Just the other day, I finished listening to an audio recording of a webinar done by Darren Rowse. He’s the creator of two very successful blogs, which he makes a full-time income from, and gave some great advice on what makes a blog successful.
Now, I can’t remember all the 10 things that he mentioned but here’s what stuck out to me:
1. Just get started
Most people think it’s too late to start a blog. Funnily enough, Darren thought that too when he started his blog back in 2002! It’s NEVER too late to start anything, including a blog.
2. Create a blog persona
Also known as a blog avatar, a blog persona is a fictional character that you create that embodies who you are trying to reach with your blog.
By creating this persona, you will find that ideas will come flooding in on topics that you can write about to help this person. You will know how to best interact with your blog readers and how to best market to them.
3. Consistency is the key to success
Blogs take time to take traction. Most people give up way too early. To have a successful blog, it doesn’t so much take a lot of effort but rather it requires that you consistently are adding quality, fresh new content.
Taking a look at some very successful blogs I’ve noticed that, on average, new content is being added once a day. Adding a new article to your blog every day should only take you 30 minutes. Anyone can do that!
Give your blog time to gain momentum. It won’t happen overnight nor will it happen over a few months.
4. Interaction with your readers
Look for ways to better interact with your blog readers. Encourage comments and respond to those comments. When a post you’ve posted gets a lot of interest, run with that topic.
5. Build an email list
Having readers subscribe to your RSS feed is great but building an email list is going to be much more profitable for you. Have an optin form on the sidebar of your blog, and if your readers respond well, have a pop-up optin window appear after several seconds for first-time visitors.
You can send your readers a weekly email with good content, which can include links to new blog posts you’ve published that week.
These five points above really stood out to me as I listened to Darren’s webinar. I encourage you to listen to the whole recording. You can download it here.
Is there anything stopping you from starting your own blog? Let me know by leaving a comment below.
Another great blog post, John! Might I make a suggestion – when you post your links, have them open up in a new tab/window so your visitors don’t leave your site. You have too much important information right here to have your visitors leave for another blog. 🙂
Thanks Karen! I’ll make sure to do that in the future, and maybe modify existing links.
Have wondered for a long time now if setting up links that open in a new window will hurt your search engine rankings?
I listened to that webinar and was blown away. Thanks John.