Some
bloggers wonder why they have no one reading their articles. I sometimes wonder
how some blogs are ever found in an ocean of over 200 million blogs.
Writing a
blog is both a joy and frustration as you try and work out the ways to let
readers on the world wide web discover you and let them know you exist.
So the
challenge is that the writing is just the beginning and promoting your posts is
the next step in driving readership and building a loyal following in your
industry or niche.
So what are
some of the common mistakes that a lot of “newbie” and other bloggers
slip into?
1. Poor
Headline
You have
only a few seconds to help the reader decide whether they want to read your
post or not so a headline that compels and teases the visitor to your blog or
who sees your headline on a Tweet is a must in driving readership. List posts
such as “10 Ways To..” or The 5 Top …” are always effective. These might seem
redundant and overused but the fact remains they work.
2. No Other Media
In a media
rich web that we have all become accustomed t0, maintaining attention and
capturing interest requires a blog that mixes good images with other media such
as video. Mix up your text posts with images, screen shots, graphs and online
videos but remember to not make it too cluttered or overdo it.
3. No Bullet
Points
The snack
that you serve up to readers to consume needs to be easy to quickly scan, don’t
make it hard to get your point across by making the post too text heavy and the
important information you are trying to convey buried in a sea of words.
Academics quite often slip into this mistake in a blog post as this goes
against their essay writing paradigm and rules that have been ingrained over
many years of study. You are writing for a web audience not for a professor.
4. No Sub
Titles
This is
important because these provide teasers to keep the reader willing to
investigate the next part of your post. They are like mini headlines that
continue to provide enticing morsels to keep them reading
5. Writing
About The Wrong Topics
A lot of
bloggers can go off topic by forgetting to write about the topics that readers
want to hear about, this will continue to change and sometimes you will not
notice. Reading other top blogs in your industry will keep you in tune with the
heart beat of your industry. Also keep an eye on what resonates with your
readers by measuring the popularity of each post you write by the number of
retweets and pageviews.
6. No
Additional Reading Resources
Keep your
readers on your blog by offering other post relevant to the topic either at the
end or littered throughout the post as hyperlinks.
7. Not
Promoting the Post on Twitter
So you have
written the post and hit publish and expect readers to rush in from all over
the world wide web to read it. The challenge is that your blog is only a
solitary planet in a universe of galaxies. Promote and hustle your blog.. let
everyone know you have arrived and continue you remind them
8. No Share
Buttons
This is
vital and making your readers cut and paste to an email, Twitter, Facebook or
Linkedin to share your post with their friends and colleagues will limit your
content being spread significantly. Make it easy with a prominent two click
share button at the top of the post for the major platforms where your audience
is hanging out.
9. Too Long
Two thousand
word essays on a post can work but it is better to keep it around the 500-800
words to make sure you don’t make them click to some where else after getting
half way through. If it is going to be long then bullet points and sub-titles
become absolutely mandatory.
10. Too Short
I have
turned up to blog posts that are a couple of paragraphs and wonder why I
bothered. Seth Godin is maybe the only blogger that can pull this off. Chris
Brogan tries to do this but quite often fails. Provide some substance.
11. Too
Fluffy
“If you
want fluff go and pat a bunny“. You need to offer real solutions and
answers to problems and a good blog needs to have substance…offer useful tips
readers can take away and apply.
12. No
“About” or “Bio” Tab
Blogs still
are personal unless you are Huffington Post or Mashable. Readers want to know
who you are and what you have done.. they want to identify with you and start
to connect.
13. Missing
Credibility Evidence
Readers are
still impressed by numbers and evidence that you are intelligent and that what
you write will be worthwhile. As your subscribers build start publishing the
numbers so that people will realize that you have an audience so you are
credible. Awards that you have won or books yo have written all add to the
“expert” mix that positions you as a thought leader.
14. No
Integration to Other Social Media On-line Properties
Provide
links to your other “online properties” such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and
LinkedIn or other social networking sites that you are a member of. If you are
a photgrapher blogger make it easy for people to subscribe to your Flickr
account and encourage to have them subscribe and follow you there as well.
15. The
Subscription by Email is Missing
Subscribing
by email is till vital in a social web. Delivering your daily post into their
email inbox is still one of the best ways to build a loyal readership base.
16.
Subscribing by RSS has been Forgotten
Bloggers and
readers will go and check their RSS readers such as Google Reader most days and
often first thing in the morning to get the latest updates and news from other
bloggers they have subscribed to. Make sure you are pushing your latest content
out to those readers by having a “Subsrcibe by RSS” button.
17. You
Don’t Update your Latest Post to your Blog’s Facebook “Page”
Facebook is
important for bloggers not only in the “B2C” sectors but also for “B2B”
industries. Posting your blog headline description and link to your news feed
is vital. Facebook is where most of the planet is plugged into and making it
easy for your ideas to spread on Facebook is now essential not optional.
18.
Your Comment System only allows Login via Email
Implementing
a comment system that also provides the feature to post a comment by using
Twitter or Facebook is increasingly important in a social web.
19.
Categories Are Missing
Make it easy
for people to read in the categories they want to read about about by using the
feature that is available to most blogging platforms and is included as
standard in the WordPress.
20. Popular
Posts Feature is Not Visible
Popular post
provide a guide for readers that turn up to your blog about what your blog is
about and why readers are turning up. It can also provide additional page views
as they click through.
I promise
you if you just some of these you will be surprised by the increase in the
traffic and the the interaction and engagement that results. Happy blogging
