The 7 Traits Of Highly Successful Bloggers

What makes a blogger successful? What are the common traits of highly effective bloggers? If you’ve even remotely tried to launch your own blog, that question surely popped into your head at some point. And I bet it was rather sooner than later.

I have more than a year of blogging as a pro. And before starting to blog for a living I was an avid consumer of other blogs. I think I have in my RSS reader feeds I read for more than 5 years now. Gradually, I developed my own set of blog appreciation rules. And of course, if you’ve carefully read the title of this post, those rules are no more than 7. In today’s article I’ll write about what I think is the recipe for being a successful blogger.

1. Authority

This is what makes a blogger believable.

Authority creates trust. And trust makes you spend your precious time on that specific blog instead of doing something else. Because you know it’s worth doing it. You know you’re in for something. You’ve been there before and you weren’t disappointed. Your expectations were met again and again.

Have you ever wondered what makes you click the links of a popular blog? What makes you follow that advice or buy that product? What makes a blogger believable?  It’s not his identity, nor his persistence, although both are part of the success mix, but his authority. You believe a blogger because you trust him.

Without authority a blog will be floating. It may jump every now and then if it touches some hot topics but if it doesn’t build a significant level of authority, it will drift away, at the mercy of fashion.

I think one of the most respected blogs in the marketing niche, for instance, is Seth Godin’s blog. Seth’s authority was previously built by his books but it somehow spread over his blog. The person vouches for the blog in this case.

2. Authenticity

This is what makes a blogger accepted.

Being honest. Being human. Being able to make mistakes and accept them publicly. Blogging is such a fantastic media revolution not because it created a super hero, like cinema, but because it made the normal, average, human guy able to openly express his intentions, dreams, challenges. And made those opinions instantly available.

Authority without authenticity won’t build a successful blog. It may create a solid corporation, but not a sustainable blog. With any interaction, people are unconsciously trying to find themselves in the other guy. It’s a human need, called validation, we all need that. If, as a blogger, you don’t reach out openly, without being afraid, you’re in the wrong business.

One of the most famous examples of  authenticity is, at least for me, Steve Pavlina’s blog. If you read it just for a few minutes you couldn’t but notice that vibe of authenticity which makes Steve so popular even when he’s allegedly “deluding” in some of the not-so-mainstream explorations like polyamory or, recently, BDSM or alike.

3. Accessibility

This is what makes a blogger palatable.

Accessibility makes a blog available, ready to be consumed. It’s the way you write, the way you wrap up your message, the package by which you deliver your goods. If you want to be popular as a blogger, keep in mind that your audience is extremely diverse. It takes much more work than you think to write in an accessible way.

This quality is often overlooked in almost all bloggers rankings I saw. Usually, authority and authenticity are the main criteria, but there’s no point in being an authority if you can’t deliver a readable, straightforward message to your readers. Regardless of your expertise, a clear, accessible blog will always increase your chances to a broader audience.

The most brilliant example of an accessible blog is Brian Clark’s Copyblogger.com. It amazes me how Brian writes in such an easy to understand way about really complicated topics, like the art of persuasion. Copyblogger.com is popular because it provides easy to understand access to incredibly complicated issues, not the other way around.

4. Persistence

This is what makes a blogger wanted.

Persistence creates demand. Showing up constantly and doing what you have to do will build a sense of expectation among your readers. They will know you’re there for them. They will wait for you, call for you or ask things from you. Constantly broadcasting your message will create a certain frequency in your readers minds. They will just tune in.

Now, try to imagine a blog with only one article per month. How would this feel to you? Like a joke, I know. Or imagine a series of 5-6 fantastic articles in a week and then several months of silence. No way. Being there is fundamental, can’t be avoided or faked. They say showing up is 80% of success. I doubt it will be exactly 80% but it’s without a doubt compulsory to show up persistently in order to build a successful blog.

Few people know that several years ago, when he started Problogger.net, one of the most visited blogs on the planet, Darren Rowse only wanted an increase of 10% in traffic from month to month. That tells a lot about how far he was ready to go with it. Problogger.net may not be the most spectacular blog on this planet, but it surely is one of the most constant, reliable and respected. And the persistence of the author plays a big role in that.

5. Connectivity

This is what makes a blogger available.

Connectivity creates links. All kind of links, from plain HTML, PR-juice enabled links, up to human contacts. One of the fundamental characteristics of a successful blogger is his ability to be broadcast as far as possible. And here’s where connectivity plays a fundamental part. All A-listers are virals, without exception.

Have you ever wondered how many interactions a successful bloggers has in a normal day? My wild guess is that this number is at least 10 times higher than the average. Just imagine reading dozens of comments (and perhaps responding each of them), interacting on Twitter, or Facebook or Digg. You can’t really do that if you’re socially impaired.

One of the bloggers who could always be studied in schools for that is, in my opinion, Chris Brogan. I’ve been following closely his work in the last few years and his growth was literally explosive. I think he directly interacts with more than 500 persons each day. Guess what? Those persons are also the broadcasters for his message. How many persons are broadcasters for your message?

6. Creativity

This is what makes a blogger valuable.

Creativity triggers admiration. We admire a blogger not because of his authority or authenticity, but because of what he brings new and beautiful in this world. For his capacity to innovate, to re-create his environment, to embellish and refine. Many successful bloggers actually created their niche from the scratch, they built something out of nothing.

This ability to re-organize the Universe in a new form, to create value and to touch others is by far my favorite trait from all 7. Without this ability a blogger would offer no more than a Wikipedia entry, valuable advice but flat, with no human touch, no improvement, no spark.

My favorite creative blogger right now is Gary Vaynerchuk. For a guy who makes a living by drinking wine (joking, of course) he’s unbelievably creative: he re-invented  video blogging and he wrote a book not about Chardonnay, but about how to follow your passion! That’s creativity, that’s building something where there was nothing before.

7. Identity

This is what makes a blogger recognizable.

I chose the word identity because “personal branding” would have been a little bit too precious. But personal branding is what I meant by it. Identity is what makes you unique. It’s that centimeter you own in your readers’ cortex, the same way you could own some real estate. It’s the exact connection they make between a certain niche and your name as a blogger.

Did you observed how many times we actually use the name of a successful blogger to identify a niche? In blogging, the capacity to build a unique, easily recognizable identity (or brand, for what matters) is the difference between two identical copies of a newspaper. You may talk about the same things, have the same level of authority and the same creativity as other bloggers, but what makes you different is your brand. Your personal brand.

For instance, Leo Babauta identity would be tied up in my brain with the following concept: “minimalist productivity”. Whenever this concept pops out in a conversation, the first person I think about is Leo Babauta, creator of ZenHabits.net. That’s his identity. His brand. I’m sure there are a lot of other bloggers writing about minimalism, but their identity may not be as strongest as his.

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Of course, all the aforementioned bloggers are sharing all the 7 traits, I just had to chose which one was the most representative for each.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you have any examples of successful bloggers where you can identify one, two or all of these traits? Do you, as a blogger, have all of them? Would love to hear your comments.

What You Don’t Want To Know About Prostitution

This is going to be tough. I can tell you by now this is not going to like you. If you landed here by some search engine algorithm while looking for porn, you’re going to leave… just about now, because this is not even remotely about porn. Sorry. If you’re having a strong headed approach towards everything in life, you will be gone by the 2nd paragraph. It will be a little too much for you, I can feel it. But if you’re ready to take a step back and accept that a topic like prostitution could have the tiniest connection with personal development, then I bet you’re going to leave only after you’ve left a comment. And it’s still going to dislike you.

The Sex Taboo

I have to confess I thought a lot about this post. Meaning I already had it sketched in my head (and then in my blogging setup), but I pondered if I should publish it or not. I finally took the bullet and decided to publish it.

The biggest concern was not about the main topic in this post, but about the thing which is shaping the modern western society for a good 2 millenniums: the sex taboo. Without doubt, the modern conception about sex is one of the most powerful weapons used to discipline and manipulate our modern society. I think the way we perceive sex has made more victims than the world wars and is still doing.

Our culture pushed sex in the forbidden realm. It took it from the playful and ecstatic pedestal ancient cultures had it, and exiled it outside the rules of morality. Once just a private matter (and close to spirituality), now sex has become a dirty matter. Confined by the socially accepted norms of morality, sex has been convicted inside the walls of  the institution of marriage.

This constant interdiction made sex a fantasy, created industries (like porn industry) and damaged generations from the inside. I’m not going to talk about sex here, or about what created this social distortion, because it will take too long, and it’s out of the scope of this blog post. In which, I remind you, I’m talking about something completely different, and that’s prostitution.

The reason I mentioned sex is because the modern definition of prostitution have been built on the sex taboo. Prostitution has been disguised behind sex. There is this obsession for everything sex related which made prostitution one of the most incriminated activities on earth. Not because you’re actually faking something in the process of prostitution, but because it’s related to sex. If sex wasn’t so important, selling it for money wouldn’t be such a big issue. People are selling things for money all the time.

And this is the core of the problem, this is what made me think if it would be acceptable or not to publish this article: prostitution is not so much about sex, as it is about faking.

More precisely: faking it for money.

Money As A Shortcut

If you take out the sex taboo form prostitution, what’s left? Money and a service. Well, people are doing this every day, it’s called business. Except in prostitution the service is a fake. There is no drive to offer real sex, the actors usually don’t even know each others, there’s only a transaction of fantasies for money. Nobody gives something real and nobody gets something genuine. The whole thing is a prank. A simple fake for money.

Seeing prostitution as an act of faking for money, and not specifically related to sex, makes a big difference. Because it changes the meaning of this activity completely. It makes it spread into areas you wouldn’t think it can reach: in your daily relationships, in your job, in your thinking patterns.

When was the last time you faked something for money? When was the last time you wanted to tell  your boss he’s wrong, but you didn’t because of the money you get from him? How many times you said “yes” to your friend, just because he pays the rent? How many times you’ve been doing things you don’t want, even faking some joy in doing them, just because you were paid?

Each time you did this you were a whore. By the way, that’s the paragraph where the strong headed are going to leave, because, well, because… they were never a whore! And this is a stupid, delusional post. No, sireee, not me!

Sad. And true. We’ve all been whores. We’ve all faked things for money. We all thought at some points in our life that money will solve our problems. We all sacrificed our authenticity and joy for a shortcut. We all wanted a miracle to save us from something. And we sold our souls for this shortcut called money.

Too bad money doesn’t solve anything. Only people solve things out. Even if they don’t have the courage, the discipline or the inspiration to change the circumstances of their life. They eventually reach out and get courage, inspiration or discipline. Eventually they find a way to change their lives. They take risks, get out of their comfort zone and create something. They, the people, not the money.

Money can’t buy courage. Nor discipline, nor inspiration. What it can buy is a short term delay. A pause. An illusion of security, until the real problem hits again. And then, when facing the same challenge, instead of looking inside, people are looking outside, reaching for a new client, faking another session and getting another payment. The circle repeats endlessly and down goes all your self-esteem, your authenticity and joy.

Faking Your Life For Money

The real problem with faking something is that you’re losing it. The more you fake it, the far you go from its authentic substance. If it’s sex you’re faking – in the generally accepted term for prostitution – you’re going to completely ruin your authentic joy in having sex with somebody you love. You may become a fantastic technician – out of a prolonged physical exercise – but you won’t reach to the true nature of sex. You will have probably some pleasure, but not joy or ecstasy. In the long run, you’ll be completely disconnected. Faking will break you down.

That’s the same with every other part of your life. If you’re going to fake your job for money you’re going to eventually lose it. You won’t be able to create genuine value, because you will only do what money tells you to do. And faking for money will have long term effects on you: if at some point you’ll want to do something exceptional, something that will change the lives of the ones you love, something that will enhance your life, but that will initially affect your income, you’re not going to be able to do it. You won’t know how anymore. Instead, you’ll stick with the money. And you’ll eventually forget how it is to create genuine value in the first place. All you’ll remember is how to get paid. By faking your daily routine at the job.

If it’s friendship you’re faking, you’re going to lose it eventually. If it’s money that keeps you tied up into a friendship, you’ll compromise it at some point. You’re going to fake something, do something you don’t like. For the money. And the real friendship will get burned. You’re going to have just a regular client for your friendship faking session, a client who’s going to pay you for your performance.

Forcing Others To Fake

Faking your service is only one part of the transaction. Because there’s also the other side of it, the one who asks for it. The one who’s forcing others to fake for his own money benefit.

If you’re working with money directly for a very long time, you tend to substitute everything in your life with money (for more info about the difference between working directly with and putting a purpose between you and money, read here). More precisely, you tend to think you can do everything with money. Be happy, for instance. Be praised. Force other to do stuff for you. And even if they don’t genuinely want to do that thing, your money will eventually force them out. You start paying people to do something they don’t want. You make whores out of them. You’re becoming a pimp.

You don’t have to force others to specifically sell sex in order to be a pimp.

If you force your employees to do something they don’t want, only because you’re paying them, you’re a pimp. You force them to fake something for money. Of course, even if they will obey, the result won’t be genuine. It will be a fake.  If you think you can force your friends to stick with you for your money, even when you disappoint them, you won’t get back true friendship. You’re getting back a fake, a performance. You’re paying somebody to act as your friend.

As in every whore – pimp relationship, you’re going to be hated and eventually destroyed by your “employees”. No friendship can be bought with money, no truthful relationship can be built by force or coercion. Even if you make somebody follow you for your money, you won’t get back real value: you’re only perpetuating a life of compromise and lie.

The Real Prostitution

The real problem behind prostitution is not sex, but faking it for money.  Making such a big taboo out of sex just makes it easier to isolate this specific type of prostitution, make it stand out and ‘fight’ it. Meanwhile, there are hundreds of millions of whores who are faking their jobs, their relationships, and maybe their whole lives for money.

In an ideal world we won’t fake nothing for money. Everybody will be well connected with his inner self, will know their powers and lessons to learn and will act in all honesty and transparency. There won’t be disasters, drama or misery. Well, we don’t live in an ideal world, we live an imperfect one. We are faking things for money. Every day.

But instead of accepting this and do our best to change it, we deny it. All prostitution is about and only about sex, so we’re cool. And we go on and on with our fakes. Once again, I’m not trying to touch any morality rules here, this is out of the scope of this post, all I’m saying is that faking is destroying. You’re losing it.

The key in changing this and stop losing your life one fake at a time is to accept it. And forgive it. Yes, we’ve all been there. Many times. Accept it. Forgive it. And then move and and try to do better next time.

We can’t make this world perfect, but we can make our lives better . Of course we can, we just have to do it.

Where Are You?

The following question will hurt, as I already told you in the beginning: are you a whore? In what area of your life? Maybe your husband is paying you to stay with him? Maybe at the job? Maybe you stay with your friends because they’re paying your movie tickets? Are you really faking your life for money?

Or are you pimp? Are your forcing others to fake their lives for money?

I can feel your tension and muscle contractions. You’re going to fight me back and do whatever you can to make me understand I’m wrong. But before doing this, take a moment and breathe. Relax. Try to accept. Maybe you were a whore. Or a pimp.

So? Fighting back against it, denying it, will do nothing but perpetuating the status quo. Rejecting those situations in your life won’t make them disappear. It will only bury them deep down in your subconscious mind. The real answer to those question can’t be rejection, this will only make them more powerful.

Accept yourself and forgive. That’s the only way to escape the endless circle. And then move on, be meaningful and honest. Maybe you’ll upset your boss, but you’ll be authentic. Maybe your husband will divorce you, but you’ll live an honest life. Maybe your friends will reject you but at least you’ll see the movies you really like. Instead of faking your life and losing it, you’ll live a real life. With real joy. With real sadness, maybe. But with no more plastic happiness, just the real thing.

So sad that our modern society didn’t put at least an equal emphasis on forgiveness as it puts on sex. Forgiveness needs to be at least as popular as sex. Forgiving ourselves  should be an orgasmic act. And should create the same addiction like sex.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. So, instead of forgiving ourselves for being whores at some points in our life, we prefer to blindly accept to fake our lives for money, get on with it day by day, and consider that only those who are selling sex are whores. Not us. Only them, with their dirty sex…

Toldya you ain’t gonna like this.

By the way, if you really didn’t like this, there are plenty of articles in the archives which you’ll most likely dislike as well.

Twitter Downshifting

Three weeks ago I deleted my first twitter account @edragonu. At that time I had more than 1000 followers and I followed around 800 people. After a few days of silence, I decided to restart my twitter experience, on another account, @dragosroua, which happens to be me real name. I restored the first account but let my followers know that I’m on a new account and invited them to follow me there. During that silence period I learned a lot about how Twitter works and about myself. Here’s what happened.

Real Followers On Twitter

After I announced that I switched accounts, I experienced a flood of new followers on the new account. Those were the real followers, the ones who were listening and had a real interest in follow me. In 2-3 days I went from 0 to 100 followers. And then it slowly started to stop. I have around 1-2 new followers per day right now.

As you can see, the “core” of the followers was less than 10% of my actual numbers. Out of 1000 listed followers, only 100 were actually listening to my tweets and were interested in following me. It’s a little bit sad. And also unexpected. I was convinced that my followers are interested in what I write. At least, I was interested in what people I followed wrote.

Fewer Followers, Better Experience

The feeling I had in the first few days of having only meaningful followers were terrific. And I still experience the same feelings now. I feel relieved, authentic, useful and true. No more dumb numbers chasing, no more empty performance metrics, just authentic interaction.

I used to spend around 2-3 hours each day only in reading my timeline. I had to find ways to filter the content and cut down the noise. Somehow I took for granted that “noise” is something that Twitter has by default and I have to get over it. After I started the new account it was like the noise never existed.

Twitter doesn’t have any associated noise, it’s you who create the noise, by succumbing to the numbers game. (more…)