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You want more readers. More comment love.
You want to know that your content is helpful and interesting.
But maybe you are making mistakes that send your readers packing their bags and heading out of town.
If you just knew what they were.
Here they are. Ten blogging mistakes you might be making:
1. You aren’t focused enough.
Now your blog needn’t be as laser focused as a blog about the aye-aye (although it might), but it does have to be specific enough to attract a niche audience—readers who are looking for specific information on your topic.
If you blog about gardening one day and graphic design the next, you won’t build a loyal base of readers. Because they won’t know what to expect on any one day when they land on your blog. Stay true to your mission and your blog’s purpose.
2. You don’t write posts that teach us stuff.
People are going online because they have problems. They need solutions. Why not be the blogger who has the answers?
Every time you sit down to write a post, ask yourself, “What am I helping my readers with today?”
3. Your blog’s design is cluttered.
Annoying graphics, too many choices in the sidebar and widgets that have nothing to do with your blog’s purpose will make your readers click away. If you are going to use those floating and blinking pop-ups (and I don’t), be sure your visitor has enough time to engage with your content first.
And speaking of too many choices, think of the one action you want your readers to take and put that in the most visible, accessible spot on your sidebar.
4. Your blog is all about you.
If you are blogging to develop an audience—for your books, for your products or for your services—forget about making your blog an online diary. Your readers don’t want to hear your ramblings. They are looking for what’s in it for them.
Always blog with your reader’s hat on.
5. You don’t tell visitors who you are and what your blog is about—right away.
This is a common—and deadly—mistake. Pull up your blog’s home page and ask yourself this: If I were a first-time visitor, would I know exactly who this blogger is and what her blog is about?
Within 2-3 seconds? Because that is typically how long you have to capture your attention-disordered reader.
6. You don’t give us an easy (and visible) way to subscribe.
I see blogs all the time that hide their subscription sign-up box, or it is so tiny that I don’t notice it at all. Make it big and in your reader’s face.
When I made that one small change, I got a significant increase in my subscribe numbers.
7. Your blog has no personality or voice.
Mr. Rogers, the TV friend of millions of kids, said it best:
There is no one in the whole world just like you.
Find that one thing that makes you unique. It may be the way you talk (we call that “voice”). It may be something in your past. It may be a special skill or the fact that you love to make people laugh.
Build your blog’s brand—its personality—around that and readers will come back for more posts from this interesting blogger (that would be you).
8. The readers you wish you had don’t know you exist.
There are many, many ways to attract readers. But they won’t know about your amazing blog unless you tell them. Promote your blog everywhere, from simple clickable links in your email signature line to Twitter and Facebook to writing guest posts for other bloggers—and more.
And don’t be shy. If you have high-quality, useful stuff on your blog, people will want to know about it.
9. You make your visitors feel like they are walking into a WalMart.
When they first land on your blog, your visitors don’t know you yet. Don’t scare them away with big old ads and buttons that say, “Buy! Buy!”.
Gently guide readers into your sales funnel—after you have developed trust and credibility.
10. You don’t make every reader and every commenter feel special.
Your readers want to feel like they belong. Make every visitor feel welcome. Build a community—not a club. Encourage comments and respond to every one of them.
Because they are your gold mine. And the best way to build your community.
How long have you been blogging?
If you haven’t started yet, what’s your biggest roadblock?
If you are new to blogging, or haven’t started yet, learn exactly how to avoid the most common mistakes at my 30 Secrets blogging webinar. My fellow winner of a Top 10 Blogs for Writers award, Carol Tice, and I will show you what we did to make our blogs attract more readers, subscribers and comments. Watch as we review attendees’ blogs and share our tips. That’s next Tuesday, March 15. We still have a few slots open.
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Hey Judy…
I’ve been wrestling with point #1 for almost as long as I’ve been blogging. Any time I attempted to focus, I ended up stopping cold. I’d make a decision to write “on topic” and then I would have nothing to say because the things I felt like writing about were off topic.
Yesterday I decided to split my blog. I’m going to have 2 of them. One will be “on topic” for my business. The other will be violating rule #4 and adhering strongly to rule #7.
Even though I just started to move content over, I am already *amazed* at how easy things are now. It’s obvious what fits where. I can see that when I’m done I’ll have 2 clearly focused sites instead of one jumbled mess. Yippee!
Thanks for the advice.
Patty K recently posted..Success- failure and doing stuff instead of just thinking about it
Patty,
#1 is something we have all wrestled with (well, most of us at least). And #4 is an interesting animal.
But I have finally realized that I can get “me” into every blog post without making the post all about me. It’s a fine line to walk (at least in a business blog) and one definitely has to inject enough of themselves into their posts to have a voice and personality (#7). There is nothing wrong with telling a story about yourself, if you can tie it to a problem (and solution) for your reader. Talking about a business blog here.
In a personal blog, you have much more freedom and, frankly, I have thought about starting one of those, too (in addition to this blog). I totally understand the wanting to write about what you are interested in, the things you are passionate about. Many people with personal blogs do this well, just not in the context of a business blog. And readers flock to their sites because they have something interesting to say and they say it in an entertaining way. Good for you for understanding the differences between the two and proposing a solution. Can’t
wait to see what happens next with it.
I recently began transitioning from a website for my photos and writing to one for Boomers, – where boomers can go to have an internet home for things they’re interested in. Almost finished, I need to get back to my writing and photography. Your comment will give me some thought as I may have to split into two sites. Comments on my site are welcome. http://www.andrehugosplace.com/ A contact page is on the site.
The article that prompted this discussion is very much appreciated. Thanks.
Yes, Andre. You are wise to split those two sites. Different audiences, I suspect. Glad you found this helpful.
Judy, this was a practical, helpful post. I was able to go down the list and see several things I’m not doing, so that is good! I see so many blogs that are all about the blogger, ramblings about their escapades or life with their kids. I agree that we must put our personality in our blogs, but when I see blogs that are all about the blogger, I just want to tell them to quite focusing on themselves. The thing is, I see that those bloggers often have a lot of followers…and then I wonder, why do they when they talk about themselves all the time? I feel I have a niche, but I still struggle to get people to subscribe or follow on GFC, although it seems every day I hear from someone who has just discovered my blog and really likes it.
janis meredith recently posted..Lessons from a 17-year-old basketball player
Janis,
To answer your question, there are business blogs and there are personal blogs. In a personal blog, you have much more freedom to talk about yourself. People reading a personal blog are there for varied reasons: pure entertainment, passions and hobbies (gardening, cooking, history, parenting, politics, etc.), liking a certain celebrity or other reasons. And sometimes a personal blog reads like a good story and most of us like stories. Many (but not all) of the personal blogs are still written for niche audiences.
On your struggle to get people to subscribe, I would just say that that it isn’t an overnight process. Your last sentence says it all. It’s one reader at a time (unless your blog wins an award or something else miraculous happens). : )
Thanks for sharing your experience here.
Judy, this post really hit home for me. I’ve been struggling with #1 for a while now. I hear this advice over and over, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. I write multiple genres, many of them with conflicting audiences, and I just can’t bring myself to focus on one (thus excluding the others). Perhaps I need to consider my blog a “personal” blog and open more focused blog/websites once I begin to publish in the different genres. Thanks for this post. It’s really making me think.
my recent post- http://www.wordsbyannie.com/apps/blog/entries/show/6377607-typos
Annie,
I understand your dilemma, I really do. But if you blog to audiences, whenever you switch genres in a post, you are turning away the readers who aren’t interested in that genre. At the very minimum, if you plan on staying with this plan, you should have categories on your sidebar so people can find just the posts that are about the genre they are interested in.
Still, that waters down your blog’s brand and makes it harder to promote it and attract the readers you want. Starting more focused blogs on the individual genres takes more time but is a better way to build your communities of readers.
I’ve been focusing on #10 for the past 2 weeks and I’m already seeing a difference.
Folks who leave comments have begun to seek me out on twitter to continue the conversation and I make it a point to follow them back, check out their blog and either leave a comment or give them feedback/start a conversation with them.
I’m finally beginning to get what building a community around your blog means.
Samar recently posted..Recommended Reading For Freelancers March 10- 2011
Samar,
That’s great to hear! It takes constant work and care of a community to build it. The more you interact with and engage your readers, the more they will want to hang around your blog. You are doing things right. : )
Hey Judy. Thanks for this enlightening post. I think i may guilty of number 1.
AH
Http://ahechoes.wordpress.com
AH,
#1 is a huge problem for many bloggers. I think we all start out too general and learn over time the kind of focused content we need to build a readership. Thanks for joining the community here.
Hi Judy,
Good points! I see #10 all the time. No responses. Not sure bloggers know how to take care of commenters? It can be an entirely different skill set.
I treat mine like gold. Having some kind of comment luv also helps spread the wealth.
Thx, Giulietta
Giulietta Nardone recently posted..I- Valentino- Meow About Fear
Giulietta,
You hit the nail on the head. Responding to comments is a special skill. If we work at it, we get better over time. I’l be doing a guest post on that on the Build a Better Blog blog soon.
If you are getting in there and nurturing your reader community by responding to your comments, you will see your readership grow. Thanks for stopping by.
Hi – I’m not sure where else to ask this question. I signed up for the webinair several days ago and paid through Paypal, but have received no confirmation. Do you have a list you can check? Love your posts and am looking forward to the webinair.
margo
margo roby recently posted..Guided Transfers to org
Margo,
I am so glad you left a comment here. I sent you the confirmation, link to register, etc. and didn’t hear back. I used the email that was in the PayPal transaction. Now that I see that you have a different one, I can contact you through that. I’ll do that today. : )
Great article!! Thank you so much for the words, Judy~
Selena Wolff recently posted..The Diary – Aspiring Writer’s Contest
Selena,
Thanks for visiting. Glad you found something useful to take away. : )
Simply pure bliss, Judy. If your blog continues to drip such value, I don’t think I’ll be able to handle. Another fabulous post hit out of the ballpark!
E.J.,
Always love to hear when a reader has been helped. It’s the reason this blog exists. Thanks for the positive feedback.
I don’t know how you do it Judy, I thought you had covered everything with the guest post you did for me then you come up with more!
Great stuff, always something new to learn from your posts, I took your advice by the way and put my pic on the blog, hope I haven’t scared too many readers away
Cheers
Tony
Tony Hastings recently posted..The Top 10 Blog Interview With… @Lotay
Tony,
Thanks. It was fun writing a guest post for your blog. I love the look and feel of it and try to stop by regularly. Will have to take a look at that pic. : )
Judy,
I’m a new blogger and am trying to support my critique group friends in starting their own blog. It’s a little like the terribly-near-sighted leading the blind, but we’ll get there. They’re completely hung up on #1. I was, too, but I started blogging anyway and thanks to great posts like yours I started to nail down my platform and purpose. I leave those old posts up to show the evolution of the site while my friends and I get going.
I have a post scheduled for tomorrow morning about starting a blog and in doing research for the post I’ve come across and included links to several of your post. Thanks for the great content and useful advice. I’m hoping that since I now have a better direction and focus that I’ll engage my readers so they’ll want to comment on my posts.
My site is michelleakobayasi.blogspot.com
Thanks again!
Michelle
Michelle,
If you are beginning to figure out #1 already, I’d say you are ahead of the game. It can be challenging nailing down your focus. Good luck on your blogging journey.
Thanks Judy for another targeted post on successful blogging and building readership. This is my second month at blogging.
As a WordPress user I don’t see how people can subscribe to my site. Three people have, so I know the option is there. Have you any advice for me (besides contacting support)? My experience has been that they do answer questions, yet often misunderstand bigger issues of appearance and function.
Deborah Taylor-French recently posted..What Do You Think Can He Read
Deborah,
You have launched! On your question about how people subscribe, if you are getting subscribers, you must have already done this, but for a good description of the RSS feed process and how to set up the options, I stumbled across this:
http://theedublogger.com/2010/01/26/setting-up-feedburner-rss-and-email-subscription-for-your-blog/
(I don’t have to do any of this kind of stuff because my husband and biz partner is a WordPress specialist. Lucky me.) : )
Judy, a couple of months ago I began a website for lovers of the English language, and one of my main goals is to attract contributors, so the website turns into a community (and not a club, as you mentioned). But unless I do heavy soliciting and arranging, I can’t seem to push past the tipping point to where the animal feeds itself, if you know what I mean. I’m not lazy by any means, I just want people to feel open and welcome. Your topic is very helpful for many other points, but I can’t seem to figure out how to apply your points to my specific dilemma. Any thoughts on how to engage people in that way?
Hi AAron,
Not sure if your question is how to attract readers and get them to your site or how to get them involved/engaged. There are many ways to build traffic but with the keeping them there and engaging them issues, you need a tightly focused home page and a prominent ‘blog bio’ box that tells readers exactly who the site is for, exactly what they can expect to find there and what you want them to do.
If you have accomplished authors and writers contributing, you need to be sure that aspiring/budding writers know they are welcome to contribute, too (if they are). As you build your community, make a big deal of highlighting and/or linking to the work of beginning writers. Community building is a slow process. I’ve been blogging for three years and my community is just reaching that ‘tipping point’ you speak of.
I wrote a guest post on For Bloggers By Bloggers on what I learned in those first years. You might be interested:
http://bestbloggingtipsonline.com/a-blogger-turns-three-10-things-ive-learned/
Dear Judy,
Thanks so much for the response and advice. I guess I shouldn’t have used the term “tipping” point so prematurely, as I do gather the sense that the process of building a user base does take time and effort and patience. But there seems to be a basic first step that I want to grow past; allow me to use the analogy of a dance hall with music playing, and the kids are in the shadows waiting for that first couple to start dancing. Once one couple starts, the rest begin to trickle in, almost exponentially.
I will follow your advice on linking to and attracting budding writers in addition to the mid-level writers and poets. Other than Facebook and Twitter, I’m trying to reach out in other ways, and that seems to be one I’m overlooking. One way I’m working on now is to host a small poetry contest, with the winners published in a free e-pub that will be designed by two graphic artists. I’m trying to make it work!
Thanks for the linked example, too. I certainly appreciate you and your work. You may not “see” me around, but I’ve been following many of your posts.
All the Best,
Aaron
Aaron Geiger recently posted..Skin Lit- when words meet ink meets flesh
#1 is a BEAR, but I think the more you keep at it the better it gets……at least that’s the plan.
Jeremy Duley recently posted..Guitars and eReaders
I’m with you, Jeremy. I write fiction AND non-fiction, so it’s always a challenge to stay focused.
I’m taking a class right now from Kristen Lamb where she encourages us to keep all of our identities under one umbrella (including blogging). What are your thoughts on this, Judy?
Jenny Hansen recently posted..How to Build Your Writing Team
Jenny,
If you are looking at things from an author’s standpoint (I give blogging workshops for aspiring authors), I always advise writers to brand themselves by their name (the only constant that is not going to change). Because how m any people go to Barnes & Noble for a specific book title? They go for the latest John Grisham book or the latest Stephen King book or whatever.
To answer your question, you can have separate blogs (one for fiction, one for nonfiction, because those genres are so different and attract different audiences) or you can have the same blog with different channels/pages for your different genres. But do keep them separate and stay consistent with the way you brand yourself.
I’m pointing you to a guest post I wrote for Larry Brooks of the Storyix.com blog. It may give you some more food for thought:
http://storyfix.com/top-ten-tuesdays-please-welcome-judy-dunn-of-catseyewriter-com
Hi Judy!
I’m late to the party, but I hope I can still be considered fashionable. ; )
I can relate especially well to #10. When I take the time to leave a well-considered comment on someone’s blog post, it means so very much when that person replies. That tells me that I didn’t waste my time, and that my words mean something to someone.
When the blogger does not reply, it leaves me feeling perplexed and disappointed. Did I say the wrong thing? I liked what they said — did they not like what I said?
If I like the blog enough, I’ll come back a few more times and try again. But if they still don’t respond, I stop visiting. There are other blogs whose owners actually interact with commenters. Those are the communities that draw me.
I appreciate so much how you respond to all comments, Judy. You create a great sense of community here!
Courtney Cantrell recently posted..Confessing My Creative Sins- Pt 3 Recovery- Pt 1
Courtney,
Fashionably late? Okay, I’ll let you. But only because you are such a loyal reader. : )
#10 is big and you are so wise to already know it. It’s hard work keeping up with your comments but the payoff is huge. It truly is how you build your community. On the other hand, I do understand why Problogger and Copyblogger don’t reply to every one because, well, they’d spend half of each day doing that.
Thanks for stopping by.
I’m always glad to stop by! I like it here. : )
And yes, if I had dozens of comments on each post, I would still want to reply to them all — but I don’t think I could manage it. Half a day just for answering comments is a lot of time that I could be spending on noveling!
Gotta set priorities. : )
Courtney Cantrell recently posted..My 10-Hour Adrenaline Rush Better Than Chocolate
Thanks for this great list Judy. I pick #8 as my growth area. I know I have a few worthwhile posts, but they are not getting seen. Published some as articles on Biznik, which is good, but doesn’t bring readers to my blog. Will continue to explore this one. I know it is my learning edge with social media and blogging.
Barbara Breckenfeld recently posted..On the fence about social media
Barbara,
I know what you mean about Biznik. Such a diverse group. I don’t think I have much cross-over to my blog from there, either. It takes a while to gain traction with your promotion efforts.
Hi judy,
I’m a teen and I’ve been blogging since the beginning of August. Love all your posts and I love to hang around your blog as it inspires me a great deal! Thank you for all those wonderful posts. This one helped me a lot. Please do have a quick look at my blog. It’s for teen writers. And please let me know what you think of it. Am I making any of these mistakes?
Please do visit! Here’s the link; http://alienwriter-faseeha.blogspot.com/
Thank you!