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Think You’re Cut Out For Blogging? Take This Quiz

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Blogging Quiz

One of my favorite toys to play with as a kid was the 20Q toy. I enjoyed how I could respond to 20 questions, and somehow the 20Q toy would always know what I was thinking about. I decided to mix the 20Q toy with my love of blogging to come up with a 20 question quiz to determine whether you are cut out for blogging–and being successful at it–or not.

  1. Can you write blog posts every day for many years to come? The right answer is yes.
  2. Do you believe your traffic will dramatically increase overnight? The right answer is no.
  3. How long will it take for your blog to become popular? The right answer is at least one year.
  4. Are you writing about what you enjoy? The right answer is yes.
  5. Is a blog merely a place to promote a product? The right answer is no.
  6. Is a blog a place to show ads? The right answer is no (more on this here)
  7. Will you trade in your passion for money? The right answer is no.
  8. Will you treat blogging as a hobby? The right answer is not forever. It will become more than that.
  9. Would you blog even if you knew you wouldn’t make any money from it? The right answer is yes. It takes some bloggers a few years before seeing a huge profit.
  10. Would you write a blog post late into the night if you had to? The right answer is yes. If you enjoy blogging enough, writing late into the night won’t be a problem.
  11. Do you read books? The right answer is yes.
  12. Are you only blogging for the money? The right answer is no.
  13. Do you want to avoid making mistakes? The right answer is no. We all make mistakes anyway. As hard as it is to believe, I make mistakes too (okay, my ego got the best of me there).
  14. Do you envision your blog becoming successful? The right answer is yes.
  15. Do you want to be an author? The right answer is yes. If you want to be an author, then you would also make for a really good blogger.
  16. Are you blogging just to get more traffic? The right answer is no.
  17. Is blog traffic more important than having fun writing the content? The right answer is no.
  18. Are you happy with where you are? As long as you keep on growing and never settle, it’s great to be happy with where you are. If you settle, there’s a problem.
  19. Do you set goals for yourself? The right answer is yes.
  20. Would you write for a guest blog? The right answer is yes. This shows you enjoy writing content and getting traffic to the point where you would write for someone else. This will make you a better blogger and writer when you write for your own blog and publish your own books.

If you had the right answers for most of these questions, then you are ready. If you got more than five answers wrong, you need to change your thinking about what it means to have a blog and write blog posts.

How did you do on the quiz?

 

4 Factors That Go Into Writing Content That People Will Love

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Quality Content

More people focus on writing content while less people focus on writing content that visitors will love. In order for your blog to grow, you need to write content that your visitors will love. This will encourage visitors to stick around and eventually subscribe to your blog. In order to get more people to write content that your visitors will love, you need to have these four factors.

  1. Some people love the content because of the story. There is a difference between a 38-year-old writing this blog post and a 16-year-old writing this blog post. There is also a difference between an average person writing blog posts on the Shoemoney blog versus someone who used to live on a friend’s couch writing blog posts on that blog. You need to have a story that people love, and then your content looks a little better. This is not the difference between good content and bad content. A good analogy is that the book on a $0.99 discount looks better than the book at a regular price. The blog’s content with a good story looks better than the blog’s content without a good story.
  2. Write blog posts that are easy to read. The only way your visitors will love your content is if they read it. Your blog posts need to be easy for your visitors to read. If I smushed all of the content of this blog post into 1 big paragraph, it would be more challenging for visitors to read the blog post. By spacing your content into several paragraphs, your visitors will have an easier time reading your blog posts.
  3. Write quality content different from other bloggers. The word quality is just as important as different. Writing a blog post with typos in every sentence is different, but that does not mean people would love to read it. Write about topics and go into detail about those topics in a way different from other bloggers.
  4. Proofread your blog posts before you publish them. No matter how good your blog post is, one typo will hurt a lot. In order to avoid publishing blog posts with typos, you need to proofread them before you publish them. Spending 5-10 minutes reading 1 blog post will allow you to feel more confident about your blog’s content.

In order to write content that your visitors will love, you need to have these four factors on your side. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional tips? Please share your thoughts and advice below.