If you entered the world of blogging with wide eyes and dreams of passive income, you’re certainly not alone.
However, the blogosphere has changed drastically within the past decade. What was once considered a digital gold rush has become an uphill battle for many aspiring bloggers failing to grow their audience or search presence.
The three most common symptoms of a blog that’s stuck are pretty common, though:
- Facing crowded competition in your particular area of interest or niche.
- Trying to follow spammy SEO techniques of the mid-2000’s versus modern best practices.
- Assuming that traffic will come to you versus seeking out avenues to build your audience.
Fortunately, these aspects of your blog are possible to fix if you rethink the way you approach your on-site content. If you’re struggling to get your blog off the ground, consider the following three changes you can make sooner rather than later.
You’re Thinking “Small”
Perhaps the biggest mistake that bloggers make when it comes to growing their audience is failing to go “all-in” in terms of their marketing. Sure, your blog is home to your on-site content, but if you really want a dedicated audience to monetize over time, a blog alone simply isn’t enough.
For example, effective blogs also implement a combination of…
- A mailing list: building a base of subscribers is easier than ever given the wealth of email marketing tools out there.
- A social media presence: turning your readers into followers means that they’ll always have an avenue to check out your content.
- A republishing strategy: depending on your content, you can double-dip your blog posts on sites like Medium and LinkedIn to get in front of more eyes.
You’re Stuck in the Past with SEO
As noted earlier, you can’t hope to rely on the spammy SEO tactics of the past such as keyword stuffing. On the flip side, SEO is far from dead despite rumblings from critics.
Optimizing your site for search engines is easier than you might think thanks to tools such as Yoast SEO. You can also spend some time conducting independent keyword research, specifically scoping out long-tail keywords you can integrate into your content.
In short, SEO represents a sort of balancing act. While you should certainly optimize your content, over optimization could potentially make it unreadable. Tread lightly to avoid your blog from coming off as stiff and lacking a personality.
You’re Creating the Wrong Types of Content
Plain and simple, just because a blog post sounds brilliant in your head doesn’t mean that it’ll be brilliant once you hit “publish.” You need to make sure that you’re creating the types of content that your audience wants that’s based around keywords rather than your intuition. Similarly, make sure your posts boast…
- Viral potential: listicles and how-to articles spread like wildfire while random ranting and raving does not.
- Eye-popping imagery: from screenshots to sourced .gifs, visual content has huge sharing potential versus solely written pieces.
- A distinct sense of style: by injecting personal anecdotes and your own voice into your content, you let readers know who you are as a blogger versus being just another face in the crowd.
While fixing your blog may seem like a daunting task, it can be done with a bit of legwork. These fixes can help guide your future blogging efforts to build a more dedicated audience in due time.
