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Are you a newbie blogger? Do you follow the sheep or do you ’sheep’ it on your own? Whatever you do, I believe this post will shed some light onto mistakes that you might already have done, or are doing, and what to do about it. No one is perfect nor born with the knowledge of a expert blogger. When you start of course, everything seems to be one big mess because everyone starts as a newbie (now that’s a bit obvious). How good we actually are depends on how efficiently we evolve, right?
There are two things that I go through in my mind when I visit an over monetized blog. (That is a blog with 12 sidebar widgets, of which half are affiliate links, banners, and in the post, “make-reading-impossible” ads)
One – “this blogger just blogs for money – and nothing more”. Two – “this blogger doesn’t offer me something beneficiary, and the content is just to lure me into clicking on to his/her ads”. So, let me tell you, readers hate that. On top of that people feel manipulated to have visited your blog; and might have a negative perspective of your blog, for the rest of their lives.
Solution: Simple! It’s pretty alright to monetize your blog. But don’t over do it. Look at your blog like you were your own reader and ask from yourself whether it’s too much ads. When you become more prominent as a blogger and evolve, you can slowly accelerate your monetization.
Articles that might help:
This has got to be the most common mistake that bloggers make. When you hide your subscriber button and if the visitor doesn’t have the feed-auto-discovery feature in his/her browser, he/she will become a lost prospective subscriber to your blog. In the beginning, every last bit counts.
A blog’s success is measured by it’s loyal readers. And loyal readers equal subscribers. Not promoting your blog’s subscribing options is like trimming a tree without letting it grow.
Solution: Show your big subscriber button. It never hurts to show off that big orange thing. Consider burning your feed with FeedBurner. The articles below will tell you how-to.
Articles that might help:
It’s important to put up a considerably good description about you in the ‘About Page’ or have a sidebar widget at least. This will help you build a more human relationship with your readers and will tell your readers a great deal about the person behind the blog that they are ‘buying’ from.
On the contrary, you can always ignore this, at the cost of several subscribers, depending on your growth. When everything is FREE, the only way for people to figure out how good you are is actually by figuring out how good you really are.
Solution: Consider constructing a good about page; possibly with all your social bookmarks. Show your readers that you’re willing to interact with you. Also, it’ll be advantageous for you to have a little excerpt from that page in your sidebar too. Provided that sometimes, people do not really care to hit your about page to know more about you.
Most new bloggers want to get their quick; to that place with 100,000 hits per day and 20,000 subscriber-base. But why do most of us not make it? It’s because we fail to understand that it hardly happens. If you’re a controversial copywriter, you might have a chance but a ‘normal’ person, hardly! Everyone can’t become successful – only because, everyone wants to be a superstar overnight.
Solution: There will be times that your subscriber numbers don’t get a move on. And your site stats are deteriorating. The only thing that you can do is – not give up. Every blogger has those days. And every successful blogger lived through those days and didn’t give up. Understand that trees don’t grow overnight. If you are able to live in the reality, this shouldn’t be too hard.
Articles that might help:
So you wanted to start blogging, you set up a blog and you got this great theme that looks really good to you. So that’s it? You might not have a hands-on knowledge about CSS and graphics design, but at least, it’s worth trying to customize your header. Even if you don’t possess enough knowledge to write a Wordpress theme all by yourself, it helps to give your reader a sense of originality. Believe it – some readers are a bit reluctant to subscribe to new blogs, knowing that the last 5 blogs they visited had the same design.
Solution: If you can afford a premium/custom theme, it would be the best thing. But, not to worry, if you want to keep your account balance intact, try designing a simple, but original blog header at least. E-mail the author of the theme and ask how you can play around, and if it’s a free theme, most probably, authors have their own forums to resolve issues arising form users. Or if it’s a popular theme, you can easily find public discussion groups if you Google it.
Articles that might help:
Lack of originality! That’s a bit of a problem. See, when subscribers read the same content over and over for like one month, they will feel that you are faking it and will feel reading your blog is a waste of time. Do you write about the same thing over and over? Do you pump out the same content with different headlines? You might want to stop doing that, start thinking about originality.
Solution: If you don’t have anything to write on, just don’t recycle your content. Try brainstorming for new content. Or try writing a follow-up to your past blog post; with something like, “How to do this thing – Part 2″. Or consider blogging about a vast topic and break it down to a number of posts to make it more informative and targeted.
Articles that might help:
Hospitality! The key to make your blog more humane. People like humane things which do not act machinery. If people feel like they are ignored, they will leave. Most new bloggers keep it to the point; thinking that people scout for good content and that’s it. But, time after time, everyone needs a sense of belonging, right?
Solution: Always reply your reader’s e-mails and comments. Genuinely make them feel that they are important. Visit their blogs if possible and comment on them. Have your own voice inside your blog and try personifying your blog rather than pumping out good content. Having some humor in your posts never hurts.
Great post! I really appreciate all the helpfull links you have provided, and the clear and concise advice you have given. I will keep these things in mind as I continuely try to improve my blog and get a reader or two.
@ Devin –
Thank you Devin. Really appreciate it. All the best with your blog!
yeah great post! i’ll start putting some of these tips into use!
@ morinn –
Thanks a lot! Would love to see these tips in use.
Great wisdom i felt the same way but i keep going no matter what because i like it.
Yeah! That’s the spirit. Being consistent, I believe is the only way you can make it to the top. If you don’t have that urge, then your blog might as well be dead.
Great info… I wish i had found this when i first got started!!!
This is so true, I am a newbie in all this blogging rush but I find your observations very accurate and down to earth. Tremendous blog!
Geez..It’s really a great help!..Thank You!..
Nice tutorial, starting out to blog. I am sure this will help me on my way.
Great post. A lot of it is common sense, but it’s still useful. I hate it when I go to a blog and no effort has been put into the design at all.
i like how u said play around with the header, instead of somthing like play around with the sidebard =P
Your header is what got me hooked on your page!!!
i love it! You fit so much stuff in it but it doesnt look squashed! and it looks kool!
Well i am a newbie and I get so confused by all this but your site helped with a lot of my questions. Thanks for helping!
Wow, these are a lot of tips in just one blog post!!’
Maybe I should add an About Me-page! =)
What you write about having an “own” theme is def true. There have been blogs that I found had great content – but was reluctant to read further just because it was one of those standard themes! (superficial?! maybe!=)
Thanks