Factors contributing to blog success

These factors for success are just the opposite of factors that guarantee failure:

1. People want to read what you write
2. People can find you
3. Your passion for your material shines through every word




The curious thing about these factors for success is that you only need to hit one of them to find at least some success, whereas if you have trouble with any one of the factors for failure, you’re most likely doomed.
Your audience wants to read your writing

Lucky you.

Even better, if you’re a great writer, congratulations.

Sometimes, people will read what you write, just because they have to. But it’s much better when they want to read your writing.

When your audience wants to read your writing they will actively seek you out. Help them find you…
Your audience can find you

Getting in front of your audience is perhaps the easiest thing of all. You can pay for adwords and get practically guaranteed search results.

Whether your visitors stick around to read what you have to say is something totally different, and this is where quality content has the greatest value. Getting that stickiness can be hard… but for the long term, you want to have very high quality content that people will refer back to time and again.

When your visitors stick around, they’re more inclined to bookmark your site, more inclined to tell their friends, and more inclined to subscribe and come back to what you have to say in the future. These are all ways that have long term impact on your readership. Paying for keywords or “gaming” search engines can drive high traffic to your site in the short term, but without quality content, you will have to keep paying.
Your passion is obvious

Passionless prose can be perfectly readable and very useful and informative.

But it’s probably not going to be fun to read.

Frankly, it probably wasn’t much fun to write either!

When you have a real passion for your writing, it will shine through, and you will develop an audience. For example, I’m reading a certain science fiction novel which isn’t really all that good. But the author, bless his heart, is absolutely in love with his creation, and his love and passion for the admittedly beautiful world he is creating ex nihilo really shines. So I continue to read, albeit slowly (I am usually an extremely fast reader), and will purchase the next 4 books in the series.

Will your passion shine through your writing?