5 Easily-Avoidable Mistakes that many Bloggers Make
Here’s what you need to know and avoid when you’re starting from the bottom and want to get to the top!
It can be very easy to assume that blogging is so 2006, now that one can just make engaging, visual content on TikTok or YouTube without having to go through the hard work of making their own website. A community or a fan following can be built in more personal ways than one. But contrary to the popular belief, blogging is more competitive than ever in 2021, and an untapped potential home for your content to reach more audience, that is, if you don’t already have a blog or website.
Brands maintaining a blog on their website get 55% more traffic.
Whether you are a content creator/influencer on the internet or a small business, you need to seriously consider blogging as a new platform for free brand exposure, even if you are just churning up content for the LOLs. Brands maintaining a blog on their website get 55% more traffic. More than 80% of companies consider it as an important part of their website and online marketing campaign. So why shouldn’t you?
While pursuing this idea or even maintaining their current blog, a blogger can find themselves crushed under a ton of questions that might lead to mistakes that can add to the burden instead of eliminating it. In this article, we are going to go through some practical, easily-avoidable mistakes that bloggers make and solutions for better brand exposure by our team of SEO Specialists and Writers.
Mistake #1 “I don’t think I need SEO, the quality of my content will speak for itself.”
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but your quality content is of no use until you start optimizing it for the various platforms you decide to publish it on, whether it is the Web, Medium, or Quora. From content ideation to optimizing your keyword and images to even promoting your content on social media platforms, if your end goal is maximum exposure of your brand, then you need to take a look at what it requires to optimize your blog to get it in front of as many viewers as possible.
Just like getting curated on Medium requires you to follow certain formatting guidelines, you need basic Search Engine Optimization knowledge so that your page/blog post shows up on the first search page.
“When I started publishing content on the Internet, and I started out very young, I had no idea of SEO and how the smallest of tricks cannot just increase web traffic but make your content go crazy viral as well. It’s no wonder that bloggers try to stay up-to-date when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. Your content going viral can be purely by chance but for getting there, you need to get your content infront of maximum people, which you do through SEO.
If you are a beginner, start by learning On-Page and Off-Page SEO and how you can optimize the images in your blogpost.”
- Ritika, Digital Marketer
Mistake #2 “I write about everything. Staying in a Niche will reduce my Web Traffic.”
A lot of Bloggers, even on Medium, find it okay to cover as many content niches as possible. After all, the more you publish, the more views you’ll gather. However, doing this can severely harm your brand, be it your personal brand as a writer or your product brand as a business owner, and here’s why.
“You need to start sticking to a particular niche if you want people to listen to you. People will only listen to you if they trust you. People will trust you when they know that your content is the product of your many years of experience in that particular niche.”
- Ritika, Digital Marketer
If your goal for your blog is to build your brand and be a source for original, expert-level content that provides unique solutions, you need to point out that perfect domain where you want to establish yourself as an industry expert.
If you are churning up content about Technology on Monday and a post about Veganism on Tuesday, people might sift through your page when they look something up on Google, but they’ll only remember your name when you provide them with consistent, quality content with the assurance that this piece of information is not only tried-and-tested but personally lived through.
But don’t be all strict with what you post. At times, post content with a slightly different tone or a little out of your niche but still related to it, even if loosely. The point being, give your audience what they want, then provide them with other related posts that they might like.
Today, I’m writing this post for all the Bloggers and potential, amateur Bloggers to help them get their blogs on top. Tomorrow, I can provide them with a little more technical knowledge of how they can start blogging by creating their own website without knowing how to code. And who knows, maybe the day after tomorrow, I can hit them up with some Marketing tips for 2021.
It is not uncommon for writers on Medium to write on diverse topics that can be published in various publications, according to the piece they have written. If you do it too but want to get your name to be popular in a certain community as an expert, try to restrict your niche to only 2–3 related topics, like Feminism, Equality, and Race.
So, you see what I mean?
Mistake #3 “I don’t need a target audience. My audience will find me.”
This mistake is loosely related to Mistake #2, the only difference is here, we address your audience first and then come to the content. When you have set a niche for yourself, it is imperative for you to do some field research on the community that you want to belong to, before you ever start typing away on your laptop.
At times, it can be a wide audience. If you’re writing a health blog, your audience can practically be of any age-group, gender, and profession. But other times, it becomes crucial to define your audience persona down to a T. For example, if you are writing about Child Psychology, your audience will be Psychology students who are still in college, Psychology experts who have been practicing for years, or Parents and Guardians.
Either way, a key to a successful blog post is to give your viewers or subscribers what they require. You can easily do this by going through online communities, Q&A sites, etc.
“If you are looking to be an industry expert, it is important to address your own industry and not the whole world. Don’t waste your time writing a Gaming article for Doctors. Address the issues that real Gamers face. That is how you really get your audience to come to you.”
- Madeline Belson, Content Writer
Mistake #4 “I only use Social Media for personal use. I don’t promote my blog there.”
Your blog is not living to its full potential if it cannot be seen on your Social Media. One of the key ingredients of Off-Page SEO is wildly promoting the links of your content on various Social Media sites, be it Instagram, Quora, or Twitter. It can also be an easy way of getting genuine feedback from your closest connections and industry peers.
“Promoting your content on Social Media is so helpful in building brands, especially for your readers and followers who want to know you informally, out of the niche, and as a real person. Even as a product, you can ramp up your content to give it a light-hearted, personal touch if that is what the platform requires. But don’t EVER use the same tone for addressing your audience on Twitter and your audience on Quora. That’s how you end up with a real ‘identity crisis’.”
- Abeden Parkk, Social Media Marketer
Mistake #5 “I don’t think there’s a need to ‘choose’ a platform. I can publish anywhere.”
Expanding on the ‘Identity Crisis’ that Abeden mentioned, choosing the right content platform is imperative to what tone, mission and message your brand wants to put forward.
Let’s say you write about High Fashion. You cannot just post High Fashion content on Medium, a platform where readers usually come for personal stories, self-improvement tips, social opinions on equality, etc. Why? Because your target audience is not present on Medium. The best way for you then would be to start by making your own Website or Blog through Template Toaster (even if you don’t know the ‘C’ in Coding) and then promote your content on high fashion communities on Twitter and Instagram.
And even then, try using slightly different tones while promoting your content on different social media sites.
“As a Social Media Marketer, I used Template Toaster to make my own personal website so I can showcase my portfolio with a combination of links, texts and images. As a writer, you can use Medium or a personal website, just like designers use Behance for their portfolios. The website becomes a culmination of different kinds of posts I post on different websites and drives the attention of the viewer to who am and what I do as a Social Media professional.”
- Abeden Parkk, Social Media Marketer
Bottom Line
These were some of the points you need to consider, coming from various field professionals in order for you to finally start your dream blog. As a conclusion, here’s our final tip:
“Study your target audience, study your platform, then study whether the two are compatible with your content or not!”
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