Over the years blogs have become prominent. Many people are using this creative and exciting outlet to express themselves and fend for themselves. For experienced bloggers, profiting from their blogs is as easy as a walk in the park. However, rookie bloggers are usually challenged. There are some rather common mistakes that a rookie blogger is likely to make that can prevent them from succeeding. This piece has identified some common pitfalls that can easily be avoided.
Failing to identify your niche
With blogs too, specialization is critical. Most of the new blogs tend not to be niche specific. The problem here is that as a blogger you need to prove yourself to your audience that you really know your subject and you can offer through your blog knowhow and new ideas for the web users. If you think that you can cover more subjects than one (e.g. sports cars and fishing) it would be a good to create more than one blog rather than one. It would be a good idea to think of a blog as a retail store. Would you go to a book shop to buy a leather jacket? Of course not! You would most probably choose a specialized leather wear shop as it would be more trustworthy to buy it from there. The same occurs with blogs. Would you trust a blogger who says that he is specialised in marketing but in his blog also writes about beer brewing? Therefore, try to identify your niche and focus on that one in a single blog. If however, as a blogger intending to attract a wider range of audience, the best thing to do would be to create separate blogs.
Disregarding the importance of a marketing strategy
When it comes to blogging and marketing many bloggers fail to understand the importance of finding ways to promote their work. Some think that blogging is just writing and posting and that’s the whole strategy that is needed. NO! That is wrong! Going back, I urge you again to think of your blog as a retail shop. If you were an owner of a retail shop would you just care to fill the shelves and sit there waiting for the customers to visit you? Well this is what usually happens but most of shop owners with such mentality close down after a year or so. The secret here is that you have to try and be as prompt as possible concerning your niche market and be able to offer the new and interesting merchandise before the rest competition. That is, try to have a business mentality whenever approaching your blog. The success of a business entirely depends on its ability to attract numerous customers. To achieve this target you have to hunt down your customers as the competition is fierce. To achieve this, prior to creating your blog or even during, it would be a good idea to design an executable marketing strategy that will guide you through achieving the highest possible numbers of traffic. After all traffic means money and usually most bloggers are in to this habit for the money.
Quantity over quality
A secrete to a successful blog is creating quality content. A common misconception with new bloggers is that they tend to think that having plenty of content is the only gate pass to success. Therefore, they end up creating a lot of pages instead of focusing on the quality of their content. What they fail to understand is that; people do not like bad content hence may intentionally shun off from your blog. Another fact is that, with bad content, your reputation as a blogger is likely to be damaged. All these will lead to the triumph of your competition.
Irrelevant content
At no point should you give your audience something they do not want. In case your audience is attracted to your niche, do not supply them with what can be considered as irrelevant to them. It is a common occurrence with new bloggers to want to overshare. In this case, a blogger might come across an interesting life experience and feel like sharing with his/her audience. Though tempting, this kind of thinking will most definitely push away your target audience.
Turning a deaf ear on comments
Ignoring to respond to comments left by your readers can be very detrimental. Though this might sound as a challenging task which is also time consuming, it is the only way that you will be able to keep in touch with your esteemed audience and develop a relation with them. Stay active and respond to each and every comment or message left. By simply responding to your reader’s comments, it shows that you care and understand whatever they are saying. There is also the tendency of them feeling that you respect their opinions.
Poor branding techniques
Branding is very essential to a blog just as it is to a company. Every successful company has a good brand for that matter. Look at your blog as a business and think about your brand. Avoid saying things that are likely to give your blog a bad reputation. Think about your blog with everything you do and you will get a break through in no time. A good brand attracts audience which is likely to increase your overall authority.
Failing to apply essential SEO techniques
SEO and blogging goes hand in hand. SEO can help your blog to rank high on specific key search terms with every page you produce. Ranking high can bring you great traffic. As a blogger, have a proper understanding of SEO and implement it as early as possible.
Forgetting about your competition
Competition is everywhere regardless of your specific niche. Find out unique ways of attracting more and more visitors at the expense of your competition. This might sound a bit selfish but if you think about it you will see that if you do not do it your competition will do it. Browse through your best competitors and try to “steal” some of their good ideas. Do not copy them! Just see what you like from them, evolve it into something even better and use it for your own advantage. Remember! Do not underestimate your competition. Always keep trying to be in front of it!
