passion, hard work, all are the key factors to get good results before writing any article on a site.
Content writing, tweaking blog, seo all are like brushing up your plans and interest on a blog.
According me, to run a successful we need to explore our knowledge and creativity in a good manner with best suitable medias… All story you have already made. 🙂
Hi Aman,
Yes, personal qualities do help a lot in being successful. And the good thing is that anybody can develop these qualities, all it takes is time and effort.
Blogging needs proper planning and you need to go systematically.
You’re right in that we need to be creative and channelize new ways to achieve success in blogging.
Thanks for your thoughts and views. I really appreciate them. 🙂
Hey mam,
Learn lots of ideas in your blog and this article also helps me how to success my blog and popular…
Hi Ariful,
I’m happy that my post was helpful to you and to your blogging efforts.
Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Success is about consistency!! This is so very true! I’ll have to admit that when I first started out, I was so not consistent!! I started several blogs on various topics and never gave any of them a real shot.
I’m still in the beginning stages of building my blog and business. My goal for September was 100 subscribers, and I’m excited that I have 114 now!! Woohoo! Baby steps.
One of my major reasons for gaining more subscribers is not being afraid to interact and put myself out there! I’ve been trying to reach out more and engage with other bloggers — something I hadn’t done in the past. This has really helped lay the foundation for relationships and for more visits to my blog.
Hi Jennifer,
That’s right – consistency, and originality, if I may add. If you adopt them, you attract success also.
I think you’re going great because you’ve the short-term and long-term goals defined, and you know what you’re doing. That’s what a successful blogger needs to do. Congrats on going overboard with the subscribers as per your goal for this month!
You’ve given us all a great tip – just go all out and reach out to all bloggers and engage with them – interaction is the soul of blogging, what would you say?
A blogger really needs to develop relationships and be the most social person he or she can try to be!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience with us all. I really appreciate it. 🙂
Hello Harleena,
What a nice post on how to make a blog successful, it was truly lovely reading it :). Once again let me say; welcome to the blogging tips world…
Like you, i started blogging with the sole aim of having fun and teaching people who are finding challenges in some area around the web but as time progresses, i started making money from the blog. then i decide to make the blog my source of income thus taken it serious :).
You know, i do not know much about SEO because i do not practice it, i just write good content with a killer title and let the content and title do their work and seriously, that has been working well for me.
Promotion is very important for any blog to gain exposure and i have been finding more ways of promoting my blog and those ways have proven helpful.
Ahhhhh… The design of a blog is also essential and should be taken more time to accomplish because your blog structure can also convert.
I have come to understand that it is not you that makes a blog popular but what you can give to people and how you give them is what makes your blog popular. we all need a resourceful blog that can help with our need.
Thanks for your lovely post and do have a fabulous week my friend 🙂
Hi Babanature,
I’m glad you find the post lovely to read and thanks for the heartily welcome.
I’m not a blogging tips expert, but I just know what I’ve learned through practical experience. And I guess that kind of information is just okay for the new bloggers.
It’s good that you’re able to leverage the blog to make it your source of income, which I haven’t yet done in a big way. I still like to help people around knowing that those efforts really go down the drain in terms of earning an income out of it.
I really picked up well on SEO on my blog before Panda and Penguin, and I’m trying to bounce back now. I’d say it does give you a bit relief and takes the site traffic pressure off you. But your way of going with good content and great title too works wonders if you can promote that using other means.
I still haven’t tapped many other ways of promoting my blog like slideshare, youtube, tumbler, biz sugar, and so on. You can endlessly promote your blog online, isn’t it?
I’d 3 different designs in 3 years. Each time it got better. Good blog design and usability really helps you make the visitors stay a little longer on your blog.
You’re absolutely right when you say that it’s what you give to people that makes your blog popular. In the end, it’s all about giving!
Thanks for your visit and your helpful thoughts and views that add value to the post. I appreciate it. 🙂
Nice comment Babanature, You have made a very useful point that was not mentioned in this article.
Having a nice looking site with easy navigation keeps readers in your blog and thus reducing bounce rate. Isn’t that part of successful blogging?
On this topic i have read many post on many website but the way you present it i really love that …… you have a great writing skill ..keep going on.
Hi Jagnesh,
Welcome to the blog!
I’m glad that you liked the post. Thanks for your admiration and appreciation.
Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Hello Madam Harleena,
You’re one special name when it comes to blogging. I read this post with lots of keen interest and one thing I made from it at the end is that, Hard work really pays!
People like me are following your path. Thanks a lot!
Hi Emmanuel,
Thanks for your kind words and appreciation. I’m glad you like the post and I wish it benefits you too.
I can’t agree more with your conclusion that hard work really pays. However, I’d add that a bit of smartness would increase your chance of success.
Thanks for your thoughts and views. I really appreciate them. 🙂
Good to know Pinterest is one of your primary traffic source…this gives a signal that we should concentrate a little more on Pinterest.
I agree Triberr is a very strong source and every blogger should focus on this platform, not only for traffic but to build reputation as a blogger.
Hi Dhiraj,
Welcome to the blog!
Yes, lately Pinterest has been doing wonders in terms of topping over other social media in bringing traffic to my blog. For eg. this post 65 Age Appropriate Chores For Kids got over 250 pins just on one pic, which was way above my expectations. In fact, I ‘m getting consistent traffic on this post through this pins everyday since the post was published – no other social media would do that for you.
As you said, I treat Triberr more as a platform to build reputation, which too helps to achieve success.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your information and views. See you around! 🙂
More than 200 pin was just amazing, I can see it is more than 260 now and I increased the number by one -:)
Oh yes, and I corrected the figures on my earlier comment reply. A picture may be worth 1000 words, as they say, and I can surely say with proof that it’s indeed worth more than 260 pins. 🙂
Hi Harleena and Dhiraj,
I recently read that the half-life of a pin on Pinterest is longer than sharing on any other social media. I get traffic from pins that are over six months old. When was the last time you got traffic from a six month old tweet? 🙂
No doubt Pinterest is the real king of all social media, Carolyn! This shows that selecting your post images too is an important task – it’s an investment that pays you dividends for times to come.
You’re absolutely correct in that Pinterest has the ability to breathe life into a dead post! 🙂