Far too often, I recommend my SEO clients get involved in social media and blogging. My job is to recommend the best practices to drive them to maximum organic exposure.
One of the biggest and most important aspects of inbound marketing is blogging success. Creating relevant content leads their target audience to their website. If they consistently write about their industry and are related to their target, it will generate leads and sales. It is a measurable criterion for any blog’s marketing success.
But, if this doesn’t happen, their blog will be one of many to fail. Yes, blogging failure is a real issue. Even pro bloggers have seen this. And you want your blog to be one of the very few to survive and scale further.
But before discussing why blogging failure happens and how you can move toward the path of successful blogging, let’s get back to this foundational question:
What’s the Purpose of Their Blogging?
- Most of the time, it is just because they feel they need to blog.
- Their competitors are doing so.
- Their SEO consultant recommended doing so.
Right?
The fact is that many brands and small businesses realize the need for content and throw themselves into blogging in a hurry, and for many – this blogging process looks burdensome for obvious reasons.
- The stress of producing a regular stream of quality content ascends quickly.
- It’s a bit messy when I go through blogging along with my primary job function.
- I don’t think I have enough to say.
- They (the audience) can reject me.
Here are some of the worst and most common blogging mistakes that can ruin your content efforts and trigger the “unsought” state of blogging failure:
Lack of consistency
As with many things in life, marketing and running a blog, consistency is key for achieving long-term blogging success. If you fall off the map for an entire month on your company blog, it will destroy any momentum you had. Keep the content coming!
Writing three posts per week will help greatly, and it’s been suggested that 21 is the magic number (in terms of generating traffic). Obviously, that isn’t manageable for many, but 1 to 3 posts each week is a fantastic start.
Overused content
The chances of your target market finding you from stale and overused content are probably slim to none. Stay ahead of the curve and put out interesting information that is fresh and original. That will lead to them stumbling across you and coming back later for more. You’ll establish yourself as a great resource, generate more traffic, and eventually get real blogging success.
Don’t rely on SEO to do the trick – you’ve got to do some promoting and distribution of your own. Social media channels are the perfect place to post your latest content and blog posts.
Each channel has something unique and special to offer in terms of being found by new people. Twitter has its hashtags, Facebook has its ads and sponsored posts, and LinkedIn has its professional and business appeal.
Lack of priorities & goal-setting
Let’s face it – people turn to the internet for two things: help and entertainment. If your content isn’t answering anyone’s questions or amusing them, then you’re just adding to the clutter. Think objectively about whether or not you’d read what you are about to post.
If the answer is no, then think of a way to position it differently or get rid of it altogether. Remember: the right title can do a lot for your post – don’t be afraid to be negative or sarcastic.
I’ll be the first to tell you that SEO is important – it’s the difference between new customers being able to find you or not, but you need to know when to say enough is enough and focus on other important tactics (like your content marketing).
Building backlinks is obviously helpful in improving your ranking in search engines, but you’d be surprised just how much of an impact you will see from providing fresh and relevant content with relevant keyword phrases.
Too much self promotion
Just to cope with a looming post or editorial calendar schedule, bloggers start shuffling to put something to talk about at the last moment. Sooner or later, they encounter talking about themselves. Self-promotion. Too much promotion shouldn’t be called promotion. That’s SPAM.
People don’t care about who you are unless you’re Elon Musk. A company’s blog is surely not a venue to distribute your PR news. Okay, YOU own this blog, and you can do whatever you want, but it can dissuade people who may engage, subscribe, or participate in your blog.
There’s only one thing that can save your blog from falling flat
Your willingness!
- Your blog should be different.
- It should carry your unique voice.
- And last, it should care for its readers.
Write honestly so that your blog content reflects your original thought process.
Don’t look for short tricks to get early blogging success. Get inspiration, evaluate them, and choose which advice aligns with your style for successful blogging. Not showing willingness is an awful feeling as a blogger.
Feeling small and full of doubt is not a place that you want to be as a blogger. If you are trying to get consistent with blogging or share your work with others, people are not going to automatically want to read what you have written if you are not confident in yourself and your work.
Think of the bloggers and your competitors that you admire or who are successful businesses – they are more confident, consistent, and proactive in what they are doing. They share their thoughts and their experiences with conviction. They sell their writing. They are paid what they deserve, they have the audience they deserve, and they make a difference.
Building Your Audience and Traffic is an Absolute Must for Startup Blogs
Building an effective blog is hard. Often you’re expected to manage content strategy and marketing, landing pages and building links to them, getting interviewed, and managing daily activities – all on a Monday morning.
The fact is, as a small business blogger, your time is split in a multitude of ways. And knowing which of those strategies and tasks to prioritize can either make or break a business.
One of the single most important areas critical for new blogs is building relevant organic search traffic and an audience. Identify your audience, build your audience persona, and extensively research your keywords. That’s the foundational work behind any blogging or marketing campaign.
5 Steps to Accurate Your Blogging Strategy
Brand Your Blog –
Branding isn’t just about creating a logo for your site and picking some fancy colors. It’s about building an awareness of your brand, a vibe that people will feel and know when they see it.
Branding is about creating an emotional connection with your reader. Creating a vibe so that when readers hear or see your content, that emotion is triggered.
Although you control the branding of the business, you cannot control the emotions that come with it, therefore it’s important to have your branding on point to ensure you are telling the reader exactly who you are and what your brand is about.
A young blogger, Sophia Patel, created a website to blog in her spare time. This blog website is very well-branded. When you see her blog, Pinterest pins, or Instagram page, you can tell she’s a PR-friendly marketing girl and a lifestyle blogger.
First impressions of her blog:
- A well-branded and legitimate personal blog.
- Female-focused.
- There to help you learn and improve, and very welcoming.
If you are looking to blog full-time, having a professional brand is going to make it a lot easier.
Follow your passion –
Blog about topics that interest you and not necessarily about topics that you think will get you more quantitative traffic. I understand your desire to make money from blogging. You need to learn how to do it first, though. You will become good at a much faster pace if you are writing about things that you find interesting.
If you struggle to write a post about mental health concerns or sleep neap cure so that you can show ads for health products or so that you can put an affiliate link to widgets, then you are going to hate the whole process. You will probably also suck at it.
Address readers’ problems –
When you are blogging, you are having a conversation with one other person at a time on the other end of the connection. Speak to him or her. Don’t speak like you are in an auditorium full of people.Your readers are more interested in posts that solve their problems.
Study your niche and get to know your audience so you can know what their common worries and struggles are. You can use these in your posts, by empathizing with how they feel and by sharing some solutions.
Practice writing daily –
Is blog post writing hard for you?
Do you find yourself writing blog posts that fail to attract readers, comments, and shares?
Of course, It is very discouraging to produce content day in and day out if it does not get the attention it deserves. Here’s the deal. Pro bloggers write a lot. They practice a lot. They have penned over 500 posts on their blogs. Anthony Gaenzle has published more than 1000 posts on his main blog.
With regular writing, your writing improves, more people come across your stuff, and the audience just loves rewarding something that helps them solve a problem. Your blog posts will naturally become more direct, more clear and attract the social love it deserves.
And last; don’t expect fast money or early leads
Don’t expect to make money in the first few months you are blogging. You don’t know jack squat about blogging when you first start. People telling you that you are going to be making good money in 90 days are full of shit. If you listen to them, they will steal your money. If you find one, stop reading their lies right away.
Go look elsewhere for people speaking the truth. If they sound like they are really hyping up this line of work and talking about how easy it is, then they are about to convince you to part with your money. You can learn everything you need to know about making money blogging for free by experimenting and reading what other people are telling you for free. You don’t need to pay for some secret information. Experiment and learn yourself.
Final Words
Test, retest, and test again. Experiment with content formats; content length, video marketing, guest posts, and getting featured on podcasts – test everything and think deeply about what your audience likes and what they value.
Drive traffic with content amplification and nurture other promotional methods. Not only will you notice that your audience will engage with this useful and compelling content, but it’ll also plug a viral component into it, encouraging people to share it with others!
Consistency, quality, and passion are the keys to getting your blog to the next level, and you’ll never even consider quitting blogging.
On top of that, with consistency, networking, and practicing, you’ll be able to follow your OWN voice and decide your own rules – it will be transformed into a one-of-a-kind blog.
Happy blogging! Inspire others.
Author Byline:
Shyam Bhardwaj is an SEO consultant and blogger who helps small businesses to fetch the organic exposure they deserve. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology from RTU.