No one is spared from mistakes; even the most experienced bloggers can commit mistakes or blunders. People always say “we learn from mistakes” but the mistakes don’t always have to be ours! We don’t have to learn a lesson at our own expenses – we can learn from the boo-boos of others. Yes, learn from other bloggers!
There are quite a number of “rules” in the world of blogging if you want your blog to be successful. You must know that well-written articles aren’t enough to guarantee the success of a blog. Here are 6 of the most common mistakes committed by bloggers that lead to a blog being less popular! Don’t repeat these mistakes!
1. Not making your blog easy on the eyes
I don’t mean that you have to decorate your blog in all sorts of fancy fonts and colors but rather, spend time to make sure that the layout of your blog is pleasant to the eyes. That means no blinding colors, no fonts that are too small or hard to read, no annoying video that plays by default and not too many items packed onto a single page.
Ask yourself what irritates you as a reader and clean up your blog accordingly.
2. Not doing SEO
How do you expect your blog to be popular if your blog doesn’t even appear on search engine results when a user performs a search using your keywords? Your website will only appear on the first page of the results if you had optimize it for search engines. If you need to have the acronym SEO spelt out for you, then it’s obvious that your blog has not been search engine optimized (SEO) and so you should read up about it and do the necessary.
3. Not doing promotion
Your blog isn’t going to become popular by just sitting there. Don’t rely on your SEO efforts alone (if any at all) to popularize your blog.
Marketing needs proactive efforts, so spread the word of mouth for your blog using various methods. Social networks are the best bet at the moment; share your blog posts on your Facebook wall and also tweet about it to your Twitter followers. You can put the link to your blog in your signature in forums or in emails too!
4. Not owning a domain
Which is more impressive – 100wpthemes.com or 100wpthemes.blogspot.com? The former gives the impression that the website means business and is willing to spend in order to project a professional image. It is also easier for people to arrive at the website if it has its own domain on top of being easier on the lips when referring or promoting the website.
So, do remember to register your own domain name, and not using a subdomain on Blogspot.com or WordPress.com.
5. Not interacting with readers
A blog is all about engaging with your readers. They have spent time visiting your blog and reading what you have to say, so isn’t it right if you connect with them? You don’t have to go all out and chat with them; simply reply their comments will do the trick.
It amuses me that some bloggers simply do not reply to comments, especially those asking for feedback, help or tips. You wouldn’t keep coming back to a blog if you are just going to be ignored, right?
6. No “share” options
It is all about social networking these days. When people see something they find amusing, witty or interesting, they simply feel that they have to share it with others. By not having Facebook, Twitter or Google+ and other social network sharing buttons at the end of your blog post, readers are not able to share it with their friends should they want to. This results in less awareness and traffic for your blog.
Just imagine how many Facebook friends and Twitter followers each of your readers have – that is the number of potential readers that you are losing.
Now that you know the most common mistakes committed by bloggers, especially those who are new to the blogosphere, you can make a checklist to ensure that you are not guilty of the similar mistakes as well. Coupled with well-written and well-researched articles, your blog can most possibly gain the readership that you desire! Happy blogging!
Hi, Alicia,
I think you missed out on a valuable point: The importance of intro/summary paragraphs. It kind of ties in to points 1 (Thinking that people will read the whole post) and 2 (Using Paragraph format), but it was never mentioned outright.
The intro paragraph is absolutely critical to piquing readers’ interest in the rest of the post. If I can’t figure out what message you’re trying to deliver in the first 30 seconds, there’s no way I’m going to invest the next few minutes of my time reading through the article when I don’t even know if it’s interesting or will help me or whatever I’m looking to gain.
The summary paragraph is slightly less important; it’s mostly good for longer posts where you’re expecting lots of scanning.
Anyway, I really enjoyed your article, and I’m definitely still guilty of a couple of points. Thanks for the tips!
Thanks for pointing that out. Intro paragraph is definitely very important as this is where it will catch the attention of the readers. So, you have to make it interesting and get them to read the rest.
The conclusion paragraph usually summarizes what you have discussed in the above paragraphs.
Good tips, but what exactly do you consider “doing SEO”? SEO has changed a lot in the last year and one must be very careful not to “over-optimize”.
You still must work on SEO, but just do not over-do. You must still optimize your website and content, use proper keywords and etc.
There are many more blogging traps that are as serious as the above tips. For sure consistency and feeding blog with content on regular basis are most important. As well as style of writing and quality content.
but i think the SEO is the most important part ! Its above all !
Thanks for the tips!I am a blogger and these tips are helpful to me.Follow these tips and I hope followers will turn into good bloggers.Thanks again!
Those are perfect points to see through especially for a newbie blogger like me
thank you! 
And yes, being a newbie blogger its certainly not easy to be good in SEO, but reading blogs like this surely helps!