Whether you are a beginning blogger or consider yourself a seasoned pro, there are still a number of faux pas you want to avoid. This faux pas guide to blogging will help you learn what not to do so you can establish a successful blog.
1. Don’t Blog Regularly
If you commit to starting a blog, one of the most grievous mistakes you can make is not posting regularly. You need to come up with a schedule and stick to it. Whether you post several times a day or once a week, you need to find the schedule that works for you and commit to blogging on those dates.
You can get ahead of the curve by scheduling posts to post on a specific date, giving you more free time during the week if you can’t or don’t want to post on a given day. As long as you make an effort to post on a regular schedule, readers will feel like they can trust that your blog will stick around, and they are likely to keep returning to see what new information you have available.
2. Steal Content
This shouldn’t even have to be said, but unfortunately many bloggers often use images, whole articles and other copyrighted information without proper attribution to the original source. If you are planning on taking any images or text from another person, it’s important you ask for permission and link back to the original source.
If your blog is populated with stolen content, not only are you liable to upset a lot of people, but you won’t gain any popularity with readers, either. Readers want to see original content; ripping someone else off without properly crediting your source is a surefire way to make sure your blog never goes anywhere.
3. Ignore your Readers
If your blog is successful enough to have built up a readership, the last thing you want to do is ignore them. A large part of a blog’s success is your readership, and if you consistently ignore them you will find your blog plummeting to the bottom of the barrel.
With that being said, take the time to respond to reader comments. Encourage active participation by asking thought provoking questions of your readers, if you can. By actively engaging with your community, you are ensuring that they stick around for as long as you are able to continue to blog. Ignoring them is a huge faux pas, so avoid this at all costs.
4. Fail to Proofread
You may not be writing for The New York Times, but that doesn’t mean you can publish a post without proofreading it. While one typo here and there may not matter in the long run, if you consistently publish sloppy posts with no editing whatsoever, your readers will notice – and go elsewhere.
Once you’ve written a post, reread it before you hit the publish button. Read it once to yourself, and once out loud so you can see how well the post flows and catch any mistakes you may have missed on the first read-through.
5. Write Long Posts
No one wants to be inundated with a 5,000 word blog entry. If you have something to say that can’t be said briefly and succinctly, break up your post into several smaller posts to create a series of posts you can spread throughout the week, or on a schedule of your choosing.
Internet users have short attention spans, and they want their information now, as in, this instant. While one long post may not make or break your blog, you should aim to write short, succinct blogs and break up longer pieces into separate posts to keep readers coming back for more.
6. Start Flame Wars
While starting a flame war against another blogger may increase your traffic in the short term, it’s also a surefire way to create enemies in the blogging community, as well as ruin your credibility and ensure your blog’s downfall. Attacking another blogger, however justified you may feel in doing so, is never the right thing to do.
There are constructive ways to voice your opinions without resorting to insults and trashy behavior. Avoid starting a flame war on your blog (or on someone else’s, for that matter!)
This article merely touches on some of the most common faux pas of blogging. If you already do some of these things, now is the time to stop and begin working on making your blog a success.
Great Stuff Brian!! I’m passing it to my office and my clients. I could not have spelled it out any better.
Thanks Brother!
Hey Darrell – good to hear, hopefully this will help them!
Well said my friend! Especially #2. Don’t steal images. I think people will mostly go through the trouble of rewriting peoples content. But in my experience people will just steal images.
Yeah – based on your recent experiences, I figured that point was near and dear to your heart.
Hi Brian
“Fail to Proofread”
I alwys print off a hard copy of my posts and my wife reads them through.
Since she is reading it for the first time she can tell me if it makes sense and follows a logical progression.
Oh yes… she also checks the spelling.
Always good to run it past someone who is not involved.
Great stuff, Brian.
Out of curiosity, how often do you attempt to post articles on this blog? Daily, every other day?
And do you have any data that speaks about the “success” of a blog based upon how often a blogger posts articles?
I used to try posting once a month here – and for me that wasn’t enough. In fact, it didn’t seem worth the effort, as I felt I was only doing that to keep my blog on life support.
A few months I made a personal commitment to post at least once a week, but I really started to enjoy (again) the idea of blogging and sharing what I’ve learned. For me, that made posting easier, and right now I’m posting anywhere between 2-5 times a week.
There’s a case to be had for people posting too much – but that’s really only the perception that folks who subscribe feel. If they don’t like getting an email every day for me, then they can opt out.
As for success, since I started blogging regularly again, I’ve double my traffic. (going from roughly 500 uniques a day to 1000 uniques a day.) I expect that rise even more now that I am accumulating content here.
Yes… noticed that you were posting pretty frequently.
“I really started to enjoy (again) the idea of blogging and sharing what I’ve learned.”
Glad you are enjoying it and thanks for sharing.
Yes, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look at one’s daily impressions and see that they tend to spike on days you post an article. I have noticed that on my blog as well.
I use JetPack and it provides some good graphs, data, etc. When I don’t post for a few days, my impressions fall below 100. When I do post two or three days in a row, I see the impressions at least triple in that same period.
I am also noticing that my “shorter” articles tend to get read more. If I keep the article around 500 – 700 words, they tend to get read more often than those that are well over that amount. This seems true for comments as well. My longer articles tend not to get commented on, which may be because readers aren’t reading the full article. Judging by personal experience, I am more prone to comment on an article that I have read in entirety. I won’t comment unless I have.
Lots to learn, remember, be reminded of, and put into practice. Thanks Brian.
The most important thing I’ve seen in my analytics since I started blogging regularly again is that even on days I don’t post, the traffic is still double what it used to be. In other words – in general, all traffic is up. The more you blog, the more content you have. The more content you have, the more organic searches you’ll get visitors from.
“The more you blog, the more content you have. The more content you have, the more organic searches you’ll get visitors from.”
That’s sold it for me.
Common sense but never seen it like that before.
“I am also noticing that my “shorter” articles tend to get read more. If I keep the article around 500 – 700 words…..”
Thanks for the indication of word count – worth knowing.
I am SO bad about blogging regularly… Even if I committed to posting on the first of the month so readers had *some* idea of when to expect a post, that would be a heck of a lot better than what I do now!
Jessica – I would highly encourage you to blog more frequently. I get that you’re a freelancer, and have a hard time fitting it into your schedule. But if you think of it as an investment in your business, I think you’ll see the value. The more you blog, the more visitors you get. The more visitors you get, the more clients you should receive. The more clients you should receive, the higher you can increase your rates.
Yes, Jessica, you can do it! Start with short articles, maybe 3-4 times a week, and go from there. A small amount of quality is worth a lot more than a hefty amount of nothing!
Take Seth Godin, for example. His blog is madly popular and all he does, for the most part, is shoot out 100 word or less articles each day.
I appreciate the encouragement! I definitely need to take the advice. Maybe if I get rid of the black-and-pink horror that is my website, I will find the motivation to post again!
Well, why don’t you upload a few of the “free” themes found on Studio Press and see if they get you motivated? Worth a shot. Happy blogging to you!
Great advice!
I’ve actually been going over some older posts on my blogs – editing, etc. I’ve found several errors along the way – apparently I used to try to write on empty (not enough coffee in the tank). As God and Starbucks as my witnesses, that’ll never happen again.
I’m one of those people with a brain that goes 100 mph while my hands try frantically to keep up. Perfect recipe for typos. Thank goodness Chrome and Firefox have spell check. I like your advice about proofreading aloud. I’ll try that.
Great advice and a great conversation here in the comments. For some people, using an accountability buddy can be a great way to keep the commitment. It’s like working out. If there’s someone waiting for you, you are more likely to show up. Even if you have to pay someone to do it. While it may not be an option to a 1-person business or marketer, the cost of not doing it can be pretty high for a medium sized company. Find a way to blog.
Hey Dave – thanks for dropping by to comment. Completely agree with you on the “cost of not doing it”, which is why I’m making the commitment to post on my site as much as I can.
BTW…is that photo from Sydney by chance? I think I snapped one of a pub with those monkeys on the outside while on a bus tour.
I honestly don’t know where the photo is from – purchased it from a stock photo site.
Found it! Same pub. I love serendipity. I never forget a monkey’s face.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisard/2337112143/
I recently visited Creative Commons at http://creativecommons.org/ to choose a copyright license. There are several levels. Attribution of the work of others needs to be reciprocal of course. To build a readership it is important to share and share alike, not to steal and steal alike which is sometimes the case. Although I am protective of the “stuff” I create, and want to share it to bring over the people who care about the things I care about, I look to other to provide a link back. Reciprocation I think it is called….another word for civilized maybe?
Choosing the level of copyright is difficult. I kind of closed my eyes and picked. I want the exposure but I want my work attributed if others will do the same. It is a leap of faith anyway you go. It depends on how civilized others choose to be anyway.
GREAT article… I have been posting regularly and took a break last week and see my stats & requests for work have declined slightly — back to the drawing board today and staying committed. Thanks for the push.
Seems like a never-ending, uphill, against the stream battle – right Aimee?
yes… off to talk about MailChimp and moving away from Google Products. WordPress Wednesday, coming right up!
Good stuff – can I hold you accountable?
Great article, especially for someone like me, who is just stepping into the blogging world. I have a question though on point 2, say i was talking about a product and posted a picture about that product on my site and credited to the product manufactures site, is it good enough or should i email and ask for permission. After all I am marketing their product for free, why should they mind, right?
Hello Brain you really touch some good points and most if not all apply, I think most blogger grab images for all over the net but as long as you leave some information were you got those images from I don’t see any harm. I’m not saying its ok to take images from other sites don;t get me wrong.
I means if it’s someones art work I understand you should ask for their permission, it’s really hard to control something like this including people stealing your content as well.
It’s amazing how many people think they can do a Google Image search and use anything from there – even if they leave a link. My mother wrote a book called Copyright Plain and Simple, so I’m extremely aware of what’s right and wrong in the publishing world.
I try to post content at least twice a week, which is really a challenge, I also run a YouTube channel, Two Facebook accounts, Google+, Twitter, and my WordPress blog. It keeps me very busy and I am trying to keep everything on a schedule to be better organized.
You’re not the only one who’s running a number of sites, social media accounts, etc – you’re in good company.
Hello Brain can you give any advice to a new blogger? I’m am trying to build up my readers but as you may already know that’s no easy task.
Great tips…I’ve been blogging 3 times a week for several years with 500+ articles but now thinking of blogging less frequently with longer content..what say you?
Writing a long blog post is OK, if you write it tightly and format it it in a readable way. I’ve had excellent results with long articles and stories, but the preparation time is substantial. Thanks for the insights!
I’ve found a site in my niche that seems to constantly use the one guest author to rewrite content based on other peoples ideas within their niche.
They never ever give any credit back or even one link and rarely link out at all. Not sure how to handle this so i find this post interesting and glad you wrote it. Thanks
I guess some give and take and others just always seem to take.
Some research their niche and keyword competitors and others research their audience and the sites they link out to.
A well written post on blogging, I think. If the right info on blogging isn’t all here, where else is it to be found?