How to Become a Rockstar Blogger and Monetize your Passion

In three words: follow your bliss

Joseph Campbell, one of the world’s most respected methodologists, gave us a simple yet profound proposition for life:

Follow your bliss

The Internet and social media tools enabled anyone to follow her or his bliss and make money. For the first time in the history of humankind you can turn a hobby into an online business by bootstrapping from the comfort of your couch (or a village in Thailand).

Penn Jillette, an illusionist and actor famous for his Penn & Teller show, in a keynote at NMX (New Media Conference) in Las Vegas described success as being able to do what you love while supporting yourself. Following his bliss, Penn recenctly raised over a million dollars in crowdfunding to make a scary movie.

Penn delivered this powerful message to thousands of content creators, bloggers and podcasters, who chose to follow their bliss and came to Las Vegas to learn how to turn their passion into a business… while being able to support themselves.

Do you know how many blog posts are written today? Check out Worldometers’ counter that provides real-time data on total number of blog posts published every day in the world (powered by Technorati). In short, millions.

How to break through the clutter in a highly competitive blogosphere and turn your passion into passive income?

First, if you want to be a rockstar blogger, act like one!

10 qualities rockstar bloggers have in common.

Tweet the ideas below if you find them useful:

Rockstar bloggers chase their passions, not dollars.

Rockstar bloggers believe in themselves.

Rockstar bloggers play the long-term game.

Rockstar bloggers embrace failure as a part of the game.

Rockstar bloggers are interested in others more than in themselves.

Rockstar bloggers are very hard workers.

Rockstar bloggers respond to every tweet and comment.

Rockstar bloggers are relationship builders.

Rockstar bloggers are empirical.

Rockstar bloggers constantly read, learn, test and experiment.

How to start blogging

It might be easy to start a blog but sustaining and enduring it is quite difficult. Running into writer’s block, blogging for an audience of crickets and attracting nasty commentators for the first time can take the wind out of your blogging sails.

However, understand that every failure brings you closer to become a rockstar blogger. Before you give up, read this.

Invisibility is a fate much worse than a failure.

Improving your blogging game requires you to have a deep desire for learning the ins and outs of successful blogging. But you have to play a long-term game. It is the hardest part because in the beginning nobody will care. So before you give up, try those 10 strategies.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Develop an intense passion for your blogging exploits. What is passion? Close your eyes and think what you would do if you could do anything. The first thing that comes to mind is your passion.

Constantly consume massive amounts of information related to your passion. Identify the best sources of information and be the first to know. Find people who accomplished success doing what you want to do and emulate them. For example, I look up to guys like Gary Vaynerchuk and Neil Patel.

I am passionate about how inbound marketing and SEO can help entrepreneurs build amazing things online; in making the Web a better place. So, I built SearchDecoder.com. I am also passionate about helping others others achieve success so I wrote a free e-book about personal branding. I built the Inbound Marketing Clinic, a start-up incubator at NYU, because I am passionate about connecting business and academia.

Everything I ever created online was because I wanted to express my passion creatively.

How to become a rockstar blogger

Understanding the blogging game improves your skills pronto, so get serious about your approach at the outset.

Become a Passion Chaser

Follow your passion. Pick your niche based on an idea which makes your heart sing. Skilled, authority bloggers (aka rockstars) generally blog about ideas which appeal to them.

Think about the long, hard blogging road. Some days you will not feel like posting. These are the days where following your passion comes in handy. Rockstar bloggers push themselves to create when writer’s block seems overwhelming because they are passionate.

For Anna van Tonder of annaDishes.com it was the passion for cooking that led her build a food blog:

Blogging has become so many things to me, so much more than just a food blog. It is an outlet, an inspiration, a collection, and meeting place. I started blogging at annaDishes for a few reasons. First, I’m a passionate foodie and love to share with and feed those around me. Second, whether it’s food, ideas, or writing, I love to give what I can create for people—in person or virtually.

For starters, I think it is extremely important to have some true energy about a topic when looking to start a blog. I get excited to talk to people about food, recipes, parties, travel, big ideas and how to create. To really engage, you have to be passionate about your subject. If you don’t believe in it, why should anyone else?

Neil Patel notes on Moz.com that superstar bloggers write like madmen to bump up their blogging game. He suggests writing 1,000 words daily for 7 days each week. People who love their topic of choice have few issues writing like crazy about that topic.

In particular Moz.com suggests follow dynamo Gary Vaynerchuk for an example of someone who exudes overpowering passionate energy for his blog and brand. I also recommend Gary’s book Crush it for any beginner blogger.

Take Successful Baby Steps

Blogging is no sprint. Prepare for a marathon. Successful bloggers create helpful content day after day. The best bloggers make strong connections daily.

Think in terms of months and years instead of hours and days when setting blogging goals. Build your blog on a solid foundation. Be patient. Relax.

Almost all failing bloggers allow impatience to cloud their judgment.

Improve your blogging game by providing value and make connections by taking successful baby steps. Write one solid post today. Meet 5 new bloggers. Follow these steps each day for 3 months, then 4 months, then 1 year.

Each seemingly baby step can help you create a wildly successful blog.

Play to Your Strengths

Play to your blogging strengths. Choose a medium which complements your talents.

Do you like to ham it up in front of the camera? Create video blog posts.

Maybe you prefer to type away in front of your laptop for hours on end. Create text posts.

If you are a skilled photographer consider using Pinterest to expand your blogging presence.

Some bloggers prefer to be on the interviewing side of the microphone. Consider publishing podcasts.

Designers would be wise to go the Infographic or meme route.

Play to your strengths. Choosing the right content medium helps you to resonate with your ideal target audience and be your best self.

Monetize After Hitting the Basics

No successful blogger chases money. Bump up your blogging IQ by learning the basics inside out. After you have created immense value, money can flow into your coffers via blog monetization. Spending months making strong connections with fellow bloggers also boosts your net worth.

Resist acting on the urge to get rich quick.

Rockstar bloggers chase their passions not dollars.

Adopt a servant’s mindset. Create value to gain your audience’s trust. Make connections to grow your blogging network. Building something valuable helps you to attract value in the form of prospering relationships and money.

Moz.com suggests that you diversify your income through multiple channels like information products or books. Affiliate marketing or brand ambasador is another route. If you have develop massive website traffic, you can make money serving ads on your blog.

Monetize along channels which complement your blog. Video-inclined bloggers might offer a paid video marketing eCourse. Bloggers who enjoy writing posts might sell eBooks.

Make money blogging only once you have mastered the basics.

Use the right tools at the outset

Rockstar bloggers have the best inbound marketing tools in their toolbox. They are strategic which tools and platforms they use to optimize and scale their efforts.

I highly recommend any blogger to get on Triberr, a blogging community platform, to build relationships with other bloggers and promote your content.

If I had an opportunity to turn back time when I started blogging, I would focus on building an email list at the outset. Use tools such as Aweber to build form widgets to capture leads and manage your email marketing campaigns.

What’s in my blogging Toolbox? Here is a list of SEO and inbound tools I recommend for every blogging need.

What tips can you add to this list?

How are you becoming a better blogger?

If you found value in this article, it would mean a lot to me if you hit the recommend button or share it!

Find me on Twitter at @SearchDecoder.