Afraid Your Blog Sucks? Avoid These 5 Spectacular Mistakes

Once upon a time, there was a man called Bill.

In his quest for money and success, Bill had heeded wiser men's advice and started a blog for his business.

And in said blog, he poured sweat and gold.

To no avail.

Wandering readers would come but never linger.

The echo of his deeds wasn't heard on social media.

Frustration would rise high; sales would not.

After a while, all hope extinguished, Bill let the blog lie abandoned. As a cover of internet dust set in, Bill pretended he didn't care.

"I don't need blogging. I could name a hundred successful businesses that don't have a blog!" he declared.

But in the depth of night, kept awake by the fear of losing market shares, he'd surf his competitors' blogs and wonder, bitterly: "What's their secret? Why do they flourish while I wither?"

And as the night drew to a close, angst washing all over him, Bill would whisper the eternal question.

"What am I doing wrong?"

Gosh, I wish I could tell you.

Oh, I know: that's not quite the right thing to say at this point, isn't it? 

But I firmly believe that honesty is the pillar of every long-lasting relationship – and the fact is, there are tons of reasons that prevent a blog from doing its job. And not all of these reasons are self-evident. 

"But I clicked the headline because you..."

Fear not. I'm not in the business of serving clickbaity headlines that lead nowhere. You see, some reasons why a blog is not so great are self-evident. 

And these are the ones I'm going to focus on. 

A quick note before we dive in: I'm not going to deal with SEO. (As I would have said in my Ph.D. years, "Analyzing the impact of SEO practices is beyond the scope of this article"). Sure, if people can't find your blog, they can hardly read it. But precisely because SEO is so important, I feel it deserves its own installment. 

After all, don't we all need enough breadth to properly dissect the advice of the gurus in whose glory we bask? 

So let's assume people do, indeed, find your blog. But they don't stick around for long. They bounce. They don't engage. And when they leave, they don't come back. 

Here are five reasons why that might be happening. Again, you might find that nothing I say applies to you – in which case, kudos. I hope it was a pleasant read anyway. 

But if you do find that something that rings true... Well, you know what to do.

1) Your blog is difficult to read

I am a huge Taylor Swift fan.

I love her music. But most of all, I love her lyrics. When she drops a new song, I immediately head for the lyric video – I'm eager to see which clever lines she has crafted.

And yet, I hated "Folklore" 's lyric videos—all 17 of them, bonus track included.

Yeah, her choice of words was great. But having to keep the phone at 15 centimeters max from my face to decipher the characters while squeezing my be-glassed eyes like crazy wasn't. The letters were ridiculously small. Like, illegible. They turned the pleasant experience I had anticipated into an utterly frustrating one.

Now, if that's the effect bad visuals can have on a die-hard fan, imagine what they can do to a random stranger browsing your blog. He'll run away before you even get half the chance to turn him into a customer.

It follows that if you want your blog to be read (and shared, and commented)... you have to make it pleasant to read.

Make your characters bigger.

Choose a font that's pleasant to the eye.

Don't use colors that fatigue the reader.

And above all, space up your paragraphs. Nothing turns visitors away better than a wall of text.

2) There are too many grammatical mistakes

That's so basic I shouldn't even be mentioning it. Yet, it happens. And it's a dealbreaker.

Ok: I might or might not be Assistant Commanding Officer of the Grammar Police Department, and hence, biased. Decent people usually don't care about a typo or two – but even they tend to be bothered by grammatical mistakes or spelling errors adding up.

And it's not a matter of being "oh so much more knowledgeable than you."

The truth is, mistakes are annoying. They slow down the reading, they affect the clarity of your message, and (most importantly) they reek of unprofessionalism.

So, it's vital to take the time to re-read the content before it's published (or after it's published, as a last resort. A belated edit is better than no edit).

After all, would you ever wrap a precious gift in coffee-stained paper? It's pretty much the same concept.

(After this tirade, feel free to pile on me if you spot a mistake in this post. I know when I deserve it.)

3) Your blog is too salesy

Yeah, content marketing is (who would have guessed?) marketing. I get it. I know the reason you pay your writers 100+ bucks per post (sometimes way more than that) has nothing to do with feeling like a Renaissance patron of the arts. 

You want conversions. 

Nice. We all want conversions. (I mean, how are you going to pay me pro rates if your business bombs? We are in this together.) 

But my humble, luck-warm take is that content marketing's point is not, ahem, bulldozing your way to your public's heart. I'd say content marketing is more about creating a relationship with your audience. It's about truthfully answering questions and doubts. It's about building authority and trust. Because if your readers feel that what you have to say is valuable and trustworthy (more on that later), they'll eventually conclude that what you offer is also valuable and trustworthy. 

Yeah, you can surely make some bottom of the funnel content. It's actually something any good marketing strategy should include. 

But mentioning your product or service in pretty much every single post you publish, to the point where the whole article feels like an excuse to do self-promotion, is not strategic. 

In fact, it might destroy your credibility and the authority of your site. 

Oh, and it won't get you much engagement (see point n. 4). 

 Ps. If I was mistaken in my initial assumption and you do, indeed, strive to be a patron of the arts, then by all means: DM me.  

4) You don't put your audience first

And here we touch on another huge reason why I think self-promotional posts are not a winning formula. 

Let's do a social experiment. Check your timeline. What's the last post you shared? (Your own posts don't count) 

Chances are, it was something that appealed to you, that made you feel seen, that helped you solve a problem. 

That's why you thought it was important to let other people know. 

You weren't doing a favor to the writer. You were doing a favor to your friends (and ultimately to yourself. Sharing smart stuff makes us look smart).  

Well, your readers aren't any different. They act with their best interest in mind. And you should take this interest into account when crafting a blog post. 

Hint: if your main goal when writing a post is helping yourself solve your advertising problem, you are not doing it right. 

People might still read a couple of your articles (after all, not everyone has heard about Daniel Pennac's Reader's Bill of Rights). 

But then? 

They'll go away and never return. 

And most certainly, they won't share your stuff. And you'll lose a chance to make your brand known.

5) Your blog is just plain boring

There's a type of content that people read and value regardless of how entertaining it is.

We call this type of content "Ikea instruction manual."

So, yeah: if you're going to tell me how I can assembly the cursed bed, I'll read your content anyway. I don't want to sleep on the floor.

In all other cases, I feel that a little bit of sparkle does help.

Oh, by the way. I don't think you have to be clownish or pepper your writing with dubious cultural references (let us blithely ignore that I don't follow my own advice here. Thank you).

You don't even have to use irony if it doesn't suit your style or personality.

But it would be cool if you could find a way to make your content more lively.

Drop the jargon (seriously. Drop it).

Use infographics.

Record videos from time to time.

Treat your reader as you would treat a friend. As you would like to be treated. And don't be afraid to let your personality shine.

Not everyone will like it, for sure. But as a renowned scholar of western philosophy once said,

"I can't tell you the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone."

In conclusion

Before you give up on blogging altogether, consider implementing some of the suggestions above. They might not magically solve all of your blogging problems (I wouldn't offer my advice for free if they did). Still, you'll be amazed by how the tiniest changes can make a huge difference. 

Anything to add? I'm happy to hear it! (No dragging of Taylor Swift will be allowed).