You start a blog. You’re happy!
You write, you post, you build an audience. You’ve read every article on ProBlogger.
Then.
You lose focus. Your drive wanes. Your blog is neglected. These are the five ways I’ve been guilty of neglecting blogging, and my solutions to help change it. Perhaps they can help you too.
Blog neglect #1: inconsistency
I’m guilty of this. As a freelance copywriter, my first priority is earning CASH to pay for my lavish extravagant lifestyle, by which I mean day care. So writing my own blog comes last. Every client is the same. My law firm client is busy winning cases, and my restaurant consultancy client is busy… you get the drift. We all neglect our blogs while we run our business.
Solution: commit to blogging consistency at a lower frequency. One great article per month is enough to satisfy the Google gods and keep your blog fresh and relevant.
Blog neglect #2: silence
“No comment goes unresponded to” isn’t the greatest expression in the English language but it’s a good policy. Ignoring comments on your blog is very damaging. The whole POINT of a blog is to provide useful, relevant content, so failure to respond to questions or comments on a blog is dumb as well as a missed opportunity.
I’d love to get plenty of comments and questions on my blog –so it irks me to see others ignoring the comments they’ve been lucky enough to secure.
Solution: set up notifications so you’re aware of comments on your blog and respond to them all.
Blog neglect #3: ignoring the back catalogue
If you’re halfway decent blogger, you’ve got plenty of great articles in your back catalogue that could be working harder for you. But they might have broken links, be hidden in your archives or just feature gags about The Bachelor season one that are now out of date. A quick tidy up and refresh (and redistribute) will have them working for you and bringing in the eyeballs.
Solution: find your top ten most popular posts, tidy them up and make them visible. Links in your email, at the footer of new posts and in sidebars.
Blog neglect#4: ignoring the data
The data has a goldmine of information that can easily be missed. Data shows your dwell time, your click throughs, and search results. If you’re lucky enough to have readers poking around your site, reading your content, the Google Analytics data will show you what they’re reading, clicking and searching. This can give you inspiration for future blog content that will be tailored to your audience’s interests rather than a random idea that came to you while mowing the lawn.
Solution: take time to regularly review analytics data to see what interests your readers most – and give them more of that!
Blog neglect #5: underpromotion
Time to toot your own horn, and get your blog out there. Of course, sharing your blog on social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is essential. You can link to your blog as comments on other blogs or Facebook groups (it must be relevant to the discussion or you will be branded a self-promoting twat). Add a link in your email signature, and distribute it your database, then celebrate your genius with a hot chocolate.
Solution: spend as much time promoting each blog article as you did writing it.
