10 Ways to Fail at Blogging

Everybody writes lists on how to succeed at blogging and making money online. So I thought I’d go against the grain and compile a list of how to achieve the opposite.

1. Irregularity – This is probably the biggest killer so I put this one first. Irregular posting is a surefire way to kill off your blog. You need to make sure you post on a regular basis so that you’re readers can establish some sort of timescale as to when you will be posting. If it’s once a week… stick to that, if it’s once a day… stick to that. But don’t try take on something you can’t handle so you end up losing interest or not being able to keep up. Something mental like 20 posts a day… you might end up running out of ideas so quick that you could not post for a week. Keep your posting regular!

2. Writing for search engines – Another deadly killer. In-fact, you can still get traffic to your blog obviously if you just write good organic text, but the main point here is it will only ever be that. It will be hard to establish any sort of word of mouth, blog to blog kudos or social following unless you are strongly opinionated or an exceptional writer or both. Make sure you write for your readers, not Google.

3. Lack of effort – This is obviously… well, obvious. But alot of people do it. Sometimes you can start to build some traffic and you think you can just start riding that traffic and you become sloppy. Or sometimes the opposite, you’ll get no traffic so you’ll become annoyed and just do wild or sloppy posts. Make sure you always keep up your post quality to entice your readers and keep your blog a fresh quality source.

4. Not citing sources – Sometimes you can just do this accidentally, you can forget to credit people. Make sure you always give credit when due to make sure nobody thinks you are a content duplicator. Also, if you are a content duplicator… DON’T BE!. It’s one of the most annoying things ever and in the end, will get you nowhere, remember to cite your sources if you ever happen to ‘borrow’ something.

5. Lack of creativity – Try and be as fresh as you can be. Obviously if you are in a saturated market it can be hard to come out with constant fresh posts, but that’s where personality comes in. Don’t be afraid to be yourself and give your opinions in your posts and be as creative as possible, people get fed up of reading the same stuff. Stand out from the crowd by pushing your creative intelligence to the limit.

6. Bad grammar – Generally this wont kill a blog off but I think it can harm the perspective your readers have on you. Good grammar and spelling will help make your blog and you seem more professional so… just use the spellcheck. Is it really that hard?

7. Swearing – I actually swear alot in real life but this isn’t a good thing for a public blog. I mean… it all depends on who your audience is and if you can get away with it but generally I would avoid swearing alot as you could kill off alot of ‘easily offended’ people. Which like it or not, could be good potential readers.

8. Lack of opinion – This is similar to the creativity point but I think it should be said again. Bloggers with strong opinions succeed, why? because there are alot of people who agree with them! obviously there are also alot of people who don’t agree with them. But what do they usually do? argue! which creates? more comments, which creates? better blog! So let your true opinion come out in your posts and don’t worry about who you’re pleasing, there will be enough people out there who agree with you.

9. No marketing – Try and market your blog as best you can. I mean, even if you are absolutely BROKE, no money to market what so ever. Marketing can still be done. Think about it – social networking, forums, friends, viral marketing. There’s lots of ways to get your blog seriously noticed without money and I think your brain can conjure up a smart enough way to do it. So do it!

10. No branding – Another big killer. Without a brand, or something unique, a logo, tagline or something to identify your blog in a unique way. It’s unlikely that you will stand out in people’s mind. As I instantly think of a branded blog I think of Shoemoney because his blog is branded so well, I immediately think of the big S logo. It’s class. Do something to help readers identify your blog and stand out from the saturated, ad covered blogs they come across every other day.

The End!

Source: Here