Blogging is easy, getting yourself established as a successful blogger is not. Everyday, numerous people embark upon the journey of blogging while choosing different topics and platforms, but only few manage to endure the initial setbacks and grow into a successful blog.
Being an Internet Marketer and an avid blogger, I have been observing the blogosphere for quite some time, and I have short-listed some of the most common mistakes made by the new start ups. In the following article I will be sharing these mistakes. If you are a new entrant into the dynamic world of blogging, I suggest you to read on, take a look and make sure that you are not repeating any of them. Remember that an adequate blog planning is as important as those listed below.
Not choosing a specific topic
The flop blogs are usually the ones with no specific theme but a hodgepodge of many different topics (e.g. blogging, SEO, Internet Marketing, Tech, Travel, Hobbies, etc). Now, blogging doesn’t really require a typical format but there are some points that you must keep in mind. For instance, if you wish to have a readership that shares your enthusiasm, you must make sure that each and every post is related to that particular topic. Doing posts on various topics means that you will never be able to get a loyal readership, which is very important for a successful Blog.
Apart from the readership, non-specific topics will also make it hard for you to optimize your Blog for the search engines. If you are aware of the very basics of SEO, you should know that SEO is all about choosing a set of relevant keywords and optimizing your website for those keywords. When you are blogging on multiple topics, you will be having no particular keywords to go for.
Low quality Content (AKA Thin content)
Search engines (especially Google) have serious issues with low quality content. It is now time that you start scrutinizing the content going live on your blog. Plagiarism is of grave concern for every website and that includes taking an article and just rewriting it. If you wish to quote some news or someone else’s work, do not forget to give the website or the writer his/her due credit, and try to include your own opinion or comment on all the happenings when posting news. There is no harm in being inspired from someone’s work but it is very important that you do your own write-up. Copying the expression, views, opinions, research, of some known blogger will only flush your credibility down the drain.
Limited Networking
Unlike diary, a blog is supposed to be a public thing, so there’s no point in guarding your Blog by closing the comments and allowing no contributions from other writers (unless you are writing for your own catharsis and no other purpose). Reach out to fellow bloggers, write guest posts for the relevant blogs and invite them to do so at your blog. Leaving intriguing and appropriate comments on other relevant blogs is a definite way to expand your network. If you run a business or trade blog, guest posts and commenting is the one of the most effective ways to find prospect clients and business partners.
Invite your social network friends and contacts to your blog, leave regular twitter and Facebook updates about the blog and most of all utilize the feedback as much as you can.
No regular updates
If you don’t have a passion for blogging (which means you will blog in spite of the response you are getting), then it is not going to benefit you or your blog. Good bloggers are active bloggers, they have things to share all the time. Many blogs, which have been popular once, are taken off the ranks and they are not attracting new readers because they are not updated on regular basis. Giving a post or two each month is not enough, if you are looking to become a successful blogger and build a loyal blog readership, you must aim for at least two posts ever week.
Using technical language
Sometimes your sophistication becomes your limitation. People want to learn and at the same time, have a good time while learning, that’s precisely the reason why they come to your Blog. Technical, dry, and obscure information is tortures for such readers. If you must share some technical information, try to do it in a basic and comprehensible manner. Leave the technicalities for syllabus books and don’t come up with posts loaded with technical jargon. I know certain topics demand technical notes but there are ways to make them simple and interesting.
The first thing that you should do after reading this post is to go back, take a look at your own Blog, and see if you are committing any of these mistakes. It’s not that avoiding the aforementioned mistakes will guarantee a success, but it will definitely reduce the chances of failure, thus providing you with a blogging legacy that you can be proud of. To your success!
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Jane | Find All Answers
Using technical language is a sure thing to scare your readers away. Even if you are in a very narrow niche, as long as your blog is public, people outside the niche should also be able to read and understand you blog posts.
If not that is a big hindrance to your blog’s success as you will sound alien to many people.
Nice post, Isabel.
Jane.
Hi Jane. You are right.. I think in a way, Isabella is saying that we should try and apply the K.I.S.S. principle when communicating to our audience. Obviously, it all boils down to the topic we choose. The how to types, for example, depending on what it is, can be very technical (programming and hacks for example), and it is unavoidable to be more technical in this case. Basically, the use of the right “language” is what I think is important here. Thanks for stopping by and sorry to be barging in for Isabella…
Latief @ Simple Blogging Tips
Yes, is not easy to become a successful blogger. We need to spend so many resources, time and effort to become one of them. I agree with you about the quality content and lack of networking. As a blogger we must try to always provide good and useful contents and increase our network 😉
Thanks for sharing Isabella.
Hi Latief. You got that right, spending time and effort is one of the keys to being a successful blogger. No easy ride 🙂 Thanks for stopping by
lawmacs
You are right you have listed five mistakes that some of us makes however i must agree that we should try and have at least two posts per week Thanks for sharing these hopefully new bloggers will read and try to avoid them
Hi Gary. Post frequency is actually very important as neglecting it could seriously hamper your blog. The upward path to success is so very hard, but going down is easy, and the hard part once we achieve something is to maintain it there.
All the best..
Dennis Edell@ Direct Sales Marketing
Ya know, I see “choose a specific topic” as #1 to all these mistake type posts, and yet I’ve seen more then a few “mixed bag” type blogs do very well for themselves…..what do you think?
Karen
I agree Dennis, my blog has always been a mixed bag and it’s doing quite well for itself, so maybe there should be a rethink on #1 😉
Hi Karen. As I told Dennis, for every rule there is an exception and you are one of those that can be used as a “model” of having a successful “multiple topic” blog :). The fact is, there is not much around to serve as an example because it is very difficult to succeed with this type of format and it is true that it makes SEO a lot more difficult.
You stand out among the few who made it happen, but all other things aside, you work very hard in posting regularly, you are very active in the social web, and engage with your friends, build connections and this could go on.. Multiple topics is possible, but very complicated to succeed in my view, unless you decide to be some sort of a news type of site.
Dennis Edell@ Direct Sales Marketing
Actually Karen, you’re always my first thought when I have this type discussion. 😉
I agree with you Dennis, and for every rule there is an exception. Although it is true that a blogger can succeed in a sort of “multiple topics” kind of blog, the chances of success is very slim and unless you are like “Karen” who is very active in social engagement, among other things, I would avoid getting in to these multiple “topic” type blog 🙂
Dennis Edell@ Direct Sales Marketing
I think Di, this is why most people call them “personal blogs”. For all intents and purposes, this removes all success/failure labels. 😉
You are right Dennis. If it is “personal”, there is really no point in worrying at all about any of these stuff 🙂
Zarah Alvie
Hi Di,
Title and content play an important role in blogging.Mostly visitor wants good and unique content.But If we use technical language then its not mostly understandable by all visitors.DieTesco you discussed really good topic for blogger.
You are welcome Zarah. Thanks for stopping by.
Sam @ Weekend Getaways
Decide your niche that’s really important for your blog. I’ve seen few bloggers who don’t choose any niche as they want to cover everything so that they can attract all kind of people and make huge money. But this is totally wrong you can’t be perfect in all field so you need to be specific about your blog niche only then you can concentrate well and earn money as well.
I hear you Sam. I was one of those that started like this in the beginning and boy was I so wrong. This is particularly true if you are monetizing your blog.. Take AdSense as an example, if your blog is multi-topic, you will never get any decent PPC ads to display as Google bots will never figure out what you really are talking about 🙂
Terje Sannarnes
From my point of view, there are 3 main reasons, for which people don’t succeed in blogging. They are the following: 1) bloggers don’t provide readers with interesting content; 2) bloggers don’t select effective marketing strategy and 3) bloggers don’t monetize their resources properly.
Well said Terje. Simple but good enough reasons.. Thanks for stopping by
Adam
DiTesco;
I have visited your blog before but now after Michele’s recommendation you would definitely be seeing me more often (O:
Great insights here Isabella. I can really relate t not choosing a specific topic before I started Endeavor Online. I did have a hodgepodge blog – which of course was a total flop haha..
Later..
Hi Adam and welcome to my blog. It is good to know that you have “found” me via Michele. So to show you that “building” relationships is something than no one should neglect, and that is part of the “networking” issue Isabella is talking about.
Thanks for stopping by and I do hope to see more from you here in the future.
Ana | Traffic Generation
This is a great post, Isabella. Those hindrances are spot on and mistakes that many new bloggers make.
Martin Platt@SEO SEM Strategy Reporting
This is a very interesting article, and I do like how you tie it in to a ‘high quality site’ relating to the google panda algorithm which I also read!
It is interesting with the blogs how you mention about not having a topic – do you think that it is acceptible to have multiple topics within an overall umbrella topic? I’m asking in the context of a business for example – for example a business that helps small and medium sized business get up an running online, and has things like SEO, Mobile Apps, Strategy, Reporting (bear with me, it’s not a name drop!) do you think that it is acceptable to blog on those topics since they are bound by the overall concept of the success of the business? Or is that too vague?
Technical jargon – I’m technical, and it still surprises me the number of people that are, and cannot communicate effectively at all. Then there is the other side of the coin, those that can communicate but don’t understand the technology – you can’t win!
On the point of regular updates – I heard a great podcast from an internet marketer where he said that he blogged only once or twice a month, but did articles that made massive amounts of money. I guess his site has a lot of link juice coming from many different places, just a different perspective, and I guess he’s probably not in it for the blogging love!
Thanks for the post man, enjoyed both.
Hi Martin. Thanks for your input. Your example about the “overall” umbrella topic is perfectly fine as they all relate to an overall topic. A good example is my blog. I do not limit myself in writing only about affiliate marketing for example. I write just about “anything” that relates to helping an internet user build a successful small online business. While they may seem diverse, they are related to each other. So what I am saying is, what you are saying makes sense. The idea about multiple-topics is when you combine unrelated subjects all together.
Bottom line about technical jargon is avoid at all cost, or if that is not possible, try to explain it 🙂
Regular updates, is sometimes a matter of discipline. For a news site for example, they obviously can not afford to update their blogs two or three times a month only. It defeats the purpose of their chosen topic. The example you gave may be true but maybe, just aybe, the oner has other blogs or sites that are updated on a more regular basis and constantly points towards the other 😉
I really love the third evidence about networking. Blogging is not just you saying about yourself. Blogging is about engaging with other people and share your passion 🙂
My thoughts exactly Tho. Thanks for providing your input. Al the best
Daniel L.
I agree that it is important to know the specific niche for the website so that the blog writer would also know what kind of topics he would like to write. and discuss. All I know is content is the king so it is proper that the content shouldn’t be thin content. Maybe I should broaden my networking skills by using more time with my social networking sites. It is a good thing I update my content regularly and I am not using technical language.
Hi Daniel. Networking is important, although I can understand why many people do not “like” very much in getting involved 🙂 I think the right “does” is good and it really does not have to be like constantly being on Twitter or FaceBook or anything like that. Commenting for example is a good form and there are still many who neglect it.
I think this one:
“Not choosing a specific topic”
is kind of debatable. I mean, there are so many random blogs here and there that are doing quite good and gaining nice followers or community. IMHO, its a case to case basis.
Hi Ron. As I mentioned above in one of my responses, for every rule there is an exception. I know that there are a “handful” of random blogs out there that are doing good, but by comparison, focused and specific topics, normally, when given the right attention, tends to stand out better and faster 🙂
Greg
Good points raised in your post and thye comments made,
I began my blog 3 years ago and chose only 8 keywords.It has expanded since but I must allways be aweare of adding new keywords as my blog will become less focused
Re-the writing and being too techie.:I aim to write for a general readershjip and shjouild I see that the reading level has gone up,I adjust my grammer accordingly.High School is a good mark point for me and my readers
GHreg
David Purse
I would agree with every single one of these points! I have friends who blog for a few days and then abandon their blog because no-one visits. As I’ve told them, these things take determination, passion, work, persistence and sometimes entirely rethinking the project! I think a lot of people think they can just post for a week and thousands of people will come and they’ll make bazillions of dollars in Adsense revenue. If only!
Michael
I agree with what you said Isabella. Blogging is quite easy to begin because it’s free. But the people who succeed surely have an attitude about content. They don’t plagiarize or rewrite. They simply create original fresh content and that is why they succeed.That is why there are various kind of bloggers online, being the SUPER blogger, it pays.
Michael @WebTrafficGeneration
Content is still king and there is no alternative. I’m being careful with the content I deliver to my cherished readers. I want to engage them so that I can get the best from them.
Jarvis@TekTimeITConsulting
Very good info. Especially the mention of tech-talk that can scare away readers. Being in the tech industry I see this all the time. Articles and posts that scream “I’m smart”, but hold little value to the reader(s).
Nishadha
I think choosing a topic depends on what you want from your blog. I’m a fan of niche blogging and I have blogs with around 5-10 posts that are doing well in search engines and making me money. But if you want to build a readership and build a brand then it is important to choose a broad topic which you can discuss and post about a lot.