For nearly twenty years now, the internet has been growing and transforming the way everyone does business and enjoys entertainment. Beginning shortly after the internet’s inception, bloggers have been online and using their portals as a platform to express their opinions and share their knowledge on various subjects. More recently, blogging has become a very profitable venture if done appropriately, but most successful blogs do not generate wads of income on their own. A few, however, have broken out and now are generating six and seven-figure incomes – a seemingly impossible task. It’s not, if you have the right skills, team and motivation.

Right Place, Right Time

We are sure that most large blogs will not outright admit that luck played a role in their own success, but this is a variable that weighs immensely into being successful. Many notable six-and-seven figure blogs like Huffington Post found themselves on the crest of innovation when it came to aggregation and pinging URLs; Mashable was started in 2005 as a blog that was dedicated to exploring the expansion of social media. Unfortunately, it’s practically impossible to artificially create this environment for yourself. Most blogs that wind up being successful start out as a labour of love by one or two people.

Aesthetic Creativity

Many successful blogs remember a time in which they had to “fake it until they made it”. What we mean by that is that their sites were designed to be creative, engaging and pleasing to the eye long before they became household names. Within this realm, you will also need to consider your own branding options such as a logo and site layout. By making a strong, consistent impression upon individuals, you will be more likely to create a bond. Vanilla-themed blogs blend into the rest of the internet and are easily forgotten – even if they have a great repository of information and opinion.

Be Bold, Opinionated, Resilient

Many successful blogs address topics that are heated and controversial; generally, passion breeds activity and with blogs, this is no exception. You should feel free to express your opinion in your own way, but you should also be prepared to deal with the eventual criticism that will come. Some criticism can be helpful – addressing site functionality, content or the range of opinions available are valid critiques that should be considered by you and any staff. However, you must also handle the criticism that will arise as a result of being opinionated. This type of criticism is necessary as it will continue the dialogue and discussion that brings people back to your site time and time again.

Getting the Word Out

Once you have built a solid base of readers and have been pinging URLs to your site to the major search engines, you will find that advertising is the final frontier in which you will have to compete. There are countless blogs out there vying for attention; what sets yours apart from the rest? There are both free and paid forms of advertising you can use to expand your blog’s profile – in the beginning stages, free advertising is the best route. Once your site is generating a measurable amount of revenue, it may be best to pour that back into targeted advertising efforts in order to expand your reach.