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Blogger’s envy: the feeling you get when you open a blog page that somehow looks professional, has good content, makes money, and has followers.

The great bloggers seem to have this way of pulling it all together to make an amazing product that is hard to turn down.

But, here’s the thing: that could be you!

There are 17 things that great bloggers do differently.

Read them. Use them. Live them. And comment below if you know any we didn’t mention!

1. They have a brand.

You will notice that the best bloggers are immediately recognizable by their signature color, font, or logo.

(If you don’t have a logo yet, read How To Create A Logo For Your Brand In 5 Minutes (No Graphic Skills Needed).

Branding is super important for any business and/or blog. It’s the one thing that will make you stand out from the masses and make people remember who you are and what you sell.

You must streamline your fonts, color scheme, graphics, writing/editing style, and headlines to build a strong brand that will breed loyalty in your readership.

Here are a few posts to help you get started on branding:

2. They have a voice.

In addition to having a brand, your blog should also have a unique voice!

A voice is basically your personal writing style that tells the readers it’s you writing this post.

When I scroll through the posts on LadyBossBlogger, I can tell within the first sentence or so whether it was written by Elaine, an intern, or a one-time guest blogger.

That’s what it means to have a voice—your readers should come expecting your writing to be uniquely yours!

Write with personality, conviction and confidence.

For tips on how to do so, check out these posts:

3. They do their research.

This point is pretty simple—great bloggers know their niche, their competition, and their collaborators.

If you’re writing a beauty blog, you should be reading other beauty blogs.

Research what other people are doing and decide what you like, what you don’t and what you can provide that no one already does.

What makes you unique? What makes your blog valuable?

4. They don’t try to do everything.

Ever noticed how the most popular blogs focus on one thing?

LadyBossBlogger is a blog for female entrepreneurs by female entrepreneurs. That’s all we do, but we do it well.

You don’t have unlimited time, energy, and talent. You have to choose what your expertise is going to be and stick with it until you’re the best.

Basically, what I’m saying is you need a niche and a target audience. Here are some resources that will help for understanding these concepts better:

5. They have an email newsletter.

Social media followers aren’t everything!

Having email subscribers ensures that your readers are actually provided with your content on a weekly, daily, or monthly basis.

Focusing on email marketing is one thing that Elaine Rau always says she wishes she would have given more time in the beginning stages of her blog—that should tell you something!

Having a great email newsletter with the latest content from your blog is professional, strategic, and helpful for your readers!

Here’s some ideas on how to get started:

But to make sure you’re on top of all the new policies impacting bloggers, check out this important article:

How To Become A GDPR Compliant Blogger

6. They use Pinterest actively.

Another thing that Elaine wishes she would have known sooner is the importance of Pinterest to blogging.

Pinterest is one of the best platforms you can use as a blogger. It really provides the opportunity to get your content out there to all the right people.

If you’re not already using Pinterest (or if you want to be using it better), check out these posts:

The 43 Most-Asked Pinterest Marketing Questions Answered Directly By Pinterest
How To Get 100 Pinterest Followers in 7 Days
Check out this Pinterest Course to learn Pinterest the right way

7. They have other people writing for them.

All of the best bloggers place an emphasis on interviews, features, and guest posts.

Elaine spent a full year doing only interviews to get LadyBossBlogger started!

Writing your own content on your blog is definitely important, but it’s also really good practice to have other people write about their expertise—you can’t know everything!

Another great option is to hire some interns.

For my major, I was required to have an internship in the media in order to graduate, so I’m super grateful to Elaine for hiring me as an intern here, and it makes me both a loyal reader forever and motivated to do the best job possible for every task she assigns me.

Having interns and guest writers allows you to delegate some of the day-to-day operations, freeing you up to think big picture on how to grow your blog and launch new things!

Interested in interning for LadyBossBlogger? Click here!

8. They build credibility by getting interviewed or guest posting for others.

Speaking of guest posting, it’s also a really good idea to build credibility by guest posting for other established blogs and getting your name/brand out there to their readership.

When I go on a blog and see that they’ve collaborated with influential brands by writing reviews or written posts/articles for solid publications, I automatically trust the blogger to be a good writer and reliable source of information.

Advice on how to do so? So glad you asked!

How To Build A Credible Blog And Stand Out From The Rest

And check out Elaine’s past collaborations, guest posts, and features here!

Want to guest post for ladybossblogger? Click here!

Want to be interviewed as a female entrepreneur or blogger? Click here!

9. They reply to comments, emails and DMs.

I am most loyal to the blogs that I feel are listening to me.

The greatest bloggers interact with their audience well, responding to comments (positive or negative) and encouraging their readers to contact them with questions, comments and the like.

These bloggers that have an incomprehensible number of followers? They worked for that!

By paying attention to what your followers are saying, and building a community along with your blog platform is one of the best things you can do as a blogger.

Here are some posts that might help you get started on that:

10. They schedule content ahead of time.

You can’t keep up a blog if you don’t think ahead.

I’ve read many interviews with successful bloggers, and one of the things that keeps their blog growing is that they have content scheduled for months ahead.

It makes sense—you don’t have time to think of an idea, gather all you need, write a post, and market that content every single day! You must think ahead.

We get it, that’s hard! Here’s a post that could help you get ahead:

How To Schedule Your Content For The Next 12 Months

11. They take (and write) online courses

One of the biggest ways to make money blogging is to sell your expertise through an online course in your blog’s specialty.

These courses are awesome for new and experienced bloggers alike!

There is always something new to learn that will help you become a better blogger, so taking online courses is a must if you desire to be great.

There is also always something that you can do better than pretty much everyone else, and the world wants to hear about it, so why not try writing your own online course?

How To Launch Your Own Profitable Online Course

12. They’re not afraid to pitch themselves.

You know who the best bloggers are, because they let you know.

Self-promotion is weird, because you really don’t want to go too far, but it’s essential that your readers know both who you are and that you’re qualified.

You do have a skill set that is unique, and you need to learn how to use it to drive your blog or business forward.

Having trouble with that idea? Here’s a few posts to help you out:

13. They take risks in who they contact.

Ever wonder how that blogger you admire so much got to collaborate with a big name brand?

Well, they probably asked.

You would be really surprised at what you can do if you take risks and ask for things.

The worst that will happen if you take a risk in asking someone to interview them, collaborate with you, or so on is them either saying no or not responding—neither of those are serious consequences!

And what if they do surprise you and say yes? Won’t you be glad you took the risk?

14. They get into affiliate marketing.

Want to be a 6-figure blogger? Affiliate marketing is your answer.

Affiliate marketing is how great bloggers make the big bucks.

It’s actually pretty simple if you do your research…

…oh look! Here’s your research:

15. They link to their old posts.

Have you noticed? (winks)

But in all seriousness, it really does help your blog to link back to old posts, both because it’s helpful for the reader and it gets people to spend more time on your blog!

16. They learn everything they can about SEO.

SEO = Search Engine Optimization

SEO = key to getting your content on the top of the page when someone Googles the topic

SEO = a really important way to make sure your blog is easy to find

SEO = bringing the most possible traffic to your site

How to do it?

17. They are persistent.

If at first you don’t succeed… send at least 200 more emails.

I’m serious. The best bloggers are the ones who don’t stop at 3 PR pitches or 4 nice Pinterest graphics.

Make 30 Pinterest graphics, and send 100 PR pitches! That’s how you’re going to get people to notice your blog.

And above all, never give up. In blogging, you reap what you sow.

You will see results, but it takes incredibly hard work.

Which, by the way, is totally worth it… Trust us!

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Any more ideas on how great bloggers do things differently? Comment below!

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Bethany Peterson is a junior at Wheaton College (IL) studying Interdisciplinary Studies and Journalism with a minor in Spanish. She has worked in blogging for three years first as a staff blogger for 31Women Ministries, and now as an intern with LadyBossBlogger. She serves as Co-Editor in Chief at the Wheaton Record and hopes to go into journalism after graduation.