5 Key Characteristics of Every Successful Blog

Ever wonder why some blogs just feel more successful than others? What was it that set them apart from every other blog? Why there seemed to be millions upon millions of comments and why Google places this or that blog right there in the number 1 position? There is no simple answer, and it won’t happen overnight for everyone. Here are 5 key characteristics that every successful blog has.

5 Key Characteristics of Successful Blogs

Custom Design

Your website is an online extension of you so it’s only natural that it should be as unique as you are. In the ideal situation, you would hire a designer to create a custom website, but sometimes, there is just no room in the budget for a custom design.

Thankfully, there are plenty of themes available for WordPress that are easy to customize even for a beginner and the best part is they don’t break the bank. Things to keep in mind are your colors that you will want to keep consistent across all your pages, great header images, a prominent logo, and easy navigation features.

Keep your target audience in mind and don’t use color combinations that they will find offensive.

The About Page

The About Page is a must-have for any blogger. However, instead of talking about yourself, your About Page should focus primarily on your readers and highlight all the different ways you can help them, either with your blog or with any products and service you might offer.

The actual part where you do include the most important information about yourself, should come after you’ve hooked your readers with your offering. Don’t forget to include an email sign-up form on your about page as it is the second most visited page on any blog.

Accessible Comment System

Comments are a great way to continue the conversation and make your readers feel welcome. However, the biggest problem most bloggers have are spam comments, which can take a lot of time to clean up manually and can ruin the experience if left unattended.

Disabling comments just because you don’t want to deal with spam is not a good idea. Closing your comments on every post is akin to abandoning your viewers.

There are some great spam filters that will help reduce the amount of spam comments if not eliminate them completely. There are also alternative systems available like Disqus or Comment Luv which reduce the amount of spam comments.

Whichever commenting system you choose, make sure it’s easy to use and it doesn’t require your users to jump through hoops just to leave a comment.

Consistency

Running a blog is not an easy task but if you want to be successful you have to stay consistent.

That means establishing a regular posting schedule and sticking to a handful of related topics. There are thousands of blogs being created every day, so posting every once in a while is a great way to let your blog slip to the wayside. By establishing a regular schedule, you’ll show your readers you have what it takes to succeed and they will come to expect your posts on a regular basis.

When it comes to topic consistently, choosing a niche is important. Even though there are some bloggers who occasionally have an off-topic post, it’s not something you should practice on a regular basis. Staying on topic adds to your credibility and starts garnering your authority.

Consistency doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to come off as droning about a topic. While it is important to try and narrowly define your niche, you should leave yourself a broad enough topic to be able to discuss several different aspects of it easily.

Compelling Content

It goes without saying, that if you are writing that awesome content that draws the readers, and engages them; you’re off to a great start. Posts need to be helpful, conversational, entertaining, and friendly. If you’re more into products, making posts about how to make use of that product will be helpful, as well as having short and concise product descriptions.

Summing Up

There you have it, 5 key characteristics that every successful has. It may not make a blogger an overnight success, but those that have succeeded use this model. Did we leave anything out? Let us know in the comments below.