Blogging has been around for years now and it remains a highly effective way to improve your search engine rankings, increase visibility and engage visitors to your website. While it does take a reasonable amount of time to build up a successful blog, there are a few things you can do that can speed up the process or at least stop it dragging out longer than necessary.

In spite of the widespread awareness most people have about blogging, there are a number of mistakes I see time and time again when I work with clients who are trying to blog to grow their online presence.

Here are six of the most common self sabotaging mistakes I see people make and that you will want to avoid if you want to be successful with your blog:

1. A poor quality design: Just because you get a free template with your blogging platform, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to stick with it. Once you start to gain traction with your blog, you’ll want to make sure it looks the part. An unprofessional looking blog is not likely to engender trust between you and your readers and it can even damage your reputation. A few things to avoid include over-cluttering your sidebar, broken links and out-dated fonts.
2. Posting sporadically: When it comes to your blog, consistency is everything. Many people I see make the mistake of publishing a flurry of posts, then go silent for days or even weeks at a time. It doesn’t matter whether you post once a day or once a month, the key is to be consistent and post on a regular basis. If you don’t have regular time to write posts, you can make use of the many scheduling tools out there to schedule your posts to publish at certain intervals.
3. Not directing your readers to an email list: Many bloggers are great at attracting readers to their blog, but they don’t then follow up and capitalise on this traffic by encouraging their readers to sign up to an email list. Your blog should lead readers directly to your email list, allowing you to continue to engage your visitors long after they have left.
4. Not adding a call to action to the bottom of your blog posts: What do you want your readers to do once they have finished reading your blog post? Do you want them to get in touch? Continue browsing your site or maybe sign up to your email list? Whatever action you want your blog readers to take it’s important that it’s clearly stated.
5. No incentive for signing up to your email list: If you’re using your blog as a tool to grow your email list you’re probably going to need an incentive to encourage your readers to part with their email addresses. This could come in the form of a piece of content like an e-book, or a free trial or other tool like a calculator.
6. Overhyping your post titles: Be wary of creating exaggerated blog titles that don’t deliver on what they promise. Your readers will be disappointed if your post content doesn’t live up to the hype and if they feel deceived and let down they aren’t likely to come back, sign up for your mailing list or buy from you.

While blogging is a fantastic marketing strategy for any business, it’s important that you don’t let your blog become a liability. Avoid these six mistakes and you will be well on your way to blogging, and business success.

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