So, you may have heard of the seven deadly sins in life, which yes, those can be bad, but did you know about the four deadly, downright ghastly, blog mistakes that can kill the success of your blog?
Avoid these four sins in your blog posts at all costs and you will undoubtedly live a long life and prosper beyond your wildest imagination.
Or, ok, if not that, then at least it will help ensure that your blog captures the interest of readers today, tomorrow and in the future.
Sin #1: Bad Headlines and Titles – Ahhhhhh! – Scary Bad!
Imagine your (potential) readers are scrolling through a search result and they come across your article. What’s the first thing that is going to get their attention? Ding, ding, ding – that’s Right! Your blog post title. So it better be good.
You’ve got to have a blog post title that actually attracts their attention enough to get them interested in reading. No boring or drab titles allowed!
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And then, once they click through to your blog post, you need to make sure you have paragraph headers that allow them to skim your article quickly to see if it’s worth reading. Make your headers informative and interesting so your guests can’t wait to read more.
The cardinal sin on blog posts is creating generic titles and boring paragraph headers. Your readers will skim over the post, see the dreary titles and click right on through to another page that has a greater "WOW" factor.
Sin #2: Inconsistency Between Posts – The Horror!!
Ok, so you have a life. I get it. Life can get in the way of blog posting for casual and professional bloggers alike.
While the beauty of a blog is that you can decide when and what to post, cultivating any kind of relationship with readers and advertisers does require consistency. It just isn't enough to write a blog post every day for a week and then go Ghost for the next month.
So, what to do, what to do? Instead of trying to start out with the grand plan of blogging everyday, give yourself a break by striving to create a minimum of one blog post per week.
And, since you may actually want to take a vacation every now and then, consider creating back-up posts to use when you don't have time to create and post a new article that week.
This will keep your readers from coming to your blog only to find (gasp) nothing! I mean really, what’s the point of having a blog if you aren’t going to post anything? Give your readers a break – don’t drag them into a black hole with nothing but empty posts and lost dreams.
Sin #3: Neglecting a Call to Action – Don’t Leave Them Hanging!
No blog post should leave the reader dangling, so you’ve got to make sure you always add in some kind of conclusion and a call to action of some kind.
Of course it helps to have the call to action actually tie into the purpose of your blog post, whether you’re talking about the top reasons to start thinking about retirement or the hottest teen trends of the year.
Make it clear what your readers can do to learn more, make an investment or embrace the subject of the article at the end of each post. Don’t lose this opportunity to lead your reader into the path you want them to follow.
Sin #4: The Curse of TMI – Wow, Did We Really Need to Know That? Awkward!
There is a fine line between having a personality and oversharing. I mean honestly, TMI, or too much information, is not something that you as a blogger want to do.
It is important to connect with your readers and to create a community where people can identify with each other, but not at the expense of revealing information that is private. When it doubt, keep it to yourself!
Don’t Worry, Be Happy!
Relax, take a breath. Blogging doesn't have to be a struggle, but there are some seriously deadly sins that no post should feature. Thank goodness you’ve taken the first step by learning how to avoid them.
Click here to learn more on how to make each and every blog post a success!
