We have all seen blogs come and go, but what are the reasons that so many fail? The major reason with most blogs failure is a lack of planning. A lack of planning incorporates everything I have listed in this article. If you don’t have a solid plan of attack, then you are on a fast track to failure.
A successful blog takes patience and persistence. Blogging is about sharing your expertise and creating a community around the information you provide and that doesn’t happen overnight. If you are not willing to put forth the effort it takes to be a success, then there is no reason to start blogging in the first place.
So, without further ado, let’s look as some of the biggest reason why blogs fail.
Dreams of blogging in paradise
This has to be the most popular reason for starting a blog. Dreams of palm trees, piña coladas and a laptop have corrupted many of innocent bloggers.
If you are starting a blog to get rich quick, I have bad news.
Unrealistic goals will come back to bite you in the butt if you don’t come down to reality quick. Blogging takes concentration and substantial effort to make it successful.
So do yourself a favor, keep the thoughts of white sandy beaches and Ferrari’s out of your mind, at least for now.
Choose a topic you are not passionate about
In its infancy, blogging was a way to write and share your passion. That was until everyone found out you could make money from your blog.
That led people to start writing about things they weren’t interested in just because it was the hot topic at the time.
The problem with this is, it is usually short lived.
You need to find something that you are good at and passionate about if you plan to stick with your blog. It is too easy to lose interest and abandon a blog, especially since the investment to get started has come down to a few dollars.
Things such as hosting, domain names and WordPress have made setting up a blog effortless. Many soon find that setting up the blog is the easy part.
Bottom line, if you are not passionate about what you write about, your audience will see it in your content.
Fail to find your audience
Before you even begin to blog, you need to find the audience that you will be writing for.
Different audiences require a different approach to your message. You may have nailed down your blog topic but finding people to read it is another thing.
When you find your target audience, it becomes easier to write and plan your content. Writing to a targeted audience keeps your blog posts on topic, which adds to your credibility. Tailoring a blog post to your audience will also increase and encourage engagement with your blog.
To that end, no one is an expert at everything and if you try to portray yourself that way, it will hinder your ability to brand yourself as an expert in your subject.
Don’t post on a schedule
Everything worth perusing takes consistence and persistence to reach the goal.
If you follow any of the big blogs, you will notice that they publish their posts on the same days and at the same times. It makes it easier for your audience to find new articles you wrote, and they look forward to that email notification.
Most newbie bloggers pump out tons of content for the first few months then slack off. They start out with a post a day, then a couple a week, then one a week and so on. This causes your audience to lose focus and interest.
When you start blogging, choose a schedule that you can stick with. In turn, this will help you reach your publishing deadlines and avoid the dreaded burnout.
And, if you notice, most successful blogs even keep their post schedule during the holidays.
Neglect the Headline
You can write the most awesome post ever but if the headline draws no readers, it’s dead in the water. A headline may not single handily kill a blog but if you don’t have headlines that draw readers in your entire blog is at stake.
A headline should both, captivate and pull your readers in and rank well in search engines. But, while a catchy headline is a great thing, it is still considered a bad thing to write a headline that smells of clickbait.
Urban Dictionary describes clickbait as:
“An eyecatching link on a website which encourages people to read on. It is often paid for by the advertiser (“Paid” click bait) or generates income based on the number of clicks.”
I have found though trial and error that creating captivating headlines is an art. Headlines deserve their own dedicated chunk of time to research so don’t neglect them.
Don’t Promote on Social Media
What good is a blog that doesn’t have any readers?
Lacking community and interaction is a big reason many blogs are abandoned. It becomes a boring chore and that was not supposed to be what blogging was about.
With the popularity of social networks, it has never been easier and more affordable to promote your blog. There are a lot of different platforms to promote on and you don’t need to use them all.
Not all social media networks are suitable for some content so pick a couple to concentrate on and poor your efforts into them.
Be prepared, promoting your blog takes as much effort as writing the content but it is a necessary part of a successful blog.
Final Thoughts
Most failed bloggers have unrealistic expectations or have big dreams raking in butt loads of money.
If you find yourself guilty of any of these reasons, it is time to stop and reevaluate your blogging career. Further, step back and assess your game plan and try to recover what you already have and refine your overall goals.