Your Blog Isn’t Working

Here’s Why

Considering the time investment needed to sustain a blog, it’s likely you may have even given up after seeing anemic results. But I’m here to advise you that maintaining a consistent blog is one of the most effective ways to attract more website visitors. If your blog isn’t working, there’s something wrong and a way to fix it.

As Assistant Director of Content at PayProMedia, I manage two of our blogs. Through a lot of writing, testing, data analyzing, and trial and error, those blogs have continued to see improvement and success in many areas. We have encountered and overcome many challenges.

Now, you get to learn from our mistakes. Here are five reasons your blog might suck—and what to do about it.

1. Targeting the wrong audience.

It’s easy to drift off topic even if you have an established buyer persona. Thankfully, it’s not difficult to put your blog back on track by asking some simple questions: “Does my audience care about this topic? If so, why? What does my audience need to know?” If you struggle to answer these questions based on your buyer persona, conduct surveys with current customers to find out what interests them.

2. Distributing in the wrong channels.

Does your buyer persona consist mostly of teenagers? If so, LinkedIn might not be appropriate. If your buyer persona is mostly made up of women, Pinterest might be the best platform. Use common sense, but also use data to back up your choices of distribution channels. One blog I manage is focused on small-medium business people. Some of our best distribution channels are BizSugar.com, with 22 percent of referrals, and Facebook, with 70 percent of social media visitors.

3. Writing the wrong titles.

It’s possible to subjectively draw conclusions based on title and performance, but how does one objectively measure this impact? That’s where A/B testing comes into play. Try conducting these tests in email newsletters by using two different titles. Each link will lead to the same article, but you’ll be able to track which headline achieved the greatest click-through rate.

4. Publishing the wrong medium.

Although there isn’t necessarily a wrong medium, posting nothing but written content will eventually make it the wrong one. Be sure to vary it up with slideshows, infographics, videos, and podcasts. Your audience craves content that adapts to an ever-shortening attention span.

5. Posting at the wrong time.

Overall, internet users read blogs most often in the morning, followed by the afternoon. However, if your audience is made up of mostly men, evening reading is a bit more common. Although these times are generally true across the board, use them as a starting point. We experiment with posting at many different times of day, and track our results—they don’t always line up with industry averages.

If you avoid these five mistakes, you have a good chance at awesomeness.

What blogging mistakes have you noticed? Let us know in the comments!