Blogging is continuing to develop at a rapid pace despite all the talk about it being a dying art form. More and more people are realizing the money making possibilities. Every day it’s that much tougher for an innovative blogger to create a name for his or herself.
The blogging world is becoming even more saturated. The toughest thing for a beginning blogger to do is stand out, and establish himself as an authority. Many struggle to the point of losing focus and giving up completely. The last thing you want to be is a quitter. Quitting will get you nowhere in when it comes to blogging.
Nothing pure in this world comes without hard work. Only people who work hard and commit themselves make money online. There’s not much passive income floating around in the blogosphere. So do not cheat yourself of the greatest opportunity around.
Use my 10 simple keys and you will become a better blogger.
Be Smart
To become a better blogger you have to use your head. Do not get stuck at a road block and give in. Attempt new things and see what works for you. Everything is not going to work, because you can’t do everything you see everyone else doing.
Be prepared to learn from your mistakes because you will make them. Take a little time to see what is working for you, and what isn’t working. Stay open to new ideas, but be careful not to swayed by every trend that pops up.
Don’t Be Cheap
I’m going to make this plain and simple; being cheap won’t get you anywhere, either. If you are even remotely starting a business, some investment money has to be involved. More times than not, to look like a professional, you’ve got to spend at least a little money. There are many ways you can make a little money go a long way if you work strategically, but no business can be run properly without investing dough. As a blogger you’ve at least got to be willing to pay to host your own blog.
Have a Positive Attitude
Anybody will tell you positive things comes from a positive attitude. When you have a positive outlook on life your enthusiasm tends to be much higher. The second you start thinking negatively, it will attack your motivation. My advice is to take a careful look at the people you associate with on a daily basis. Surround yourself with positive people and they will have a positive effect on you. I learned early on that I have to recognize which people would only bring me down if I continue to hang out with them. It was either we both go down, or let them go down alone.
Blogging is for optimistic-minded people that can find the good even in the bad. Along the journey to financial freedom there will be a multitude of road blocks. But good things eventually happen to those with an upright attitude.
Have Patience
The road to making a living online can be a long one. No matter how fast you try to run, it’s still going to take some time to get to the place you want to be. Having patience is a must in the blogging business. I can tell you that with time your website will mature if you promote it and build your community. It might take you a year or more to make a living online, while it might take the next person 6 months. You should never try to compare your success by another person’s.
Even popular sites needed time to get established. Look at Facebook; they didn’t start out on top. Facebook wasn’t even very popular for a long time. With persistence and dedication they are on top of the game. Just shows you what can happen when you have patience. It usually takes the average blogger 6-12 months to see steady traffic. For many it takes much longer, but they don’t quit. Instead they learn from their mistakes and continue to persist. If you persist you will find your way.
Be Social and Network
The internet today is a vast place. You can get your voice to all sides of the earth with just the click of the button. Today it has become way too easy to let the opportunity pass. There are countless ways to get your voice heard around the world.
- Social Networking – One of the most popular ways to be heard. Top social networking sites include Facebook, Twitter, & Myspace.
- Commenting – Another very common way to get your voice out there to the world. Excellent way of building relationships with other bloggers around the web.
- Guest Post Writing – Not as popular yet, but becoming more widespread with every passing day. Many people fear rejection. But you will never know unless you try, that is all I can say. This is an extremely effective way to get your voice heard all around the web.
Be as social as possible. This means taking any means necessary. Engage in as many conversations possible. Be an active part of every community you’re associated with. It never hurts to ask questions. Someone might have the same questions as you.
Do not be afraid to be controversial. People tend to like a controversial person, who goes against what everyone accepts as true. When it comes to blogging you should never be afraid to speak on what you believe in. You never know someone just might agree with your madness. There are too many benefits to name that come from being social. The biggest advantage in my opinion is the possibility of connecting with another person and the opportunity to absorb something valuable.
Give Hundred Percent
Anything less than hundred percent of what your capable is unacceptable. There is no point in doing anything without giving it your all. You will be settling for less in the future. The only way to go is endorsing your best work. Quality is far better than quantity. Take your time, do your research, and give your writing everything you have.
Great work gets noticed much faster than mediocre work. Go above and beyond everyday all day. Never back down from a challenge no matter how difficult it may seem. You never know what you’re capable of until your back is up against the wall. My rule is to do a hundred percent every day. In the end that is all you can ask of yourself. If you work hard people will notice you for your work ethic. There is no superior feeling than being recognized for all those sleepless nights, and long days.
Master At least One Social Network
Social networking has been the center of conversation for some time now. There are millions of social networking sites around the web. Several are great ways of getting quality traffic fast. A lot of bloggers will lead you to joining 15 different social networking sites. I believe that is setting you up for failure. You can’t possibly get much benefit from killing yourself over trying to manage 15 networks. Mastering a single social network will provide you with far more traffic and quality back links.
Would you rather have 200 followers on 10 different networks or 2000 followers all on one simple to manage network? Focus on conquering one social network at a time. Once you have that network mastered you can move on to the next. After you have mastered a social network you don’t have to work on it so hard anymore. It will continue to develop on its own.
Build Authority
Being the authority is the key to a solid presence online. Links tend to get thrown your way more if you stand out as the expert. Guest posting is an excellent way to build your authority. When people see your brand all over the web it enhances your credibility increasing your authority. Basically, anything that enables you to spread your word is building your credibility.
Reporting is great, but you shouldn’t over do it. If you only report other people’s accomplishment it lowers your authority. The objective is to focus on your own development, because you want to sound like the expert. Spread your voice and stand by your ideals. Stand up for what you believe in even if it makes you an outcast. Work every day at developing your own unique brand. Strive to create an active helpful community.
Build Back links
Back links are important in developing your site. The more one way links to your site, the higher the page rank it will have. Building back links can be quite stressful, but it’s one of those things that calms down over time. The longer your site is up and running, the more links it will get from you and other people. When building back links think of it as a future investment. Start constructing those back links today and your site will have a better tomorrow guaranteed.
Guest posting is a splendid way to get solid back links. Commenting is surely the most known way to increase back links. Social networks are fantastic ways to get those extra links to your site. My personal favorite way to build back links is active forum participation. I have a couple highly ranked forums I stay active in everyday that provides me with high quality back links. Take it from me; forums are a fantastic way to build your back links.
Have a Blast
Last but not least, have a blast during your online journey. Blog about what you are passionate about. You will naturally work harder and longer. What might be work to another person won’t be work to you. When you’re in an industry you have a passion for, you’re bound to discover a way to make a living off it. Those days when everything seems to be discouraging, that’s when your passion will kick in and propel your forward.
You are going to need all the motivation you can get for the journey you are embarking upon. There’s only one way to go, and that’s up. Like I always say, “People will always recognize your passion over anything” because it’s impossible not to notice true passion.
In the end, doing something that doesn’t keep you content will only end up in failure mentally or physically.
Conclusion
Now don’t all of my tips seem simple enough to follow? I’m trying as hard as I can to lead you and myself to financial freedom. The 10 simple tips are tried and tested to make you a better blogger. If you practice them you will notice an improvement in your blogging. Whether or not you take my advice, don’t sit around and do nothing. Always work on developing your blogging game.
So what other keys can we add to this list? Who’s got number 11… 12…?
William is the 18-year-old blogger behind Gettingtothapaper. His passion is helping others succeed online. He’s a full-time blogger. His motto is “give it all or nothing at all.” Be sure to follow him on Twitter!
About Guest Author
Twitter: moneyctl
says:
Great tips for newbie bloggers. I am 4 months old in blogging World. Learning tricks of the trade from fellow bloggers.
Thanks.
Nandita B
MoneyCTL.com
The cheap tip is probably the best on the list. Spend a little money and invest in a professional template. This costs as little as $20 for a really nice one! Your blog is your business – invest in it. You could even invest in some other stuff like SEO work or a nice logo. All of which can be had on Fiverr if you look around enough. A small price to pay for a great ROI on your new web property.
Webblogbetter is a asset for me. Thanks a lot Its really awesome tips for me because i am newbie and i want same kind of tips. I heard about all the tips but for me forum is new tips. Can you tell me some top forum web sites name? Thanks. Thanka lot.
Amit Shaw recently posted..Get Twitter Followers Easily
Thank you for the post! I will use these ASAP on my new blog and I hope to improve the overall feel of it using these tips. Can you present some sites that you recommend that helps start-up bloggers socialize with other bloggers and the online community?
Jonathan Quiogue recently posted..Cat Laine: Local Innovations Solve Local Problems
I think you put all the important points here and very impressive. Some of the bloggers did not know about this ways to make them become one. Thanks for the share.
Rizza recently posted..weight loss wars
Really great advice and tips !
I didn’t know that forum could be that great to build backlinks from…
I have always used the comment strategy and article marketing.
Wow! Thank you so much for this wonderful article. I have not yet read any inspirational articles on blogging, but this was perfect for me right now! I am going to print this out and keep it at my desk as a reminder of the improvements and ideals I can practice! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I am a blogger myself, and i am greatly inspired by tour articles, they help me a lot to carry on my work successfully, i am a regular reader of your blog…
Rohan Banerjee recently posted..“Death Of Ipad” – Sony Launches Its Most Anticipated Tablet PC To Take Over Apple Ipad!!!
I agree with what you said about always giving it your 100%. The only time that people will come by and visit a blog over and over again is if you’re not only timely, but you give them the information that they are looking for.
Adeline recently posted..Choose Philippines Music Video: A Review
I completely agree with you for more traffic, Guest posting and Blog Commenting is a best way and the best thing is I did both and I also got the result from both.
This post is totally awesome.The tips are very constructive, I like especially the one with being social and network cause that’s one of the key to succeed.
I must get much backlink and be patient,thanks for your tips. but can a blogger be success by cheap cost ?
buy pc games recently posted..Top tips for gaming
Happy day!
I found your writing style easy to read and your tips make good sense to me! I started my blog about 5 months ago; your perspective on how long to expect it to take to get things flowing smoothly fits my experience exactly! I find it very affirming and keeps me keeping on:)
AND.. I am following your advice about reading and commenting on fellow bloggers. This is the first of many comments I intend to make; >)
Ahnalira
You break all down the list and ways on how to become a better blogger, all are very well said and I learn a lot of things. Thanks!
Abigail Davis recently posted..Best Used Car to Buy
Twitter: Blognetworking
says:
Hi William,
Your list is great. Each and every element you talked about is important. I think the most important point was the one relating to a positive attitude. If you have a positive attitude, then everything else would be easy.
Thank you for sharing !
All are correct but I love patience and positive attitude the most :-)
Tinh recently posted..Blogging Is The Best Free Internet Marketing Method
One more tips – get pleasure from what you are doing.
some great tips, thanks.
Really like what you said about mastering one social network. There are soooo many of them and it ends up taking a lot of time out of the day to do even a little on each.
What would you say is the best one to focus on if you were to just pick one?
-josh
Josh – ProfitBlog.com recently posted..Transfer Your Domain Names to Namecheap 399 Coupon Code!
One more tips (if it’s OK) – get pleasure from what you are doing. If you have interest in your work, you’ll do it badly and the result will be poor or there won’t be any result at all.
there can be one more addition in the lists–
taking risks
what i mean is that bloggers need to get out of a particular mindset and do the new
tushar recently posted..A Simple But Effective “Untold” Blog Promotion Strategy
Exactly, never quit and you will make it as a blogger. The most successful people in life never gave up even when times were tough!
Most importantly, blog about something you are passionate about and you will have more success with blogging.
Garen
Garen recently posted..How To Get Backlinks – Idiots Guilde To Backlink Building updated Sat Jan 22 2011 12-44 am CST
Indeed, William
If you are starting a blog you have to have the confidence that you can keep it alive.
And if you want to advance in your quest, and take your blog to the next level, you almost always will have to invest in a professional design and maybe some custom work for your blog.
After you accomplished all this, you have to get the word out about your blog, social media can help you a lot as it can put in you contact with a lot of like-minded people who will most likely come to visit your blog. And after you have gain some number of readers, they will bring more and more people, creating a snowball effect.
Now that you have your regular readers, you have to work on getting new traffic everyday. This is the role of bulding backlinks and getting high SERPs position (this goes well if it’s combined with good keyword research for you blog posts).
Alex recently posted..Lamgorghini 3D
Solid list of tips, William.
It’s interesting that you mention commenting in your post as a way of being social. On Monday, I started a 90 day challenge that includes making 3,000 comments on other people’s blogs.
I think comment marketing is one of the best ways to accomplish every one of your tips if it’s done correctly. I think it will definitely teach me patience and persistence which I think is a lesson that most bloggers who fail never learn.
Thanks for the tips.
Brad Harmon recently posted..How to Improve Your Twitter Profile
Hi William,
Great blogging tips you are sharing here. It’s all about taking action, implementing these strategies in order to succeed.
You’re right about guest blogging – it’s not that popular yet but it’s getting there. As soon as a lot of bloggers realise how powerful it is, they’ll start taking full advantage of it.
Thanks for sharing your insights, William. Have a great weekend!
Mavis
Mavis Nong recently posted..Hot Off The Press- 8 of The World’s Women Experts Grilled on Traffic Generation Strategies!
Great post indeed, The ideas were very good. I like ” being social and network ” As this is very important key point as per back-link point of view too.
iPhone 5 recently posted..iPhone 5 – Visa testing iPhone 5 Payments
When it comes to social networking sites, right now I think it’s important to have a presence on Twitter because it seems to be where all the interesting people are! Even something as simple as retweeting interesting and informative posts by others can get you a lot of traffic – a good 20% or so of my readers come through Twitter these days, and that percentage seems to be rising all the time!
The Londoneer recently posted..Chinese New Year in London – The Year of the Rabbit
Awsome post! I’m just starting to pour a little more money into my website but I am also looking for a way to sell a service or a product. Is there anyone who can look at my site and let me know what would be something I could sell on my site for some cash to help further my business. Also, I’m going to look for a forum to join right now.
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Twitter: dragonblogger
says:
In further detailing “Don’t be Cheap” you need to also know where to spend your money, make sure you get a hosting provider and your own website, don’t free blog it where you have limited control. Don’t spend money purchasing AdWords or Facebook credits…etc until you have an established site and a product or service to sell, bringing traffic by paying for it without an ability to monetize that traffic with a product will just be throwing your money away.
Justin Germino recently posted..World of Warcraft Financing Tips for Real Life
Twitter: BoyVeasley
says:
Hey Justin,
Thanks for the awesome comment, i retweet many of your tweets on Twitter!
I agree that you have to know when and where to spend your money. That is life though you can’t always have everything you want, but then there are things you must have. In bloggging there are also things you must have similar concept.
You make a solid point I would hate to spend money and waste it, because the last thing I’ma do waste sod money!
Thanks again!
God bless,
William Veasley
William Tha Great recently posted..3 Simple Ways to Boost Twitter Followers!
William,
Nice blogging roundup. I’ll throw one more out there…the Bonus #11.
Have a plan in place for your blog. Blogging for the random sake of blogging isn’t a good idea. Really, you need a detailed PLAN on:
1) How you are going to monetize the site
2) Where do you see it in 3 months, 6 months, 1year?
3) What skills do you need to learn to get it there?
4) Set targeted objectives and make yourself stick to them.
At least that’s my #11. Remember…all the traffic in the world does NOT mean profitability…and profitability for your efforts is usually what will keep a blogger in the game…giving their 100% day in and day out.
Have a great weekend, and thanks for the tips.
Brandon
TheInfoPreneur recently posted..Offer Something…or Stay Broke…3 “Outside the Box” Tips to Extracting Money from Your Brain
Twitter: BoyVeasley
says:
Hey infopreneur,
Thanks for the awesome comment!
I like what you choice for number 11, and I don’t know how I forgot to add that one! Planning your route to reach your goals is a must. You need to have some sort of picture in that head of yours. People who do some planning have beefed results.
Thanks again!
God bless,
William Veasley
William Tha Great recently posted..Someone’s Bound To Hear Your Cry
Being consistent is also a very important key in order to become a better blogger. Consistency not only regarding the posting frequency but also topics that are posted there should address the niche and possibly some private posts, but not too many posts from totally different markets.
Twitter: BoyVeasley
says:
Hey Andreas,
Thanks for the comment!
You are right on point! Consistancy will play a major role in the level of success you see. I didn’t know that my first time around, but I have been consistent since day two, and it’s really paying off now.
Consistancy will strengthen over time!
Thanks again!
God bless,
William Veasley
William Tha Great recently posted..Jealousy Is a Useless Emotion
Nice list! I love the tip about being social. The primary reason I began working online was so I wouldn’t have to deal with people. It didn’t take long to find out I had to have more interaction with people on the Internet than I ever did in an office.
Then I discovered that I actually like being social, so it’s all good. Thanks for the thoughtful post!
Cindy Bidar recently posted..Perception is Everything
Twitter: BoyVeasley
says:
Hey Cindy,
Thanks for the kind words!
Im happy you like the article. Part of being a blogger is learning how to become as social as possible. The more social you are the faster you can get your brand around.
I also love being social! I can’t wait to keep finding more ways of being social & gettign my brand out there. I believe you always have to be look for ways to ddevelop for the better.
Thanks again!
God bless,
William Veasley
William Tha Great recently posted..Make Money- don’t Let It Make You!
Great tips. I especially enjoy the part where you wrote “Attempt new things and see what works for you… Learn from your mistakes.” That’s what I try to do. It’s important to be different, but you need to focus on what you already know and your passion.
I usually track everything I do (Google Analytics or other systems). This way I understand if various marketing techniques work or if my writing style works etc..
On the other hand, networking is essential for success as a blogger.
Jens P. Berget recently posted..Inbound Marketing is About Creating Relationships
Twitter: BoyVeasley
says:
Hey Jens,
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Im more than happy you liked the tips! I just believe people should always be whilling to try something new, because you never know what might work well for you. An example of that would be, I used to just write in my house, but I found by changing my writing location it opens me up to new ideas.
So that was a plus.
It’s great you know how important networking is if your a blogger. The only way people will hear about you is if you promote good work and network. Having quality content isnt enough anymore.
Thanks again!
God bless,
William Veasley
William Tha Great recently posted..3 Simple Ways to Boost Twitter Followers!
Good job ,It’s help the bloggers to becoming a better bloggers ,Thanks for the tips……..
Twitter: BoyVeasley
says:
Hey Webtechlife,
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Im glad you liked my tips & hope it helps you become a better blogger!
Wish you the best!
God bless,
William Veasley
William Tha Great recently posted..Need a Job “Snag a Job”!