Many people blog just because while others blog to gain a following. Either way, there is a certain point when you come to discover you've gone from being the only person reading your blog to having a real audience.
5) Within four hours of posting a blog entry you find other bloggers are talking about the same thing.
This holds especially true when you are blogging about something out of the norm. If you are blogging about a political gaff and everyone else picks up on it then it does not count. If you are blogging about how your attempt at making a pumpkin soufflé went wrong...
4) A few days after you post a blog entry you find others have stolen your content and put it on their blogs.
Now, I know imitation is the highest form of flattery but... a good blogger puts time and effort into their stories and blatantly ripping them off is just unkind. Don't give me any, "it's not stealing because it's still on their blog," line either!
3) Your RSS feed gets more hits then your blog's homepage.
That is a very good sign, it show's people think enough of your blog to subscribe to your feed.
2) Your advertising checks go from "once a year" to "once a month."
A lot of blogs are going with AdSense these days and AdSense only pays out once a month *if* your balance is over $100. It can be a very slow rise as you watch pennies trickle in and build up. It's also annoying to see yourself with an AdSense balance of $99.99 on the last day of the month!
For those that do not know, when that check comes in, Google *does* take out taxes.
1) Other people *Digg* your blog so you don't have too!
Many bloggers start out by Digging their blog and using any and all social bookmarking sites to try and bring in traffic. Once you've reached the point where people are submitting your blog to the social bookmarking sites before you do then you have made it.
There you have it, my 5 signs of success in blogging.
