Many bloggers treat their blogs as the means to express themselves or just sharing their views and expertise with a wider audience. But when bloggers treat their blogs like a business and aim to generate income from them, they are called professional bloggers.
There are certain habits that catapult bloggers into the league of professional bloggers. Professional bloggers take care of an entire range of activities like conceptualising, writing, editing and promoting the content of their blog. Some bloggers do better than others and we all want to know how to reach the pinnacle of success in blogging and generate a steady income over time.
Here are a few habits of professional bloggers that helps them grow their blog, their audience and position themselves as thought leaders in their industry or their chosen niche.
STICK TO A NICHE
It looks like an attractive idea to start a blog and be writing on varied topics. After all bloggers are humans and all humans have diverse interests. However, over time, this dilutes the value for the visitors and the audience. Hence to be professional, a blog has to have a clear niche or an area of expertise. The better defined the niche, the better value you would be able to create for your audience.
WRITE FOR YOUR READERS
Blogs thrive on traffic because it means more attention and ultimately more business. To get traffic you must know your readers and write for them. You will have to research your niche, see how you can write good content, what are the topics that you must cover, what are the concerns that you must address and how to solve a problem that your target readers are facing.
Once this is clearly mapped out and you write good content that is promoted well, you would be able to generate good traffic for your blog/website. Also word of caution here is to avoid cheap tricks and marketing gimmicks that can lead to your readers losing respect for you.
REGULAR CONTENT AND A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE
The content on the website needs to add value. The content also needs to be posted on a regular basis. Once you have loyal readers and repeat visitors, you cannot afford to lose their attention. You also need to present your content in a way that brings your strengths to the table.
NETWORK WITH OTHER BLOGGERS
Networking, the buzz word in any industry is the golden standard for blogging as well. Your blog may have excellent content that you are promoting well and you may have steady traffic that’s growing but you need to network within the industry to sustain the growth.
Networking with the influencers would widen your knowledge base and would make you understand trends. Deeper connections would get you valuable advice and help in sharing your content on their platforms.
LEARN CONSTANTLY
Be a learner. Keep yourself updated. Attend conferences, take courses, research your niche, work out unique solutions to the common problems. Validate your learning and your expertise through certification and position yourself as a thought leader in your niche.
All of the above points will help you become a thought leader and the path towards that starts by taking yourself, your brand, your content and your offering seriously.
