Is the silence deafening when you visit your blog? Can you sometimes actually hear the sound of crickets chirping in the distance when you’re there? You started your blog with high hopes of becoming an Internet celebrity, or at least developing a strong loyal fan base and maybe making some money from it. But nothing is happening, and you don’t know why. If this sounds like your blog, then you’re probably making one or more of these 5 most common blogging mistakes.
Not Interacting With Your Readers
Blogging is a two-way street. Readers expect to be able to start a conversation with you. When you respond to readers, you’re developing a relationship with them that will make them into loyal followers. Too many bloggers never check comments, states Webloggerz.com. Or they turn off comments, which turns off readers….fast.
Read comments regularly — new and old posts. If you see something new, reply to the reader with a well-thought, nicely phrased response that shows you care about what they think and you’re listening to what they say. If a back-and-forth conversation gets going, participate in it, but keep it friendly.
Offer readers the ability to email you at a personalized domain name, suggests WebHostingBlueBook.com, to build your branding and make it easier for readers to communicate.
Ignoring Quality in Favor of Quantity of Posts
Your blog needs regular, fresh content. You know that. A blog with only one or two articles that never gets updates or one that only gets updated a couple of times a year will soon become a ghost town, says SocialMediaExaminer.com. Most bloggers go into a frenzy of writing when they begin their blogging enterprise. They’re full of ideas, and the posts have are high quality. Problems arise when you try to cram as much content as possible onto your blog every day.
Don’t write for the sake of adding as much content as you can. It’s that simple. Make sure each post you make is relevant and written well. Come up with four to five ideas a month and write quality articles on those ideas. Set them up to automatically post once a week on your blog through your content management system. Then, you can come up with more ideas throughout the rest of the month for your next round of posts.
Photo of someone blogging by @boetter via Flickr
Your Blog is Set Up So Readers Can’t Easily Share Your Posts
Social relevance is king on the Internet. Social sharing online is arguably more important to the success of your blog than appearing at the top of the search engines for your keywords. Make it easy for readers to share what you’ve written.
Share some of your content. Many bloggers seem to think their blog is a shining beacon in the wilderness, lighting the way for their readers to find them. Let’s be realistic, though. The Internet is a huge place, and they probably won’t find it without help. If you have accounts on any social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or the like, post links to your content there. Your social media followers can see your posts and share them with others using the built-in share features on those sites. Next, add share buttons to your website and make sure your site is set up to include those buttons on each of your new posts. There are many WordPress plugins and widgets that allow you to add these buttons with ease, and HTML sites such as Code Academy have special coding that allows for placement of the buttons.
Your Blog Bores You
In many ways, starting a blog is like beginning a new romantic relationship. It’s all passionate and exciting in the beginning and you can’t wait to be with your blog every day. Then, the relationship gets into a rut and you get bored. The magic isn’t there anymore. When it wears off for you, it will wear off for your readers, too.
However, like most relationships, the initial magic can be rekindled. Remember what drew you to your blog topic to begin with and you need to spice things up a little bit to make it more interesting. Get your passion for your blog back by throwing in some posts that are out of the ordinary. They may not be specifically aligned with the overall theme of your blog, but they’ll be interesting, unexpected and fun. This can bring back the old love you used to have for your blog, and your readers will be excited, too.
If it’s actual writing itself that has started to bore you (usually because it starts to feel like a chore, rather than a joy), then try some different styles of posting. Use video posts. Post photos with captions. Get other people to guest post on your blog. Spice things up and make writing exciting for you again. In some cases, it may be as simple as changing the layout or background of your blog so you’re not looking at the same thing all the time, states writinghappiness.com.
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