4 Habits of an Effective Blogger
I was inspired to write this article when I watched the video made by bestselling author John Maxwell where he explains how he writes.
I thought to myself, the principles he taught there are as effective for an author as it is for a blogger. Especially beginning bloggers like me. And one of the biggest struggles beginning bloggers face is to get into a flow that they do on a daily basis that can later propel them to stardom.
It’s easy to hear these things from other, more successful bloggers, but doing it is not something that is easy to do.
And so I write this for you as well as for myself as a constant reminder of the four habits I need to do everyday to become successful as a blogger.
Habit 1: Read everyday
Unless you learn something new, there is not much to write or teach your readers about right? The saying, "You can’t teach what you don’t know" holds true in this case.
As bloggers our responsibility to our readers is to consistently add value to their lives and how can we do that unless we start adding value to our lives first by learning more everyday. In the end, to become a successful blogger, you have to be consistently learning new things everyday.
Habit 2: Write everyday
One thing I have learned in an effectiveness course I heard before is to always ask yourself, "What is the one thing I can do right now that will take me closer to my goals?"
And for bloggers, the answer to that is simply "WRITING CONTENT"
No content = Dead blog (That is pretty obvious I guess)
Leo Babauta, a world reknowned blogger, in his blog ZenHabits describes this habit when he was starting out and it made all the difference. Because when you have great content posted consistently, people will always want to come back.
Habit 3: File everyday
As a blogger you will always have a consistent flow of ideas popping in your head as content that you could create (you should). And no matter how sharp your memory is, you will always forget something, some bright idea that popped in your head as you saw something.
Do not lose those ideas!
Keep a notepad handy and write down thoughts, things you see, and items you want to share in the future to your readers. Sooner or later you will notice that you have more ideas to write than the actual time to write them.
Habit 4: Market everyday
Now this was not part of John Maxwell’s principles but I needed to add this because it is very crucial.
It is not enough that you have great content on your site. You have to know how to make your readers find it too. And that involves marketing you blog.
This is the formula for a successful blog, remember it well.
GREAT CONTENT + INEFFECTIVE MARKETING = NO readership
BAD CONTENT + EFFECTIVE MARKETING = WASTED readership
GREAT CONTENT + EFFECTIVE MARKETING = SOARING readership
Marketing is as important as the content you create. Don’t be fooled by people saying "just write great content and the readers will come."
Just like any magazine, book, movie, or any content being circulated, you have to get them in the hands of people. Or better yet you’ve got to make people want to have them and the key to achieving that is simply, MARKETING!
Hope you learned something here today. So now let the comments flow!
Be free!
Charlie Aquino
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Thanks for the tip, I hate listening to people who talks too much but have nothing to say, I guess the same goes with blogs. I’ll keep this in mind to avoid filling my blogs with nothings.