Blog Mistake Number One: Poor Title
The best way to keep readers from enjoying your awesome posts is to write a poor title.
Your title should engage the reader, build value and provide them with a possible answer to a question they’ve always wanted to know. For instance, you’re reading this post (most likely) simply because of the title “How to (not) Write a Blog: Biggest Blogging Mistakes.”
For some great tips on writing engaging headlines, check this out.
Blog Mistake Number Two: Distracting Errors
If you wint your credibulit to be shot to the wall, make stupid errors just the ones’ in this sentence
Distracting aren’t they?
Tip: if you’re not great at catching grammatical errors, have someone who is gifted in that arena proofread your posts before hitting that publish button.
Blog Mistake Number Three: Awful Design
Reading a blog should be a pleasant experience, and should be easy on the eyes.
Avoid: black backgrounds, weird fonts, distracting colors. Also stay away from more than two to three sentences in a row. Break up the thoughts and use subheadings to make it organized and enjoyable to read.
We’ve all visited wonderful blogs with great content, but because the layout and design are so terrible, we stop reading.
If your blog post looks like this, most people won’t want read it:
Blog Mistake Number Four: No Connection
Consider. Your. Audience.
To whom are you writing? Many great bloggers even suggest decorating your writing space with a picture of the type of person to whom you’re writing.
Ranting about your day, your feelings and your general distaste for life is the equivalent of pinning your reader in the corner of a room at a holiday party and never shutting up. Most readers will simply walk away and avoid that style of writing because there is little to no connection.
Blog Mistake Number Five: No Sharing Options
See that little floating bar to the left?
It gives my readers options to share this post via Twitter, Facebook, Google+, StumbleUpon and many more.
You should have something similar (many bloggers use Sharaholic, but there are myriad options).
Your readers will want to share your post easily if it:
+Engages them with a great title.
+Is proofread and free of errors.
+Is easy to read.
+Forms a connection with them that they feel others would find helpful.
Happy blogging!
P.S. If you find these helpful, click one of those sharing options. Spread better blogging practices to create a better blogosphere.
P.S.S. To learn more basics of blogging, I always suggest this simple guide available via e-book through Amazon.
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I appreciate the reminders. Thanks for a ‘quality’ post.
Thanks Jon. They’re good reminders for me too. You bet I proofread this one a number of times.
We gotta practice what we preach right?
Great suggestions here, Andrew!
Proofreading is key! Not only for spelling errors, but also for poor sentence structure!
My wife continues to be my greatest editor! She has a great piece of advice that I try to strictly adhere to– treat your posts like your iTunes shopping cart..let it sit overnight before making a rash decision. If it still seems like a good idea the next morning, go for it!
That, and spellcheck, have served me well!
God bless our wives and the input they give us.
I made so many of these mistakes during my first few forays into blogging. Hopefully I have cut down on them.
You certainly have Larry! I love reading your blog. As always, thanks for dropping by.
Nailed it…
And thanks for talking me out of the idea to start a mosaic blog with a black background- I was THIS close.
🙂 Good stuff, Andrew.
Very wise points. Over the past several months I have been focusing on the titles of my posts. This is something I want to become better at doing.
Excellent tips. I still struggle with titles – the creative in me arm wrestles the SEO expert.
Good list. I hope to improve my design soon.
Excellent reminders! It’s like nails on a chalkboard when I read bad grammar, sentence structure, and spelling.
Delighted to read a blog that encourages good English and simple sentence structure. Respecting your reader by following your rules here can only lead to success
Thank you for reminding us
And I’m delighted to have you stop by and comment Charlotte! Cheers!