Top 5 Reasons Your Blog Doesn't Get ANY Traffic

Whoever said that blogging is the easiest way to create passive income hasn't done their homework. 

Here are the top five reasons you are spinning your wheels with blog monetization:

5. Your content isn't keyword focused

Google doesn't view websites the way that people do. Can you write in a natural, conversational way about a certain topic while making sure you strategically insert rich keywords and phrases that relate to your niche? For instance, if you sell autographed baseballs on your website but also do affiliate marketing, writing content that promotes sporting goods for a commission, there are different methods you are going to want to implement for each initiative. Search terms, "baseball for sale" is going to populate completely different results than "baseballs for sale." What's fascinating is that one single letter (the letter "s") in two very similar phrases are two completely different types of consumer, searches, and potential transactions altogether. One person is probably a memorabilia collector searching for rarities by famous MLB pitchers, whereas the other is probably a dad doing research on wholesale sporting equipment for his son's little league team.

4. Nobody is searching for what you're writing about

Are you an aspiring, even experienced author who writes fiction? That's arguably one of the most difficult niches to break into. Stephen King doesn't sell novels and will be the first to tell you he has been extremely lucky and successful in branding his name as a commodity. He's a popcorn salesman. Sorry. Stephen King could title his next book, "I Eat Poop For Breakfast," send the galley off to his publisher and in one month or less feed a small country from its residual return. Not don't get it twisted folks - I'm not trying to sound jaded, but I'm a realist. Just because I've cranked out what I personally believe to be a completely original 90,000-word masterpiece of literary fiction doesn't mean the masses will tomorrow morning be typing "Andrew Sorenson," or "Stale Catfood" into Google's search engines anytime soon. Get your head out of your ass and focus your writing efforts on topics that aren't oversaturated yet still contain search volume. Don't be a jack of all trades - be a master of ONE!

3. You don't post consistently and frequently  

Entrepreneurs love to talk about teaching people how they can put their website on autopilot and outsource all marketing grunt-work to automated apps and social media management programs that generate traffic while they're parasailing in Key Largo with their business partner/trophy-wife. Don't do that. Don't take shortcuts. If you think there are no-brainer workarounds to generating sustainable and passive income via blogging, boy oh boy do you have some reading to do. Don't think you can become successful in this line of work by simply copying, pasting, and plagiarizing for high traffic. Google can spot this garbage practice a mile away. Write original content frequently and consistently, and when you do so, think along the lines of 500 words per article - three to five times per week as a starting point. There are peak times when posts will be more effective than others, so study your personal Google Analytics report and make adjustments based off of your own metrics and insights. As a content creator, you can never be too hyper-organized in creating well-executed posts based off of those reports.

2. You don't tag your photos

People interact with posts that include photos and videos significantly more than those that don't. Google doesn't operate by the philosophy that a picture is worth a thousand words. You just might have the most visually stunning snapshot of yourself dangling from the top of Mount Everest, but if it isn't meta-tagged as such, you're missing out on countless impressions and missed opportunities to build your following. Don't be a keyword stuffer, but be sure to thoroughly describe what's going on in your embedded media within its correlating caption and properties field.

1. It's ALL about you

You know the blogs I'm talking about - right? They're commonly referred to as Vanity Blogs. People like to talk and write about themselves more than anyone or anything else. For good or ill, it's human nature. This is why the internet is FILLED with personal lifestyle-driven content that generates absolutely no traffic or ad revenue. Because your blog is about YOUR hot fashion, YOUR amazing new diet, YOUR exercise, YOUR vacation, or YOUR new car ... yada yada yada. A little narcissistic are we? Listen, very few people are interesting and original enough to be able to write autobiographical posts as their primary source of income. I'm not saying we're all the same - by no means - because our differences are what make this life worth living and discussing. Just remember that the internet (at its core) is a superficial and commerce-based popularity contest that ranks landing pages based on Quality Score, CPM, Ad Spend, Backlinks, and User Interface, and User Experience.

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