4 things you need to know to build a successful blog

I’ve been blogging for more than 10 years, and most of my career was built with blogging and creating content. It’s been interesting to see how blogging and bloggers have changed over the years—from journaling to big brands all over the world sharing their stories.

In the years to come I believe that blogging will become more important for brands and their successful presence in the digital world. With this post, I want to share my best advice, based on my own experience, on how to build the right blog for your audience.

1. Know who you’re writing for, and why
   In order to create a successful blog you need a strategy, a plan. Some thoughts behind your words and posts. At the bare minimum you need to know who you’re writing for, and what you want to accomplish with them reading your content. That makes it easier to find, network and engage with your audience. And a LOT easier to create content for them.
2. Focus on content — not traffic
   A lot of bloggers tend to focus on how much traffic they get — instead of creating good content. Without content there will be no traffic. Fact: the more content you create, the more traffic will come via organic search and social sharing. Good content also make people come back again and again. So you have to focus on the content — and the traffic will come (eventually).
3. Make it easy to remember you exist
   All over the Internet, front pages are dropping in traffic. People don’t browse the web in the same way as before. They usually find your content through someone or if they are searching for something. That means you have to find clever ways to remind your audience about your blog. Let them subscribe to email-alerts, follow you on networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest (all depending on who your target audience is).
4. “You’re not done when you’re done”
   Many bloggers write a blog post and just hit publish. That’s not the way to go. To create good content you need to let it sink in a little. You need to rewrite, edit, and challenge yourself. And most importantly — you need the perfect headline. The headline that will generate clicks, and deliver on its promise. You’re never done when you’re done, you need one last edit — one last tweak. Then you share it with the world.

Focus on these four simple things, and your blog will grow. An audience will find you, they will love your content and you’ll have more fun and get better results than you’ve had before.

Tell stories, build relationships and have fun.