If you are serious about creating a successful blog, you need to do all the research you can about effective blogging. It truly is a dog eat dog world and the competition is intense.
This is not to say that you cannot create a successful blog, but just be mindful of some common mistakes. As common as some of these are, it can have detrimental effects on your rating and traffic numbers.
Your audience should be the top priority and gaining their trust is crucial. Building relationships with your readers is going to take your blog to new heights. Here are 10 mistakes you should avoid:
1. Publishing often, but not consistently
If you want to gain the trust of your audience, you need to be consistent. Publishing 4 times a week on random days is not going to get you there. Also, writing often might force you to write about topics you do not care about.
Doing an employee bio, when your blog is about health and fitness, does not gel. You need to decide on which days you will publish and stick with it.
If your goal is to blog every Wednesday, you want to do just that. This way, your audience will start relying on you and know to check in at that time. If you have some inconsistency, your readers might miss a lot of your posts.
You want your traffic to increase and your posts to reach as many individuals as possible. Create that schedule and stick with it as much as possible.
2. Writing purely for SEO
Every blogger wants to get as much traffic as possible and hence, will write for SEO purposes. There is nothing wrong with that, but you have to consider your audience.
Adding a ton of keywords might get you a good rating, but even Google has caught up with this tactic.
Some of the new SEO rules include no keyword stuffing and writing content that is unique and fresh. It is easy to write for SEO and humans, but you want to make sure that the balance is on point.
It cannot lean more towards that of SEO. Write for humans and not for robots.
3. Focusing on length
Long, juicy articles are definitely great, but if you are just trying to focus on your word count, you are doing it wrong. Writing a short bio that is intellectual is better than writing a longer one that says nothing.
Your posts should be focused on adding value and writing in depth content. Rather give your audience less words and more value. This is where you are going to stand out as a blogger or content creator.
You really are giving your readers no chance to drift away and click on another website. If you can give all the important facts in a short, yet effective manner, you are going to have some good bounce back rates.
4. You aren’t writing in your own voice
Many bloggers try to either copy other bloggers or try to sound more professional than they really are. You want to make sure that you write in your own voice.
It is going to make the writing process so much easier for you and you will be able to connect with others. If someone does not like the way your voice sounds, they can just move on to the next blog.
You need an audience who accepts you for who you are. Being authentic will take you and your blog a long way.
5. Editing while writing
Unless you are a really awesome, top-notch writer, you probably need some editing after your first draft. Please do not edit while you are writing.
If you take a break from your creative flow every 5 minutes, you are going to lose that flow. Your brain then has to switch from the creative side to the technical side.
Write your first draft, take a few minutes away from it and then you sit down to edit.
6. There is no personality
You have to remember that every reader is an actual human being. Do not overthink what you are writing and just be yourself.
Show your quirky side every now and then. This is going to help you establish loyal readers.
You would feel comfortable and so will your audience. If you had a friend who was constantly trying to be someone else, you might say something because it can quickly be sensed.
The same applies with writing. Your readers will be able to get a sense of who you are, but only if you show them the real you.
7. A successful blog has a niche
Your blog has to have a niche that you absolutely love and are passionate about. Writing about random topics that do not tie into one another is a sure way to confuse the search engines, as well as the readers.
You can make your niche broad, but not random. If you have a bio website, add posts with information that educates and entertains around the specific niche.
There are many lifestyle bloggers out there and although their topics seem random, they have defined the blog niche. If your blog is based on something more specific, you stand a greater chance of success if you stick to it.
Once you have an idea of a better niche, simply start another blog, but do not mix the two if they are unrelated.
8. Repeating covered information
The internet is full of valuable information, but you do not want to take the same information and add it to your blog. You want to make sure that everything you add is unique and authentic.
Add some value to what is already out there. This might require some deep research, but it is going to be worth it. Another way of finding new information is in your own life.
Think about what you wish you could find on the internet and write about that. Your life is not the same as anyone else’s, so make your experiences are the foundation for your writing.
9. Poor writing
It is important to pay attention to your grammar and spelling when managing a blog. There are no excuses for bad writing. You have a lot of tools available online, which will help you create beautiful content.
Find a good spelling and grammar checker, just to be on the safe side. A poorly written blog will also not win you any SEO points. So be sure to reread and edit your post before you press that publish button.
It might take you a little longer, but the extra time spent on proofreading and editing is definitely worth it.
10. No passion
Probably the most common mistake is people starting blogs they are not passionate about. Just because a niche is popular and gets a lot of traffic, does not mean you should do it.
If you are not able to write thousands of posts in one niche, then what are you really doing? Find your own true passion and trust me, there are people out there just like you who will love it.
Conclusion
Having a blog and writing is not always as easy as some make it seem, but it can be a great endeavour. Give it your all and you will have a successful blog in no time.
Have you ever made mistakes such as those mentioned above? If so, how did you handle them?
Do you have something to add that we missed?
Let us know with a quick comment below!
