Here are three big mistakes that bloggers seem to be fond of making. Of course, this only applies to people who want to build an audience. If you see blogging as a hobby you pursue when you get bored with your Playstation 2 and run out of beer, this doesn’t apply to you.
- First and foremost, most unsuccessful bloggers just don’t write enough material. Either they don’t post enough links or they don’t rant/write enough essays. If you look at successful blogs around the net you’re almost always going to find that they put a LOT of work and time into their writing/linking. You’re going to have to do that too if you’re going to succeed.
- Inconsistency kills. Vacations & week-ends off are fine, but just randomly taking days off or making minimal numbers of posts will cost you readers. For the most part, we may be dishing out “free ice cream” (writing for free), but our customers still want a consistent supply. If they don’t get it, they’ll wander off and find one. So instead of having a reader who hits your page every day, they may just check in once every couple of weeks to see what they’ll find. That’s not the way to build up a consistent group of readers.
- You have got to be distinctive enough so that readers can pick you out of the herd. If there are 50 other blogs out there talking about the same things you’re talking about and saying roughly the same things — well to put it bluntly, why should a reader bother with reading your blog?
If you’re a blogger with talent and patience & you avoid those three “cardinal sins”, you will eventually build an audience.
Originally posted on June 5, 2006 @ 4:43 pm
