Before I started this blog, I used to think that to be successful online you had to know something that a few people only knew. Needless to say, I wanted to know what that something was, and so I started to buy products that promised to make me rich overnight.

It’s not that I had much hope on becoming rich overnight (I was ignorant but not naive), and I already had a nice salary. The thing is, I wanted to know; why is that some guys are able to create successful websites or blogs and are making thousands of dollars online by working only a few hours per week?

I believe I know the answer now, and it’s not what I thought it was.

The Journey

If you are a long term reader of this blog (thank you!), you will probably remember when I started this website from nothing, how I started my 10,000 euros per month experiment, and when I announced I was ending it in order to focus on this blog exclusively. The good news is that I’m starting that experiment again soon, so I may start to re-post my monthly reports again.

Anyway, let’s look at what happened when I started to focus entirely on the blog:

The graph above represents the number of RSS subscribers of this blog. That number indicates how many people have decided to use a software like Google Reader to keep track of the newest posts, and it’s often used to measure a blog’s popularity. On January 1st I only had 398 subscribers; today I have 2456. Not bad.

Traffic has also grown exponentially in the last two months, and I’ve seen my posts being featured on websites like Lifehacker and Alltop.

I’m not saying this to impress anyone, I’m just to provide some background information and support on what I’m going to write next.

The single most important thing you need to know

So let’s go back to when I was buying all those guides about becoming successful online. What did I learn? To be honest, I didn’t learn much other than using some particular plugins and knowing how to submit my articles to certain websites in order to get some traffic. Sure, websites like Stumbleupon can send you tens of thousands of visitors per day, but that never happens when you submit your own stuff hoping for the best. What I really learned the hard way is that the only thing that matters is having great content.

You heard it right, the only real secret of online success is having great, amazing content. The rest can wait.

I now laugh every time I hear someone says that content is no longer that important.

False.

Content is now more important than ever. Think about it. Why do you spend a lot of time browsing your favorite websites? Because you like their content, right?

But of course, this simple truth is hard to sell, and that’s why you rarely see it being mentioned.

How to create amazing content

Let’s take a look at what great content looks like, and then hopefully you’ll see how you can apply this truth to your real life as well. The following is a screenshot for a website I love:

The screenshot above is taken from a page that received hundred of thousands of visitors just for a few lines of text. Its author, Leo Babauta, is well known for his Zenhabits Blog, which is one of the most popular websites on the internet. Do you know why he is so successful? Because he is extremely passionate about what he does.

The best way to create amazing content online is to be extremely passionate about your topic.

It’s only when you’re passionate about something that you can transmit some of your passion to your readers, thus making them feel special. And that’s the secret.

End of the story.

Really, there’s nothing more than that, and I wouldn’t trust anyone saying the opposite.

Here are some other tips for creating amazing content:

  • Believe in what you do. If you don’t believe in what you’re doing, don’t expect other people to do it for you.
  • Be willing to try, and share your results. People love to see experiments. Example.
  • Be honest. There’s no need to lie when you’re passionate about your topic. Being honest creates trust and reinforces relationships.

This fundamental principle can be applied to every aspect of your life.

It’s only when you deeply care about something that you get the best results. Thanks for reading this.