5 Business Blogging Mistakes You Should Avoid
If you have a business blog but it hasn’t quite been delivering the results you were expecting then here are 5 blogging mistakes that are mostly made by small businesses. Avoiding them will help you get better results from your blogging efforts.
1. Complexity will kill you
I have no idea why but there are bloggers and writers who think that using difficult words and complex sentence structures will leave a good impression on readers and they might consider you as a proto an extent; however, in the blogging world, the only rule that works best is the KISS, which means “Keep it Simple, Stupid.”
As Leonardo Da Vinci said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Therefore, you need to use simple words and easy-to-understand sentences so that people find it comfortable to talk to you.
If you observe popular and successful blogs like Moz.com, Entrepreneur.com, and Copy Blogger, one of the most common aspects that you will find in all of them is the usage of plain and simple language that allows people to understand the topic and engage into discussions.
Pro Tip: Use the KISS formula and make it as simple and easy to understand as possible.
2. Are you self-indulgent?
Talking about yourself and sharing your own experiences is a good idea but if your post is not offering anything that may help your readers get better in their lives or if they are not getting anything that is of value to them, they might quit reading your blog soon. If you look at successful blogs you will see, whether they talk about themselves or not, they do make sure that something valuable is being offered to their readers in each of their post.
And remember, when people visit your blog, they not only have the potential to read the stuff you are writing but some of them may actually share your content to their circles.
Pro Tip: Try not to talk too much about your business and instead focus on what your target customers might be interested in or might need help with.
3. The Blog Calendar
One of the most common mistakes being made by businesses is to blog without a calendar, which means that they do not have a plan or a schedule outlining details such as when they should post a blog, how many times ideally they should be posting and even what hour or the day is best to publish blog posts.
Whatever schedule you decide on, whether it be daily, weekly and so on, you want to be consistent so that audience should know when to expect a new post on your blog.
Check your analytics and use that to inform your schedule. If you have a good amount of returning traffic every day, then it is not a bad idea to post daily. If your blog is new, consider adding new posts on a weekly basis so that the audience can expect something new from you at least once a week. Try posting at different times and days and use analytics to decide the most suitable day and time that works best for you.
Pro Tip: Unless you are the Seth Godin of your industry, the idea is to be your own critic and see where you stand in the community and how often people would like to read your posts, and then set your calendar accordingly.
4. The Word Count game
When I started offering blogging services to businesses, one of the very first things that appeared weird to me was the word count game. The clients wanted to pay for the number of words that I am writing instead of paying for the idea or for how much my idea would change their reputation in the industry.
If you are into blogging, you clearly need to understand that blogging is not a word count game. It does not matter if you write 3000 words; if they are not worthy enough for your audience, the blog post will still be considered as low quality content; however, if you write 300 words that are helpful and engaging, then your audience might give you the reward for it.
If you don’t believe me, check Seth Godin’s blog and see how just a 100-words post usually gets thousands of shares on social networks.
Pro Tip: According to a study, lengthy posts usually get more attention as compared to the short ones but when it comes to blogging, quality comes first and everything else is secondary.
5. Read twice before you publish
No matter how skilled you are in writing, when it comes to blogging, it is highly recommended to edit your blog post twice before hitting the publish button. Always try to give another look at the post and see which paragraphs are boring and how can they become more entertaining, review the writing flow, delete the irrelevant parts of the post and a lot more.
If you have a team running a blog, in that case, you can have a dedicated person for editing so that they can publish the refined version of your post and then add it to whatever distribution channels you use to share your content.
Pro Tip: If you are new to blogging and cannot afford an editor, in that case you can take the help of your friends and ask them to read your post and give a review about it. Blogging is not only an art but also a journey; once you will start, you will learn many things over time. In order to build a successful blog, you need to identify the mistakes in your blog, learn from them and take necessary actions accordingly.
Source: business-achievers.com
