Well, I’ve gone and done it. I’ve committed the number one blogging mistake, the one I caution my clients against, the one that will kill your blog quicker than a bad link. I HAVE NOT POSTED. I haven’t posted in a month, people. Over a month, to be accurate – since November 4. Take that as a lesson learned, oh ye of the internet – blog often, or at least consistently. And never, ever underestimate the amount of time commitment involved in a blog! It will be more than you think, people. More than you think.
Want some other top blogging mistakes? Here you go:
- Technical Issues – not hosting your own blog, having a clunky URL address (for example, www.mycompanyname.com/about/blog)
- Lecturing Tone – you need to write as if you were talking with someone, rather than talking at them. No one wants to be the Charlie Brown teacher, “wa wa wa wa waaaa”. You can still be professional while also being personable.
- Not Promoting It – just writing and posting? Might as well be sending your messages afloat in a glass bottle. Develop a promotion plan to get your blog out there. Post comments on bloggers with similar topics, include your blog URL in your Web signature, etc.
- Clever Headlines – clever headlines are great for newspapers, but if you want people to find your blog through searches, your headline needs to incorporate the blog topic. There’s a bunch of guidelines for SEO for blogs, if gaining alot of traffic is a goal of your blog. I, myself, have fallen victim many a time to the clever headline siren call.
- Not Linking – link to others, and they’ll link back to you, thereby increasing your readership as well as your search ranking. It’s all good.
- Unoriginal Content – don’t repeat what others have said. Credit them for their thoughts, and expand on it, or write your own thoughts. Fresh, unique content is the key. For company blogs, you don’t want to become the preacher on the soapbox touting your company and your products to your own employees or clients. For one, they know what you’re saing (selling?) already, and two, you’ll soon end up writing to the big open void. Connect with other bloggers, open up a dialogue, provide fresh ideas – anything to be relevant. You want readers to come back because they want to, not because their boss is making them come back.
If you want more mistakes, ProBlogger has a great article titled Warning: Do you recognize these 21 blogging mistakes?
