Many people make an excellent income just by blogging, and then there are those who make very little or next to nothing because they just can't seem to build enough traffic to get a readership going.

If you want to be a successful blogger then there are certain rules which you must follow; some of them are simple, while others may take a little extra effort on your part. So here are the rules:

Treat Your Blog Like A Business. This is the number one reason why some make tons of money blogging, and others make little or next to nothing. You have to treat your blog like a business if you want to make money with it.

Blog Regularly. Posting on a regular basis is very important if you want to increase your traffic and readership. The search engines will crawl your site depending on how often you update, and if you update on a regular basis you can have your work indexed much quicker. Also your readers will know when to expect new content.

So it does not matter whether you choose to update once a week or once a day, as long as you do it regularly. But keep in mind the more you update the faster your blog will grow. 3 to 5 posts a week is a good place to start.

If you have been making a blog post every day, and then one day find yourself not being able to keep up anymore, don't just stop suddenly, but rather taper the posting down slowly.

Blog In Advance. Write your blog posts well in advance, this way you have them ready in case of an emergency. Most blogging platforms allow you to schedule the posts to go live at a certain time and date, so make sure to take advantage of this feature. Blogging in advance will also help you to blog regularly.

Tag Your Blog Posts. Always make sure that you enter relevant tags for every blog post, so that the search engines will be able to better find you.

Blog From Experience. Blogging from your own experience is the best way to grow your readership, because it immediately gives you credibility in your market. Readers will more readily trust your advice and are more likely to refer others to you as well.

Be Yourself. When you write your posts just write as you normally would talk. This is your style and voice, and people will naturally be drawn to it. Of course not everyone, but those who share your personality will continue to be loyal readers.

Share Your Opinions. This is what blogging is all about; sharing your opinions. Don't worry about what people will say, or think. It does not matter what your opinion is, someone will always disagree, so don't let this stop you.

Create Value. Always write posts that will add value to someone's life in one way or another. If this means that you can only create one post per week, then so be it.

Blog With Your Audience in Mind. Always think about your audience when you write. What would they want to know, and what would they expect from your post. Put yourself in their shoes and then answer the questions which you think they might have.

Or better yet...ask your readers what they would like to know more about. This is an excellent way to get new ideas on your topics and it is a guarantee that your readers will come back if you have taken the time to answer their questions.

Write Well. This is a biggie. If your words or sentences do not flow as they should, readers will not care to continue reading. Make sure that you used all your words correctly, and always use a spell-checker to catch any spelling errors. Re-read your posts several times before posting it to your blog.

Create Good Titles. The title is what people see before they read the article, if the title is not what they were hoping for, then they might not continue reading the article. Spend time on this one if you have to.

Read Other Blogs. You should read the blogs of others who have gone before you, so that you can learn from them. It will help to stay on top of things and a lot of your inspiration is most likely to come from other blogs. Even though you have your own idea, and write your own articles, you can still be inspired by others.

Leave Comments. As you read related blogs, make sure to leave helpful comments, and always provide a link back to your blog or profile. Try to be the first one to leave a comment, this way others will have to scroll past your comment in order for them to leave theirs. Ideally you want to leave your comments on blogs with a high ranking.

Leaving comments will boost your credibility and also increase your traffic.

Build Back Links. Building back links to your blog is essential if you want to have a significant amount of traffic coming to your blog. You can do this by participating in forums, leaving comments, asking for a link exchange, or writing articles and submitting them to article directories.

Do Not Give Up. Whatever you do, do not give up with your blogging. It takes time to build a readership and a good amount of traffic coming to your blog. You may not see any money for a little while, but then if you do not give up, you will begin to see some positive results.