So you’re thinking of starting a blog, are you? Well, congrats! Blogging is an incredibly rewarding career and we like to think some of the most talented people in the world are taking up blogging.

With over 2 million blog posts published each day, only a small percentage of those are going to be read and shared regularly. Instead of feeling discouraged, now’s the time to focus and give your blog the best chance to succeed.

We rounded up over 50 bloggers from all over the world with a variety of niches to share their top blogging tips with you. As it turns out, there are just a few things you need to know and these bloggers said them over and over again. From the experienced pros who have paved the way for you, here’s 50 pieces of sound advice for new bloggers:

Be Consistent

Joe Rawlinson, Dad’s Guide To Twins @twindadjoe

Write and schedule posts in advance so when life gets in the way, you’re still able to publish content consistently for your audience. I wish someone had told me that blogging takes a lot of time to gain momentum. Be consistent and patient and things will pay off.

Angie Nelson, The Work At Home Wife, @thewahwife

Stop reading and researching and start doing. There are 101 opinions on every aspect of blogging. Pick one and get busy. You are never going to know everything there is to know because it’s going to change tomorrow. Get started and make changes as you go.

Richard Adams, Frugality Magazine, @frugalitymag

A few years ago I got contacted out of the blue by a major publisher. They were putting together an anthology of articles, one of their team had stumbled across one of my blogs, and they liked what they saw. The end result was a nice check for me, in exchange for letting them publish some of my posts in their book.

In another example I got interviewed by a major media outlet here in the UK, who had stumbled across one of my social media profiles, checked out my blog, and got in contact.

As a final example some years ago I ended up working as a freelance consultant for a British TV channel after they found one of my blogs and got in contact for some advice.

All of these exciting experiences happened thanks to blogging. But often the “trigger” for them happening wasn’t instant. The articles that got published in the book were written over 12 months earlier, and I’d been running my blog for over six months before the TV company got in contact.

Here’s the “take home” – you never truly know whether your blog is going to be a success, and if so which of your posts make all the difference. Sometimes it can happen rapidly, but in my experience it often takes years before you get that “winner” that transforms your site.

The key, therefore, is to keep on blogging, even if you don’t feel you’re succeeding. If you follow your passion, produce great content and keep at it for long enough then opportunities will start to appear.

Anne Louise Bannon, Odd Ball Grape

It takes time to build an audience. Don’t get discouraged if your numbers don’t take off right away.

Nellie Akalp, The Startup Starting Line, @CorpNetNellie

Make a routine: It’s important to keep a routine when blogging so you don’t forget to post. I have a set schedule every week where I know what post I need to work on when – whether for my company blog or an outside outlet.

Scott MacMillan, Monetize Your Message Today

Brainstorm 25 or so blog topics and then schedule them out for the year. This way you always have thought out ideas you can work on. When you see something you know will fit into one of the topics, you can save it in Evernote and not have to stare at a blank page when you’re ready to write your article.

Kyle Kranz, SOKRA Running

I know it’s cliche and over-said, but be patient and don’t give up! Our blog gets 4x more organic traffic now than it did two years ago. This comes from web search results as well as our growing social networks.

Michael Mehlberg, Modern da Vinci, @Modern_da_Vinci

Many start blogging thinking they will write a few words on their website and the traffic will come, making them an overnight success. The reality is, it’s going to be a long, slow, painful, and arduous climb to the top. Before you write a single word, ask yourself if this will be your passion. Ask yourself what your end goal is. Ask yourself if you will keep at it even when times are tough. If you don’t, you’ll be sinking an enormous amount of time into yet another blog that helps nobody; right under a mountain of other blogs that found themselves in the same situation.

Rashelle Isip, The Order Expert, @theorderexpert

There’s much more to blogging than just writing posts! If you think blogging will be easy, think again. You have to come up with post ideas, construct editorial calendars, reply to comments, do regular site administration and updates, share items on social media, network with other professionals and bloggers, create shareable images and content, create blog marketing plans, and much more. Plus, it’s very much a solo or individual thing. You’ll be spending a lot of time working by yourself.

Rob Berger, Dough Roller

Be consistent and persistent. So many bloggers give up early because they don’t see immediate results. It takes time to build a following, get noticed by the search engines, and develop a presence on social media. One should at a minimum expect to spend a lot of time with little results the first year. It can grow exponentially after that.

John Harvey, Djent Hub, @djenthubonline

It takes time to build trust with your audience and make a connection, traffic won’t flood in straight away. You need to keep writing, growing and let things build gradually, there are no shortcuts to success you have to keep working and trust in your own abilities.

Growth First

Emmelie De La Cruz, author of Make Yourself Marketable @EmmelieDeLaCruz

Now that I make about 3K per month of passive income per month, I look back and think about all of the things that I did wrong and all the money I lost because I didn’t have the right systems in place. I was blogging for myself. I wrote about what I wanted to write about and not what my readers needed to read. I didn’t write for search engines and didn’t start building my email list until 3 years later.

By focusing on my site looking perfect, and having the right theme and logos and colors, I didn’t focus on what was most important: Growth. I wish I would have focused on growing my audience through amazing content, press, partnerships and SEO. Then nurturing those readers through email, social media, and video. Once I got serious about growth, everything changed.

Steven Macdonald, SuperOffice, @StevenMacd0nald

Start collecting email addresses from day one.

It wasn’t until November 2014 that we started collecting email addresses using the SumoMe list builder popup (a free tool). Since then, we’ve been able to generate over 5,200 sign ups from subscribers who work at Coca Cola, Rolls Royce, Samsonite and UNICEF.

However, based on current conversion rates of 1.56% from visitor to subscriber, the number of sign ups would have been more than 10,000 had we implemented the pop up when we first launched the blog.

Ron Stefanski, One Hour Professor, @Rstefanski

The ABSOLUTE biggest thing that a blogger needs to do when they start out is to get readers to opt-in to an email list. From there, a strategy can be figured out, but email lists increase return visitors, increase loyalty, and will increase the amount of money you make. Create a compelling opt-in to entice people to sign up for your email list and when they do, send them a weekly digest email with all of your blog posts. Once you have that process figured out, create an autoresponder sequence and point them to your best posts and affiliate offers that they’ll appreciate. You’d be surprised how much of an impact this will have.

Andrew Reeves, Luxe Translation Services

I could have grown my business faster if I had delegated different tasks to experts instead of doing everything myself. I treated my website like my baby. I didn’t want anyone doing anything to it. I did everything myself, from the content writing, to making the graphics, to hard coding the website. This was really inefficient and had I hired different people for all these tasks, I could have grown my business much faster.

Angie Nelson, The Work At Home Wife, @thewahwife

Start your email newsletter list NOW. It’s so easy to rely on social media to communicate with your followers, but only a fraction of those people see your updates. And social media algorithms change constantly. Where you are building a following today may turn on you tomorrow.

Rashelle Isip, The Order Expert, @theorderexpert

Social media and guest posts on websites are great, but the real connection comes from interacting with your readers. It’s easy to do this if you have a solid email list. Put a lot of your effort into growing your email list, and you’ll naturally develop a following of engaged, interested, and loyal readers.

Rob Berger, Dough Roller

Start collecting emails on Day 1. I didn’t start collecting emails and sending out a newsletter consistently until 2012. Today I have about 25,000 subscribers. That number would by 3x had I started in 2007. Newsletter subscribers are the most loyal fans and generate consistent, valuable traffic.

Know Your Niche

Lacy Boggs, The Content Direction Agency, @blogspiration42

Understand what you want your blog to do for your business. I think a lot of people have heard that they need a blog for their business, but they don’t know why. Focus on what you want your blog to help you achieve. Do you want to grow your list? Sell more product? Become a thought leader? Understand your big why for blogging.

Eric Brantner, Scribblrs, @scribblrs

Once you know what you’ll blog about, make sure you get your own domain (.com). You can get your own domain hosted for as little as two dollars a month, and it really looks more professional to have “yourname.com” as opposed to “yourname.blogspot.com” or something.

Aaron Keller, Capsule Design, @capsuledesign

Write with one person in mind. Picture the person you’re writing a post for and then it becomes more like writing a letter to them. Then, you hit the audience readership ability and tone to match what they would like to read. Sounds strange to have an audience of one, but we all know there are others like that person and they’ll find it worthy as well, but writing to a “segment” or “audience” or “persona” is painful and obnoxious. Write to a person.

Kate Harvey, Chargify, @chargify

It’s easy to see your favorite bloggers pushing out multiple blog posts each week and assume you need to do the same. You need to produce high-quality content. If that means you’re posting less often, your readers will appreciate the quality of your work. And with the content overload we experience currently, you won’t gain readers by producing low-quality work (regardless of the frequency you’re posting blogs).

Richard Adams, Frugality Magazine, @frugalitymag

One of the most common issues I come across is bloggers who assume their content is awesome, just because they wrote it. Many bloggers seem unwilling to stand back and take a distanced, unemotional view of whether they’re content really matches up. In many cases, the honest answer is “no”.

Figuring out what works and what doesn’t takes time and effort. But there is a trick that can fast-track that. It’s as simple as asking.

Some months ago I added a simple contact form to the thank you page of my mailing list. The page introduces me, thanks new subscribers for joining and then offers them the opportunity to tell me a little more about themselves. The results have been amazing. Every day I receive emails now, explaining where my readers live, what their major concerns are, what they’d like to improve in their life and so on.

As a result I’m able to create content specifically to target this group and to answer the very questions they’ve already told me they have.. It’s the closest thing to “x-ray specs” I can imagine!

Sam Hoober, Bigfoot Gun Belts @BigfootGunBelts

Whatever it is you are blogging about, chances are there’s someone out there or a community of people that are into it. Some people like reading the minutiae of other people’s day and/or thoughts. Some people love political blogging. Some people only like pretty pictures. Figure out who it is that would be most likely to read/view your blog, and market it to them. Leave comments on other blogs. Seed links on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Tumblr – and try to get fans from those networks as well.

Shana Haynie, Nutrition Gone Wild, @ArtworksByShana

If you can come up with a new idea (or “content tilt” as Joe Pulizzi, the Godfather of content marketing puts it) or have something truly interesting or unique to say, you’re way ahead of the game. Hone your idea into something substantial by creating a content marketing mission statement. Define your target audience and buyer persona (if you plan to sell something), and do a ton of audience research before you even start writing anything.

Michael Mehlberg, Modern da Vinci, @Modern_da_Vinci

Know who you are writing for, what keeps them up at night, where they congregate, who they hang out with, what kinds of products they buy, and when they wake up in the morning. If you don’t know your reader, you are writing for everyone, which means you are writing for no one. When you do know your reader, you can speak to them directly. You can imagine yourself sitting in a coffee shop with just them, sharing your thoughts and experiences with them, making them laugh, cry, or shake with fear. Knowing your reader lets you connect with them through your words in a way that most bloggers will never understand.

Daniel Eke, Factor Funding, @factorfunding

I wish someone would have told me quality over quantity, when I first started out with our blog. Our early posts are good and informative, but they definitely lack the in-depth quality that people are used to when searching for content in 2016. Last year we changed up strategy and switched to posting twice a week with good, content-rich blog posts. When people find one of our blogs, we want them to leave having learned everything they can on the topic.

Adam Connell, Blogging Wizard, @adamjayc

Get clear on WHO you want to help and HOW. The web is a noisy place and in order to rise above that noise, you need to be ultra-specific about who your ideal reader is, and exactly how you’re going to help them.

Try filling in this sentence:

I want to help __________ to ____________.

Then ask yourself – is this specific enough?

Here’s an example:

If I was targeting freelance writers, then there are already a bunch of great sites that broadly target freelance writers. So, I could say “I want to help freelance writers to earn more money from existing clients”.

The truth is that you can’t be all things to all people, and when you hone in on a specific group of people who need help with a specific problem, you’ll find it far easier to attract your ideal reader.

George Schlidge, Matrix Marketing Group

Here’s what I hear all the time: Imagine you sold a product that your audience desperately needed. It’s better than anything your competitors offer. But every week you see them sell hundreds, or even thousands of units while you struggle to keep readers on your web page for more than a few minutes. It’s about great copy the draws the reader in.

1. Be sure to write to your ideal customer profile and persona.
2. Get an editor to make your good copy great.
3. Get going!

Nellie Akalp, The Startup Starting Line, @CorpNetNellie

Stick to your expertise: when blogging it’s important to share knowledge you know and stick to a niche. I come across some bloggers who try to write about all types of things, which is fine, but for me personally I found success in sticking to what I know about. If I want to write about an outside topic I will reach out to source outside information and tips from an expert in that area.

Brandon Howard, All My Web Needs, @allmywebneeds

You have to realize that you know more about your content than your target audience that’s reading it. Don’t assume they are aware of anything. Something that seems simple to you can serve as a great blog post and add valuable information for people that don’t have the same level of knowledge on the subject matter as you do. Understanding that will open up a lot of doors when you’re trying to come up with subject matter for your blog posts.

Jessica Thiele, Virtual Logistics, @VirtualLogistics

One of the best pieces of advice I can offer to fellow bloggers is to play reporter for your industry and/or vertical – beyond the four walls of your organization. Pick up on industry trends, compile information in new and exciting formats, and don’t be afraid to experiment. Promote your blog through popular channels and underground channels. And most of all, observe and learn – see what works, what resonates with your audience, what get shared, and what doesn’t.

Data Is King

Khuram Zaman, Fifth Tribe, @zamandigital

Make sure to have google analytics activated on your website. If you want to optimize your content and develop growth opportunities, you need insights and analysis. You can analyze web traffic, channel sources, referral links, and where people are going on your website. Early on in my career, I had switched domains but forgot to set up the tracking code for Google Analytics on my new website. When I went to look at how it was doing, I was shocked to see it completely flat. Missing data for several months after making a big transition is the last thing you want to see.

Adam Connell, Blogging Wizard, @adamjayc

When I first started blogging, I got wrapped up in the hype of social media and how important it was to get more followers. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. From a blogging/business perspective, it’s a big deal.

I used to put Facebook Like boxes, and Twitter widgets all over the place. But all that did was give people a reason to leave my blog. The point at which my blog started to gain traction was when I started building an email list.

Here’s why:

It’s easier to reach your subscribers with an email list in comparison to social media. I have more Twitter followers than email subscribers but my email list drives around 10x more traffic.

Casey Miller, The Best of Fitness, @bestoffitness01

I wish I would have learned how to create content that people actually wanted to read instead of what I thought they wanted to read. This is where your keyword research comes into play and what most people don’t do before they start writing. So, make sure to do your research first!

Anne MacAuley Lopez, McAuley Freelance Writing, @bloggingbadass

I started a personal blog on Blogger in 2008 as a way to communicate with my family back east. When I lost my corporate job in 2010, the blog became the first version of my business website. Eventually the blog was converted to a WordPress website. When my website was redesigned in 2014, I wish I’d taken an SEO 101 class so that I could maximize my content and its reach.

Dave Lawless, Lawless Hardware, @lawlesshardware

As you continue to post quality content in your niche or community you’ll eventually have successes. After a couple months of modest results, one day you’ll see a post get 10x what your normal post does and it’s been shared a few times too! Take notes! You must learn from your successes. Figure out what unique qualities your most successful posts have and carry those over. This idea applies very much to business bloggers.. Give your customers what they want.

You may WANT to write about this and you may THINK your customers should want to read about that. But your customers will tell with their clicks what they really want you writing about.

Adarsh Thampy, LeadFerry, @convesionchamp

Pay close attention to analytics. See which pages are driving the bulk of your traffic. It will give you an idea about what kind of audience you are attracting and what topics interest them. Use this data to create more relevant content.

Ron Stefanski, One Hour Professor, @Rstefanski

Many people who start a blog don’t even install Google Analytics and if they do, they seldom look at it. Analytics are the key to understand WHAT your website visitors and doing and HOW they are finding your website. Analytics will show you what your customers are reading about and when you know that, you can create similar content that they’ll enjoy. If used correctly, Google Analytics will take the guesswork out of what your customers want.

Shana Haynie, Nutrition Gone Wild, @ArtworksByShana

If I had to do it all over again, I would learn basic SEO, define a more relevant and targeted niche audience, and research content promotion tactics so that when I did have a piece of content ready to share with the world, I would have a strategy for amplifying it instead of just posting it on Facebook and hoping for the best.

Tony Hsieh, Digital Marketing Ready, @DigitalReadySEO

Long tail keywords is the key for ranking on Google especially for blogs that are relatively new.

Not everyone has the time to do keyword research so by adding more descriptive words for your title, your post gets more chance to rank for more phrases. Search engines have become more and more sophisticated, but they still rank sites based on what is written on them. In other words, you cannot rank for keywords that is not there.

Brad Cummins, Local Life Agents, @brad_cummins

If you don’t know how to choose your keywords correctly then getting quality traffic to your site will not happen. You can use keyword tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs to find key phrases and search volume that may benefit your blog posts. Doing the proper keyword optimization will help you target the right readers to your blog. The keyword research can also help you to come up with great content ideas.

If your blog or website is new, you will never outrank the big brands on search engines. At least not until you build up some credibility and quality backlinks to your site. For example, if your blog is about life insurance you will never rank on the first page of Google for the keyword “life insurance”. The big brands like MetLife, and State Farm dominate the SERPs for the best keywords in the insurance vertical so trying to compete with these brands and websites is nearly impossible. However, it would be much easier to rank for a long-tail keyword like “cheap online life insurance quotes”. So if you’re a new blogger don’t set unrealistic expectations. Focus on long-tail keywords.

Casey Markee, Media Wyse, @mediawyse

Optimize Effectively. Search engine optimization (SEO) is very important for bloggers and plugins like Yoast for WordPress do a lot of heavy lifting for beginners. Use the plugin to quickly set a focus keyword, a quality Page Title and META Description and visually review a blog post for best practices. Next, use a simple blog post checklist to review the post and ensure its full SEO potential.

Google wants to rank content that asks and answers questions. Use a tool like Answer the Public to find out what users are asking around a specific query then work to write up a piece of content that answers in detail those returned questions. Ask yourself: would I want to read this blog post and does it answer, fully, the topic focus?

Lacy Boggs, The Content Direction Agency, @blogspiration42

Have a plan. Once you know what you want to accomplish, you can work backwards to figure out how to do it.. Say you want to grow your list. Well, then every post you write had better have an opt-in form attached to it. And maybe you try content upgrades, or a challenge, or some other content strategy that will help grow that list.

Work Your Network

Joe Rawlinson, Dad’s Guide To Twins @twindadjoe

Reach out to bloggers in your niche. Share their content or guest post on their site. The law of reciprocity is powerful. Help others and you’ll be successful too.

Ron Stefanski, One Hour Professor, @Rstefanski

Many times, bloggers start out and have a goal to blog 3-5 times a week. While this may seem like a good idea, in most cases you’re going to end up getting burnt out and just have a bunch of mediocre content that never gets seen by anyone. Instead, create GREAT content (1,500 words) and then focus on SHARING that content through email outreach and social media. The rule of thumb is 20% of time should be spent on creating content and 80% of time spent on sharing it.

Hannah Moore, The Hip Horticulturist, @TigerSheds

Don’t just write your post and leave it, you need to promote it and continuing promoting it all the time. Update your social media platforms, tweet to influencers who may be interested in your piece, put the blog post in an email and find different ways to post it on social media.

Chris Huntley, Huntley Wealth & Insurance Services

Your tribe is your bread and butter. They are the people who will purchase your products or services, refer you and support your company. It is so incredibly important that you get to know your niche and the influencers who are spearheading movements. Participate in blogs, take part in conferences, network and ADD VALUE. So many people out there are trying connect for their own benefit. I don’t advise this. It will not build long lasting relationships. Offer your sincere assistance and build relationships and the rest will fall into place. There is no such thing as GREAT instant pudding – same holds true for solid relationships built on mutual interest, trust and respect.

Also, juicy backlinks from Forbes and the Wall Street journal may seem out of reach for a newbie blogger. Come on – people don’t even know you exist, how are you going to achieve that goal? Enter HARO (Help a Reporter Out). Every morning and evening HARO sends out dozens of queries from venerable publications where you can put your expertise to work…and hopefully get some good quality backlinks. I only wish I had known it about it when I launched Huntley Wealth. There is no better place to start link building.

Pauline Paquin, Reach Financial Independence

When I started my own blogs, my main mistake was expecting the world to come and find me. I did a little social media outreach, a little SEO, and that was about it. Networking is key to take your blog to the next level. Most bloggers will tell you you should spend 20% of your time creating content and 80% promoting it. I was publishing a post a day and no one was reading. It took me 3 months to start reaching out to other bloggers and help each other promoting our posts. That is when my first blog really took off.

Khuram Zaman, Fifth Tribe, @zamandigital

Engage in influencer marketing early on. When we first begin as bloggers, we often think that merely writing content will generate huge returns. Unfortunately, it won’t. Consider developing relationships with fellow bloggers and posting on forums (in a non-spammy manner). These relationships cultivate over time and the earlier on you start doing this, the better the returns will be. You never know who will go big and if you have an existing relationship with them, a simple retweet from a friend can result in a huge increase of traffic to your website.

Richard Adams, Frugality Magazine, @frugalitymag

Blogging is a naturally social experience. People who blog anonymously (as many companies do) often struggle to “connect” with others in their industry. However when you really connect with other bloggers you’ll find all sorts of opportunities arise.

As an introvert I shied away from “networking” for a long time, feeling slightly uncomfortable and sleazy about it. Then I changed my perspective. I don’t “network”today – I just try to make friends. It’s not unusual to email or tweet a blogger just because I loved their recent post. Who wouldn’t want to receive a message like that?

I’m not out looking for people who I can convince to promote my blog. What I am trying to do is just make new friends. Approaching things in this far more genuine way has still yielded all sorts of opportunities, but my main focus has just been on relationships for their own sake, rather than as a cynical way to push my content.

Angie Nelson, The Work At Home Wife, @thewahwife

Stop thinking competition and start thinking collaboration. Those people in your niche are your fast road to success. Make friends. Find an offer that’s mutually beneficial. “Can you promote my blog to your followers” isn’t going to cut it.

Start by commenting on their blog and sharing their posts with your followers. Move on to offering to guest post. When you have their attention, ask if they are interested in forming a sharing tribe or Pinning to your Pinterest Group Boards.

Rob Berger, Dough Roller

Connecting with other bloggers is critical. When I started blogging, it never occurred to me that I’d meet so many people over the years. At first it was just me and a laptop. Today I attend conferences, have joined a mastermind group, and have meet well over 1,000 people as a result of my blog. I can thank many of these contacts for the success I’ve enjoyed as a blogger.

Casey Markee, Media Wyse, @mediawyse

Once you have a quality blog post, it’s time to promote it to a qualified audience. Besides sharing it on your personal and business social accounts, ask yourself these questions: Is there an email list I can use to publicize the piece?; Can I boost the post on Facebook or run a Stumbleupon or Twitter paid campaign for initial traction?; Are there industry influencers I can identify and reach-out for help in promoting the content?

Marian Schembari, Marian Librarian, @marianschembari

I’ve been running my blog for 8 years, and it wasn’t until I started taking PR seriously that my audience exploded.

Sure, guest posting was a great way to grow my audience, so was social media. And, yes, my list has been super important. But nothing has given me broader reach or more impressive press than regularly using HARO to position myself as a thought leader and expert in my space.

This is true even when the query has nothing to do with my “day job” (I run a copywriting company).

Once I started using HARO I was featured in TIME magazine talking about internships. My photo was in Real Simple magazine (a piece about nontraditional job hunting). I’ve been in The Stir talking about abortion and Marie Claire talking about marriage. I’ve been featured in three books and because of that press (just me spending 10 minutes pitching via email) I’m constantly getting links back to my website and client requests via LinkedIn.

If you’re looking to do more with your blog than just write, the best thing you can do NOW is to get on HARO and promote yourself.

Christian Sculthorp, Agency Analytics, @sculthorpseo

I wish somebody told me to include influencers in my posts early on. When I first started blogging I would just pick a topic or SEO-driven keyword and write about it. I didn’t promote it.. I just expected people to come. If you do SEO right they will come without promotion but you can amplify good content by including influencers and asking them to share it. Most of the time they’re more than happy to share with their followers! You get so much more out of your hard-written content by doing it.

Do you have advice for bloggers who are just starting out? Share your top tip in the comments below and help this list expand and reach as many new bloggers as possible.

The post 50 Professional Bloggers Weigh In With Their Top Advice For New Bloggers appeared first on ConvertKit.