You’ve read all of the “overnight success” eBooks, browsed through every forum, and subscribed to every related blog’s RSS feed. And at last, your blog has become successful. Unfortunately, you’re not sure why. Fortunately, it’s not that hard to figure out if you look around at other successful blogs. And no, it wasn’t the traffic you purchased from a shady forum poster in Mozambique.

Reason #1: Frequent quality posting

“Content is king.” It’s probable that you’ve heard that before. Let us rephrase that as “Frequent, quality content is king.”

Why don’t RSS-generated sites or turnkey develop a lot of natural traffic? They don’t get advertised by word-of-mouth. Instead, when you’re writing content, think viral. Certainly, not every post you write will be a linkbaiting, traffic-sucking machine, but good content markets itself.

Aim to make every one of your visitors a lifelong reader. Visitors will get to your blog in a wide variety of ways: search engines, referring links, and direct traffic. Regardless of how
they got there, overwhelm them with more content than they can read in one visit. Encourage them to subscribe or bookmark your site for further digestion.

Create timeless content. Find out what has worked well for you in the past. Look through your site archives and dig out all of the posts that you would still be proud to display on your front page. Similarly, look through your stats and find the posts still bringing in visitors and comments.

Limit the number of posts promoting your other sites, ranting about your day job, or advertising other contests for raffle tickets. Many of these posts are worthless or irrelevant to your readers. Occasionally you may want to spout off on a topic unrelated to your blog, but along with providing unique content, staying on topic is one indicator that you’re writing something worth reading.

How frequently should you be posting on your blog? As often as you can maintain quality. This should definitely be once a week, but probably not more than twice a day, depending on the length of your posts. Giving hourly work updates isn’t going to interest your visitors.

Reason #2: Relevant backlinks

We’ve all come across directories and “top sites” asking for a reciprocal link. How many visitors are you getting from directories for providing a reciprocal link? Probably few, if any at all. Directories have their value, but they’re downright atrocious for bring quality visitors.

If you’re hoping to get hoards of traffic, get a link on an active related blog. Sports bloggers who get a prominently linked to on sites such as Deadspin or Kissing Suzy Kolber can receive thousands of visits to their site in just one day. Certainly in larger niches the traffic is even larger.

Are you linkbaiting? Some bloggers may call it unethical, but if you provide quality content (see above), then you should have every right to attract attention. After all, blogging isn’t supposed to be non-biased. It should spark debate and interaction.

Reason #3: Passionate topic

“I write a blog about Mesothelioma!” That’s not going to be a good conversation-starter for the first date.

The offer is definitely attractive to write a blog about high-paying keywords. In fact, with a couple dozen articles, you may earn a couple bucks on AdSense. A hypothetical question for you: if you weren’t potentially paid to blog about your topic, would you still be writing about it? If you want to dread coming up with new content, develop a site for some niche you don’t know anything about.

AdSense-targeted blogs may earn some nice clicks, but there’s not a very wide audience of people interested in reading specifically about medical terms.

Go ahead and spark some debate. As long as the argument is intelligent and maturely-spoken, saying something controversial is a great way to encourage your visitors to speak up and leave a comment. There’s no need to pick fights, but if some injustice lights a fire inside of you, it makes for good discussion.

Reason #4: A strong social network

Building a large network of “acquaintances” can be valuable for a wide variety of reasons.

Mentors and friends are an important asset for building a successful blog. You can’t do it alone. Having a large social network online brings a variety of benefits: links to your posts, promotion for contests, comments on your site, and more votes on sites like digg and StumbleUpon.

Looking to expand your presence on the web? Leave genuine comments on other people’s blogs, add them as friends on social networking sites, and participate as often as possible in carnivals, contests, and discussions.

Believe or not, most bloggers will be happy to help out if you send them an e-mail. You may not learn every secret of the trade, but if you get in contact with a wide variety of people, you can find out what works for different people. Ask “A-list” bloggers for practice advice, collaborate with other bloggers, and reach out to other new bloggers looking to get into the niche.

Reason #5: Persistence, persistence

Sorry to end with a cliché, but far too many bloggers bail out when they don’t earn over $100 a month. It’s not totally uncommon for bloggers to only break even with their hosting fees. Certainly, that’s not the end goal, as you may feel like you’re talking to yourself for a couple months. However, if you keep working hard, your blog will keep improving and if not, you’re bound to do something right eventually.

Sometimes, just showing up is half the battle in succeeding. Keep following the “rules” listed above, and it’s impossible to fail.

Popularity: 27% [?]