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Official 2011 Second Guest Blogging Contest Post #14
Contest Article

Hello there! :)

Do you want to become a successful blogger?

I’m sure you do! That’s why you came here in the first place, anyway. :P

Everybody wants to become a successful blogger. Who doesn’t?

However, contrary to what you may think, becoming a successful blogger is not easy. It takes hard work. It takes dedication! It takes… the 3 P’s.

Planning

If you don’t know where you are going, how can you expect to get there?
— Basil S. Walsh

To achieve success, you gotta plan! Planning is key, man!

Imagine that your blog is a ship. If you don’t plan your blog’s destination, your blog will be like a ship floating mindlessly in the middle of the sea, letting itself go wherever the waves and wind may take it.

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So, you must plan!

Oh yeah, and plan specifically—“I want my blog to earn $300 monthly.” OK, great! How are you going to do that? How long until you achieve that? Be specific.

Set bite-sized plans. “Oohh! I’m gonna earn $1200 monthly in one year!”—That’s too… not bite-sized. You can’t chew it. Instead, go like this:

1st month – $20 weekly
2nd mth – $30 weekly
3rd mth – $45 weekly
….
10th mth – $260 weekly
11th mth – $280 weekly
12th mth – $300 weekly = $1200 monthly | Woohoo! Goal achieved! :D

Notice how it’s “weekly” instead of “monthly”. Now this is a plan you could chew on! :)

Plans are prone to change. So, if the situation changes, adapt your plans to the situation—If your blog-ship is sailing on the sea, and out of the blue, there is a raging storm… You wouldn’t want to go with your plan of catching fish, would you?

Plan specifically, plan challengingly, plan wisely.

Those who plan do better than those who do not plan even though they rarely stick to their plan. — Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister

photo by Amir Kuckovic

Passion

2349458100_4764b9cc79_oIt takes passion, guys!

If a blogger loves what he is blogging about, then it is easy for him to become successful.

Your passion is your motivation. If you’re not blogging about your passion, how’d you become successful?

Even if a blogger becomes “successful” by doing something he doesn’t love, he’s not really successful because—how can you be successful doing something you don’t like?

So, blog about your passion, people! “Errr… how do I know what’s my passion?” Whatever you like doing—your hobbies!

Do you like singing, do you like health, do you like cats, do you like jeans, do you like lavender? . Then blog about it!

“But Mr. Gloson Teh, who in the world would want to read about lavender Mr. Gloson Teh?”

Patricia from Lavender Uses blogs about all things lavender, and she’s truly a great blogger. Many bloggers read her blog. Do you know how many comments she gets on each blog post? Approximately 100 comments. That’s even more than my blog!

So, blog about your passion!—May it be fishing, music, sleeping, books, movies, apples, Apple, whatevar!

“Yeah, very cool, but uhh… what if people don’t read my blog and I don’t earn money?”

And THAT’s the mistake that most bloggers make, people!—NOT following their passion! They all mostly just fall in into the blogging or make money online niche, not because they love it, but because they think it’ll make them money! My good friend Onibalusi has written a whole article on this entitled “Stop Following the Blogging Crowd. Reform!”.

If you find yourself swimming with all the other fish, go the other way. They don’t know where they’re going either. — Leo Babauta, zenhabits.net

Oh yeah, who says you can’t make money from niches other than blogging? You blog about apples? Blogging about apples doesn’t stop you from making money!—Sell a book about apple recipes, create apple pie T-shirts, and much more; try something different!

And what if you don’t get visitors, you say? Blogging about your passion doesn’t stop people from reading your blog either! I would even read about apples, if the blog post is simply remarkable! :P

If you’ve just started a blog, don’t worry. I didn’t have much visitors when I started blogging either. You need to be patient… which kinda brings be to my next point…

photo by aussiegall

Patience

2760610793_d77ffcdc00_mAhhh, patience.

It’s truly a virtue.

Patience… is essential if you want to become truly successful. You need to sit back, and wait.

If you have noticed, most of the successful blogs in the world has been around for more than 1 year!

Problogger – since 2004
Copyblogger – since 2006
DailyBlogTips – since 2006
BlogEngage – since 2007
Lifehacker – since 2005
Digital Photography School – since 2006
Mashable – since 2005
Zen Habits – since 2007

Is the patience worth it?

Yes, it is.

photo by Andrej_Filev

There! I hope you enjoyed this post! :)

Remember the 3 P’s—Planning, Passion, and Patience—and you are guaranteed to become a successful blogger!

The 3 P’s not only applies to blogging, but to other aspects of life as well.

OK, I would love to hear your comments on the 3 P’s. See ya in the comments below! :)

About Gloson Teh

Gloson is a 13-year-old blogger who blogs on Gloson Blog about social media & blogging since he was 10. He also writes funny poetry for kids at Poetry Talents. Please add him as a friend on BlogEngage here.

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