Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
I’ve seen a lot of people jump onto the blogging bandwagon in hopes of overnight success. And although a few may gain visitors quite quickly, creating a successful blog usually takes an incredible amount of work.
And not everyone is up to the task of maintaining a popular blog over the long haul.
The truth is, a lot of things need to line up perfectly if you want the website to accomplish specific goals. But, that’s not to say that it isn’t worth your time to give it a try.
After all, 80% of blogs will fail within the first year and a half. Of course, this a statistic from quite a long time ago, in the perspective of the Internet.
Overnight Success is Rare
You’ll undoubtedly come across all kinds of blogs and videos that tell a tale of working for yourself and replacing a full-time income with a blog.
And there’s nothing wrong with that.
However, too many people jump in thinking they’ll hit it big within a short amount of time. In reality, though, it will take an incredible amount of work to build up blog momentum.
Becoming an instant success is just not all that practical in the grand scheme of things.
Even if you follow every “expert tip” and do everything right, there is no real guarantee that you’ll make instant headway, at least not in the sense of overnight success.
In fact, it could take you years before you see any meaningful amount of visitor traffic.
So, I know I made blogging sound like it’s a bad idea. But the truth is, there are just too many variables to say if a website will truly be successful or not.
In the end, it all really depends on the amount of effort you put into creating the website.
What kinds of things will affect your success?
Is there an Audience for Your Content?
First of all, if no one is searching for your content, they’re not going to read it. Sure, you’ll accumulate a slow number of followers and subscribers over time. But, it’s not going to be the insane numbers that help professional bloggers make money.
Finding a target audience is important if you truly want to replace a full-time income as quickly as possible. That is, if bringing in money is your end goal.
The truth is, nearly every topic and niche has an audience of some kind. You just need to find them and deliver what these people want.
How Quickly Can You Market the Blog?
Search results are going to be the biggest draw for your blog. But marketing it in other ways helps solidify yourself as an authority figure.
Social media, email subscribers, linking from forums, guest posts, and more are all rolled into blog marketing. And the quicker you get a plan of action for these aspects, the better.
It’s worth every moment you spend marketing the blog in as many ways as possible.
After all, about 24.7% of bloggers use it for marketing purposes with strong results. If you include a marketing platform on top of your content, it’s easy to get your site in front of people who are interested in your material.
Are You Able to Provide Comprehensive Material?
And lastly, I’ve come across a lot of beginner bloggers who are just incapable of maintaining a flow of thought. Your words need to be comprehensible if you want to draw and keep an audience.
This isn’t to say that you need to be an English major to really make an impact. But keep in mind, your audience needs to be able to understand what you’re trying to convey.
Using free tools like Grammarly can go a long way to help you fine-tune that writing.
How Long Does a Blog Take to Build Momentum?
Don’t go into blogging with the idea of becoming an instant success. For most people, getting a blog to a certain number of visitors, followers, or income relies on getting the momentum going.
Some blogs can gain momentum rather quickly. But this often depends on the topics covered, jumping on trends, and creating incredible content people want to read or share.
The bottom line is that no one can tell you exactly how long it will take to reach your blogging goals.
Every website is unique, as are its creators. This means that not every tip or piece of expert advice is going to play well in your specific experience.
But, that doesn’t mean you should disregard the experts. You might come across a tip that quickly expands your growth.
Again, though, it all comes down to the amount of effort you put in.
6 Things that Will Help You Achieve Blogging Success
So, all experts can really do is share their own experiences and how they’ve achieved a certain level of success. In this case, I’m sharing six things that have made a profound impact on all five of my blogs.
As I said earlier, though, it all depends on your own unique experience.
1. Knowing Your Own Idea of a Successful Website
First of all, what does instant success mean to you? Are you looking for a certain number of followers, social recognition, or replacing a full-time income?
Everyone has their own idea of what makes them successful. Being realistic with yourself and having a clear idea can help you develop a website your audience wants to read.
For me, it is all about helping people and sharing my experiences as a freelance writer. It’s why this website was created in the first place.
2. Identifying What Your Audience Wants to Read
Sometimes, you can achieve instant success by creating an amazing post that goes viral on social media. But, you can’t rely on such instances. They don’t happen as often as some would like you to believe.
Knowing what your audience wants and delivering can quickly impact the success of your blog. The hard part is knowing what they want.
This means you’ll have to dive into a bit of research, playing around in Google Analytics, going through Google Trends, and anything else that will help you identify your target audience.
3. Learning to Write for SEO AND Your Audience
Search engine optimization is important for getting your blog seen on the results page. But, you also need to write for your audience. This means identifying search intent and delivering content people want to read.
Keywords and phrases are only part of the equation. It’s up to you to write them in a way the engages both humans and search engine bots.
4. Setting a Publishing Calendar for Yourself
One of the things that’s helped me gain traffic recently is by putting in the effort to maintain a certain publishing schedule. Plus, it helps keep me motivated to create content.
I’ve put myself into the mindset that articles need to be scheduled for 10:30 am every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This adds a bit of urgency and curtails a lot of my “eh, I’ll do it later” attitude.
You can find when people are the most active on your site by taking a look at Google Analytics. This will give you an idea of when people are more active allowing you to present them with new material when they are available to read it.
5. Be Active on Social Media
Being active on social media doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll reach instant success with your blog. But, it will gradually contribute to gaining traffic and building a reputation as an authority in your niche.
When you Google my name, you’ll see all kinds of social accounts I manage.
And I’m not just talking about having a social media account, mind you. Being “social” means interacting with others and joining conversations and communities.
I can attest to my activity on Twitter and YouTube in 2020 has profoundly impacted the overall success of WriterSanctuary.
6. Being Consistent with Your Blog
Being consistent with publishing posts won’t make you an instant success, but it will provide a solid foundation to get the momentum rolling.
Think about your favorite shows on television, if you watch traditional TV. You can rely on certain shows to become available at specific times. The same effect is often what drives the success of many blogs.
And if you have a niche, don’t stray too far from the main idea of your blog. Case in point, no one looking for WriterSanctuary expects to see a recipe for baked chicken.
Instant Success Shouldn’t Be Your Motivator
Becoming an overnight success shouldn’t be the primary goal behind setting up a blog. While some niches and topics will drive an audience rather quickly, a lot of your content will go unnoticed.
That is until you accumulate a dedicated audience who enjoys your work.
Depending on the amount of effort you put into your website, it can take months or even years to reach lofty goals. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t swing for the fences.
But you need to be realistic about what you’re trying to accomplish and not feel disappointed when you don’t achieve instant success.
For instance, I am in competition with myself. Meaning that I set goals to surpass what I personally did the week before. I don’t focus on trying to become an overnight sensation…I work for self-improvement.
This is part of the reason why WriterSanctuary’s traffic has increased from 16,137 views in 2019 to 36,209 in 2020…and the year isn’t over yet.
Though, another part of this success has to do with finding some great articles that my audience loves and performing well in Google search.
My point is that you shouldn’t focus on reaching specific pinnacles of success in a short amount of time. Just try to create the best content you can to give your audience a reason to follow your blog or social accounts.
Don’t Rely on Instant Success
When creating your blog, don’t intently focus on trying to build an overnight success story. It can take a lot of time to get the momentum of the blog rolling.
Work more towards improvements and developing yourself as a creator. You may hit the jackpot tonight, or you may not. But the amount of effort you put into developing your blog will dictate its success.
You never know when you’ll create that perfect review that hits the top spot in Google and sends a ton of traffic your way.
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