A collaborative post by Joseph Peake. 

This blogging world doesn’t come without its mishaps and frequently aggravating challenges.

But hey, nothing that’s worth the time and effort to have will ever come easy. Whether you run an opinion blog, a review blog, a vlogging blog or any other kind, keep in mind that it’s a Business.

All businesses run into problems every single day, some small and some large. But if you treat your blog like every business owner does to their enterprise, you should be researching what’s going on in your industry.

Remember to update regularly

This keeps you abreast of the improvements to software, services and communication with consumers and fans. You’ll also be notified of what issues to be prepared for, such as some updates to website platforms having errors in the code.

When you’re just starting out you can get carried away with creating more and more content. Yes, content is king and always will be, but there’s more to blogs than just writing and content. These are some of the challenges you should be ready for.

Be open to feedback

Blogs are open spaces on the internet. Anyone and everyone with a pulse can come onto your website and consume the content you put out into the world.

Most people are going to look for blogs that have content they are interested in. No one just stumbles upon a blog about car news, you have to search for it and then click on the link in the results page.

So just about everyone that does land on your blog will be into the things you’re into. Generally speaking, these visitors will leave great feedback.

Be prepared for disagreement

If you like an industry, product or brand, you’ll want to support those that do too. So most of the time you’ll get constructive criticism which you should really appreciate.

However other times you will get the odd insulting comment. They might leave an angry response to a blog post, photo or video that you publish for any number of reasons. This are some of the challenges you’ll get to cope with.

The point is to not take it to heart and dwell on it. It’s tough putting yourself out there, you risk both gratification and hurt feelings. But if you have created a blog, you have weighed up the two and believe that it’s worth it to speak your mind and have a voice in the world.

It comes with the territory to be have people disagree with you, so either respond politely and extend an olive brand or just leave it alone.

Learn other fields

Blogs are not just small diaries on the internet that get lost in the ocean of content. You have the chance to really make an impact doing the thing you love.

For example, many opinion blogs on restaurants, beauty, fashion and movies have gone viral and have a large regular fan base. They have enough visitors that advertisers are all vying to use the real estate space on the blog to get their products, services and brand out there.

This does not occur overnight and generally won’t occur on just great content alone. You must learn other fields that are relevant to running an online business.

Challenge yourself in other skills

Marketing is perhaps the most important, getting your name out there, appearing in search results, utilising social media and making good use of modern channels such as YouTube. Watching videos online about marketing really helps you understand what you need to do to make your blog a beacon to which consumers will flock to.

Another one of your challenges is to learn SEO. Your blog posts must make good use of keywords, backlinks, Google Adwords and keeping up with the most modern practices that search engines are implementing.

Written content is good, it’s the bread and butter of blogs but you should also learn how to film videos. They can be a great supplement to a blog for a number of reasons. You’re showing that you’re ‘real’ and not a figure on the internet without a face and voice.

It’s also because you give variations of content to your subscribers. Sometimes they don’t want to sit and read but watch and be entertained instead.

The bane of technical issues

Blogs are technical, they use coding and software to exist. Don’t be fooled by the pretty themes, and the ability to inject your own personality into them, they are still an ever-changing part of modern technology.

With technology comes the usual suspects such as bugs, errors, glitches and rage-inducing anomalies without a clear explanation. For example if you have a WordPress website you may come across the white screen of death. This is definitely the top one of your challenges!

This could be due to any number of reasons such as defective plugins, certain themes causing the system to go haywire, just plain and simple errors in the coding or low memory. The question is, how do you fix the wordpress white screen?

The white screen of death!

First of all review the plugins you’re using. Make sure that there are other people who are suffering the same problems and it’s not just you.

Check whether or not you’re having some kind of memory problem with your computer. Sometimes not having enough memory is the problem too because the internet folders need to download and store the website features for pre-loading screen settings.

On the other hand it might be on the backend of the servers, i.e. coding problems. Any of these things or a combination of them can be the problem. But all blogs will face these kinds of technical issues so make it your business to read up on the latest patches and updates of the website platforms you’re using.

Prepare in advance for these challenges

Save and bookmark the page where these updates, patch notes and blog posts from the developers are posted. Treat this challenges as part of your morning routine to sit and read if at all, any changes that have been made.

Professional bloggers must treat their customers with respect, even when negative comments are left. The challenge is to win the irate person over, if you respond to them in a manner that shows you’re not taking it personally.

Be ready for the challenges of tackling technical issues like the WordPress white screen and keep yourself up to date with all the latest news from the platform developers.

How ready are you to cope with any blogging challenges you may come across?

The post What challenges should your blog be ready for? appeared first on Fairy Blog Mother.