Are there certain blogging personality traits that guarantee success? Here are the traits I think have helped keep me going for 20 years.
A few years back, someone asked me what I thought the most critical things a would-be blogger needed to have before they started a blog of their own. They asked because they knew, at that time, that I’d been running this little site for more than 15 years. Now that I’ve completed twenty years of Patrick’s Place, I decided to write about the most essential blogging personality traits I think one needs.
Granted, you have to put “blogging success” into perspective. What you define as a “successful” blog and what I define as such may well be different. The same goes for blogging failure. In either case, you have to decide for yourself what those terms mean for you.
This blog doesn’t bring in six figures a month. Or even a year. It’s not likely to do so, because I’m not likely to employ the kinds of things that most blogs that do earn that much income employ. I don’t mean that as a criticism; it’s just not what I’m planning at the time being.
But now that I’ve finished two decades of blogging, I have made a list of the traits that I think best help bloggers carry on and continue carrying on.
8 blogging personality traits I think bloggers need
I would like to think I possess all nine — at least to some degree. But don’t assume that I’m claiming I have the perfect amount of any of them. I’m simply offering a list that I think has helped me!
1. Creativity
There are many different ways creativity can manifest itself in a blogger’s work. Some of my blogger friends are excellent writers. They immediately pull you in with their words and how they structure them. Others take photos that make you feel like they transport you to a different place. Some of them demonstrate both with every post.
I take decent photos once in a while. I write decent posts once in a while. But I can think of plenty of times that I cringe when I go back and look at past work. I’d like to think that’s true of everyone.
But you have to have some creativity to be able to present a blog that will attract an audience. I believe that as you continue blogging, you grow your creativity in different ways. Reading other blogs and visiting other websites also helps you grow your creativity.
I consider creativity to be like a muscle. The more you work to be creative, the stronger those talents become.
2. Openness
It may seem like a no-brainer, but you have to at least be somewhat open. People who know me well might be surprised to see me list “openness.” I tend to be very private. But no matter how private you are, you have to be at least partially open to sharing things about yourself. That’s what helps your readers understand your perspective and where you’re coming from.
So, no, you don’t have to spill all of the beans about your life. Just offer some along the way to help people understand how you think…and why you think the way you do.
3. Extraversion
Once again, this is a trait I largely don’t have. I’m very introverted.
I remember people describing the late Johnny Carson as being introverted. Whenever there was a party Carson attended, people would say he’d inevitably end up at a corner table with just a few people around. I’ve always been able to relate to that.
At the same time, I feel I can at least “act the part” when it comes to being just extroverted enough. So I can be social enough to get the work done here. (But if this were a party, I’d still meander to a corner of the room!)
4. Curiosity
Being curious about things can serve a blogger very well. It makes them look at a situation and ask questions some people might not take the time to ask. Knowing not only how to ask questions but which questions to ask can produce better posts.
Being able to take advantage of your curious streak can also help you imagine what kinds of questions your readers might ask so that you can address them.
5. Thoroughness
Creating and maintaining a blog is like managing a lot of moving parts. It’s not just about writing a post. You have to manage the content. You should follow a publishing schedule after establishing one. You also need to promote your blog on social media. That way, your readers have a better chance of finding you.
Using good search engine optimization techniques can get more eyes on your site.
Managing advertising options — even if you use a service like Google Adsense — can bring in revenue, although it likely won’t be much.
You need to keep an eye out for updates to your theme, your plugins and the blogging platform and install those updates as soon as you can to make sure your blog is as secure as possible.
If you allow comments on your site, you need to keep an eye out for anything being posted on your site that you don’t want to have your other readers see.
If you get the idea that it can be a lot, you’re right. So you need to make sure you can handle all of those parts. Once you’ve done it a while, it becomes like second nature. But you have to be thorough enough to get through all of it and keep it going.
If you’re good at multitasking, it’s not as hard as it may sound!
6. Social Responsibility
This one isn’t an absolute requirement, I suppose, but I think it’s really, really important. If you approach controversial topics with a concern about justice, your arguments might be a bit more convincing.
At this site, from day one, I’ve written about double standards. They’re a pet peeve of mine because they often target people unjustly. Exposing them can help people think about that and, hopefully, change minds.
7. Patience
Of all of the blogging personality traits in my list, this one is the one I have the least of. I think that’s probably the result of my parents. My mom has a lot of it and my dad has very little. So I think I come in roughly in the middle. There are certain things I can muster patience about, however.
Blogging, for whatever reason, turned out to be one of those things. You need patience. You won’t build a loyal following overnight. It takes a long time.
Let me say that again: It takes a long time. Most blogs seem to fade away long before they even have a chance to build that audience.
8. Stubbornness
With all of the aforementioned moving parts and the need to be patient while you navigate them and try to attract readers, it helps to have a stubborn streak. I can definitely testify to that on personal experience.
We bloggers — particularly those of us who’ve been at it a while — have to be stubborn. Sometimes, we get the feeling that we’re not making a dent in the blogosphere. We wonder if anyone is reading at all. And we question whether we’re just spinning our wheels.
One of the main reasons I haven’t given up in frustration when an occasional burst of self-doubt pops up is sheer stubbornness. I’ve done it this long. So I can keep going.
As long as I enjoy doing it, and so help me I still do, I’ll keep pushing on.
Being stubborn isn’t always a bad thing!
That’s my list of blogging personality traits that I think most help bloggers keep their sites going. Do you agree? Did I miss something?
