11 Fatal Mistakes Bloggers Make: Things To Avoid
Failure is wonderful. I thank failure because without mistakes I would never be the blogger I am today. I would never have traveled the world or quit my job for good. You might be worried, or anxious, or out and out terrified by failure, or what your blogging future holds. I feel your pain. Honestly.
Many of my readers know my background; I struggled horribly to become a successful blogger. My audience? Crickets….and boy were they loud! Every day, crickets and silence. I also had a terrible time trying to build my online businesses through blogging. All in all I stank it up. But I learned. I decided that I was a making blogging mistakes but I was not the blogging mistakes. Big difference between the 2.
I learned how to not identify myself with my blogging failures. This took over 4 years to do. I would beat myself up, become depressed and angry, and flat out I would flip out because you, like me, well we are both human beings. We fail. But we are the ones doing the failing. We are not the failure. Once you realize this statement you will never be a failure again.
You might think things came easy to me. Living in Bali or Phuket or Costa Rica must have been a breeze. I always seem to be happy, right? Wrong. I struggled mightily. I was headstrong. I wanted to do everything on my own. I never asked for feedback. I fought people who offered valuable criticism. I ignored good feedback. So #1 on my list was a biggie, so big because it basically turned my life around.
Mistakes that stopping to reach Success point in Blogging
1: Ignoring Personal Development
Bloggers blog. I get it. But this blogging mistake of blogging mistakes has nothing to do with blogging. Your mindset dictates how you live. Like, how you choose to think and feel dictates how successful you become. In this moment, Harsh offers me a ridiculously prospering opportunity. I can create a valuable post for his blog and in turn reach a massive audience.
This means I can:
- attract new readers
- attract new ghostwriting clients
- attract ad revenue through this blog – thanks Harsh 😉 – as well as on my blog when you click through
- attract affiliate sales
- attract good blogging buddies
All this happens if I seize the opportunity and use it immediately.
But if I talk myself out of writing a guest post I lose all of these opportunities. I might believe:
- I am not a good enough author to get my post published here
- I am wasting my time because the post will not go live quickly
- nobody will care about my post
See the difference? Most people believe in the 2nd bullet point list because most people spend little time meditating, visualizing and affirming each day. Spend at least 60 minutes daily working on your mindset. Read an inspirational book. Apply what you learned. This simple tip will change your blogging fortunes dramatically because once you see and seize opportunities immediately you can succeed quickly. Learn 5 mind and soul enhancement tips to become a better person.
2: Not Making Blogging Buddies
“Rich people build networks and everybody else looks for work.” ~ Robert Kiyosaki
Need I say more? Wealthy people are smart. Wealthy people know having friends makes your job easier. If 50 friends retweet my latest post I can connect with more potential readers than if 1 person – Ryan Biddulph – retweeted my post.
I was a social shut in. I tried posting more frequently and sharing more frequently to spread the word. Problemo! I only have 24 hours in a day. I need to sleep. Sometimes. But friends, friends can help expand my presence lickity split.
I have scored paid guest posting ventures, clients, new readers and team members by making blogging buddies. Much of my success hinges on my supportive networks. To get buddies you need to be a buddy. Comment on relevant blogs. Share your blogging buddies’ content. Help friends. Answer questions. By doing this you can open an infinite amount of doors for yourself.
Learn the art of making friends with professional bloggers.
3: NOT Writing a Resource
I remember the days when I needed to write a blog post. Provide something helpful. Something useful. Great. Of course I was making one of the biggest blogging mistakes known to humanity; I posted without a strong purpose in mind.
One day I was performing research for an article. I was annoyed. I saw a few 200 word posts allegedly covering the topic I was need to write about. Not helpful, no, not one bit. Then I found a thorough, comprehensive resource covering the topic. I was happy! No need to look anywhere else. I was set.
I found a resource. So, it hit me; why am I not creating in-depth, comprehensive resources to cover topics thoroughly? Imagine yourself researching a topic for a term paper. Or maybe you want to buy a new house or new car. You do not want 400 words. Oh no. You want a resource, a post which answers multiple questions, and let’s face it; these articles will run from 1800 to 2000 to 2500 words.
Do not write long posts for the sake of writing long posts. Create in-depth, comprehensive resources each time you sit down to write. Your readers will appreciate this. Google will appreciate this. Think of Wikipedia sites, dominating search results because the domain links up to thorough, comprehensive page, after page, after page.
Patiently build 1 resource for each post. Take 2-3 days if necessary. Build a blog of thorough, in-depth posts to become an authority in your niche. No need to create the perfect piece of content. You just want to be thorough.
4: Holding onto this Poisonous Limiting Belief
This one dovetails on mistake #3.
“Nobody has time to read a 2000 word post.”
Yeah, right. Tens of thousands of people have time to read thorough content to improve their lives. Tens of thousands of people want resources. I think of myself researching for articles.
If I was a struggling blogger – newbie or old – I would fall in love with a post like this (independent of word count) because I could compare and contrast, identify my mistakes, and stop making these errors. Correcting these errors helps me to become successful. Great! People want thorough. People want in depth. The only people who are in a rush, who have no time to read a 2000 word post, are failures, or successful people who no longer need to soak up these tips.
Your ideal reader has all the time in the world to read a thorough, engaging, well-put-together post. Google likes thorough, in-depth posts too. Guess what? It makes them look good, and ever since I began creating more in depth, longer, resource-guide type post my payout per click jumped from about .70 to $1.30, and that was after creating 3 thorough posts. Advertisers know that people have the time 😉
5: Straying off Topic
I help you make money online. I help you grow your online business. Pick a work at home theme I probably built my blog around it at one time or another. Clarity. I had to find clarity in what I did before seeing appreciable results. I needed to address this all too common blogging mistake before I could succeed.
Most bloggers write about whatever hits their mind. A select few stick to their topic daily or however frequently they choose to post. This crowd gets it. The select few blogging successes stay on topic. Failures do it differently.
If your doctor offered law advice would you continue seeing this doctor? No. If your lawyer offered medical advice you would be confused and eventually annoyed. You would fire them. If a blogger changes topics every few posts, or every few months, you take ’em out of your feed.
Stay on topic. Develop expertise in your niche. Become an authority.
6: Not Responding to Comments
Guilty as charged until I recently. I would respond to a few then stop because I was too busy. My problem grew quickly. I had few strong blogging relationships. My trust factor was low. All because I did not respond to each comment on my blog and to each guest post comment too.
Being a deadbeat comment responder influences commentors to stop commenting. The mistake also influences readers to distrust you. Why are you asleep at the wheel? Why no response?
Right now I am responding to old comments on my guest posts because each person is a potential buddy. I can connect with them on twitter, or Facebook or through their blog. This also adds content and page views to my prospective guest post. Neat, right? Win-win.
Respond to every comment. Click through to visit other blogs. Network. Grow your friend base. Prove that you are a listening, learning, caring blogger to attract more readers and grow your blogging prospects. You can take advantage of plugins like comments not replied to, to find all comments which needs a response.
As for time, well, opinions vary. Do your best to respond to each comment in a timely fashion. I will leave that one up to you.
7: All Content No Monetizing
My chief blogging mistake was not monetizing my blogs from Day 1. I am in a business. You are in a business. If you are not in a business go write a diary. Even if you plan not to monetize why not make a few extra bucks through advertising, to be prospered for your time?
Most bloggers feel funny about advertising yet the same crowd complains about making little money online or offline. Guess what? To get paid you need to advertise. To get paid you need to post banners, or ads, or affiliate links, or you need to promote your services. Get over it. Get over the few broke critics who criticize your ads.
Hey, I would never to tell you stop working because your job “annoys me.” You have every right to make money and I have every right to make money by monetizing my blog post through multiple channels.
8: No MSI
OK Mistake 7 is a biggie but this one takes the taco. Try posting a single banner on your site. See how much ad revenue you generate. Then try posting 3 banner ads, another affiliate link/banner, promote your network marketing opportunity or services or products, sell your books, then get back to me.
Successful bloggers open MSI: multiple streams of income. Make money through multiple channels to better pad your bank account. If one channel closes or moves along slowly you have 5 to 10 other channels through which you are making money.
Failing bloggers are above advertising. They do not want to “sell out”. Yeah, good luck with that one 😉
Wealthy people offline use this same approach. Multiple businesses, multiple channels, multiple retirement accounts, multiple stock investments…..diversify. Protect yourself. Prosper yourself.
9: Ignoring Images
“I have no time to post images to my blog.” I remember holding to this idea stubbornly as I failed miserable to attract readers. People enjoy eye candy. Most of us live through our senses. Not posting images with each post was a massive mistake which promoted my failure because few people click through on text alone. Understand how images enhances your blog.
Man cannot live on bread alone and bloggers cannot live on text alone. Post images. Boost page views. Attract readers. Grow your business by appealing to your reader’s senses. Few people can resist eye candy. Take an extra 60 seconds to find a colorful, engaging image relevant to your post. Post it. Observe how quickly your page views increase. If you are not sure where to find images? I’m listing down some of the best resources to give you a start:
10: No Guest Posting
I can grow my blog by myself. No need to guest post, and wait for the guest post to be published, and to be criticized, and for people to ignore my post, and to have to respond to all those comments. Way too much work.
Again, these silly thoughts traveled through my head along with many of your heads – hey, let’s be honest here – combined with ideas that I am not a skilled enough writer to get published on authority blog.
I remember sending in a guest post to an influential blogger years ago. She rejected my post. I got pissed off and went into my shell. I stopped guest posting. Big mistake!. Instead of learning from her feedback I regressed. I got guest posting shy. I failed to build an audience, meet new people and prosper.
Write guest posts. After you click through to my blog you will see that I have posted on many influential sites. I know the benefits of guest posting. Believe me! Write a guest post today. Maybe for Harsh? Why not? Go for it!
11: Rushing through Creating Titles
Last week I had a revelation. Ryan, ummm….all of your “11 Tips”-type posts, ones with big numbers, are popular. So, why not create each post around these type of titles? Sounds good. So I did. I think through titles now. In the lean years I paid little attention to titles. Of course, disinterested readers never really click through to a bland, boring title. Failure. More failure.
Fast forward to last week. Since patiently thinking through big number titles, or question titles, or intriguing titles I noted a surge in traffic.
People choose to click or not to click in a second, based on your title. Let your title marinate for about 10 to 15 minutes before publishing. Write. Step back. Take a walk. Return to your work.
Conclusion
Stop struggling. Be honest with yourself. Admit it; you might be making a few of these mistakes. Address ’em. Succeed.
Have you made these mistakes?
Which ones?
What are you doing to correct your mistakes?
Please share this post on your social networks. I appreciate you!
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