The secret to successful blogging is:
- knowing why you blog and what your goals are
- defining what success means to you
- knowing who your target audience is
- networking to reach your audience
- writing first class content
Why are you blogging and what does success look like to you?
Reasons for blogging and the definition of success means something completely different from person to person. Are you blogging to engage with other bloggers? To build a community of people who share similar interests? Offer advice and support? Are you hoping to monetize? Or use your blog as a way of promoting your skills?
For me, my blog is a success if I write content that attracts the kind of people who are actively engaged, who comment regularly and return daily, and who I can form friendships with. I want to offer advice on something I know about - running a small business - and share my interest in other (more general) subjects. If those posts are helpful or interesting enough to engage with readers, I consider that a success. For others, success could mean monetizing to the point where blogging pays the bills or hitting readership milestones or using their blog as a marketing tool to raise the profile of a business.
To be successful you have to focus on achieving your goals, not someone else's.
If you judge yourself by someone else's goals, you will always fail.
Who is your target audience and what do you do to find them?
Knowing who you are writing for and where to find them online is extremely important. You have to actively seek out those readers and show them your content. Join Twitter chats, post on forums, engage with like-minded bloggers, leave blog comments, and promote (at the right times) on social media; actively engage with the audience that will enjoy your content the most. Don't wait for them to find you - chances are, they won't.
Regardless of your personal blogging goals, the same thing is true for everyone: in order to have a successful blog you need to write good content and share it with the right people. Know your target audience, understand what they want, write exceptional content tailored specifically for them, and make sure it grabs their attention.
I am attracted to blogs which are genuine, different and non-conformist. Nobody wants to see the same thing more than twice (at a stretch!). To not do the tried and tested and be an original is amazing!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, especially the point about using your own definition of success as comparison is only disheartening!
ReplyDeleteHannah x
Hanniemc.co.uk
I love how concise this was! That ending paragraph was incredibly informative and helpful - thank you!
ReplyDeleteWell, I can confirm that I comment regularly and return daily - one small measure of your success! :)
ReplyDeleteThis is a nice reminder! I think sometimes as bloggers we can get caught up in the numbers and forget why we are really doing it and our end goals for having a blog!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant advice and really helpful - thank you!
ReplyDeleteEmma x
www.fleurspiration.blogspot.co.uk
"Don't wait for them to find you" hit the nail on the head for me. I need to be more proactive with finding my target audience.
ReplyDeletehttp://insidesai.blogspot.co.uk/
Great post. For me, the hardest part is getting really clear on who my target audience is. You can't just say "people who like travel"; you need to be much more specific. For example: "Women between the ages of 18 and 26 who like to travel and who live in the US or UK. They read X blog, X blog and X magazine."
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see a post from you on how you promote your blog posts!
Lovely post with so many good points and advice x
ReplyDeletepintsizedbeauty.blogspot.co.uk
Great post, really insightful and interesting.
ReplyDeleteReverie de Paris
"If you judge yourself by someone else's goals. you will always fail." Golden advice right here. Many new bloggers spend so much time comparing themselves (as well as their work) to seasoned bloggers who put in a lot of time and effort to get where they are. I think being focused on your own goals and how to get to where YOU want to be will be beneficial in the long run. Thank you for the insight!
ReplyDeleteThis is gold...target audience is key - marketing to everyone will get you nowhere!
ReplyDeletexx Alyson
The Beauty Vanity
I agree, knowing your target audience is so important. Thanks for this! It motivates me a lot. xx
ReplyDeleteColorful Closets
Great advice and insight, especially for a new blogger like myself! xx
ReplyDeletebloussey.blogspot.com
There will always be similar ideas bouncing around, it's what we do with them that matters.. that being said, however, I think a lot of people attempt to replicate other, more successful blogs in an attempt to be successful themselves. But success comes in different forms to each of us, we can't ever have the same success as someone else - especially if we don't do things our way.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. If we always compare ourselves to someone else's measure of success, we will always feel defeated. If we set our own definition of success, we can only ever work towards it.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for reading :))
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Ashlee, I appreciate it :))
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. It's not about numbers and if we start thinking it is, well, we're going to have a bumpy ride. There are some people who will always have more readers than others because they started years ago. What we need to focus on is ourselves, our own definition of success, and how we can achieve that.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for reading, Emma :))
ReplyDeleteI believe it's best to have a more relaxed approach to blogging; know your audience and target market, write for them, but don't get too hung up on it or the blog might lose its personal touch.
ReplyDeleteWhen you're a business you have to be very specific about target audiences but with blogging, even if you're trying to turn that into a career, I think it's important not to get too tied up in this kind of professional way of thinking about audiences. You should know who you're writing for but I think a blog loses its personal touch when the blogger behind it starts running it as a business.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lily.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Emma :))
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. It's OUR goals that matter and OUR definition of success, we shouldn't look at other people are try to aspire to reach THEIR goals. We might share similarities of what we think success looks like but we should define our own path to get there.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely but I also think trying to handle blogging like a business is always a downfall. It turns something very personal into something very corporate.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading, Jane :))
ReplyDeleteAwesome :))
ReplyDeleteI get you, I guess I just gotta keep doing my thing and join some twitter chats to make blogger friends haha.
ReplyDeleteThis was very succinct and to-the-point, I loved it. You offered some really practical advice that I think a lot of bloggers often overlook. Knowing your audience and knowing when and where to promote your content is so very important! x
ReplyDeleteI blog so I get to find other lovely, sweet bloggers like yourself. You're a huge inspiration.
ReplyDeletethis is really helpful.
ReplyDeleteVery nice post. Specially the part about creating your own goals. I think in the blogging world we tend to see the "famous" people and sometimes think that success is what they've achieved, when in reality success is very different for every single person, as with everything in life.
ReplyDeleteI think blogging success to me is the same as your idea of it; I'd love to know that I'm able to reach out to people that enjoy my content and interact with me in posts and comments. You're really great at interacting and responding with your readers!
ReplyDeleteInteraction is my main goal on my blog, it's what I care the most about so I'm glad you think I'm doing a good job at it :))
ReplyDeleteI suppose it's easy to do, I mean, we do it in real life too. We look at other people and wonder why we can't have what they have. But we need to remember that sure, someone might have a "dream job" or be earning lots of money or be getting a lot of great opportunities but there might be aspects of their life we would have to live with.
ReplyDeleteWe have to learn to be happy with ourselves and our lives and if we're not, we need to make actions to change that but we should never look at someone else and wish we had their life.
I'm glad you think so :))
ReplyDeleteAhh, thank you Emma! :))
ReplyDeleteI think that really is the main problem. A lot of bloggers focus on "getting noticed" and they fail to think about who they want to be noticed by!
ReplyDeleteI think "knowing what success means for you" is such a great tip! Not everyone has the same goals so this helps put it all into perspective. I've just started out so thanks so much for sharing this information!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
TGC
theglamcurl.com
This a great reminder as to why I chose the path I did for my blog!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing :)
C | atlantic-c.blogspot.ca/
I love this. A lot of great points and ideas.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.puremandanique.com/