Smaller things are often ignored as they don’t make a huge impact. They still add up though and over time if you keep adjusting these smaller changes in your blogging routine then they will bring a lot of benefits.
Experimentation, looking into how others are doing the same thing, willing to make changes for the better, noting down the points that are working and making a list of things to change helps in long term blog improvements. If we do not make these changes then our blog gets stagnant and it hinders our blogging progress.
Here, in this article, we are going to cover some points which are often ignored but if applied, they will give good results.
1. Internal Links: One of the most powerful methods of link building and incredibly free too, is the internal linking method. Sadly, most bloggers miss out on building internal links. All you have to do is to look for some relevant blog posts that you had written earlier and link to them from the post you are currently writing, but still people fail to do it.
This step can be further improved by looking into the posts that rank and for what keywords. Then, the next relevant post you write, mention those keywords in your article and link to that post. Make sure to do this often and your posts will start ranking for those keywords.
2. Mailing List: Most bloggers consider mailing lists to be a thing for the later. This is a very crutial mistake as the initial readers you get are often lost because you don’t have any method for them to subscribe. One should setup their email newsletters from day one. Clearly mention subscription options on the sidebar of your blog or in and around your content so that people don’t miss out on content subscription.
Email newsletters can be made effective from the very start of your blog by setting up auto responders so that any new subscriber will get regular newsletter content in their email.
3. Posting un-planned Content: The moment you think about starting your blog, the first thing you should plan is content. The direction of your blog will depend on the content you choose. Generating content is a time and resource consuming task. Whatever content you plan to add on your website, it needs to be on the same direction as the rest of your blog content.
If you already have unplanned content on your blog, it is time to edit and remove those posts that does not serve your content direction and focus on the niche that you are in.
4. Use Grammar Checker Tools: Often, we want to get that post live quickly and fail to use a grammar checking tool or proof-reading the content for errors. This mistake, if becomes a habit, will ruin the quality of your blog. Check for all recent posts for mistakes and errors and fix them. On the newer posts, make a habit of through checking so that any new post that gets published now is perfect.
5. Fact Checking: Bloggers are blessed with an audience where one can easily post something on their blogs and share thoughts and information easily. This information, if wrong, can spread like wild fire. False information spreads fast and people believe it quickly because it is on the internet. However, some people will look up the trail and find you in the process and your credibility will be lost.
Before posting anything, make sure to verify the information by looking up news and media websites and conduct a through research and only when you are satisfied, post it on your own blog.
6. Failing on Posting Schedule: Most bloggers make their posting schedule and then fail to deliver. If you are failing on your schedule then reconsider the amount of posts you add to your blog in a month and based on that, make a schedule that you can stick to.
It does not matters how many posts you add in a month, you just need to maintain the consistency so that the content gets posted on the same date every week or month.
7. Not using Content Sharing Tools: Internet is flooding with content of all types. Yet, some blogs have more traffic than others. Everything depends on how well you are sharing your content. Look into the various tools you have that can spread your content across several social media sites. This will speed up your content sharing and more people will be able to consume your content.
8. Not Linking out to Others: Linking out to other bloggers have several benefits. Any blogger you link to, is likely to return that favor. Furthermore, search engines values content that links to high quality and relevant sources. So there is a ranking benefit of linking out to authority websites.
9. Failing to Outsource: As bloggers, we have a huge confidence in our ability. We can work for 15+ hours a day, do content writing, sharing, setting up email marketing, doing guest blogging, commenting, forum posting and pretty much everything by ourselves. All of these tasks can be outsourced which will save time and let us focus on the things that are a priority.
10. Missing CTA: Call to action is a very powerful thing online. This is the main difference between reading a newspaper or magazine off line and doing the same thing online. On the internet, our audience can take a buying decision quickly if you have a good CTA placed in the right areas of your blog.
11. Not Updating Old Content: Old content is your asset, treat it with care. Update your content regularly and keep it relevant and up to date.
12. Missing on Content RePurposing: There are an endless number of platforms today but they all have one thing in common. They all accept content. Whatever content that you already have on your blog, make sure to edit it and format it and repurpose it on as many networks as possible.
13. Relying on only one source of Income: Too many bloggers make this mistake of sticking to only one source of income. Always look for as many sources of income as possible. Even if one income stream is working well, still keep experimenting with additional income methods to diversify and stay safe if something goes wrong with the primary income stream.
14. Staying on your Own Island: Blogging is all about networking. Don’t be a solo blogger, look for ways to connect with other fellow bloggers. Link out to them, share their content, comment on their blogs and expect most of them to do the same for you.
Blogging is a long term journey where every small action that you take today, will add up to your successful blogging future. In this process, it is best to make minimum mistakes so that your blog stays profitable and grows everyday.