The Top 10 Mistakes Bloggers Make

Are You Making These 10 Blogging Blunders?

Many bloggers zealously rush to start blogging. As a result, they often don’t give much thought beyond: “I’ve got a blog!”

Yet for your blog to be successful, you must ensure that it’s contributing to achieving your business goals.

Top 10 Mistakes bloggers make.

Here are the top 10 blogging blunders.

1. Don’t know why I’m blogging.

In their haste to start their blog, newbie bloggers start cranking out content without thinking about what they want to accomplish.

• Actionable Blogging Tip: Set blogging goals. Answer the question: What do you want to achieve as a result of blogging? Among the key blogging goals are to improve branding, to support the sales process and to build thought leadership.

2. Don’t know who their audience is.

Blogging isn’t a personal journal. It’s a media platform that must attract a readership. Unless you’re a well-known personality, it’s difficult to build a following if you just write down your musings.

• Actionable Blogging Tip: Create a marketing persona representing your key audience. This helps you to write more targeted, effective content since you’re speaking to a specific group of people that you know.

3. Don’t publish on a regular schedule.

Many bloggers jump headlong into the blogging pool and begin publishing. They don’t think about the focus of their posts or the type of information for which their readers are looking.

In the beginning, bloggers tend to publish with great frequency and gradually taper off as their enthusiasm fades. If you don’t stick to a regular timetable, then readers don’t know to look for your content.

• Actionable Blogging Tip: Determine how often you can consistently publish content and how much content your audience wants. It’s better to publish once or twice a week and do it every week than to just post when the spirit moves you.

4. Don’t have any branding.

Bloggers think that only big companies need branding. They believe that branding is expensive. Ironically, the opposite is true. The smaller you are, the more you need branding to make your media entity look bigger.

• Actionable Blogging Tip: Set brand standards for your blog.  Determining blog branding in advance helps streamline many aspects of your blog since you don’t need to make a new decision every time. Blog branding includes your blog name, typefaces, color use, content and voice among other factors.

5. Don’t do anything except sell, sell, sell.

Many businesses believe that just posting their promotional content on their blog will sell their offering.

• Actionable Blogging Tip: Offer the 5 basic types of content your prospects need to make buying decisions. For example, Marcus Sheridan was transparent about pool pricing on his River Pools and Spas blog resulting in $2 million in sales.

6. Don’t create compelling content.

Writing me-too or recycled content doesn’t help you to accomplish your blog goals since it’s not the quality information that your audience seeks.

• Actionable Blogging Tip: Take the time to create quality content on topics of interest to your core readers. Eliminate the flab from your writing. Use proper English that’s been copy edited.

7. Don’t optimize your blog for content consumption and search.

While blog architecture supports search, you must ensure that the information is easy to find and read.

• Actionable Blogging Tip: Format your content to facilitate consumption. Use strong headlines to grab reader attention. Bolding and short paragraphs help pull reader through your content without having to work too hard. Incorporate strategic keywords in the title and within your article. A plug-in like Yoast can help you with this.  (Here’s what the experts recommend for blog optimization.)

8. Don’t provide additional distribution support.

Popular bloggers make it look so easy that newbie bloggers think that all they have to do is publish their content and readers will come flocking to their content. The reality is that you must build your audience.

• Actionable Blogging Tip
  • Give your blog content additional help to reach the maximum audience possible. This means adding appropriate social sharing icons including email and print this.
  • Place your content on a variety of social media platforms. Instead of setting this up for automatic distribution, craft tailored descriptions to help your content stand out.
  • Distribute your blog posts using your regular email newsletters and on your website as well as other owned publishing platforms. Be creative such as by using your email signature file.
  • Offer readers the option of receiving your blog posts via email and feeds (aka RSS).

9. Don’t support your blog with sufficient resources.

Unfortunately, blogging has the image that it’s a low cost, easy to create form of content that miraculously just happens. While many small businesses and solopreneurs use blogging as their content marketing homebase, it requires regular effort or your blog just dies.

• Actionable Blogging Tip: Set a budget for your blog to ensure that it has sufficient resources allocated to it regardless of your business size. Remember that owner time is a valuable resource for small businesses and solopreneurs. Your blog requires writing, graphics, copyediting, and technology resources. They should be coordinated with the rest of your social media and content marketing plans.

10. Don’t pay attention to blog metrics.

Take the time to examine your blog performance to determine what’s successful and what needs to be changed.

• Actionable Blogging Tip: Track the aspects of your blog associated with your blog goals and set measurable objectives. For example, how much sales does your blog generate or how many speaking engagements have your bloggers received as a result of their thought leadership? To ensure that your blog generates results, use a call-to-action.

Blogging well takes hard work. By following these tips you can  avoid the Top 10 mistakes bloggers make on your blog.

What other blogging mistakes do you see bloggers making without realizing it?

Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen

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