Everyone is blogging these days. Some of us have been doing it for years, and others are new to the hobby. Whether you are a veteran or a rookie to the blogging scene, these are the TOP 5 Blogging Mistakes that you want to watch out for:
#5 - Meaningless Titles
Why invest a lot of time writing a great post, only to slap on a crappy title and click "Publish"? I'll be honest - when I'm on a blog and see a title for another post that sparks my interest, I almost always click on it. Don't short-change yourself by not putting as much thought into your title as you do your post.
#4 - Revealing Personal Information
Have you ever mentioned your home address on your blog? Or talked about upcoming vacation plans? This can pose a serious security risk to your home as someone now knows where you live and when you will be out of town. And even if you haven't ever mentioned your address you should be aware of something called
GeoTagging. Many phones and cameras have this feature which imprints the geographical information of where the picture was taken into the picture. So say if you were to take a picture of your kitchen and post the picture on your blog, you suddenly could have just revealed the location of your house without even realizing (granted it would take someone to know about GeoTagging and how to extract those details). Fortunately there are ways to turn this off in most cases, but it is something you definitely should be aware of.
#3 - Meaningless Posts
Too many times I have seen people try to use their blog like Twitter. There are several blogs that I used to check regularly, but now avoid because all they posted was fluff. If you find yourself constantly blogging about what you are currently doing (or just did), you might be better off tweeting it on Twitter.
#2 - Irregular Posting
Nothing is more frustrating than checking a friend's blog day after day only to have months go by without seeing a new post. I'm definitely guilty of this one too. We're all busy, but if you hope to have a good viewing base, you have to post regularly and consistently.
Also - don't apologize for not posting. It's like apologizing for crying in church :)
#1 - Marking Your Blog As Private
Making it difficult for your readers to get to your blog is the best way to keep viewers away. I check my friends' private blogs way less often than I do the public ones. Blogs are supposed to be like a press release - they should be available to the whole world. You shouldn't be putting private stuff on there in the first place (see #4). The only reason (in my humble opinion) that you should make a blog private is if you want to have some sort of online journal that is for
your eyes only (i.e. you don't want any viewers). Otherwise just go create a Facebook page if you want to post semi-private information; it's easier to control who has access and you don't have to inconvenience your viewers with yet another login. If you are concerned about the types of comments people leave there are tools for that too! You can restrict who is able to leave a comment, or you can even choose to approve all comments before they appear on your blog.
So are you guilty of any of these mistakes? Or do you know of other mistakes you've made or seen others make? Leave a comment with any details you'd like to share!
