Additional menu

Rebekah Radice

Online, Digital, Social Media Marketing

Blog Mistakes You Should Stop Making Immediately
You are here: Home / Blogging / Blog Mistakes You Should Stop Making Immediately

Blog Mistakes You Should Stop Making Immediately

By 45 Comments

Are you trying to build your blog?

Does it feel like an uphill battle?

When you consider how to best market your business, there aren’t many options better than blogging.

But, yet there’s no doubt about it. Building a successful business blog can be a challenge.

While a blog provides an inexpensive way to share your expertise, diving in without a plan is a recipe for disaster.

From the most basic mistakes to those that hurt your site, avoiding common pitfalls is critical.

In this article I share some of the mistakes you might be making and how to fix them.

Ready to expand your reach, drive more traffic and improve your blog results? Let’s get started!

Blog Mistakes You Should STOP

 1. Not Setting Goals

If I asked you what your blog purpose is, could you tell me? Could you sum up in a few words what your overall goals are?

Too often, defined goals are overlooked. Bloggers become scattered, lacking vision and a purpose.

Did you dive into blogging without a plan? If so, don’t worry. It happens to the best of us.

The good news is this. Setting goals and clearly defining your purpose can happen today.

Want to better understand who you are as a blogger?

Ask yourself a few questions: 
  • Why do you write?
  • What purpose does it serve?
  • How will your blog support your overall marketing goals?
  • How does a blog integrate into your offline marketing efforts?
  • What type of writer are you?  Are you funny, quick-witted and social or are you serious, to the point and eager to educate?
  • How will you use your blog to better connect with your target audience?

If you don’t identify why you’re blogging, success will always feel out of reach. Take time to spell out what blogging affords your business.

It’s a noisy online world. Simply creating a blog and pushing out content won’t get you noticed.

If you’re already knee-deep into blogging, this is a perfect time to take a step back. Analyze, brainstorm and reinvigorate your blogging with a strategic plan.

Lisa Stauber of Blog Elevated has a simple way to help you get started:

“Having short and long-term goals is key for your blogging success.  Break down your yearly goals into monthly and quarterly goals.  As you are planning your calendar and schedule for the year, include these smaller attainable goals.  Yearly goals are the big picture, quarterly goals are measures through the year to achieve the yearly goals, and monthly goals are breakdowns of the quarterly goals.”

 2. Not Blogging Consistently

Blogging inconsistently hurts you in multiple ways. Not only does it make it difficult for your audience to find you, but also the search engines.

Think about it. When was the last time you revisited a blog that wasn’t recently updated? Probably never.

Likewise, why would anyone return to your blog if you post sporadically? Create a schedule and a blog post calendar to keep you focused and on track.

Use a content calendar like the one below from HubSpot. If you’ve already been blogging for a while, dive into your Google Analytics to identify your top posts. What topics can you expand upon or update?

Also look for the top keywords and phrases your audience is using to find you. That’s valuable insight you don’t want to overlook.

 3. Not Writing for Your Audience

Take a look at your latest blog posts. Is your blog about you or your audience? Are you solving potential client problems or simply pontificating?

While it’s important to infuse your thoughts and expertise into your writing, make sure you use that knowledge to help, not shout at potential clients.

Fill in the blanks below

1. My target audience is __________. (Hint: Be specific. “Everybody” is not your market).

For example:

  • Past clients
  • Potential customers
  • Industry experts
  • Existing social media connections

2. My audience top characteristics and traits are ___________.

3.When my target market lands on my blog, the content they’re looking for is __________.

 4. Promoting Rather than Writing

I understand that your blog purpose is to draw potential clients in, but bashing them over the head with boring stats and constant promotional ads is not the way to build relationships.

Your blog audience wants you to woo them. They want to get to know you and understand how you can solve their problems.

Share your value, but do it in a conversational way.

Sure they need facts and figures, but they also want to hear and see the human side of who you are.

Don’t be afraid to put more of you, and less of a spammy marketer, into each of your blog posts.

  5. Expecting Your Readers to Find You

Your blog is a vital piece of your overall marketing plan.  Don’t forget to promote it in all of your marketing and advertising efforts.

Consumers and readers won’t just miraculously appear at your blog doorstep. Integrate your blog into your online and offline marketing.

Add it to your postcards, email signature, newsletter and other promotional items.

Share your latest blog post across all of your social networks. I’m a huge fan of using visuals to captivate your audience while branding your business.

I create separate images for all social networks to match the requirements for each. For example, if you’re using images on Twitter, ensure that you’re creating them correctly. Peg Fitzpatrick, social media strategist at Canva offers this advice,

“The best size to use for Twitter graphics and images is 1024 pixels by 512 pixels. We’ve created some designs that already populated in your design types on Canva. See them here on our Pinterest board. You can quickly create a series of tweet graphics in Canva and save them in your designs until you’re ready to use them. Or remix them when you want to change things up.

 6. Not Installing (or reviewing) Google Analytics

I’m often asked by bloggers why you would want to review or even track blog statistics.

In my opinion?

Not tracking your statistics is like driving at night without your headlights on.  You may get to your destination, but the ride won’t be pretty.

Google Analytics allows you to track your success and adjust your message along the way.

 7. Forgetting How Powerful Your Blog Title Is

When I first started blogging I was more focused on fun, snappy titles than people or search engine friendly titles.

While you need a nice mixture of both, forgetting the power of your blog title is a huge mistake.  Don’t spend hours crafting that perfect post without adding an attention grabbing, descriptive, SEO friendly headline.

One of my favorite tools is Advanced Marketing Institute’s Headline Analyzer. Submit your blog title and see how it ranks based on their Emotional Marketing Value analysis.

I love this tool and appreciate the guidance it offers. From intellectual, to emotional and even spiritual, this analyzer will tell you how appealing your title is.

 8. Not Checking Your Work

There’s nothing worse than reading an article full of misspellings and poorly written sentences.

Take your time to spell check and review your article before you post.  If you struggle with grammar, then pass off the review to a colleague or Virtual Assistant.

An editor will help point out punctuation, spelling and grammatical errors before that post ends up live for all the world to see.

And if you’re eager to improve your writing skills, hop over to Hemingway. Hemingway does for your writing what the Headline Analyzer does for your title.

Make your content easier to read with their easy to use editor. Copy and paste your post and then look to your score for guidance. Update the misspellings, grammatical errors or complexities in a matter of moments.

Final Thoughts

Your blog is a powerful tool. Invest your time in learning the craft.

Strive to become a better writer, marketer and conversationalist.

Spend time getting to know your readers and learn what makes them tick.

I guarantee it will pay off for years to come!

What blogging mistakes have you made?


Full disclosure: Links on this page may be affiliate links which means that if you decide to buy, I will earn a commission. 3 things you need to know: I only recommend products I use within my own business, am extremely happy with, and can confidently promote.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Changing over from old blog format to completely new design this week, hoping to “up” my blogging with a fresh start.

    I tried to download your book and no matter what email I put in it said it was not a functioning email address.

    Do you think one day of the week is better to post my blog post?
    Would love to get your book if possible,
    Great advice in this article,
    Amy

    Reply

  2. Wow! This has been one of the most helpful blog posts I have written since becoming a new blogger in February. The Hemingway app and the headline checker have already proved invaluable. I cannot wait to see what you write next!

    Reply

  3. Thanks for the reminders and for introducing me to some of the tools I haven’t tried.

    Setting goals is definitely a priority for me and I tend to set mini goals in the form of milestones. This way, my tasks and goals don’t look like they’re going to be “hard work”. I also try not to move the deadlines. Instead, I try and reach the goals sooner than planned. It’s more exciting and challenging this way.

    Reply

  4. Great article! You’ve pointed out the vital elements in blog posting. Plus you explained them perfectly. I always promote content marketing while writing blog posts. It’s true that customers want to gain information from us so we should give them the right information that they want. And update the blog regularly/ It will keep your customers connected with you.

    Reply

  5. Thank you so much. I am getting ready to launch my blog. I am very excited, scared and a bit overwhelmed. Thanks for your guidance.

    Reply

  6. Hi Rebekah!

    Thank you for such valuable post. I have just started blogging and still searching for my voice so this was really helpful, especially tools such as headline analyzer. It will be super-handy! 🙂
    I am working as social media marketer for a while and had great success but was always shy when it comes to writing. Still working on that one I guess 🙂
    I understand how important it is to write consistently, but what when you hit a block? Any advice?
    Thanks! 🙂

    Reply

  7. Hi Rebekah,

    Great post here.

    I really agree with point the following:

    Mistake #2. You have to be consistent in your blog posts or else nobody will want to visit your site. I remember I visited a blog that had some pretty great content but the person would post one day then not post again for a wee, then not post again after that for 2 and a half weeks. It was all over the place. Needless to say I didn’t go back to that blog because of that.

    Mistake #3. This is so true. You have to write for your audience and write to solve their problems otherwise youyou’ll be lost. But before you can even write for your audience, you have to find out who your avatar is. The fill in the blank examples you had there are a great way to start that.

    Mistake #7. Headlines are super important. Probably the most important part of the whole thing. If you don’t have headlines that draw people to click your posts, you’re not doing a good enough job. I use that Aminstitute tool as well. The best I was able to get so far is 68%. I have to work on it more and get better at it and get a higher percentage.

    Rebekah, wow. That Hemingway tool is really something. Never heard of it but tried it out just now and it’s magic. I’m going to use this all the time – but not replace checking my work myself and possibly hiring a proofreader to double check. Not checking your work is a crucial mistake and shouldn’t be made.

    Great post here. Definitely will share this. Hope you have an awesome weekend.

    – Andrew

    Reply

  8. This is a great list! I often forget to keep posting consistently. I also LOVE that headline tool – I’ve been using it for awhile now.

    Reply

  9. Everyone does mistakes and learns from them. In order to get success we should not do mistakes repeatedly. The points you have mentioned are all bang on the target! Good ones!

    I really like the #7 as I got a new tool to check my headlines. Thanks Rebekah.

    Reply

  10. Made a version of all these mistakes, not checking GA, not watching SEO, not publishing regularly enough. About the only thing I don’t do is self-promote, which is in a way mistake #5.

    If I want to read, I have to be found, meaning I have to get out there. I am just loathe to over share as all I see on LI groups and Google+ communities .. people link dumping their own stuff. There has to be a better way; let you know when I find it. The other big mistake is really a catch; #3 writing for the readers you have or the audience you want. That is a fine line.. someday I’ll figure out how to walk it. FWIW.

    Reply

  12. Great Tips, I started to blog full-time on my site and I can say it’s a lot more than writing. I’m working on becoming more consistent and create a habit of one article each week. Many small businesses I consult don’t understand the consistency part because they are so busy. It is very important to stay on mind and remind others to revisit . Delivering valuable information is the key to increase your audience but also a great way to build a community. This is a great place to meet others and meet new people.
    Madeline

    Reply

  13. First time I stumbled on this blog and I just had to say I’m impressed.

    I started a blog around a month ago and I’m still learning so these mistakes are ones that I’ve recently made. It’s nice to know that I’m not alone and I can learn to fix them.

    Reply

  15. Excellent article, Rebekah! The proofreading is definitely on the top of my list. It is always a great idea to have a second and third pair of eyes for proofreading. I will also walk away from an article to let it “bake” and then come back later and re-read it again out loud.

    I love the Advanced Marketing Institute’s Headline Analyzer and will be checking out Hemingway.

    Reply

    • Hi Robin! I do the same. I will walk away from an article if I feel I’m hitting a wall. It really helps offer perspective.

      Glad you’re loving the AMI analyzer! It’s a great resource!

      Reply

  17. I think it comes down to the belief that you can start a blog, write a few posts, not promote it do anything other that sitting back and making millions, if not billions of dollars because that is what the internet is all about.

    Great article

    Reply

  19. Hi REbekah,

    Great blog, great points and great tools that you have put into your blog.

    Goals large and small are really important for me to keep in the front of my mind when writing each blog. The goal for that blog and the Vision for the blog as a whole.
    Will check out Hemmingway, Im not a writer, I enjoy blogging and have heard about Google Analytics haven’t done anything about it..Its on the to do list now.
    Thankyou Rebekah
    Di

    Reply

  20. Hi Rebekah,

    The proofreading one got me for YEARS. Really, really awesome post here.

    I know this post will provide great benefits to so many new and veteran bloggers. I formed a bad habit of writing, and publishing, for way too long on my old blog. The posts were OK but had way too many errors because I was careless.

    Lesson learned as now I proofread posts 1, 2 or 3 times and as soon as a friend notes an error on my blog I pop back in to re-read, and to fix the mistake. Quality counts in the blogging world, big-time.

    As for my eBook, I re-read it 4 times, Adrienne Smith read it and checked for errors, and my eagle-eyed fiancee Kelli read it. After going through 4 checks, Kelli caught like 8 errors, or 10, I believe. Sometimes, we need other sets of eyes, or another re-read or 2, when we’re less tired to avoid these common typo or grammar mistakes.

    Folks have been asking me again and again about their blog topic, and if they should ditch their blogs is many former posts hopped all over the place. Yep. Unless you can easily edit old posts, and do a redirect to the perfectly ideal domain for your new direction, and unless the old, edited posts vibe with the new domain, you’ll always have that bit of confusion there and this lack of clarity will promote your failure, instead of promoting your success.

    I trashed 3400 posts on my old blog to start my new blog armed with clarity, focus, and with my ideal readers in mind. Things took off quickly so it didn’t hurt me, staying on purpose and releasing an old, worn out, unfocused blog.

    Awesome post Rebekah.

    I’ll tweet through Triberr.

    Enjoy your day 🙂

    Ryan

    Reply

    • Congrats on the release of your eBook Ryan! You are inspiring to so many people, I know sharing your dream and how realized it will help a lot of people!

      You’re so right about having others review your work. Its not only good to have a second set of eyes, but also a fresh perspective.

      My business partners always see something I missed. It’s amazing how close we can become to a project and totally overlook certain details.

      Reply

  21. I really love the tools you share, THANKS MILLIONS. I often read posts like this and try to implement one thing asap to improve my blogging. Your post stood out, really concise & great tools. THRILLED. Thank you BIGTIME.

    My big mistake it too much chatter. I get so passionate and write too much. trying to trim my posts down is my focus. And posting regularly…tho a schedule SCARES me.

    Reply

    • Being passionate is awesome Heather, definitely don’t lose that! Your passion shines through in your writing and it’s what connects people to you. Just work on trimming it down a bit. Don’t feel like you have to slash each post. Do it a little bit at a time and you’ll eventually find your own/new writing flow.

      Reply

  22. Hi Rebekah,

    Your first point is powerful and is the foundation to any future success. I share with my clients and work with them to develop their online presence and that means breaking it all down for everything you do.

    I ask them to do the hard work on paper:

    1. What is your vision for the blog (same as purpose). It’s big, over-reaching and bold.

    2. What strategies will you employ – still big picture but more specific than the vision and their ought to be mutliple strategies.

    3. What measurable, specific goals will you employ to fulfill the strategies.

    4. What objectives or specific tasks need to take place in order to help you meet your goals.

    It sounds more simple than it really is at first. But once you get in the habit of doing this your business and blog will positioned to grow. Why? Because you know why your doing what you’re doing, how you’re going to do it, and what specifically to do.

    I find that many people are just posting stuff without thinking it through. Can you stumble into something awesome? Of course you can. But, wouldn’t it be better if you have a plan?

    The other problem you bring up that is so important to me is your messaging. We have to learn to think like our readers, prospects and customers and then talk with them about their problems. If all you do is write about yourself why do I care to spend my time doing that?

    I could go on all day long… lol

    I hope you have a great and amazing day Rebekah!

    ~ Don Purdum

    Reply

    • Hi Don! Great advice and all so true. You have to get clear before you can strategically move forward. That pertains to everything from your business to your blog and social media. It all comes down to intentional actions on a daily basis.

      Thanks for stopping by and sharing some incredibly important points!

      Reply

  26. Great advice for the bloggers Rebekah 🙂

    Setting the clear goals should be the first step in blogging so as to perform better and to gain credibility. Writing for search engines and over promotion would ruin the health of the blog and thus they should be in a limited manner.

    I’m familiar with the importance of using GA as it helps me to confirm that my traffic is consistent and I never forget the value of post title. Thanks for introducing Hemingway here, will try to make use of it 🙂

    Reply

Trackbacks

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *