If you are new to blogging you may feel that it is overwhelming. Today we are going to talk about ten common blogging mistakes, that will help make blogging is fun and easy. With this handy list of the most common blogging mistakes you can avoid them with ease.
- Not being original - Many people are hesitant to be themselves online. Yet your personality is what will attract attention and readers. Don't hesitate to be who you are.
- Not giving credit where credit is due. If you use information or ideas from anyone, ask permission, and give them credit. It doesn't weaken your content or your credibility, in fact, it enhances it. And not sourcing your material can get you in trouble legally, and you don't want to be in that position.
- Not responding to comments – If you don't want comments you can set it so you people cannot leave them. I would not recommend setting to no comments, instead I would recommend setting up spam filters. I recommend that you keep comments open and respond promptly.
- Giving up too early – Blogs aren't going to achieve instant success overnight. This is why it's so important to enjoy what you're blogging about. Eventually, with enough care and attention your readership will grow.
- Not posting enough – There's a common rule that says you have to blog every day. You don't have to blog every day. However, if your readers don't hear from you for a week or two, they will forget about you. Keep them happy. Keep them visiting your blog. Publish often. I always recommend blogging twice a week. Studies indicate Monday and Thursday mornings are the best time to post.
- Not having a well defined topic – What are you blogging about? Make sure that your topic is not only apparent but also narrow. For example, instead of blogging about dogs, blog about miniature dogs. Or make it an even tighter niche and blog about breeding or training miniature dogs. The more specific your niche topic the easier it'll be to attract a following. Although this is highly recommended I have great difficulty with this one. But the pros do highly recommend it.
- Not choosing a topic that you can sustain – If you choose a topic that you're passionate about, you can write every day year around and not lose enthusiasm for your topic. Choose a topic that's not so interesting to you and you'll be lucky to hammer out a blog post a month. It's just not going to work.
- Having too many Ads – Make sure your blog is content focused. Advertisements are fine. However a blog that's 90% ads and 10% content won't attract a loyal following.
- Forgetting value – People will read your blog because it is: informative, entertaining, or educational. In short, they'll read it because it offers value. Make sure your posts regularly offer value.
- Not promoting your blog – Get out and promote your blog! People won't find you as quickly if you don't shout it from the rooftops. Comment on other blogs and use your blog URL when you register. Participate on social networking and become a guest blogger. In your guest blog bio, link to your blog address.
Blogging really is a great way to connect, make a profit and grow a business. Avoid these ten mistakes and you'll achieve blogging success much more quickly and easily. Wishing you much success!
If you have any questions, or have tips or tricks that work for you on blogging or anything in social media, please stop by my Facebook page and leave a comment on Kim's Facebook.
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Boy do I agree with all of these Kim. Gotta be honest and admit that my 2 biggest blogging mistake when I was getting started were using too much PLR and not just being me. I tried to be so professional and used the "fake it til you make it" strategy I had been taught by a big time guru (maybe not really so big after all??) and both totally came back to bite me in the butt!
I hear you Celene. I think I may have been following that same big time guru ;-( Hope you are having an awesome weekend.
Great tips, thanks! My big downfall is when personal problems interfere with my blog life (like the past couple of months!), so I'm not able to focus on my blog or post enough. Somehow I need to overcome that. Also, narrowing my niche–I'm not a young mom, but I'm very much interested in "young mom" things. (I'm a reading tutor, and I really love early childhood education and all things "home.") I'm interested in so many things, and I'm kind of all over the place with my posts, which isn't exactly conducive to a narrow niche!
Pam, I know it can be hard to stay up with blog posts. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t get one written as often as you want to. What I find works good for me, is when I am in the mood to write I’ll write a few extra posts and tuck them away for times I may not feel like writing. So, what you do about narrowing your niche is imagine your ideal client, her age. I’m guessing she would be a she a young mom probably of an elementary school aged child if that is the age you tutor, and just keep building her profile from there. Then when you go to market, market to that one person and you’ll be marketing to your niche, does that make sense? Good luck. Keep me posted on who it is going.
Excellent list – and I agree with almost all of them. The only one I'd take a little bit of issue with is having a well-defined topic. Many personal blogs are as varied as the blogger's life and work very well because of it.
Thanks for stopping by Ellen. That is so true. I really wasn’t even thinking about personal blogs, because you are right they are varied and often times that is exactly what makes them work. I know for me it’s hard to stick to my defined topic of social media, because I like to talk about organization and other topics too, and sometimes I do;-)
While the newspaper is perhaps a declining industry, readership behaviors can be applied in the digital space. One learning is that readers who subscribe daily retain better than those who subscribe just one day a week. That is because habit is created — as you stated.
However, in the digital space, more important than blogging X-times a week or whatever is to create habit so people know when to read you. If people know you public the first Monday of a month, publishing once a month is OK — especially if the content is better than forcing out poor content twice a week.
The blogger problem is when people do not know your schedule, check back and dont see updates. If you publish monthly but nobody knows it, they may check your site a fews, see no new updates, and be gone forever.
So my point? Don't feel as if you need to post very often to create habit – though that works. Posting less frequently is fine, as long as people know your schedule. All you are trying to create is habit — regardless of the frequency!
Great point and thanks for sharing. We are definitely creatures of habit. Thanks for taking the time to share, I really appreciate it. Hope to hear from you in the future.