Last Updated on March 2, 2024
A blogging pro is not someone who writes stellar blog posts. It’s not the person who covers the most popular titles, and it is not even the person who gets the most traffic. A real pro is the blogger that keeps going. Did you know that most blogs cease within 13 weeks of them beginning? Did you know that very few blogs get past two years?
The people who keep going are the pros. Ask yourself this, how come the blogs you see only have between twenty and fifty blog posts on them? It’s because the blog is less than a year old. If you want to be a true pro, you need to keep writing blog posts–even after you have covered your favorite topics, the popular topics, and the heavily suggested topics.
What do you want to write about?
The blogs that last the longest are the ones that are written by people who love what they are doing. If you love writing then it won’t matter, because even people who love writing get bored and tired of writing blog posts. You need to find the subject/genre for which you have an inexhaustible supply of enthusiasm.
Turn your blog posts into a journal
Referring to the point above, you may find that your enthusiasm is less exhaustible if your blog posts are actually going somewhere. Instead of just being a method of collecting and displaying information, your blog should show your progress each week. The experts in the industry have said their blog posts have evolved over time as they have added and learned new things.
For example, your blog could be one the behavior of domestic rabbits. You could start with textbook knowledge, but then report upon your observations every week. You could chronicle your research and publish your findings on your blog. You could even include incidents where you went to a sanctuary and saw a 17-year-old rabbit, or tell about the rabbit’s in a dogs home that act more like dogs than rabbits.
What do your target audience really want to read?
If your blog exists for reasons other than a hobby, then you need to target your reader. You need to get into the mind of the people you want to read your blog, and you need to write the sort of things that they want to read.
Make a point of being different
All blogs are all the same. The ones that vary slightly are so self-indulgent it will make your eyes bleed. Do yourself a favor, and the world a favor, but just being a little bit different. It doesn’t matter how you make yourself different, just don’t do the normal “different” thing by telling stories about yourself. As part of that process, take particular note of the next point.
Develop a style for your blog posts
A “style” does not mean writing about yourself, or writing as if you are talking to an old chum. It does not mean asking lots of questions in your posts, nor does it mean being over expressive with comments such as “How much more are we expected to take?” It means creating a style. Style is something that is part of you and your process.
Look up videos from “Movie Bob” and “Yahtzee” (zero punctuation) from the Escapist Magazine website, and the videos from the Onion (try them on YouTube). These videos have three wildly different styles that are not made up of gimmicks. You can develop a style for your blog posts to make you wildly different from your competitors (just like how those three video producers create very different videos through style).
Use a scheduling tool to upload your posts
This means you can write a number of blog posts in one week and have your tool upload them. There is nothing wrong with writing your blog posts on the week they are supposed to appear, but the professionals like to stay a few weeks ahead of themselves.