10 Blogging Mistakes

Are you making any of these blogging blunders?

1. Being totally anonymous.
It isn't necessary to reveal confidential information like your last name or city to establish that you are a real person. But revealing something about yourself lends your blog credibility. As your reader, I want to know what we have in common, what we don't and what I can learn from you. Introduce yourself in a descriptive about me profile, or consider having a page or post that tells a little about you.


2. Never showing your face.
How do I know you're not really a Canadian man? Or a spammer? Adding your photo to your profile or somewhere on your bio where it can be seen is another step in telling your readers that you're real. In a world when 1:4 blogs is manned by a robot, we want to see your smiling face.


3. Always apologizing.
If you start each post with, "I am so sorry, it's been so long since I've blogged, but I promise I will post more regularly..." then we don't hear from you? You've lost us.


4. Nagging on your family.
Unless your niche is the "angry ex-wife niche", posts that insult your spouse, your mother-in-law, your co-workers makes you appear untrustworthy. If you need a place to write and vent, consider making a separate, private blog for those journal entries that are better left unseen. Anything you write on your blog could potentially be seen by your spouse, your mother-in-law, your coworkers or any boss - present or future.


5. Not running spell-check or proof-reading.
You don't have to be a white-hat grammarista to have a well-written blog. But do run spell check and read over your post before hitting publish.


6. Cutesy wootsy posty titles.
Consider your post title carefully. It is the salesman of your writing. If you write a brilliant post and name it something irrelevant, the readers won't click through. Consider the main topic. Be engaging. Remember high school English? Make your post title a twitter-like, 140-character summary of what to expect in your post.


7. Busy, cluttered sidebars.
This isn't the TGIF restaurant. You aren't required to wear 10 pieces of flair. Putting stuff on your sidebars for the sake of stuff is messy, cluttered and makes your readers feel claustrophobic. We don't know where to look if you give us too many choices. Remove anything that doesn't aid navigation, help us find your content, earn you revenue, or promote your networking. Streamline your categories, remove dead links, minimize stuff.


8. Automatic Music.
Fergoodnesssakes, if your blog plays music when I arrive, I'm leaving. I haven't even had a chance to know what you have to say because you've just scared me with unexpected noise. Once upon a time this was new and trendy and very few blogs did it, but what happens when everyone can? The blogosphere becomes a noisy, startling, annoying place. Lose the music. Yesterday.


9. Making comments closed or difficult. Being unreachable.
A blog isn't a one-way street. Allow your readers to engage and respond even if they disagree. Do you have a captcha or word verification on your comments? Why? The purpose of word verification is to limit and filter the number of comments. As a reader, if I see the word verification, I honor her choice to limit feedback and I do not comment. If you prefer comments and open communication, make it easy.

10. Links that don't tell where they are going.
Click here.
Really? How do I know I want to go "here"...? As a reader, I want to know where the link takes me. Used sparingly, and well-placed in context, a clickable 'here' isn't going to break your blog. But the rule of thumb for links is make it obvious where you are taking your readers.


These are 10 very basic things you can do to improve your blog. Easy enough, right?

Would you like to learn more tips and tricks for building a better blog? I am giving a workshop on Tuesday, June 9th at the A Woman Inspired Conference. I've budgeted a good portion of that workshop to QnA! Come ask what you'd like to know. And my little workshop is just the tiny tip of a big ol' iceberg of really great speakers and inspiring workshops! Learn about social media, ministry, blogging, photography... all topics aimed at helping you build a strong online network.

To see the speakers visit the conference page.
Check out the schedule.
To sign up to attend, register here.

I hope to see you there. Come one, come all... YOU are invited. All from the comfort of your home! No need to travel. No hotel expenses, no childcare expenses. You can wear your yoga pants and flip flops. ;)

See ya' there!

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