7 Positive Habits That Will Help You Become A Better Blogger

Habits make people what they are! Nothing can be further from this truth. It is for this reason that Stephen Covey’s book ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ became such a runaway bestseller.

As the saying goes, “Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.”

Having said that, what are these habits that help you as an avid successful blogger?

If you look around, you will find more blogs on helping people blog, than blog on any other topics. In fact most of the bloggers who made it big are those who kept giving advice to bloggers.

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There is no dearth of materials on the how and why of blogging. But that is all these blogs will make you do. Push you on the way to blogging. What after that? How can you sustain your energy and enthusiasm?

Habits Are Like Second Nature

The good things about habits are that they seem to run your life on auto-pilot. You don’t have to make conscious efforts to do something that may seem so daunting every time you attempt it.

Imagine cultivating a few habits that take the pain out of your blogging routine. It will leave you enthusiastic and looking forward to your daily blogging rituals.

Here we discuss a few such habits that will make you enjoy blogging as much fun as you get from your favourite fix. When one enjoys doing something, he becomes better at it. Right?

So read on, to know more about these habits that will make you a better blogger

1. Jot Down Your Ideas, Whenever They Come

In this age of tablets and smartphones, it may sound odd to actually use pen and paper to scribble down your ideas. But believe me; the process of writing has profound rewards. It makes you really focus on your thoughts.

Secondly, you can’t just simply wipe off, erase or delete those thoughts so easily.  Once you commit something with ink on paper, they leave deeper scratch marks in your thoughts. As you turn the pages of your notebook or diary, positive thoughts will enter your mind. You will be driven to bring those random thoughts to some satisfactory conclusion.

Make it a habit. There will never be a dearth of new ideas for you.

If you still find difficulty with pen and paper than take notes on your smartphone. Do whatever makes you feel comfortable, but do it anyhow.

Whenever a thought strikes you, or you find time, just note it down. Don’t evaluate them then and there, but just take note. It is like brainstorming. You gather all the ideas that come.

Once you make it a daily practice, you will always have scores of new ideas with you every time you need to look for any new topic.

2. Make a Daily Schedule and Adhere to it

When you talk of habits, then having a fixed routine makes lot of sense. Allocating a particular slot of time every day, is one habit that will make you stand in good stead.

Everyone has a favourite time when he/she is most creative. Find out that particular slot of creativity in your life. It can be in the night or early morning, or whenever.

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If you do not have any other engagement scheduled at that hour, turn it to your advantage.

Fix up a few hours or even minutes, around that time and type away merrily on your keyboard. But make sure that this is not a one-shot effort.

Make your To-do list for the day or week. This helps you keep track of your progress. If you are lacking in the pace of your delivery, your schedule will pull you up. Maintain the regularity, and you may have discovered your own El Dorado.

3. Be Prolific and Productive

Do not rein in your instincts nor be judgemental of your work. Initially you need to simply plod on. If something is not turning out well, do not let this discourage you.

The time to judge and evaluate will come later. Moreover, don’t forget that there is always room for improvement. If a piece doesn’t look interesting or unique, you will have ample time to edit and redraft it.

Whenever you run out of new creative idea, turn to habit #1. You already have so many ideas jotted down in your journal or notes.

Make a habit of writing. It will improve your ability to express your thoughts in writing. Your writing need not necessarily be blog-oriented. You can write something off-blog. Every little piece of your writing will not only help you write better but also come handy while writing an article.

The more you write, your contents will get polished more and more. As the number of your contents increases, more and more readers will flock to your site. Even if there are shortcomings in your writings, your readers will put their penny’s worth in the comments. Always take feedback in the right spirits. They will make your blog better.

Write what you know about and your experiences. Most of the successful bloggers connect with their audience by telling about their own experiences. People love stories and true stories are more fascinating.

4. Do Your Research and Analytics Diligently

Investing time on research pays back enormously. Analytics is very important, whether you are looking for trending topics, keywords or just the performance of your pages.

There are several analytics tools you can use to review how your blog has been performing. Many tools have convenient at-a-glance dashboards. Make it an integral part of your daily working routine.

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When you indulge in intensive research, you come across several authoritative facts and figures that you can quote in your articles. Facts, statistics make a huge difference in enhancing the value of your blog.

These references lend credibility to what you write about. Verifiable facts are something no one can contest or have doubts about. A credible blog is what everyone would like to subscribe to.

5. Self-Discipline is Vital

When you are working for yourself, there is no one else to remind you or push you. You have to be your own self-starter. You have to devise means to get the work done yourself.

When you set aside the schedule for doing your work; be strict with yourself. No phone calls, no Facebook, no WhatsApp or any messaging that distracts you.

It may be easy to be your own boss. But, it is difficult to be your own sub-ordinate. There can be several distractions. At times you may feel tempted to relax and take it easy.

Not being responsible to anyone but you yourself, has its downsides too. This is where your self-discipline should kick in. Always strive to boost your productivity.

Besides having and maintaining a strict schedule, use coffee and music to boost your enthusiasm and perk you up.

6. Be Focused and Consistent

This is important for the long-term success of your blog. Be focused on the subject your blog is about. Keep researching on the topics and present new perspective and information. Be consistent with the content as well as the schedule.

Once you build up expectations you must sustain it. Nothing backfires like letting down your readers, either on content or the schedule. No one would like to come back if it happens often.

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Focus and consistency will bring success faster than you can imagine. Success does not come overnight, but you can surely short-circuit it, with your focus and consistent efforts.

A regular schedule will add value to your blog and help grow the readership as it fulfills their expectations of guaranteed delivery of value. That is why they are there in the first place.

7. Always Plan Ahead

Planning is crucial. You must always have a picture, however blurred, of the shape things will take. Unless you know where you are going, you will not reach your destination.

This holds true for every blog article as well. Keep the end in mind. It is a good idea to make an outline for each of the blog post that you write or plan to write.

Having a plan saves you from many unnecessary detours.  Imagine the effort and time that saves you. For every blog you write without planning, you lose on around two more blogs that you could have written in that time.

Conclusion

Habits are built over time, so do not despair if things do not work out initially.

Before you embark on this, you need to find out which are the good habits worth investing your time and effort.

You have to sow an action daily. This means whether you like it or not, do it diligently every day.

In a short time, you will be able to reap a habit. Whenever you feel disheartened or impatient; remember the old saying, Rome was not built in a day!

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