Let’s be honest up front here about blogging. You have millions of competitors out there, uploading new content to their blogs every second.
That’s the bad news. The good news, however, is that most of them are not very good. In fact, since we are being honest, most are pretty bad. Usually it’s the same problems that are preventing bloggers from truly creating an audience for them to share with.
Following is a concise list of 7 common mistakes to avoid with blogs, and their simple solutions.
1. Not Blogging Regularly / Not Replying to Comments
This is a common problem with many bloggers who were just starting out. If you really want to be successful in blogging, put your heart in it, put some time in it, and get yourself dedicated to blogging. Nothing beats a blog that is updated regularly. Nothing is worse than a blog that rarely gives anything new of value.
Another big blogging mistake is to not reply to your readers’ comments. You should always encourage them whenever the comment on your blog. Be interactive and you’ll see a clear difference in your blog traffic.
You have to GIVE away content or information, valuable to your audience. You give. And then tomorrow, you give some more. And the next day, you give more.
Then, after boat loads of giving, you are allowed to make an incredible offer that is worthwhile to your audience.
Then, be prepared, because only a small selection of your audience will respond. But that’s OK. The beauty of this is that if the information you GIVE to your audience is valuable enough, it will attract a large number of people, and your blog will grow.
Remember this. The reason all of these “get rich quick” schemes don’t work is simply that they’re only about TAKING, and not about GIVING.
2. Excessive Advertising
Too many Ads – Honestly, folks won’t click. Trust me!
It’s fine to monetize your blog or use affiliate links, as long as they are not intrusive to users and overshadow useful content. When ads appear all over the page and even in the middle of posts, the user experience suffers.
That is exactly why I want to tell you about a fantastic new way to monetize your blog that gives you ongoing, recurring income, and won’t scare away your readers. It’s called CB Tag Clouds.
CB Tag Clouds were designed to blend in seamlessly with your Blog. I can’t tell you how important it is to integrate your advertising into your site, instead of having it jump out at the reader screaming “This Is an Ad!”
Instead, CB Tag Clouds look like a normal and familiar part of your blogs, and readers will be more comfortable clicking on links that interest them.
You’re not tricking them, because every link goes to information from Clickbank about that very topic – just without triggering their buying defenses.
It has become harder and harder to make easy income with Adsense, and CB Tag Clouds are exactly the type of advertising you need that is, ads that don’t look like ads, and products that will end up paying a whole lot more in commission than Adsense.
I highly recommend you consider using CB Tag Clouds on all of your blogs. It’s fast, it’s simple, and it works!
Finally, if your blog is very new, it’s a good idea to wait until you’ve built up a history of useful posts before running much advertising. Don’t shove 20 ads on a brand new blog that contains no blog post and has no traffic.
Write a few blog posts first and get some traffic coming; then you can think about slowly adding a few ads. If you have a popular blog you can almost do anything you want with ads, but if you don’t have a popular blog your visitors will probably think you are just in it for the money.
3. Not Moderating Comments
Allowing anyone and everyone to post whatever they want in your comments section is asking for spam. Yes you’ll still get spammed, that’s the reality of the Web. Wordpress blogs come with Akismet anti-spam which does a good job at catching most spam. Not only is spam annoying to your readers, but it really takes down the professionalism of your blog.
Comments are an important part of blogging and Web 2.0 social networking, so don’t avoid them. Just make sure you moderate all of the comments before they are posted.
4. Not Having an About Page
Do you have an about page? This one is often overlooked. Readers always like to know who the person is behind the posts. Many people just do not trust content coming from a seemingly anonymous person.
Make it a little personal, but by all means, protect your privacy. Include a good picture of yourself; let your readers know something about your interests, and why you are compelled to blog.
A good about page goes a long way in making that personal contact with your readers that is so very important.
5. No Contact Info
Some blogs can pull off the mystique of an anonymous posting. But if your website is for business, it’s hard to have a two way dialogue when you make it impossible to contact you.
Transparency is fundamental to building trust on the web. And you don’t want users to mistake your reputable blog for a “splog” or spammy blog that scrapes content from other sites.
If you don’t want to advertise your email address because of spammers you can at least enable comments on your posts.
As noted in #3 above, you need to moderate comments before they appear on your blog.
6. Not Having an “Articles” Page
This one is crucial, but missing on most blogs that I see.
Articles help to drive traffic to your blog so as long as they are keyword rich it will really help.
These posts give your site an identity. Your credibility as a blogger depends on how relevant and popular your content is, so make them easy to find.
7. Poor Website Design and Usability
Don’t clutter your blog with useless features and design elements (widgets). You do not need a graphic intensive blog or 20 different RSS feed options, all you need to do is make it as easy as possible for visitors to read your content.
Bland design scares readers away. Too much nonsense stuff pasted all over your webpage is even worse.
There is beauty in simplicity, but don’t think that you can just use the default template of a blog.
The easiest design for you to use on your blog is the generic theme that comes with the blogging platform. Some people may think it looks good and you might be fond of it, but you don’t ever want to use it, simply because most splogs (spam blogs) use the generic themes. The last thing you want is people coming to your blog and jumping to the conclusion that it is a splog.
One of the most important parts about a blog is its’ readability. So before you think about getting creative with the font color, style, and size make sure you think about the readability. Would you like to a read a blog that has small, grey, cursive text?
If you’re going to use dark background make sure that your font is light and vice versa.
Readers uses internet to gain access to information easily, so design your site for easy navigation.
Do you have sound that plays while the page is loading? Chances are: your favorite song might not be your readers’ favorite. So think carefully about this.
Conclusions
Now take a long hard look at your own blog. Are you blocking your own potential? Just stay away from these 7 Blog Killers and you’ll do fine.
‘till next time,
Barry
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