Blogging 101: Ten Big Mistakes
February 22nd 2008 16:23
Yeah, I'm low on ideas so here's what I have. Ten big mistakes of blogging, at least five of which I probably committed at least once in my life.
1) Posting once. And then never again. You need to post consistently.
2) Posting consistently for a month and then giving up-it takes quite a while to build up your reader base. It also takes plenty of work. So you seriously do need to write on a regular basis for a while. It may be uninspiring at first... but heck, even a little jump in readership makes my day.
3) Posting about a bunch of random crap. You need a focus as a general rule; if you're blogging for personal satisfaction, the rule changes. If you're blogging for readers and recognition, you need a focussed subject.
4) Taking random three-month hiatuses. OK, so my computer broke... that's my excuse... and it's true. But random hiatuses are bad as a general rule.
5) Posting irregularly, as in once every two or three weeks. It loses you a lot of readership and a fair bit of faith from said readers.
6) Not editing. Seriously. If you can't write the English language, you won't make it as a blogger 99% of the time. You can't use chat speak or fill your post with typos and grammar errors and expect us to read it. My eyes would bleed.
7) Inconsistency. If your posts are inconsistent, or you tend to hop from one topic to another, it's just like any other form of writing. BAD THING. Your posts may change topic every post, but every paragraph? And remember, you need a focus. You can't just do a post about writing and then one about, say, baseball. Or soap operas.
8) Thinking that it's easy. It's not easy. It takes loads of hard work-sort of-a lot of writing, a fair bit of time, and you have to go out there and comment on other people's blogs, link to other people, put your link out there... You do ALL the promotion.
9) Thinking you're gonna strike it rich. Have fun failing.
10) THE absolute WORST: insulting your readership.
Yeah, let's see, I've done the disappearing acts, the giving up, the thinking it's easy... okay, three or four...
1) Posting once. And then never again. You need to post consistently.
2) Posting consistently for a month and then giving up-it takes quite a while to build up your reader base. It also takes plenty of work. So you seriously do need to write on a regular basis for a while. It may be uninspiring at first... but heck, even a little jump in readership makes my day.
3) Posting about a bunch of random crap. You need a focus as a general rule; if you're blogging for personal satisfaction, the rule changes. If you're blogging for readers and recognition, you need a focussed subject.
4) Taking random three-month hiatuses. OK, so my computer broke... that's my excuse... and it's true. But random hiatuses are bad as a general rule.
5) Posting irregularly, as in once every two or three weeks. It loses you a lot of readership and a fair bit of faith from said readers.
6) Not editing. Seriously. If you can't write the English language, you won't make it as a blogger 99% of the time. You can't use chat speak or fill your post with typos and grammar errors and expect us to read it. My eyes would bleed.
7) Inconsistency. If your posts are inconsistent, or you tend to hop from one topic to another, it's just like any other form of writing. BAD THING. Your posts may change topic every post, but every paragraph? And remember, you need a focus. You can't just do a post about writing and then one about, say, baseball. Or soap operas.
8) Thinking that it's easy. It's not easy. It takes loads of hard work-sort of-a lot of writing, a fair bit of time, and you have to go out there and comment on other people's blogs, link to other people, put your link out there... You do ALL the promotion.
9) Thinking you're gonna strike it rich. Have fun failing.
10) THE absolute WORST: insulting your readership.
Yeah, let's see, I've done the disappearing acts, the giving up, the thinking it's easy... okay, three or four...
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