10 Reasons Why Your Blog is Not Doing Well
You had a lot of enthusiasm when you started your blog and it has been quite some time now. However, you find that your blog is not getting much traffic and you are clueless why your hard work is not getting noticed. You are disheartened and disappointed. In short, your blog is not doing well.
Dear newbie, what is happening to you is normal. Now give a break to your disappointment. Take a look at the below checklist whether you are committing below 10 mistakes. If yes then reverse them and see the results yourselves.
Table of Contents
1) Your writing is good but not interesting
You have added a considerable amount of content to your blog but if it is not told in an interesting manner, it won’t hold the visitors. Remember, it’s important to attract traffic. But what is more important is to retain the readers. Your writing should convert casual visitors into loyal readers.
Brush up your writing style. Brainstorm and find irresistible headlines. Add images. Use bullet points where required. Make your writing interesting. I hope you got my point.
2) You are spending a lot of time in Design and Dressing up your blog
My dear, it’s important that your blog should look good and slick. But blogs are meant to be read not seen. Even search engines will not see your blog. They read your blog as if it is a plain text. Now you decide where you should be spending your online time. Chose a design and add basic widgets and stick to it. Focus on writing, just writing.
3) You think that your post is not unique
You found a great tip from your friend who uses some software utility and recommends it to you. It’s really useful and inspires you to create a blog post on it. You create the blog post nicely and before hitting the publish button, you do this mistake.
You Search in Google about this utility to find out whether already somebody has written about it. To your horror, you find that there are thousands of blog entries already about this tool. You drop your blog post thinking why should you write about this since there are already so many entries on the web. Please don’t do this mistake.
I suggest you continue writing about this. You need to write your own opinion and the usefulness of this product in your own manner. Express your views on this. Don’t think that you are duplicating the content. You are not. Now, if it starts happening for each and every post that you find thousands of blog entries already for your every new blog post, then I would like to ask you a question. Have you chosen your blog niche correctly?
4) Your blog doesn’t have subscription links and social sharing buttons
An easy to miss feature. Do offer subscriptions by Email and RSS. Create a page named Subscribe and keep these links well placed. Also, don’t forget to add social sharing buttons for each of your posts. People like to share the good stuff.
That’s the reason the web has been a tremendous success. Don’t underestimate the power of sharing. A good place to start with social buttons is ShareThis. Just create an account and copy and paste the code into your blog template.
5) You are not setting target dates for your blog’s growth
Agreed. Blogging is fun and there is no one to ask you if you don’t write for a week or even a month. There is no pressure on work. Having said this, let’s go back to your original idea where you dreamed of making your blog a great online venture. You wanted to make your mark in the blogosphere. Set targets for yourself for blogging activities.
Put a small notice board in your home and set realistic and achievable targets. Let us say 2 posts every week and 5 comments every day and 1 guest post every week and make sure that you meet the target. This will bring you wonderful results. Consistency is key.
6) You are not writing guest posts for other blogs
There you go. In a while, write on other high-traffic blogs. It can do wonders for your own blog. People will notice you and will check your blog. I guest blog on a couple of websites including QuickOnlineTips. They produce amazing results. If you possess the caliber of writing for a website called AListApart then there is nothing like that. It can make you a star.
7) You think commenting on other blogs is a waste of time
Never even think something like this. Commenting on other blogs is a free, effective way of getting quality backlinks. But again it’s quality comments that fetch quality traffic. Even top bloggers never forget to comment on other blogs.
8) You are not active on social forums
Facebook, Twitter, and others can make your killer articles go viral. Be active and promote your blog there.
9) You underestimate the power of email marketing
Email rules. There is no harm in sending your blog’s updates through emails to your friends and relatives. They may share your article via social tools.
10) You want things to work fast and get quick success
They will not. Remember, you are operating your blogging business alone. You are the one who is taking care of all departments of your blog including writing, design and promotion. Things will take time and be patient. Patience is a virtue. Soon you will see good signs of expected results in your blogging venture
Good Luck. You may want to implement point 7 right now.
This article is written by Naveen Kulkarni, a Blogger who writes about Personal Development, innovative ideas and Blogging Tips on his Blog called Winning Ideas.
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Its like I am making 7 out of 10 mistakes, but one this confusing me again.
How many blog comments a day is enough and under the limits?
yeah i had this similar problem… thanks for share
@LorenzoLors this is really great. I love blogging, indeed I’m starting out with selective content about design. This is very useful, I’m looking forward to follow you!
wow great article; i have learned a lot from this article and need to implement some of the points to my daily work or at least weekend work:)
Thanks Loved the plug for point 7.
And I do not agree with Dr Johnston re grammar at all!
Just like the dear dictionary maker, indeed!
Personally, I enjoyed the idiosyncratic syntax.
I’m new to blogging and have spent simply ages on my images, oh dear…
Do you really think I wasted my time on that? I do like things to look pretty… just my opinion, of course
best wishes Betty
Well – after that sort of call to action, I definitely have to leave a comment! Thanks – this is a great post, and I’m glad to say that on my second time around building a blog, I have pretty much checked all these things off! #3 is a really good point – you can’t worry about what other people have done before you; bring out your own voice and the visitors will come, I promise! Of course, consistency (#5) is the main ingredient for success. It’s so exciting to see my readership growing! Great post, and thank you!
By the way, my “Rule No.11” is – “top 10” lists are BELOVED by readers! Try it out! (Top 20 works well too – readers just love clear, bulleted lists with little nuggets of effective information!)
Nice article. I’ve been running my blog for about a month now and I’ve implemented most of these tips. The one thing I haven’t done is guest blog or solicit guest bloggers. It would be nice to see some tips on how to find guest bloggers. I don’t even know where to begin.
Blog Commenting and so I am here for what you have mentioned. Thanks for putting it up.
Number 3 is my favorite of your tips because no other blog that provides blogging advice has covered it.
I cannot count how many times I thought: “Why bother, this topic has been covered by many bloggers in my niche/genre already.
You advice is great and I’ve followed through and posted my version every time.
Number 10 also hits home. I want results and I want it now. Who doesn’t? Thanks for the reminder to be patient.
@Lolly
I am happy that you have benefited from this article and keep blogging.
Naveen Kulkarni @ Winning Ideas
Thanx for these intresteing tips….
I am glad that my blog pageviews are today at 200 daily…
Great advice, I will try to use this for my blog.
Philgreek,
Its good that you found this article useful. Good luck to your blog.
Interesting post! I enjoyed reading it. However, I think there’s one point about the look and feel of your blogs (2nd point):
I think for travel blogs, art blogs, movie blogs, and similar ones, it’s very important to have an eye-catching design. Images and design play a great role in attracting traffic and persuading visitors to stay in touch and subscribe to your blog.
Rahman Mehraby
Site Booster Blog
i also just start a blog but i not good in time management because i have more than 5 blogs on different domain.
maybe i should have a manager to schedule all my posting :)
i hope you can write more on backlink building
I will soon post an article on backlink building ! good luck to your blogs ! Thanks for reading the article ! Hope you found it useful !
Hello,
I am new to blogging and just started my blog a few days ago. I will folloe these tips and see how it goes. I was worried about how i can get people to know i blog and i have twitter so i promote on twitter.
My blog has been there for just 5 days and so far i have over 60views(is that good or bad?)
Is there any other way i can get traffic to my web? I blog about A Fresher’s Life.school and other misc stuffs. Thank You
is twitter good enough for promoting content over the others blogger?
or is it necessary to join a community/forum about the topic ?
@Julian,
Twitter is indeed a good medium for promoting your blog’s posts. Well, it is also necessary that you use other promotion methods as well.
Good Luck,
The post was great but…ouch…there were a few things that really hit home. I’ve also allowed my blog to lose a bit of focus, which I think happens often with writers of any sort (bloggers included). I’m working on hammering that focus back into shape.
Your advice will be put to good use, no doubt!
JennyB
@JennyB
Thanks and its good that you are finding this post useful.
Good Luck to your Blog.
i made some of the mistake. specially number 2 and 4. thanks for the info.
@isti,
Offering social media sharing buttons and subscription links has great positive impact on your blog because these are the key elements which convert casual visitors into loyal readers
About design, set a day or two apart for tweaking the design and arrive at final one. Then don’t change it.Focus on writing.
Good Luck.
Great posts, rightly you have mentioned the most commited mistakes with blogging. Over all great contains are a must.
Thanks for reading the post.
Yes, in online world, it is very easy to get distracted and lose focus on what is really important. In the world of blogging, there is always new to learn.If one puts consistent effort and creates great content in his blog there is nothing that stops him becoming a great blogger.
People want information.. give them answers not the news … will see return on your investment in your blog.
very good information,thx very much for sharing with us!
Thanks for reading. I hope you found the article useful.
My comment of your blogg is completly positive. It could be like a beginners course. You explain in 10 points the basic rules that a blogger must follow to be succesful. Now I have to go and put all your advice into practise. Thank you!
The 2nd one matters for me!..
Great list and one that is concerning me at the moment, I really need to sit down a put a timetable for progress on the blog because without that I cannot see what direction I need to take my focus.
One great tip I got from the Warrior forum was the phrase “This is useful because…” if you apply that to everything you do then the interest level will be self generated and you can remain on track.
Exactly.
Just put a notice board near your desk and create a cross tab section with month and visitor data. Also set up weekly targets and write on the board. This will give you the momentum and inspiration to blog. At the same time don’t compromise on quality. Write only if you have compelling articles.
Good Luck.
Thanks for the tips! :)
I just started off in July, I’m blogging daily but time management has been a problem for me!
Hi Aurangzaib,
Congrats for starting your blog. It is also nice that you are actively blogging. However, if you are a part time blogger, you can consider writing 2-3 posts every week rather than blogging daily, so that you will also have time for other activities.
These were some of the mistakes I used to do!
Or, indeed, “make”…
11) Learn basic grammar
When a blogger writes things like “If you possess caliber of writing…”, “Please don’t do this mistake” and “I suggest you to continue writing about this”, you lose all credibility as an authority.
Thanks. I haven’t started my blog yet, just thinking about it, and I’ll take these tips on account.
Merci
Eva,
Thanks for reading the article. Good Luck for your blog.
Good post, however..sorry to say, the #6 is really crap..i don’t think writing guest posts on other blogs directly impact your blog performance. You can’t judge a blog is doing well or not just because the owner writing guest posts or not. Instead, it’s solely depend on how you take care of your blog..
I don’t think famous blogs especially tech blogs doing the guest posts thing. Instead, they rely on search engines means they really pay attention on the SEO. One of my tech blogs gets 50% of the traffic from search engines and i don’t do any guest posts..
This is exactly what happened to me when I first started. It is very nice of you to share this simple but hard to learn tips with everyone. I would have really liked to have know about it when I first started. Great article and tips.
Anna,
Thanks for reading.
Wishing you good luck :-)
You have an interesting name. What does it mean?
Thanks for sharing the tips.
G
Well, Winning Ideas is blog about ideas that inspire winning. Ideas could be about personal growth,innovation or blogging tips.
I chose this name because I liked the word idea since an idea can make difference to our lives.
This really helps. It’s always the simple things that help the most.