Three laws of blogging to make money online

How well you make money from your blogging, or from getting traffic to your business website from publishing content online, determines whether or not you will succeed. Without the ability to generate a stream of income (a positive ROI), blogging is not really a sustainable business practice.

Blogging requires, thought, effort, time, creativity and skill. This is why so many people are prepared to put in a huge amount of effort to find workarounds for Google's Panda updates, instead of simply creating great content - what Panda is designed to find and promote.

This article will highlight the three main "laws" about blogging or content marketing in general that you have to understand before the content you create has any chance of making an impact, driving traffic and earning revenue.

Generating a positive blogging ROI (Return on investment)?

Assuming you are prepared to create great content, then ensuring that you are rewarded for your efforts is a top priority. No-one else is going to do it, so it's entirely up to you how much money you want to earn.

Regardless of how you choose to monetize your content, it could be through affiliate advertising, Adsense, eCommerce, or any number of methods, the way in which you build up a social media following, increase traffic volumes and maximize conversions relies on:

• Quality content: Aside from grammar, presentation, SEO, etc, anything that provides a target audience with a more than satisfactory experience - knowledge, humor, information - can be considered quality content.
• Market & industry credibility: Being able to effectively monetize content requires that readers trust you, recognize you as an authority, are familiar with you, etc.
• Network of influencers (traffic drivers): The Internet is too big for one person to make a big enough splash. It's vital that you build up a network of loyal fans and followers to evangelize your content for you.

Understanding these points, let's formulate them into the three laws of blogging:

1. Great content is a prerequisite not a guarantee

Most advice about blogging is centered around creating "great content". Unfortunately, the overwhelming impression people get is that by creating great content, success will eventually find you. This is simply not true.

Great content (Any content that is interesting or noteworthy, and engages its target audience well) is a bare minimum requirement. If you have it, there is no guarantee that you will succeed. Without it, you will almost certainly fail.

Instead of looking at content as the "product you are selling", think of it as the platform from which you can start doing business. It's your ticket into the debate only - you still have to get involved in the conversion and rise to the top.

Check out these articles that highlight the importance of great content in driving traffic and engaging people:

• How to Create Great Content Without Causing Too Much Controversy
• Three Tips for Creating Great Content
• How to Write Great Blog Content

2. Credibility is a perception

Creating fantastic content is important, and yes, it's the seed that grows into your credibility as a blogger, entrepreneur or business. You won't be seen as credible without great content.

Credibility, from the perspective of the audience, however, comes from other people. Credibility is something other people infer on you, it's not an intrinsic quality of your writing and character.

Have you ever noticed that articles and content that make it on to huge blog sites and generate thousands of tweets and create an appreciable ripple, aren't necessarily any better than your own content? Yet they generate far more traffic, why?

Credibility. The message might be the same as yours, but people are listening to someone else who is more credible. Those people are more credible than you because they have people who say they are credible.

Check out these articles on how to build blogging credibility:

• Blog Credibility : What’s That?
• Importance of Credibility in Blogging
• 11 Mistakes That Are Killing Your Blog’s Credibility
• The Importance of Credibility in the Blogging Community

It's not the quality of the content, it's the say so of other people who are credible.

3. You can't make a big enough impact on your own

Every successful blogger will admit that they could not have achieved their success without the loyal help of their most avid fans.

Simply put; without a team of marketers (readers who love your content) working tirelessly on your behalf (tweeting and sharing your content), it is not possible to inject enough presence into the social sphere to cross any meaningful threshold that leads to industry wide exposure.

If you're looking at blogging as "me against the world", think again. It is far quicker and easier to actively seek out alliances and connections with influential people in your niche.

Find out what they want, and work out how to deliver it for them. Then let them know about it, so that they can connect with you and continue to work together for mutual benefit.

Check out these articles that talk about how to build up a social network that helps to promote and market your content:

• Guest blogging is critical to marketing and business
• The Secret to Growing Your Blog Following and the Pitfall You Must Avoid
• Talking about other people is the most powerful way to get more traffic

How to evaluate your performance under the three laws of blogging

Understanding whether or not you are succeeding as a blogger is not difficult. There are always signs that you are on the right path, and one sure sign that you aren't.

• On the path to blogging success: At least initially, the first signs that you are doing the right things will be an increase in positive comments, an increase in retweets, an increase in social media connections, and ultimately a steady and sometimes explosive growth in traffic.
• Off the path to blogging success: No traffic. No retweets. No interest or interaction in comments.

If you find that you aren't succeeding, then don't panic. Start following people who have offered good advice. Start interacting with and talking about people who are succeeding in your niche. Learn as much as you can and keep trying new things based on what you learn.

Eventually, you will find your own niche within the niche and, with persistence, start to succeed.