How to Be a Successful Blogger: Learning From the Best

Successful bloggers. What do they have in common? A great number of links? The “blogging guru” appellative? Great ideas? A little bit of everything? Is there a recipe to make a successful blogger; something like: take one part knowledge, two parts benevolence, a teaspoon of helpfulness, a sprinkle of talent and a dash of ambition, shake well and gently poor the blend (evenly) over a Web space? What does it take to become a successful blogger anyway?

The answers come from the best. And the best are those people who are living brands: Darren Rowse, Liz Strauss, Michael Arrington, Yaro Starak, Jeffrey Zeldman, Scott Adams, Lorelle Van Fossen to name just a few. These bloggers have indeed in common the “blogging guru” appellative, great ideas and thousands of links pointing at their sites. But these traits mean nothing in comparison to their real strength: all of them master the art of online communication. Add to this power the ability to build strong (and real) human relationships and you’ve got yourself a magic formula.

So if you want to learn how to be a successful blogger, all you have to do is read their blogs and join the conversation. Connecting with these bloggers means learning and growing. Let’s summarize a few successful blogger traits, shall we?

Passion. If you don’t have passion for what you do you are doomed to fail. Successful bloggers are passionate about their writing; they take their blogs to the next level through carefully chosen topics, fervent debates and enthusiastic follow-ups.

Successful bloggers have a great (core) ability to “listen” and this is certainly something you need to learn if you want to become half as successful as the ones mentioned above. You cannot be a successful blogger if you don’t know what people desire, what their dreams are and what they need. Listen first, write after and whatever you do, don’t stop the conversation.

Engage in a virtual dialogue with your readers. Dialogue (conversation) is the blood life of a successful blog. So enable your comments and don’t forget to answer whenever your readers post a comment! There is one rule to it: be polite.

Play fair. Some readers might not agree to what you say. Don’t delete their comments (unless they are offensive, racist, disrespectful or anything of the kind) just to make yourself look good. You need to play fair if you want people to trust you. And trust is another important attribute common to successful bloggers. You don’t need to pretend to be something you are not to be successful.

Become the resource. This was stated so often that it became a cliché. But how else do you expect people to come back to you if you are not a resource? “To gain is to give”. Successful bloggers don’t make their art a secret. They share knowledge, give advice, teach and guide, lead and serve at the same time.

Network. You don’t always need to join blogger social networks to network. You need to interact, exchange ideas and talk. The conversation can happen on other blogs of note too, whether related to your niche or not. The most important aspect of networking is to create genuine human relations. As Liz Strauss says: “Relationships are everyone’s business and every business is about relationships.” So go on, read other blogs, and acknowledge their value.

Treat your blog like you treat a business. If you want to become a professional blogger you need to prove proficiency, dedication, consistency and quality.

Understand that successful blogging is not about links, not about traffic, but about people, communication, relationships and trust.

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