Mistake #11: Blogging on Your Own
Learning to adopt skills from popular journalists, digging up stories and interviewing others from my industry has enhanced my writing skills and opened many doors.
A lot of bloggers think they have to do everything themselves.
And I was guilty of this too.
Thing is, this puts a lot of weight on our shoulders and drains creativity.
Expand your reach by emailing other bloggers from your industry and asking them for interviews and to exchange guest posts.
Mistake #12: Adding to Information Overload
Don’t just publish content for the sake of publishing content.
Try to create something unique and compelling.
Make sure every post has a lot of value, and doesn’t just contribute to the clutter that’s already out there.
Mistake #13: Too Much Self Promotion
Go outside your own products, services, and company and talk about other necessary subjects to offer solutions to your readers’ issues.
This builds trust, and shows you really care.
Besides, you can’t solve everybody’s problems.
Mistake #14: Not Connecting With Your Audience
A lot of bloggers just publish their posts and forget about them.
Looking at your comments, responding to them, and sincerely engaging with your audience, will help build strong relationships.
Mistake #15: Not Thoughtfully Responding to Comments
One of the most blatant mistakes a blogger can make is not taking time to respond thoughtfully to comments and interact with users.
Show your readers some love and respond to them.
Let them know you’re a real person that truly wants to improve their lives.
Make it clear by going beyond the initial response and following it up with engaging comments of your own.
Mistake #16: Not Promoting Your Blog Posts
To my disbelief, I see many bloggers not promoting their stuff.
Once the article goes live, they’ll jump on Facebook, put a link on the fan page and that’s it.
Then you have those who go overboard and promote too much…
You have to strike a balance, getting your posts the attention they deserve without driving your followers crazy with self promotion.
Ideally, you want people sharing your content. Your traffic will go up once your stuff starts to get shared on social media.
You’ll achieve this by consistently writing engaging content geared toward solving your readers’ problems.
Mistake #17: Not Becoming Part of the Community
One of the most limiting mistakes bloggers make is trying to do everything alone.
There are a lot of dedicated, passionate writers out there who would like to help you craft a community blog around the great content in your niche…
This would accelerate the growth of your site with additional promoters and give you a greater social circle to utilize for exposure.
Resources like Blog Catalog can help you find other popular sites in your niche.
And communities like BlogEngage are awesome for the exchange of feedback and links by like-minded bloggers.
Mistake #18: Not Engaging Other Bloggers in the Industry
You want close collaboration with other bloggers in your industry.
You could even try to form a blogging group in your local community and start or join a group on Facebook.
The sky’s the limit.
Don’t think of your blog as a separate entity, acknowledge it as part of a larger community – collaborative partners can only help your site.
Think of your blog as one of many and link up with others for the benefit of your audience. You’ll destroy yourself trying to cover everything your niche has to offer alone.
Mistake #19: Not Sharing Your Expertise
Sharing your talent and expertise with other bloggers and websites builds trust, reputation, and credibility.
The quickest way to develop a community on the Internet is to share information.
Your readers can and will come from other authority blogs.
Get your foot in the door with the best blogs in your niche by doing guest posts, commenting on their stuff and asking to do interviews.
Mistake #20: Ignoring Keyword-Rich Titles to Appear Clever
A lot of bloggers choose really clever or catchy titles, but they don’t think about keywords.
Keywords can make a big difference to the search engines – especially for the long term.
Choosing a keyword-rich title can make the difference between your post living on and fading into nothingness.
You DEFINITELY want a catchy title, just make sure it’s relevant to your message.
We live in the age of information.
On a daily basis we’re exposed to more ideas, blog posts, and news stories than we could ever consume.
That said, time is a limited resource for most people these days.
And with an abundance of mediocre and regurgitated information, treating your readers’ time with respect is critical…
Remember, the best way to respect your readers’ time is by delivering great content on a regular basis.