10 Ways You’re Probably Going Wrong With Your Blog
It’s no secret that creating a new blog is a simple process these days.
Most website hosts have a one-click install option for blogging platforms like WordPress, and in the space of just five minutes, you can launch a new blog dedicated to any particular subject or group of interests.
The trouble is making your blog attractive towards its intended audience and making it gain popularity. Sadly, those new to the world of blogging and Internet marketing will seldom succeed at building popular blogs and will likely give up after a short period.
You’re doubtless reading this article today because you’re planning a new blog, or you’ve recently launched one, and you want to avoid making any mistakes that could hinder its success.
The issue is, you’re unsure which problems you should avoid – and the ones most bloggers are likely to make without the correct guidance.
Without any further ado, take a look at the following top ten mistakes people make with their blogs – and how you can avoid making them:
1. Having The Wrong Writing Style
A classic mistake that many bloggers make is writing in the wrong “style.”
What does that mean, you ask yourself? Assume that you’ve set up a personal blog. If your blog sounds too corporate and uses words like “we” instead of “I”, you run the risk of confusing your reading.
What’s more, you could give your blog visitors the impression that your content lacks authority and credibility. To that end, ensure your blog content’s writing style is correct – especially when addressing yourself or your entity.
2. Forgetting About Scrutinising Analytics
When it comes to tracking who visits a blog, where they come from, and what they read, many people will automatically stick with Google Analytics.
However, are you aware it doesn’t provide a one-size-fits-all solution for all bloggers? You may not know it, but there are plenty of analytics platforms that can do a better job than Google in different blogging scenarios.
Make sure you research the best analytics platform for your blog – and ensure you use it to its full potential.
3. Not Keeping The Blog Secure
The sad truth about the Internet is that many unscrupulous users are lurking and ready to conduct malicious acts on online content. Examples include:
- stealing sensitive information;
- taking over sites to spread malware; and
- causing web servers to crash with DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks.
As a blog owner, it’s your responsibility to ensure your site is as secure as possible. Thankfully, you can easily achieve that goal by installing security plugins on your chosen blogging platform, using TLS encryption, and sticking with a reliable website host.
4. Having No Passion
People tend to visit blogs partly because the people writing the content are passionate about what they say. If blogging feels more like a chore than something awesome, you should probably stop now.
No-one wants to read stale, lifeless content that looks like spam. Blog visitors want to read content that interests them and gives them the impression you’re an expert in your chosen topic.
5. Failing To Have A Blogging Schedule
There is no ideal schedule for blogging. When you run a blog, you should fit in your content publishing according to your work and lifestyle commitments. If you’re too busy, consider inviting other authors to contribute content to your blog.
As for how often you should write new posts, the answer is “it depends.” A news site should probably have a few new articles published each day, whereas a blog updating viewers on a car restoration project will likely be okay with weekly updates.
6. Ignoring SEO Issues
SEO or “Search Engine Optimisation” is a big deal. If you don’t know about SEO, take the time to research it. Otherwise, pay a professional to handle that side of things on your blog.
Having great content is one thing, but you still need to take various technical steps to ensure you can maximise your blog’s visibility to its intended audience.
If you like doing most things on your blog yourself, the good news is that SEO isn’t something that requires you to have a computer science degree!
7. Trying To Blog Alone
Irrespective of whether a blog is personal or business-oriented, most new bloggers will typically start writing content and managing their blogs alone.
That’s fine in most cases, but as a blog grows, it makes sense to invite other authors to contribute content. Doing so ensures the content stays fresh and gives visitors something to read from other people’s perspectives.
You could pay knowledgeable content writers to curate new posts for you until your blog has grown, at which point you’ll find guest writers are happy to pay you to add content to your blog!
8. Putting No Thought In The Blog’s Design
The vast majority of bloggers will create their blogs on a desktop or laptop computer. They might assume their sites look great, but how can they be sure?
If you want people to take your blog seriously, check that the design fits in with your blog’s audience and, most importantly, works on the devices that they use the most.
Conduct some usability tests on desktop and mobile devices with different screen sizes to confirm that everything looks good and works as it should.
9. Avoiding Cloud Content Syndication
You’ve likely researched the best (and fastest) website hosting solution for your needs. When you load your blog, all the content gets displayed at lightning speeds.
But, what happens if someone from the other side of the world wants to visit your blog – will they have the same fast-loading experience?
The answer is likely “no” so it makes sense to take advantage of cloud content syndication. Services like Amazon AWS will serve copies of your blog posts and media from different servers worldwide that mirror the content on your website host.
That way, when someone from Australia wants to view content on your British blog, for example, they’ll see a “live” version of your site loaded from a server in Sydney or Melbourne.
10. Stealing Other People’s Work
Last but not least, one of the most significant mistakes many bloggers make (unknowingly or not) is copying other content online and using it in their posts.
Quoting what someone has said is one thing, but doing a literal copy-and-paste of several paragraphs of text and media is plagiarism. It will also harm your standing with search engines like Google.
If you’re unsure whether your blog posts are unique or not, use a service like Copyscape to check. It’s inexpensive and takes just a few seconds.
