What Traits Are Necessary To Become A Great Blogger?
I have been studying blogs for a while, and during that time, I have come to believe that what distinguishes a average blogger from a superb blogger is the ability to be proactive. Of course, you want to be an expert on what your blogging about, have a passion for your niche and have a good grasp of language and writing. All of these go into increasing your chance for successfully blogging. It is also about hard work, loyalty and uninterrupted growing of your blog.
The proactive blogger practices all of this and then goes on to aggressively hunt down new opportunities, information and ways of doing things that others will either sidestep or overlook. The proactive blogger is operating when others have shut down for the day. With any ability, talent or connection, blogging is one of those things that take practice, practice, practice. It takes a person who is willing to put out that extra drive and do it repeatedly over time. There are lots of peculiar methods for making money with a blog. What distinguishes those who tell from those who win is action. Proactive bloggers are constantly in motion, making step-by-step actions to present better news, info and the trendy in whatever niche they're blogging in.
Information and software is so easy to get nowadays that making money is not virtually as bad as it used to be. With that flood of information also fares the need to filter. Find a spot that is interesting, then jump in and learn as you go. Filter out those things which are not a part of your niche, and continue to plow ahead, making connections and networking as you go.
4 Tips to Proactive Blogging
Tip #1 - Network. Blogging is social. As you blog, you will by nature grow a network of like-minded bloggers. Networking with other bloggers can be beneficial in numerous ways including There is no end to what you can attain when you network with others.
One of the best ways to meet other bloggers is to take a proactive approach. Go in with the knowledge that other bloggers are ever interested in other quality bloggers in their niche. What usually keeps someone back from being proactive is a concern of failure or rejection. Step right past that fear. It's natural.
It's actually the fear of the unfamiliar, and it's important to realize that the worst that can come about is they can say, "No." It's called Fail Forward to Success and it's a numbers game. You need to get 20 "No thanks" in sequence before you should step back and look over your approach. It is virtually impossible to get 20 of them in a row, by the way.
Tip #2 - Learn From Your Errors. If you don't try, you will never learn. Being proactive means that you should be ready to both succeed and fail. In each case, you will learn and keep going. In actuality, it's easier to fail first, learn from experience and then succeed. When contacting others, it is always about give and take.
Tip #3 - Learn More - Learn Better. We all have various ways that we learn and learning to be proactive is no different. Learning from mistakes is one way. Another good way is to learn via online tutorials. There are online courses for close to everything from graphic design software like Photoshop and Illustrator to how to effectively internet market and blog. Nowadays, you can acquire videos on just about anything and your learning curve is about 5x faster through video than reading.
Proactive bloggers have a much advanced level of learning simply because their activity and interactivity is that much higher. As you learn things, your learning curve will shorten merely because you are building on what you already know. You will end up adding to your present and future efforts rapidly as a result.
Tip #4 - You Will Achieve Long Term Goals
Begin taking steps towards accomplishing your long-range goals by executing to a greater extent than is absolutely essential. In order to grow and execute goals quicker, faults will be made, but you will go much further because of your willingness to take action over the long haul.
Feel you are already proactive? Well here are great ways to step-up your proactivity!
#1 - Start. Get Active. Get Up and Move
Probably one of the easiest and often overlooked methods of getting proactive and beginning a blog falls under taking those first steps. If you want to run a blog, sign up for web hosting, figure and register a domain name, and set up a blog.
#2 - Write For Others
Guest posts are your best way towards setting up networks with other bloggers. After you have your blog up and going, write for other blogs and you'll automatically get to know people better. Other bloggers are always searching for superb content, and if you contact them for guest blogging privileges, it will automatically get you incoming links to your blog and a contact at the other blog.
#3 - Comment on others blog posts
Blogging is totally about the conversation. If you see a post that is specially interesting, comment on it. Others will set out to comment on your blog in return and it initiates a conversation. If you do this regularly, people will begin to take note and do likewise. Think of it as a conversation. If you never say hello, the other person doesn't say hello, there is silence. This is just a form of saying hello.
#4 - Social Media is the new platform
Getting involved in social media is a wonderful way to spring into the blogger flow. If you want to see other bloggers, their blogs and points of view, use social media networks like StumbleUpon, Digg and others. StumbleUpon is especially good for networking, and you can get traffic quickly to your website through just this one social media network.
There are truly a number of benefits to being proactive. Blogging is about getting your views and beliefs about your niche out there. You want to provide data and points of view, teachings if you have it and thoughts. It is learning, developing entity that you have control over. With practice, it will become second nature to you, and your incoming traffic will increase as a result.
