9 Little Known Traits of Successful Bloggers

9 Little Known Traits of Successful Bloggers

Reader Comments (61)

  1. Writing a post right now about the last week of economic news, will be using a heavy dose of #3 and #7.

    Thanks for reminding me to stay true to the message, and not simply paint a rosy image.

    ;(

  2. As a beginner blogger, the “Don’t Over-explain” is a great reminder. It shouldn’t take 20 minutes to say you’re a man of few words. Thanks for this post! Awesome stuff.

  3. This is great advice! I never thought about your second tip: Don’t know everything. I always thought that if I’m to be the authority on a topic, I have to know absolutely everything about it, and I have to make my readers aware of this fact! Thanks for posting!

  4. @Vera, I am forever destined to be the goofy lady myself.

    @Rebecca, I think you’ll enjoy letting go of that! Much more fun to be a human speaking to other humans.

  5. You couldn’t be more right. People forget that blogs are personality-driven and in trying to be perfect, they those their own personality.

  6. @Rebecca — That is a really important point. To get more engagement among readers, I’ve found that I’m better off asking questions rather than answering them.

    I often try to find an item that I find interesting, then pose a question about it.

    Another great way to get more involvement is to ask folks to brainstorm.

    For my local issues blog, I’ve asked folks to submit their ideas for alternative slogans for our city, for nominees for awards, etc.

    It gets people involved in the conversation — and encourages them to spread the word to others.

  7. All excellent points. I would like to add to #8 “Get a Little Stupid” and state the obvious, which is that clever, “relevant” humor adds a lot of value and gets attention.

    And to #9, where you mention “the thing that makes your blog great is YOU”, this point seemed to be the unofficial overall theme of the BlogWorld Expo 08: be yourself, be authentic and genuine. Indeed, we all need more authenticity in our lives. Bring it on!

  8. I never did care what annoyed Andy Rooney; I’m just mesmerized by those eyebrows and thinking about why they don’t just deep-six him. He reinforces all the stereotypes about old people.

  9. I know you are talking about not using how to’s so much but I think it depends on what you’re trying to get out of your blog. At the time I think Brian was doing this because they work very well in social media. He was wanting to get more subscribers on his blog and get more traffic. It was working really good for him at the time.

    You also made a great point about don’t overexplain. People that overexplain and that just rambling on the same way I do a loud at times. People that are reading articles don’t have all the time in the world to read your article. They want to be able to read your article as fast as possible because they do not have all the time in the world to figure out all of your points. Otherwise, they will just move on to another web site or blog on the Internet.

  10. I always liked the idea to be a little bit stupid because it gives you a spark to the content in you blog and you are not just a boring blogger……it makes you different and that what attracts readers, they will come to you blog more often

    Thanks Sonia, good advices, I will try to implement some of the traits you explain here.

  11. Great ideas! I have to admit that I should be doing a few of these a lot better, especially being less serious. It’s funny cause I have one blog that is all about random stuff, but on some of my other blogs I really do need to lighten up a bit sometimes.

  12. Good points; particularly enjoyed “dont know everything”. NO one likes a know it all and I like the get mad sometimes; it shows your human!

  13. Great list. I’ve found that going against the grain and being a little bit funny and a little bit angry can go a long way. Readers don’t want bland or emotionless posts, they want something that will give them reason to interact.

  14. A number of them imply that posts will be in a sense ‘incomplete’ and will need comments to cover all sides of the issue. I think that’s the key – play to the commenters and your blog will really take off.

  15. This is my very first time at this site and I am in love. I will be returning because I like what you say and the way you say it.

  16. When I was growing up my Mother constantly threatened to send me away to Clown School in Florida. My innate ability to juggle bowling pins while riding a unicycle on top of a VW Bug about 20 clowns deep has earned me the love of many adoring fans

  17. This is another superb post, and I am really fascinated about the “repeat yourself” part as I am now starting to re-invent my older posts. It’s funny that I can still make them better but during the time I wrote the original, I though it was the best.

    However, I must admit that most of my posts are “How to” but recently I am trying to do some experiments especially discovering some catchy titles.

  18. Angel, I figure you just keep getting better til you drop dead. So let’s drink to that. And “how to” posts are great, just mix it up a little. You want enough novelty so people stay interested, and enough consistency so they trust you and feel comfortable. It’s all in the mix.

  19. Excellent stuff.

    I started a blog/site completely based on #1: DeGeeked, Simple answers to tech questions: http://www.degeeked.com

    I’d also say that to be successful you have to pick a topic that interests you enough that you find yourself staying up until 2am working on it. Sort of, make it your job, but don’t make it work. 🙂

  20. Great advice and good to know I’m not the only one that thought it was fun to create a humorous top 25 list about working for yourself on my own blog, lol 🙂

  21. You have to “discover” your own inner style – it’s the difference between your own Blog and a PLR site. Get a little stupid – I like that! LOL

  22. Great post indeed! I am quite new on the blogging circle as far as writing is concerned. Hopw to learn so many things from you.
    Cheers!

  23. we have definitely noticed that “controversial” and critical statements in our blog posts about internet marketing get more responses (http://www.hiringtheinternet.com). Besides inviting comments from those with strong views, it shows some personality, that we’re real people writing this thing.

  24. A very absorbing List Post. But why did you keep it a point short to make it a 10 point list! 10 points seem to be more stable and make a list look complete. …might be my stupid pshychology 🙂

  25. Don’t know everything – that one is true – definitely ask your readers for input! You can learn a lot that way!

    Momma
    Feature blogger at Engineer a Debt Free Life

  26. Thank you for the suggestion on writing “what not to do”. I have done quite a few posts on things to do/tips/how to but your suggestion has now given me some new ideas.

  27. I need to repeat myself more often.

    I often search my archives to see if I’ve already written about something before I post about something. But it doesn’t really matter, does it?

    If *I* can’t remember if I’ve already covered something, then nobody else is going to remember either. 😛

  28. I discovered this post today from someone’s Tweet…I’m very glad I checked it out.

    Nice array of itemized topics, a couple I hadn’t seen elsewhere. Liked the tone of voice and the humorous points, well made. Thank you for writing, I’ll share.

    Heather

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