Nine Blogging Mistakes to Avoid

A lot of people get down to try and "make money from blogging" only to give it up down the line. I have listed a few of the "blogging mistakes" that they should avoid and try not falling into the trap

Not Updating Your Blog
You set up a blog and is all excited about it. For a few days, you get down to do a furry of posts and the excitement may extend to even a few weeks. And then, kaput, it is all over. The numbers of posts reduce and gradually the blog is totally forgotten.

PLEASE remember, don't ever fall into this trap. You can even hire a person to write the blog posts for you. Just remember that nothing kills a blog faster than the lack of updates. So, once again, I request you to maintain a blog “posting frequency” and stick to it. You will thank me for it later. Try and maintain one post per day or try allocating half an hour for your blog per day. A blog that is not updated regularly is as good as a dead blog and do you want that to happen to you ?

Blogging Only For Money
A lot of people have asked me quite often whether they could "make money from blogging"; and the answer to that question is YES !!

But I have also told them that it is possible for anyone, to "make money from blogs". But the reality is that, most people who write blogs exclusively to make money really DON'T make a lot of money.

Now why is that ??

Some of the many reasons for this is because blogging is an organized, disciplined and ongoing process and fresh content is always necessary and no sooner people forego this due to other commitments, they lose out. This is one of the reason why more that 80% if not 90% of the bloggers don't "make money from blogging". Also don't think when people tell you that blogging only for money is bad. It is just that you expect results too soon and you invariably cave in and forget about it. You do this daily bit and suddenly you will be shocked to receive this check and will be thinking whether this was due to your efforts.

So, go ahead enjoy it - think of it as a part time hobby. There is also no harm if you lose your spontaneity - just have a back-up blogger or writer ready to write those posts for you.

Proofread, Proofread And Proofread
Always proofread your post prior to posting it. What I mean to say, all of us make mistakes while typing. The proof of this is the number of mistakes that you tend to make while chatting with a friend (and you take it for granted your friend on the other side understands your mistakes).

But in a blog post, you cannot overlook this mistake, you have to proofread it atleast twice, before posting it. If you write something at night, just save it and read it twice in the morning before posting. You will notice the difference.

Ofcourse, recently, there have been a number of blogs that have wantonly come out with posts that contain mistakes - but they can afford to do so. This is because, this is their USP or unique selling proposition, as they are writing for their friends. Their friends tend to understand their slangs and mistakes better than correct perfect sentences. In other words, it is slang what sells.

But this can be applied to only a small percentage of people (generally the younger generation). Besides, you also need to have a large reader base or friend base

Be Personal
This is another important aspect that you have got to remember.

Writing for a blog and writing an article are two distinct styles. Blogging is more personal. It is as if you are having a conversation with a virtual partner and not providing advise to a class or lecturing a room of students on a topic. While your knowledge of the topic would be appreciated, you lose out on the personal side – so write for your readers

But another mistake, don’t get too personal – control your language, no f’s and sh*t and other lose slang – whatever said, people respect you more without it.

This was a feedback; I received a few months back from a client when I took on writing about a product that I knew quite well, but didn’t quite fathom my reader-base.

Here goes….

1) “You've got to stop writing like your teaching a class. Write as if you’re actually talking to me. As if you’re talking to someone at a kitchen table. Relax and make it easy to understand. If you’re writing for an Industry magazine, it's perfect. You’re writing for a blog. It's got to feel like a blog. People don't' write blogs with hours of research, they just sit down and write. So write with casual language.

2) Start using contractions. We tend to use lots of contractions. It is = it's, I would = I'd, Should not = shouldn’t and I have= I've. This will make it sound more conversational. Again make it easy to read.

3) I can't critique the structure, because you didn't end the article at 400 words and put an ending to it. But as far as I can tell the keywords were placed very well.

4) Your missing the point of the reader. You wrote about big companies using the product, but if you read the product description, our target market isn't big companies. It's small little businesses, 1 person Realtors, 5 person accountants, and 10 person contractors. You tend to be boring when you talk about big business, because the reader doesn't care about big business. However, you can use big business as an example, but talk to the reader and tell them what's in it for them. The small business guy, the entrepreneur, the start up business. Those people are the targets NOT big businesses that you spoke about.

5) Again your writing is really amazing, just needs to be tweaked a little.

I think you get the point !

Respond To Comments
It is very, very important and I stress that again to respond to comments – This is what brings back readers to you. Successful bloggers always interact with their readers and they try and establish a link or a connection with their readers. Once you establish a connection with your readers, they will often drop by your blog to check what you have written recently. Very important

Be Original
Again, if you find some interesting topic in some other source, say a blog or a website link – give them credit. It gives your blog a lit more value.

You don’t need that small post to ruin your reputation. You may have not realized and could have got carried away by the source – but sometimes the feedbacks could be nasty. So try and be original

I sometimes find it funny, when people say that blog posts have been copied – hey, these are two guys chatting on a topic and they would only be happy to have their topic copied, if proper credit was given to them. Say, an additional link.

This reminds me of an anecdote...

I recently took a subcontract of writing a blog-post and some articles from a guy based from who-knows-where (remember, there is no distance in the Internet). The understanding was that I give the entire rights to this bloke, which means it would be his name that would be credited under the post.

I thought what the hell, it was a small job and besides I needed some work as well.

Sometime later, I got to read this same post elsewhere, but it was totally a different person’s name that was credited with the article. I couldn’t help laughing, because here I am writing for some-one (who had been contracted by the main guy for a decent sum) and the same thing was subcontracted to me for basically peanuts and I had to worry about plagiarism

In other words, “to steal ideas from one person is plagiarism but to steal from many is research”

The story goes on – but please try and be original. Don’t have to be one of the big media shots – but write for your readers

Writing For The Searching Engines Instead Of People
People get carried away by KEI (keyword density index), key phrases, tags, keyword density, making sure that it is Google friendly and the rest of the jazz. But what they tend to forget is that it is people who would be reading their post and not search engines.

Now I am not saying that you don’t have to be worried about SEO and keyword densities, but your first priority should always be your readers.

When you proofread your post for the post for the second time, check for the keywords and their positioning and basic optimization, i.e., opening, end and the middle should be optimized well with the main keyword. That’s more than sufficient.

Not Being Passionate About Your Topic
Successful bloggers are always passionate about their topic and they also maintain a high blog posting frequency. Now if you have ten blogs and you say that you are passionate about all of them – how are you able to maintain your blog posting frequency ? Practically impossible ! So one or two blogs max with a decent degree of passion will get you more distance than 10 blogs with no passion or a zero posting frequency !

Try Giving Your Readers The RSS Facility
Now, I am not certain that this would increase your reader-base, but do it – it has helped me. Generally, people in the same line prefer to interact with each other, share ideas and help each other and the RSS facility is a big help

That’s about it – I believe I have covered most areas. So let’s get down and begin to "make money from blogging".