7 Habits of Successful Bloggers

One of my favorite activities when it comes to work is mindmapping. In fact, I love it so much I have over 3 whiteboards hanging up in my home office. I also have an awesome mind map app on my ipad that I like to use when dreaming and brainstorming. I recently decided to brainstorm all the regular activities that I do as it relates to blogging. Once I got everything out of my head and into the mindmap, I began moving it around into categories. When it was all said and done, I had everything listed into 7 categories.

The truth is there are more than 7 work tasks that you can get involved in when blogging. Unfortunately, many tasks do not contribute to your blog in any substantial way. Being able to drown out the noise and focus on the most important tasks is a great achievement in the life of any blogger.

While Bob and I always say that there are many different ways, plans, and methods for building a successful blog, this is what has worked for us.

7 Habits of Successful Bloggers

Habit #1: They Understand the Importance of Valuing Keyword Research

What is keyword research? Is it really that important? Finding what people are searching for in your niche and providing answers to those questions is what is at the heart of keyword research. Do you know that popular trends? Do you know the questions your audience is asking? If you want to build authority online, then you have to first better understand the questions that your audience is asking.

Habit #2: They Produce Quality Content on a Consistent Basis

Successful bloggers are always seeking to add value to the conversation. They are sometimes controversial, insightful, resourceful, persuasive, and compelling. They can shape your view on an issue or provide answers to your deep sought for questions. They are creating new blog posts, videos, podcasts, ebooks, products, and membership sites that their niche is looking for.

Habit #3: They Know How to Monetize Their Blog

Another real trait of successful bloggers is they have done their research when it comes to monetization. They have searched for helpful products that they can have affiliate relationships with. They do not promote junk products, but they instead look high and low through the internet to discover quality products that those in their niche could use. They are learners and researchers by heart. They love to discover something new and have a deep desire to share it with as many people as possible.

Habit #4: They Build On-Page Community

By on-page community, I am referring to the community that is being built directly on the blog. It is the “social proof” that many people refer to. They know how to encourage life and conversation through blogging. That is what is great about blogging. It is one big conversation that starts with a blog post. Successful bloggers are always looking for ways to build on-page community through blog comments, newsletter sign-ups, or forums connected to their blog.

Habit #5: They Build Off-Page Community

They also understand the incredible power of social media. Social media is not going away. Every blogger would be smart to start creating facebook fan pages, growing twitter followers, and upload videos to youtube. Social media when done correctly can be a great promotional tool for your blog and your message.

Habit #6: They Are Always Promoting

Outside of social media sites, you should be looking to promote your blog by connecting with other bloggers and programs. You can connect with bloggers by offering to write a guest post, by a regular commenter on their blog, or talk about them on your blog. It is also a great idea to connect with people who have products in your niche. This was a surprise for me. I can’t tell you how many free products and subscriptions I have been able to obtain by having a successful blog. Not just that, but many of this product owners will also promote you on their site as well.

Habit #7: They Are Great Analyizers

Numbers does not have to be your thing in order to benefit from doing analysis. Your ability to analyze the results you are getting are huge. For example, being successful with Google Adsense is all about testing your ad size and placement. Moving the ad around and observing your results helps you to maximize your potential for earnings. Also, getting comfortable with Google Analytics is a huge important factor as well. Which pages on your blog get visited the most? What keywords are people using to find your blog? Those are all important questions you should be answering.

There you have it. That is a brief run down of some of the more important daily habits that successful bloggers have. I could write an entire blog post on each one of the above points. Doing this mind map has allowed me to re-focus and re-prioritize on what is most important when it comes to blogging.

Question: What successful habit as it relates to blogging has helped you?