Internet is flooded with the tips and tricks on how to start a blog and make it known using various tactics such as content marketing, social sharing, and the list goes on. But there are very few that sheds light on how NOT to start a blogging business, what steps should be avoided and what tactics you should steer clear of. If you have been considering to start blogging as a full-time or part-time job and want to earn a living from blogging, you need to know the don’ts of blogging just as much you need to know the dos and pro advice.
People often deem blogging as a no brainer job which could be started just like that; no special skills required, no rules and regulations required, anyone could do it. However, in reality, this is not how things work in the world of blogging. There are certain rules which must be followed; otherwise, your blogging career would go down the hill right from the beginning.
In this blog, we have mentioned five steps which should be avoided by the newbie bloggers if they want a successful blogging career ahead.
Starting a Blog Without Knowing the Target Audience
There is literally no business in the world that could be started without having the know-how of its target market; blogging is no different. If you are about to start writing blogs without knowing your niche and target audience, you will not be able to create the content as per their liking.
You need to know the specific details of your audience; their age group, their preferences, their average income and there can be many relevant details like this that should be taken into consideration before you start off with the blog. Device a blog strategy that appeals to your audience; once you know the audience only then you will be able to talk with them in their language, which is one of the most essential factors to connect and resonate with your target audience.
Paying no Attention to the SEO
There are many bloggers who work hard on their content, post consistently, and market their content on every possible channel they can; still, they get minimum to no results. The reason is that they pay no attention to the SEO, keyword research, and other targeted search engine optimization techniques that are crucial to their blog success.
Again before starting off with SEO activities, you need to formulate a comprehensive SEO strategy which explains each and every step that you need to take. Also, the practices which you don’t need to do, such as keyword stuffing, unnatural link building, and the list goes on. Your keyword research should be based on relevant market research. If you want to find the best organic keywords quora, twitter, niche forums, manual google search are some of the means you can find your relevant keywords through.
Learn how to promote your blog
Blogging without Adopting Relatable Tone
One of the most common mistakes bloggers make is they start without implementing persuasive techniques in their content. If you write pretty well, it doesn’t mean that you can be a good blogger too. In this era, when the audience has short attention spans, you need to psychological triggers in your copy, else they will leave your blog halfway. In order to ace the blogging game, you will have to write with the emotional hooks embedded in your copy. There should be a pattern that should be followed throughout your copy. Follow the famous blogs on the internet and you will know how the expert bloggers include the engaging elements to keep you hooked till the end.
Use AIDA formula to write attention-grabbing posts. AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Write captivating headline to grab the audience’s attention. Write relevant, interesting, and insightful information to retain their interest. Prove your points with the statistics and proofs to convince them on your idea. Add compelling CTAs to facilitate them for taking the desired action that you want them to take.
Posting Too Much and Too Less
When you start your blogs, you have a plethora of ideas in your mind. You have so many things to share that you think that you can write every day without taking a break. You are full of energy and have plenty of time on hands to get done with other tasks that come attached to blogging. Hold your horses, if you think the same as the scenario won’t be the same after a month or two. A point will come when you will slow down and won’t be able to carry the things the same way as you do now.
Therefore, it’s better to set a realistic schedule that is practically possible for you to continue further. As a matter of fact, if you believe that posting too much can help you become noticeable sooner, you are under a wrong impression as content marketing is more important than content creation. You may post once a week still you can manage to fetch handsome traffic to your website, but only when your content promotion techniques are on point.
Similarly, you should not be too lazy about your posting schedule. Some bloggers do not set any specific schedule and don’t update anything new on their blog for months, this again is wrong. Set a schedule and let your audience know the time on which you will be posting fresh content; otherwise, they will deem you as a non-serious blogger who writes not for their audience but as per their own convenience, mood, and preference.
Not Embedding Analytics to Your Blog
If you are going to start a blog, at the end of the day, you would want to know how your posts are doing. On which posts you are getting most of the traffic. Which type of content your audience is liking the most. Without analytics data, you cannot keep track of your audience behavior as well as site performance. If you want to enhance and improve your content as per your audience’s behavior, you will have to install Google Analytics to your site. Installing Google Analytics and keeping track of the data is not rocket science. It’s quick and easy and it provides you with a lot of crucial information which can be critical to your website’s success.
You must not start off without embedding Google Analytics into your website because:
- Google Analytics is free to use, so you don’t have to pay any monthly fee.
- Drag and drop interface that allows you to create customizable reports. You can add various metrics and dimensions in a single report.
- Helps you know the bounce rate.
- Helps you know the pattern of how visitors are navigating through your site.
- From where people are coming to your blog and how they are finding you.
Conclusion
If you want your blog to become successful within a minimum period, you will have to be heedful of the points that have been mentioned above. Never start off the blogging until or unless you have a plan on hand to go ahead in a specific direction. Haphazard postings with unspecified goals are not going to take you anywhere in the long run. Take every step carefully and follow the tips that have been mentioned above, and you will able to devise a blogging strategy that brings you the desired results quickly and effectively.
Author Bio
Loius Martin is the Creative Marketing Manager at Invictus, a design company known for creating a stunning company logo design. He has been doing digital marketing for the past three years in the US. Loius has extensive experience in blogging and marketing, and his work reflects a deep insight into the marketing tactics of the present world. You can follow him at @loiusmartin1 on Twitter.
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