If you’ve got a blog then you know how important it is to capture your reader’s attention as soon as they hit your post. Otherwise they’re bound to click away, and you may have lost them forever.
Unfortunately, this is exactly what many of your readers are doing. They land on your blog post, but instead of reading your content they are turned off by a mistake that you’re making and bolt.
Let’s help you fix that!
So here are a few blogging mistakes that you could be making, and how you can easily fix the problem.
Mistake #1. Not Engaging With Your Audience
Probably the single biggest blogging mistake that I see people make is not engaging with their readers in the comment section. Comments give you the ability to get to know your readers and make them feel like they’re apart of the community. So don’t let people feel that they’re all alone.
Be sure to always respond to questions and comments that people leave, and even ask a follow up question in order to start a conversation. Also make sure that your blog is setup to send you a notification when you receive a new comment. That way you never miss a chance to engage.
Remember, blogging is a social platform afterall, so please remember to be social.
Mistake #2. Writing Too Much Or Too Little
I’m not a huge fan of 1000+ word blog posts (though I have written some!) because people have short attention spans. Often times, people will see a ton of text and run away as fast as possible. Though there is a time and place for these types of posts, and if done correctly can be great viral posts, they aren’t something you should write all the time.
They should be reserved for special topics so that they carry some authority. But if all you’re posting are mega long articles, nobody is going to want to read them.
On the flip side, if everything you post is 300 words or less, you’re not giving people enough content to get anything out of it. The ideal length of your posts is 500-700 words. Long enough to delve into the topic, but short enough to hold people’s attention.
Mistake #3. Not Using Images and Videos
Images are super important in any blog post. Without them, your content looks bland and uninviting. So make sure to find a relavant and interesting image to go along with each post you write. You can use places like istockphoto or stock.xchng for some nice, unique images.
Videos are also really great to add to your posts because readers love them. There engaging and keeps people on your blog longer. You don’t even have to be in them yourself if you don’t want to. Go out and find interesting videos on youtube that are related to your content, and simply embed them into your post.
Don't forget to use me!
Mistake #4. “Me, Myself, and I” Content
Don’t make the mistake of writing posts for you instead of your audience. The content is for them afterall! Make sure that you’re not writing blog posts that are product pitches in disguise, or posts that your readers simply don’t care about.
Know your audience and who you’re targeting so that you can tailor your content to them. Just because you think its interesting and important, doesn’t mean your readers do.
Mistake #5. Using Bad Grammar
Now I don’t mean to say that you have to be a New York Times best selling author to write a blog post, but it should be at least grammatically correct. Nothing turns off a reader more than a post that is nothing but run on sentences, lacks punctuation, and is rife with spelling errors.
I know that it’s easy to miss mistakes. We sometimes get so familiar with the content that we keep overlooking the fact that we left out a word, or misspelled another. But try to proofread your content as best you can before you hit publish so that you get it as close to perfect as you can.
Also, spell check is a wonderful thing!
So there you have it. Take these 5 simple tips on blogging mistakes you could be making, and let them help you keep those readers on your site long enough to fall in love with your content.
Good luck and happy blogging!
Talk soon,
P.S. If you don’t have a blog yet and don’t want the hassle of setting one up on your own, Go ahead and click here now to get your own Empower blog ready to go in minutes.
About Angel
Hi Angel,
Address you audience at all times. “You” works well. Solve problems with your content. Post daily. Share to social networks. Power tips here.
Read posts out loud. How does the article sound? Awkward or smooth? The out loud test does wonders for catching errors and making quick edits, which boost leads in a big way.
Thanks!
Hi Angel,
Address you audience at all times. "You" works well. Solve problems with your content. Post daily. Share to social networks. Power tips here.
Read posts out loud. How does the article sound? Awkward or smooth? The out loud test does wonders for catching errors and making quick edits, which boost leads in a big way.
Thanks!
These are really great tips as well Ryan! Thanks so much for sharing
Those are 5 really vital points, Angel, that so many overlook. I think #1 and #4 are the biggest ones because it is far too easy for us to write something of interest to us and not put ourselves in our audience's shoes. Great post.
Absolutely! It really is easy to simply write for ourselves and not our audience.
Great post. It's not enough to just write blog content; you're right: you need to engage and provide readers with a reason to come back.
You're exactly right Susan. We've got to give readers a reason to want to come back and read our new stuff every time we post. So by engaging with them, they feel like they are a part of the conversation. Thanks for stopping by!
One thing that will always make me click off a blog quicker than anything else is when the page is so full of advertisements that it either takes forever to download the page and/or the advertisements take up more space on the page than does the post. Numbers 2 and 4 are also big turn-offs as well. I mean how many pictures does a reader need to see of someones kiddo(s) playing in the sand. :/ Thanks for your post and the opportunity to vent.
Too many ads are definitely a turn off. We read blogs for the content, so when the ads are so over the top that the content gets buried, that is not a good thing!
Thanks for stopping by Christine! Oh and venting is quite alright
Hi Angel! My wife and I just got into the Empower Network and we had never heard of blogging as a business model. I'm making sure to blog every day, but I haven't really got a clue what "quality content" means. I can't really understand how people will ever find my posts. I have never looked at blogs before, and most searches for blogs yield news articles ABOUT blogs, not any blogs themselves, or it was a straight up sales pitch. I took me three days of searching to find a post like yours. How do I know what to write?