Common Blogging MistakesBlogging is becoming more and more popular every day and I have even read that 2 new blogs a minute are started every day. That sounds incredible but more than likely 2 other blogs are abandoned daily because their writers have given up. They have failed to garner the traffic and fan support that they originally thought would be so easy.

They watch John Chow cash his fat checks and rationalize that they’d be happy with even HALF of what he makes, so off they go into the blogosphere. You and I both know that it simply isn’t that easy. Blogging can be rewarding and quite enjoyable but it can be a lesson in frustration as well.  It’s hard work to be successful at it.

Knowing that building traffic and a fan base isn’t easy, you would think that beginning bloggers would take the time to set their blogs up properly in order to position themselves for better rankings in Google, better reception from their readers and in turn more repeat visitors. Repeat traffic is the life and blood of a blogger…we all want and need it, yet some don’t take the time to do anything about it.  It might save many of them some frustration down the road.

This article is by NO means the end all be all of setting up a blog, but hopefully it will save someone a little trouble and give them a few ideas to consider.

SEO

Permalinks - Take the time to set up your permalinks. If you are using Wordpress, it couldn’t be much easier to optimize the basics of your blog. Read my article “Wordpress SEO for Idiots Like Me to read all about the All In One SEO plug in as well as changing your permalinks.

SEO gurus are FULL of stuff that you can do to optimize your pages, and sometimes bloggers obsess over the minutia. I have read so many conflicting posts that it is very clear that very few of them actually have a clue what they are talking about. I have found one source that I trust and that is The SEO Book from Aaron Wall. If you really want to know everything there is to know..check out that book. Aaron is world class.

If you do nothing else…then at least pay attention to this:

  • Change your permalinks.
  • Use a plugin like the All in One SEO
  • Write quality, keyword rich content.
  • Use relevant anchor text when linking internally.
  • Blog often. The more content on the web that you have then the more visitors you will attract.

Themes:

Your theme says a lot about your site, regardless of whether it should or not. People are visual creatures and they often decide whether something is worthy of their time based on first impression. If it looks interesting it might get read, if it doesn’t then they will click back out. I wrote an article about how important an attractive theme is to your blogging success.

Find your theme early and stick with it. Readers like structure and repeatability and for branding purposes try to make your blog unique. A billion blogs out there and many of them are discussing the same topics that you are, so you need to stamp your brand on the world and make YOUR blog memorable.

Is Your Blog Theme Sexy enough to make them come back? Check out my article and see what you think. Content might be King, but only if you get them to bother reading it.

RSS Feed:

RSS subscribers are a widely accepted measure of your success. These subscribers have voted you worthy of coming back or continuing to read your content and the higher your RSS then the more “authoritative” you will appear to other bloggers. If they view you as an authority then the more likely they are to check you out.

Follow these simple tips for RSS Success:

  • Make your icon very visible, don’t make someone hunt to find it.
  • Put one icon above the fold and include another opportunity to subscribe at the bottom of each post. This is easily accomplished with the Subscribe Remind plugin.
  • Publish a full feed. Don’t use excerpts in your feed. Most readers (including myself) will not subscribe to a partial feed.
  • Don’t use one of those giant gooberish looking RSS symbols. I know opinions will vary on this one but the impression they give me personally is that you are begging. If you’re begging then it must mean your content isn’t that great.

Advertising :

Advertising is a personal choice but I can’t tell you how sad and pathetic it is to visit a blog and have them have 8 125*125 buttons on their right sidebar with like 6 of the 8 being empty. They put 8 there because John Chow has 8 of course and if he has 8 then they need 8.

If you’re going to put ads on your blog then don’t leave them empty. At the very least put some affiliate links on them or something. Empty ad slots combined with a blogger trying to sell them for 50 bucks a pop is a giant billboard screaming dumb*** newbie blogger here.

That brings me to the end of this article. I know there are probably suggestions that I missed in my article and I would like to hear about it. Please do us ALL a favor and leave a comment with your suggestion.

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