We all know that becoming a successful blogger is hard work. What is it that separates the amateurs from the pros. It could be writing ability, marketing ability, dedication or a variety of other factors. What I have found is that the most successful bloggers share many similar traits and have developed many similar habits. I have compiled a list of the top 25 habits/traits of successful bloggers.
1. Ambitious- You must to driven to succeed.
2. Truthful- Always be truthful with your readers.
3. Perseverance- Stick with it. It takes a long time to get a blog off the ground, those that persevere will be the ones left standing.
4. Thick skin- Not everyone will like you and you must be able to handle criticism.
5. Marketing mind set- You can have the best content in the world but if nobody reads it, what’s the point.
6. Opinionated- Pick a side, have an opinion.
7. Ideas- You need the ability to create unique ideas on a daily basis.
8. Uniformity- Pick a style and stick with it.
9. Eager to learn – A good blogger reads more than he writes and is always looking to expand their knowledge base.
10. Be social- This is a good rule of thumb in the “offline world” as well as the “online world” The best bloggers have huge social networks and are on many different social media networks.
11. Follow up- You must take the time to follow up on questions and comments of your readers.
12. Planning- Do you have a plan for your blog? This one is tough for me because I tend to jump right into things. Lately, I have been planning out my week on Sunday and this has helped me immensely.
13. Networker- It is important to interact with other bloggers. You do not have to formally be in a blog network, but in order to be successful you do need a circle of bloggers to interact with and help you promote your blog.
14. Mind of a winner- I am a firm believer in the power of positive thought.
15. A doer- In order to create content daily, you have to be a doer. Do not over analyze what you have written.
16. Balance- You have to create balance in your life. If you blog all day and all night you will burn out.
17. Consistency- Set a schedule and stick with it. Your readers will come to learn your schedule and expect you be consistent with your posting.
18. Responsiveness- Responds to questions and comments daily.
19. Organized- I keep a journal to help me stay organized and I also write ideas down when they pop into my head.
20. Be real- Be yourself and let your personality come through. Nobody wants to read a blog produced by a robot.
21. Patience- Even Darren, aka Problogger stated that it took over a year for his blog to catch on. This one goes hand in hand with perseverance.
22. Be visible- You have to put yourself out there. I read a quote once that always stuck with me. “A turtle only moves forward by sticking their neck out” or something like that, you get the idea.
23. Passion- You must be passionate about the subject you are writing about. If you are not, it will come through.
24. Focus- Do not get distracted. This is easier said than done, with all of the distractions of live and the Internet. I recently sold several blogs and other Internet properties so I can focus on building this blog and my blog directories.
25. Relationships- This is similar to networking but a successful blogger must be able to build friendships with other bloggers not just make many acquaintances.
Hopefully, you will find this list helpful. It is very helpful to me as I will refer to it on a daily basis to keep me headed in the right direction. I know I need to work on #11 and #21 and I still need to work on #24.
I am very interested in hearing your thoughts on this, what traits did I miss? What areas do you need to work on?
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Having a small amount of success on my blogs and hoping for alot more now that I have do follow I find that your number 9 tends to be the most important to me at least. It is crazy, I have been online for years and no matter how much I learn I tend to feel like I have only scratched the surface. Though number nine is excellent I to always preach I guess would be the word about networking and building relationships which takes alot of time and patience to find people to work with, but when I do there is no better feeling than having one more person working with you in your network. I mean this can lead to backlinks or the possiblity of guest posting and/or moderating on forums. I mean the possibilities are endless. I don’t know I really think you hit the big one’s though. One more thing, about your number 3–Perseverance if this doesn’t come natural then you might as well give up. Once you get sick of writing online or working on networking, then it is time to find something else to do because if your only online for the money and you really don’t enjoy being on the web you will run out of steam far before you make it.
I think building good relationships is one of the most important things to do…it helps so much to have a nice network of support and others to help you as you help them. You can’t trust everybody, but after awhile you can make some really good friends online
Chelle’s last blog post..Signs That Your Boyfriend is Lying to You
Hi Dankeller,
Good tips! These are what a successful blogger should have, blogger who makes thousand or million a month doesn’t consider a successful blogger until they owns these traits!
Between, I’ve written a similar article last week about “12 Attitudes a Successful Blogger Should Have”, here I share with you, hope you like it too.
http://myblog2day.com/2009/04/12-attitudes-a-successful-blogger-should-have/
Regards,
Lee
Make Money Online’s last blog post..12 Steps How To Build A Profitable Niche Blog
Chelle,
I totally agree, relationships are key, in blogging, and in business as well.