Why Become a Blogger

Blogging is one of the most valuable tools available for building your online brand and more. This activity may help you:

1. Gather a loyal following.
2. Share your voice and make a social change.
3. Generate income through advertisements and affiliate marketing.
4. Develop your brand by raising your reputation in the field.
5. Enhance your communication capabilities and help you network.
6. Share experiences, knowledge, and work with a broader audience. 

However, blogging fosters a sense of competition. So, you need to distinguish yourself from the rest to achieve success. Below, you’ll find 12 skills that’ll help you become a better blogger.

12 Important Blogging Skills

How do I become a successful blogger? To reach this goal, you will have to master a specific skill set. Here are some of the essential characteristics. 

1. Passion

A passionate and skilled blogger will always have top-quality and engaging posts simply because they are keen and knowledgeable on the topic. Passion will make your research and writing more accessible and enjoyable both for you and your readers.

On the other hand, creating posts about things you aren’t interested in will be more time-consuming and stressful. Pushing yourself to write about such topics will also be more challenging in the long term.

2. Writing

To attract and engage new followers, you need to find new blog post ideas, write unique content, and create catchy titles and headlines. In addition, it’s essential to structure your texts properly. Make sure to:

• Put titles and subtitles to make a hierarchy for text materials;
• Divide the text into paragraphs to make it readable;
• Add pictures, tables, schemes, or videos to diversify your content;
• Use formatting options such as checklists, numbered, or bullet lists, etc.
• Add a call-to-action in your posts or articles if you plan for your audience to do something after they read. 

So, how can you become a professional blogger? If you wish to improve your writing skills, you may attend specialized writing classes:

1. Masterclass: Malcolm Gladwell Teaches Writing. Here you will learn the art of storytelling, how to research, engage your audience, etc. You can enroll in the lessons on the Masterclass site for $15 monthly;
2. Courses such as Copyhackers “The Ultimate Guide to No-Pain Copywriting” are deemed essential for any copywriter. This course has many formulas of efficient messaging and can be handy for your blog;
3. The Well-Fed Writer will teach you the art of business writing. Additionally, great sources are accessible such as usage patterns and tutorials on how to launch a copywriting career; 
4. Courses on Coursera, Udemy, or Edx. To boost your writing skills, you may take free or paid courses here. If you pay for a class, you’ll receive a certificate upon completion and, for example, repost it on social networks or your blog to show your expertise.

3. Editing

Proofreading and a careful eye for details are just as important as spelling and grammar. To assist you in improving your editing skill set, here are some tips:

• Equip yourself with text assistants like Grammarly, Wordtune, or Linguix;
• Keep reliable style guides at hand (like the Chicago Manual of Style), or Thesaurus (for example, Power Thesaurus);
• Before editing the copy, read it through;
• Edit content by going through each line to check the fundamentals of spelling, grammar, and syntax;
• Try to avoid writing in passive voice and opt for an active one instead;
• Where possible, shorten long sentences;
• Edit text, structure, and grammar separately;
• Take a break after the editing procedure, and review it again.

How to be a professional blogger? You can acquire an editing skill set by attending courses. Below you’ll find the platforms with editing-related training:

1. Coursera;
2. Udemy;
3. CIEP.

4. SEO 

Understanding Google rankings and their specifics are beneficial to becoming a popular blogger and generating profits. Study and discover how to identify keywords and include them in your text. It’s vital to recognize how header tags serve you and how to create efficient titles and meta tags (keywords, symbols). 

By the way, there are numerous digital instruments and analytical sources that can assist in this regard. For instance, WordPress provides customized SEO plugins to boost your blog.

Where to learn SEO skills? To get a good grasp of SEO fundamentals, you can take the following courses:

1. SEO Foundations from LinkedIn Learning. As a great starting point, this course gives you both the primary and improved concepts of SEO. For learning, the course is free, but for obtaining a certificate, you must pay for a membership;
2. Search Engine Optimization Specialization from Coursera. Like the previous course, this one begins with a tutorial on SEO basics and then goes into more advanced techniques;
3. SEO 2021: Complete SEO Training + SEO for WordPress Websites from Udemy. Using WordPress as a content management system, this course teaches you how to reach the top rankings on Google Search and increase your traffic organically.

5. Marketing

Marketing and blogging are inseparable. Furthermore, it’s an excellent instrument for bloggers as it can assist them in getting traffic, connecting with potential partners, and reaching out to the target audience.

The process of trying various marketing strategies and analyzing their results is often the key to marketing proficiency. 

Furthermore, marketing requires these complementary skills and knowledge:

• Knowing the principles of SEO;
• Using social networks effectively. Networking, advertising, and exploring your area of interest are all possible with their assistance;
• Email marketing. It’s vital to pick the right email marketing instrument (like Zoho, ConvertKit, GetResponse, etc.) to reach a more significant number of subscribers;
• Networking and guest blogging. That increases visibility, SEO rankings, and network development;
• Diversifying your blog content; 
• Analyzing your competitors. Find out which methods work for them and whether you can use them as well.

How to be a famous blogger? Some people aren’t born advertisers and must figure out how to promote themselves. But for some, marketing comes naturally to them, and this activity doesn’t involve much effort. Fortunately, some classes may assist you in acquiring these skills:

1. Digital Marketing Course from Google. The course will deliver an outline of digital marketing and the interrelationship of the various elements;
2. Online Marketing Course from Hubspot. During this program, you will discover Inbound Marketing, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and Contextual Marketing;
3. Udemy Digital Marketing Course from Udemy includes everything from social media advertising to website marketing.
4. Online Marketing Course from Copyblogger will teach you how to write advertising copy, articles, landing pages, and other compelling content.

6. Networking

The blogger who takes time to connect with other experts in the niche is always more likely to grow an audience and monetize their blog. To boost your blog, build a community, and network with those who have come before you.

You should stick to the tips below:

• Participate in webinars (preferably, in your niche);
• Comment on blogs in the niche. Commenting on other blogs is another way to build a network. Leave insightful or helpful remarks, and you’ll likely get noticed;
• Participate in a podcast. Often, people listen to podcasts while commuting or doing housework. You may greatly expand your audience if you participate as a guest on a popular podcast;
• Organize events featuring thought leaders in your field;
• Provide an expert opinion as well as attend conferences. You may have valuable lessons to share with others if you’re writing a blog based on your experiences. And the best way for expanding a network is by speaking at conferences and directing the public to your blog;
• Get involved in niche communities online. You can find niche-focused forums (Travellerspoint or Fodor’s Travel Talk Forums), social media groups (traveling subreddits on Reddit, or Facebook groups), etc., and reach out to people to network;
• Get in touch with the people you’ve mentioned in your blog posts. It may be a powerful way to make contacts and share your content.

How can aspiring webmasters become successful bloggers? There’s helpful material from Courses&PD or a podcast from SmartBlogger that give tips on how to network effectively. Also, you may find articles mentioning best networking practices on our blog.

7. Analytical Skills

Analytics is a valuable instrument to track how well your website, social media channels, and email campaigns perform. You might want to look at some tools and explore the stats. Moreover, knowing how to interpret and evaluate analytics is also a skill required for a blogger.

For instance, if you launch Google Analytics, you may be confused by the information displayed. It would help if you considered how many users visit your website, how much time they spend, where users come from, and how they find your website.

How do you become a successful blogger? Here are some courses that may help you to develop analytical skills:

1. Analytics Academy from Google;
2. Google Analytics For Bloggers and Content Owners;
3. Competitor Analysis – Research Rivals and Influence Markets.

8. Design and Photo/Video Editing

A visual component is essential for a blog, and your ability to judge between good and bad design is as important. A blogger should be skilled at editing images and videos using photo/video editing software and optimizing photos. A blog that uses optimized visuals can rank higher in search engines and drive more traffic. Knowing where to take images from is also key to avoiding plagiarism.

So, how can you become a more successful blogger in this case? There are many classes where you may learn or enhance both design and photo/video editing skills. You’ll find them below:

1. Ultimate web design course from Webflow University. It will teach you how to use tags and classes in HTML and create a page design using elements such as containers, divs, flexboxes, and grids. It may help you to acquire the necessary knowledge to make your blog or even website;
2. Photo Editing With Free Software will teach you how to use various editing tools like Pizart, Darktable, Photoscape, Adobe Spark, or Canva to edit images for your business.
3. Video Editing with Adobe Premiere Pro for Beginners. This course will allow you to turn your creative ideas into beautiful videos with Adobe Premiere Pro. 

9. Strong Self-Discipline and Time Management

For a blog to succeed, it’s important to provide frequent and consistent content. Planning your blog posts ahead and sticking to the schedule when writing and posting it will be very convenient. For that, it’s essential to cultivate self-discipline, and here are a few tips:

• Set clear goals and plan your blog content for a month or so ahead
• Calculate how much time you can dedicate to blogging each week/month
• Make sure to isolate yourself from distractions when working on your blog
• Reward yourself for completing goals

How can you become a successful blogger? You can also enroll in online courses dedicated to developing self-discipline and time management skills:

• Work smarter, not harder will teach you to master goal setting, prioritization, scheduling, and delegation to deal with time management challenges and improve productivity.
• Time management courses from Udemy will allow you to learn about productivity and self-discipline from different angles.
• LinkedIn Learning presents various courses on time management, which you can access with a free trial.
• Goal Setting Mastery presents the basics of setting goals so you can achieve your dreams.
• How to Use SMART Goals: Achieve More in Less Time teaches you how to set goals properly to improve your productivity and management skills.

10. Consistency

How long does it take to become a successful blogger? The necessary time depends on various factors, but consistent posting is one thing that will bring you closer to success. It helps attract new audiences, makes your current readers loyal, and develops the blog itself. The same goes for marketing, SEO, and other areas of blogging. 

To succeed, it’s also essential to know your audience well and tailor your strategy accordingly. Otherwise, creating content without your readers in mind could be a wild guess. Make sure to spend some time analyzing your audience’s demographics, hobbies, interests, and behavior on your site. Find eight smart techniques and tools to do that in our special post.

11. Creativity

One of the ways to become a successful blogger is to use creativity in your work to gain a competitive edge. You can be creative about any aspect of blogging, from inventive topic ideas and a new perspective on current events to unique writing style and eye-catching design, and so on. Also, you can get creative when thinking how to sell affiliate products, for example, through an online course, newsletter, or resources page.

12. Constant Education

Blogging is a rapidly growing and changing area. To stay afloat, you need to stay on top of the latest developments and trends and adapt to them. First, make sure to network with other bloggers in the niche to share experiences and find opportunities for cross-promotion. 

Second, look for educational opportunities to expand your knowledge. You can explore available courses in the niche and, for example, email marketing courses, SEO training, CPA marketing courses, or classes on blogging. 

Are You Ready to Become a Blogger?

Blog growth requires many different skills, from writing and editing to design to time management, and more. While you can quickly start blogging without deep knowledge in these areas, building your expertise will help you achieve success. Make sure to pay attention to various areas of your blog like SEO, content creation, design, etc. And always try to study constantly to stay ahead of niche trends and competition.