3 Things You Need For a Popular Blog

Great, you have started a blog. Well done. The next thing is that you want your new blog to be a popular blog. One of the big boys. Well how do you go about giving your blog a shot at growing up to be a popular blog?

Here are 3 things you can look at that will start you on the road to having a popular blog.

Before you read on, let me just tell you that there is no magic involved here. No short cuts. No snazzy tools. If you want to be the proud owner of a popular blog, you need to work hard. Wanting it, however badly, just won't work.

A well designed, put together blog makes you stand out from all the other wannabe bloggers. Your blog needs a distinctive look that no one else has. You want to stand out from the crowd. You don't want to be the same as all the others in your niche, you should have a unique view.

The first step is to ensure that you have, and follow, a strategy.

When I say that you need to have a strategy in order to achieve a popular blog, I mean a plan. And a way to get there. I don't mean become something or someone that you are not.

The whole reasoning behind your blog should be to help people. You should therefore be in a niche where you understand the target audience. You need to be able to understand their struggles and why they would come and read a blog for help. You should understand their desperations.

Don't just post with little or no thought. You should have a strategy of short, medium and long term goals. Every single one of your posts should move you some way towards one of those goals. If one of your medium term goals is to write a nonfiction book, then work towards it with your posts.

Stop writing posts that you are interested in, and start writing posts that your audience will be interested in.

Of course you need traffic to come to your blog. Traffic is the very cornerstone of your journey to create a popular blog. This does not mean you should pay a fortune for advertising. One of the best things you can do, as a blogger, is learn about traffic.

The real key to driving traffic to your blog, is to know your niche. The first thing you need to think about, is how do you want to come to your blog. Who is your target audience and where do they hang out?

As we are a very image driven society, images and videos help. Other great ways to drive traffic is through Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter. YouTube is another option to drive traffic and build relationships with your readers. Write your blog post and promote it on social media. Spend time building up your audience on these sites and people will share great content.

A good strategy still, is to build back links to other blogs in your target market. This creates a set of blogs you can siphon traffic from and will this will increase your standing on Google’s search engine.

Every single popular blog has its share of both critics and raving fans. That saying about you can't please all of the people all of the time definitely includes blogs. Even if you have a following of like minded people, some of your posts may upset them. But don't panic, it's a good thing.

You have to come to terms that you don’t have to please everyone. It's human nature to want everyone to like us, but the truth is you can't get along with everybody all the time. You're certain to upset a few people because of your ideas and your sparkling personality. But that is why people come to your blog. For your ideas and your personality. You will also find that your critics will come to your blog as often, if not MORE than your fans. They want to get their point across and make THEIR voice heard. Strange, huh?

Your content needs to be a little edgy. You cannot be passive and you cannot be boring. You certainly should never be rude or obnoxious. You just need to start a debate. Get people's views. Be noticed. You also shouldn't do this on every post. Just try it very occasionally. Be a bit controversial. But do handle it with care. Going too far over the edge could have the opposite effect.

To start moving towards a popular blog, you need to ensure you have a strategy. Clearly you need traffic, but you also need to be a bit different. Don't follow the herd. Look at things from a different angle and jump off that band wagon.