8 Habits Of Successful Bloggers

Last updated on October 5th, 2019 at 07:14 am

Starting a blog and growing it isn’t an overnight thing. You don’t just write one blog post and make $6000 a month blogging. You’ll need to change your daily routine and develop some new habits. Here I want to share 8 things successful bloggers do a little differently, habits that have personally helped me grow this blog on my own in less than 2 years.

If you’re one of those people who’ve been thinking about starting a blog, but been putting off for a while, because you never feel ready…Stop making that excuse and go read this step by step guide. You’ll find everything you need to know to launch and make your blog grow very fast in the first few months. You’ll figure out the rest as you go. And yes, I was the same way – it took me quite a while to finally take the step and start writing this blog.

8 Habits Of Successful Bloggers

Now, let’s get into the 8 of successful bloggers, the habits that helped me grow this blog over the last years.

1. Waking up early

Nobody knew about this blog in 2015. It did exist. However, I always found excuses to do something else and not work on it. Biggest excuse? I don’t have time for it, right now.

The year I decided to become a morning person, I saw the fastest growth. Now, suddenly I had time. And even though I was overthinking and questioning everything I did in the beginning, I actually started creating and promoting my content more consistently. Which then turned into a habit I practiced every day.

Related: How To Wake Up Early And Not Feel Tired

2. Writing in the morning

Waking up two hours before I had to, helped me actually create when I was fresh and not right before I was going to bed. Such a huge difference.

I was more focused, my thought was clear, I knew what I wanted to say. Plus the deadline of two hours really pushed me to finish what I was writing.

Therefore if you’re always making the excuse you don’t have time to write for your blog, make it the first thing you focus on during the day.

Related: 12 Blog Post Ideas That Drive Traffic (Perfect For New Bloggers)

3. Writing things down

When you’re writing a blog, ideas will come to you at awkward times.

When you’re going out for a walk, before you’re going to sleep or while you’re talking to someone.

For us bloggers, often, those are blog post ideas, product ideas, sometimes promotional strategies or monetization strategies.

Write them down!

Whether you use your phone, bullet journal or a piece of paper, put them in there. This way you can keep a list of blog post ideas and strategies to try, without spending much time on brainstorming or researching. (which can often “eat” a whole day and make you miserable!)

4. Doing things you don’t like

When you start a blog, writing isn’t the only thing you do. Shocking I know.

In fact, it’s the part that takes about 20% of the time.

The rest is organizing & planning your content, promoting it, engaging with your audience, thinking of new strategies and ideas to get better and to grow, finding ways to monetize your blog without selling your soul and way too many administrative tasks.

Now, I don’t feel like doing most of these things, like ever. I never feel like researching keywords to SEO my posts, applying for affiliate programs or doing much promotion. But I do it anyway. And I do something I don’t like, every single day.

Not because I’m a masochist, but because I know these tasks need to get done and because I know how I feel after I’m done with everything. There are things nobody else can do for me. If I fail to do them because I don’t feel like it that day, I know I will see no progress. And no progress = no bueno. You need to always strive for progress.

Related: 11 Bad Habits To Stop Right Now

5. Investing in the right things

Blogging is a pretty inexpensive way to make money working for yourself. You don’t need to buy equipment, you don’t need to produce physical products, you’re basically making money by using your brain and the internet.

However, you do need to set a good foundation for your blog to grow. There are 3 things worth investing in – great hosting, engaging WordPress theme, and a scheduler.

I personally use and recommend:

• Siteground (get 60% off)
• Studiopress (I use Divine theme)
• Tailwind (get a free trial)

One other tool I use is Grammarly. It’s an automated proofreader which helps me create better content so much faster. We’re talking grammar, word choice, punctuation, formatting, synomyms – everything. You can go Premium for all these amazing features, but you can also get a free basic Grammarly account here.

6. Learning when to take a break

Working from home in your pajamas seems like a ton of fun, until you actually do it for a week.

Let’s skip over the part where you’re unable to get motivated and get a single thing done, and instead drink 3 coffees and read 4 blog posts on how to do something.

Because once you actually start doing things and get into that flow, it’s pretty hard to stop.

I’ve had days when I didn’t get away from the computer from 9 am until 3 pm. Even though I had to pee. Then, finally, I’d go pee and get back to glue myself to that screen for 7 more hours.

And I’m writing about living a healthy lifestyle. Integrity? What’s that?

I didn’t feel good telling people how to take care of themselves, because an older version of me knew how to do it. I knew I needed to be that person again. That person who knows when to take a break, the person who has salad and not coffee for lunch.

So what I’ve started doing is setting a timer. It helps tremendously. Even if I don’t do it the same minute: I know in a little bit I will take a break.

This habit is huge in the long run. You can’t depend on bursts of productivity followed by days or weeks of burnout. Learn how to set limits and actually stick to them.

This way you can stay consistent, which is better for your physical and mental health, for your family, for your audience and for your blog.

Related: 11 Ways To Reduce Stress And Relax

7. Committing to finishing

Here comes the timer again! Don’t let blog posts or minor tasks take over your life.

Sometimes we underestimate how much time a task will take, but many times we overestimate it. We try to make everything perfect and want to be as helpful as possible.

Here’s what you really need to do: Keep it short and get to the point. Then edit and send it out to the world.

One of my main goals whenever I sit down to write a blog post or make the pins for the week is to have them finished.

I try to do my best within an hour, sometimes less, rarely more depending on the topic and whether I need to do research.

But, yeah, having that deadline and that goal of simply “I have to finish this now” or today, really keeps me focused. This way I make sure there are fewer half-written brilliant articles on my computer that I never get to share.

Related: How to stay focused when there’s so much to do

8. There’s always more to learn

I’m grateful for all the jobs I had before I started earning an income blogging. They taught me a lot of things – how to communicate, how to network, how to work with cell cultures, how to use a mass spectrometer, how to properly fold an umbrella and even how to make candles (that’s right!).

But when you start working for yourself, you’ll feel like you’re on a crash course all the time. Especially if you’re blogging or working online. Things change so quickly you can never get too comfortable. You need to be adaptable and to be willing to learn new things.

So embrace it! You’re going to learn no matter what you decide to focus on in life. Don’t make the excuse you don’t know how to do something in order to achieve a dream or a goal. You can always google it.

And with these wise words, I’m going to go back to #6 and #7.

Don’t Forget To Check Out These:

• 7 things you need to start doing to make money blogging (How I made my first $200 blogging)
• The 5 things I did to go from 30,000 to over 100,000 views in 2 months
• 5 Types of blog posts that will explode your traffic