Bloggers make plenty of mistakes. If they did not, then all blogs would be popular and the world would probably have to do away with other forms of media in order to make space for all the successful bloggers. It is hard to come up with a list of the most common mistakes, as there are so many, but here are a few that you may see a lot of.
1 – Changing the topic over time
This is a classic mistake for people who do not really know what they want to blog about. People want to alter what they write about over time because writing about the same thing becomes tedious. However, people are only interested if you blog about the same thing.
The easiest way to fix this is to plan your blog posts well in advance. It makes it harder for you to deviate from a certain theme or idea in favor of something else.
2 – Running out of ideas after a few months
More often than not, this will lead to the blogger giving up and stopping the blog. It is probably the reason why so many blogs do not reach the two year mark.
The best way to avoid this is to plan well ahead. You will find that a lot of topics have quite a bit of range and scope, to the point where they may be spread across a number of posts. By planning your posts you are able to spread your topics and ideas out more thoroughly.
3 – Giving up because the blogger is bored
Boredom sets in if you do not write about something that interests you. People who start blogs about their hobbies are the ones who tend to go for the longest. For example, there is a blog that a young man set up that gives reviews of horror movies. Every time that person sees a horror movie, he writes about it, and the blog has been going for years, helping to build up a more and more comprehensive library of horror movie reviews. If you don’t want to become bored, then write about what you love.
4 – Paying attention to what commenters want
Your commenters are only a small portion of your viewing audience. If you have a high page view count and yet have a number of negative comments, then be wary of following the advice of your commenters. Ask yourself why so many people are viewing your posts if you are doing it all wrong as your commenters say. Plus, do not forget that following the advice of commenters may alienate your loyal fan base and loyal followers.
5 – Not realizing that you need to create a lot of crap before you create anything good
Ben Yahtzee Croshaw is a loved and hated video game reviewer who works for the escapist magazine. At an expo on creating online cult followings he was asked how to become as famous as him. He admitted that he spent nearly ten years putting out crap on the Internet until eventually he found his voice. Realize that your blog is probably poorly attended because it is crap, but understand that if you do not keep going then you will never find your voice. Ben Yahtzee Croshaw gets paid for playing video games, all because he kept on going and trying.
6 – Not reading through the post for consistency
Starting a post that makes a point, and then ending it with a diluted or mixed-message point is a very common error. You can fix it by simply reading your post for consistency.
7 – Prioritizing their affiliate advertising over user experience
This is where you can tell that the user experience is taking a back seat because the blogger wants to make more money on affiliate advertising. In order to avoid this mistake, you should remove your affiliate advertising. At the very least, you should make it small and inoffensive.
8 – Not adding any images
People do not add enough images to blogs, which makes them a little harder to read online. You are not creating a journal entry, so you do not have to hold yourself up to such high academic standards.
Add pictures and find ways to optimize them so that they do not slow down your loading speeds. In this day and age there is no excuse for not adding images to your blog.
9 – Not using a scheduling tool
People end up posting at odd times or missing deadlines. It leaves people feeling disappointed and maybe even makes people think that your blog no longer runs. To avoid this, you should use a scheduling tool to post your blog posts for you.
10 – Ignoring the importance of an RSS feed
An RSS feed is going to bring repeat viewers to your blog. Ignore the RSS feed at your peril, as return viewers make up most of a blogs viewership.
