Blogging has surged in popularity over the past few years. Anyone can start their own blog, but for a blog to be truly successful it takes something else, nouce, knowledge, determination and the total drive to push through the hard days and nights and keep going. Your blog could be about all kinds of things. Perhaps it is a business blog on your website designed to pull more traffic in. Maybe it is an informative kind of blog about a certain aspect of life like cooking or parenthood or you could be running a giveaway style blog. Whatever kind of blog you choose, there are certain things you need to do to ensure it is not only successful, but that it stays viable in the long term so that people continue to use it not start going somewhere else for whatever you offer. There are many mistakes to make. Some are silly and easily rectifiable, whereas others are deadly in the extreme. Here are some blunders you will always want to avoid wherever possible. You have likely already thought about some of these key mistakes, especially the bigger ones. But by having a read through you can harm yourself with some of the things you should always avoid if you can.
Not Getting Some Form Of Input Or Choosing The Right Host
It all depends on what kind of blog you use. However, you will need help doing it. It will take time and dedication, but you can pull it off. Using something like wordpress can be daunting at first, but there are guides all over the place looking to help and show you the way. Getting this input can steer you down the right path. It may be that wordpress isn’t for you and you can consider something else entirely. If you are running a blog for a business you should look at some of the successful blogs out there such as the Digitalico blog. Seeing how business manage their blogs can give you the inspiration to do the same. Whether it is research, or actually asking or paying someone for their help, you should always get a little input. This can lead to you getting the right host. If you fail to get the right host you may end up rueing it down the line and needing to change when you have already built up a huge amount of subscribers. Get it right the first time an you will never need worry about this arising.
Not Finding A Perfect Niche
If you are building a blog for your business you can skip this step as your niche will be dictated by the type of business you operate. If you are only creating a blog though you should be aware of the kind of blog you want to create. You must ensure that you get the blog right. If you have a great idea, research it. Someone may have beaten you to it. If their blog is totally small fry consider going through with it anyway. If not, then go back to the drawing board. Try and figure something else out. Something that taps into your passion of that you want to share but in a different way. People need to be able to relate to it when they are reading it, otherwise it becomes dry and without feeling. Don’t worry too much, you can do this if you put the correct thought to it. The niche can be further expanded with other categories on your blog, so don’t feel too restrained. You just need that one killer idea to set your blog up with and the rest will follow suit as time goes by.
Not Posting Often Enough
When people start subscribing they are going to want certain amounts of content to read through. People subscribing is a big deal because it means they are interested enough to trust you with their email address but they’ll expect content. Don’t be lazy and give some time to crafting more content. You know your niche, so write about it. Keep it varied too, each post doesn’t have to be huge and consisting of multiple hard researched facts. Instead keep some short and snappy. Inject humour here and there. Just make them readable. Some can be infographics too. You’ll soon settle into a routine. This could be one post a day, or if more pressed for time two a week. If you are finding it particularly difficult you can think about hiring a freelance writer to write some posts for you, just make sure they are of a certain quality before going ahead with it. When you and the subscribers get used to the routine everything will start falling into place.
Not Allowing Guest Posts
Sometimes you can supplement your own posts with those of guest posts. When you start finding people immensely interested in what you do and write you can allow them a guest post on something similar that they may have additional expertise in. This can be a great way of pulling more people in and adding to your site. You need to be careful though, read through each post before putting it live. Check for spelling and grammar because if it is wrong in places it will hurt the reputation of your blog. It needs to be close to perfect. You don’t want people to see errors and go somewhere else. Allowing guest posts shows you are interacting with the community and allowing your fans some form of control over the blog they now love, and it also takes the onus off you in terms of getting a certain amount of blogs out a week.
Over Advertising
Sometimes you just can’t say know to the money offered. Other times you have to. Why? Because you’ll lose followers and devout supports faster than you could possibly imagine. Toe the line and don’t go overboard. Allow it in certain instances and blog posts, but not all of them. No one wants to read spammy content all the time or have to click the crosses of multiple pop ups or peer through annoying banner advertisements. Do it in fits and bouts, not all at once. Be tactful, imagine going onto your favourite site and seeing all kinds of annoying clutter and junk in the way of the posts you love. Doing some is fine, people know you need a certain degree of income from what you do. Just keep it in check and try not to overdo it.
People Not Being Able To See Your Blog
Make it visible. Use Google analytics, ensure people know your blog exists. Do some poaching. Comment on certain threads and link back to your site to garner some additional traffic. Explore other options. Social media is full of people. Post some articles on there with links back to your blog. Tell people why your blog is so good. Maybe dabble with a little bit of SEO. Speak to other blog owners who aren’t competitive and try to help each other by driving traffic to each others’ sites. This can really work. The differing types of posts you make can pull in more people through internet searches, so keep them varied and try not to keep posting about the same thing all the time. Check out what your competitors are doing and try to match them if you think they have upped their game. There are always lessons to be learnt with competitors. Match what they are doing well and don’t give your viewers a reason to jump ship.