10 Mistakes That Could Be Killing Your Blog
Photo courtesy of Zach Klein.
By Leo Babauta
I don’t know about you, but often when I begin exploring new blogs to find useful information, I get so frustrated that I give up and leave within a few minutes of finding the blog.
While many blogs might contain the useful posts I’m looking for, they often make it too difficult for new readers to find.
Sure, if you’ve been following a blog for six months or more, you know the blogger, you know the basics of the blog, you know how useful and interesting the blog is.
But if you’re new, you don’t know any of that. And first impressions mean everything when it comes to attracting — and more importantly, keeping — new readers.
If a reader hates your blog at first site, you’ve lost him. If a reader can’t find anything good on your blog within a few minutes — actually, instantly for many readers — you’ve lost him. If you annoy a reader, you’ve probably lost him.
And for each reader you’ve lost, that’s a wasted opportunity. You’ve worked hard to promote your blog, to connect with other bloggers, to do guest posts and spread the word through social media … but when the reader arrives, you fail to keep him and turn him into a regular reader or a subscriber.
Today, I’ll walk you through some common mistakes many blogs make that turn off new readers (and even regular readers oftentimes) … mistakes that could be killing your blog.
1. Less-than-useful posts. When I’m exploring new blogs, most of the time I’m looking for certain information — interesting new workouts, yummy recipes, good running advice, frugality ideas, inspiration to improve my life, and so on. You want useful posts — that’s why you’re there. Sure, some times a blogger is just such an interesting writer that you’ll read posts even if they’re not that useful. Some of my favorite bloggers are more interesting or funny than anything else. But most of the time, you’re looking for useful stuff. And when you go to a blog and scan the front page and can’t find one single useful post, you’re outta there. You want useful posts, and you want them fast. Bloggers should have lots of posts packed with useful information, and they should be on the front page so the reader doesn’t have to look for them. If your front page displays the 5 most recent posts, and they’re all updates about a competiton or a new product you’re selling or a contest on another blog … well, the reader will leave rather than having to wade through 10 non-useful posts just to find one useful post.
2. Infrequent posting. If you go to a blog and the last update was two months ago, you know the blog isn’t being updated. And while it might contain tons of useful stuff from the past, there’s no reason to subscribe or keep coming back if you don’t think new posts are coming out regularly. A good blog will have posts at least once a week — any longer than a week and it looks like cobwebs are forming on the blog. Two or three times a week is probably better, and 4-5 times a week might be best (depending on the type of blog you have — news blogs obviously are updated more than daily).
3. Writing about infrequent posting. What’s worse than noticing that the last post was two months ago? Reading the first paragraph of the post and seeing something like, “Sorry I haven’t been posting lately — things have been really busy for me. I promise to post more frequently!” That kind of post is a death knell for a blog. Don’t let that be the first impression. If you haven’t been posting recently, get on the ball and write some great posts (or ask other bloggers for guest posts). Don’t write a post about why you haven’t been posting.
4. Not displaying your best posts. Going through months of archives is too difficult for a new reader. The new reader wants to find your most essential posts right away, on the front page. Of course, your best posts might be spread out throughout the entire lifespan of your blog, so you’re not going to actually have them on the front page (which obviously just has the latest posts). But you can display them on the front page (and on every page, actually) by listing your best posts in your sidebar. A list of 10-20 essential posts for new readers is a must. Seriously, a must. Don’t make it difficult for readers to find your good stuff.
5. Flashy or annoying ads. If an ad is flashing, or popping up, or making noises, or expanding to block the text of the post, or in some other way forces the reader to click “close” … that’s just annoying. It’s happened on Zen Habits a few times when my ad networks ran annoying ads — and I wrote to them right away to ask them to remove them. Annoying your reader is a very bad strategy. Don’t do it. Seriously, stop it right now!
6. Trying to push products too often. I’ve run across some really good blogs with lots of useful information — they do everything right — except that they’re always trying to sell me stuff. I mean, like in every post, along with their sidebars and headers. It might be their own products, or the products of other websites. I’m not talking about banner ads in the sidebar. I’m talking about pushing products within the posts themselves, all the time. I do it every now and then when I think I’ve found a useful ebook my readers might enjoy, or do a book review with Amazon affiliate links. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with that from time to time. But in every post? C’mon!
7. Long posts that are hard to scan. I’ve written about making your posts scannable before, so I won’t belabor the point here, but too often in my recent explorations of a large number of blogs, I’ve found post that contain useful information, but it’s too hard to find the info you’re looking for. You shouldn’t have to read every word of every paragraph to find the tips you want — they should be listed in bullet points or a numbered list, or highlighted in bold or somehow brought to the attention to the reader. Make it easy, not hard, to find the info the reader wants!
8. Pop-up subscription boxes. A good number of very decent blogs have this gimmick, and perhaps it helps them get subscribers. I can’t say. All I know is that as a reader, when I go to a blog like this, I click “close” or “no thanks” when the pop-up subscription box appears, and then I leave the site, never to come back. It’s too annoying, and too pushy. Don’t force the subscription on the reader. Let them review your site first, and then decide for themselves if they want to subscribe. A large number of blogs also use that WordPress plugin that says something like, “It looks like you’re new to this blog. You might consider subscribing … etc.” Something like that. Well, it’s better than the pop-up subscription box, but it still annoys me … especially as I’ve often been to the blog before but perhaps my browser has cleared out the cookie the plugin uses. Why tell me I haven’t been to your blog when I’m a regular reader? Frustrating.
9. Way too much clutter on your site. This is often related to the annoying ads and the blogger trying to sell you too much, but basically when you have a ton of ads, sidebar elements, and things throughout the post and in the header and footer of the blog, it gets overwhelming. The reader really wants to focus on the post, and while he’s willing to put up with some ads and other elements, if there’s too much it makes it hard to read. And that’s gonna lose you readers. Consider eliminating as many elements as you can while still retaining your best performing ad networks and other sidebar elements. Make reading a pleasant experience.
10. Boring or uninformative headlines. Again, a new reader wants to be able to find your useful posts very quickly. Often that means that he’ll scan through the front page, looking only at the headlines. If the headline is “Tuesday workout”, that doesn’t promise anything useful. But if it’s something like “Why running the day after lifting heavy weights is a bad idea”, that might contain something the reader is looking for. You can see the difference: the second headline is much more informative (even if both posts contain the same info), and it shows the reader exactly what useful information the post will deliver. Get that information and benefit in the headline, not just buried somewhere within the post. Or else you’ll lose that reader.
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116 Responses to “10 Mistakes That Could Be Killing Your Blog”
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#11 Being long winded. Seriously, I skimmed most of this because you are too in love with your words to kill the unnecessary. Two sentences would have sufficed to open the piece. You’ve got seven paragraphs. There is a reason why the MSM hires editors: brevity. Let’s take your #3. Read it as written. Now try this:
3. Writing about infrequent posting. What’s worse than noticing that the last post was two months ago? The next one saying, “Sorry, I’ve been too busy.” If you remind people that you don’t post often, they won’t visit often.
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Oh, and mis-spellings. “…at first site.” should be “…at first sight.”
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I definitely agree that NOT showing your posts in a visible manner is a mistake from a readership retention standpoint. Although I don’t have any statistical data to back this claim up, I bet that 20% of your posts drive 80% of your traffic or subscribers. Leo, you’ve logged plenty of hours blogging. Do think the Pareto principle applies here?
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Wow thanks for the great tips and ideas, I have to look into the sidebar thing with the important posts, thanks heaps :))
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Thanks for the great tips! I recently started a blog and I was glad to see that for the most part, I think I am following most of your tips, so I’m hoping the readers will come (and stay!). I am also using a tag cloud, which I think makes it easy for people to find posts just on the categories they’re interested in.
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After blogging for over a year I learned the 10 mistakes the hard way – by making (and correcting) most of them.
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Hi,
I don’t really agree with your number 3 mistakes that could be killing your blog as if we write on why we stop posting for a certain time. I think we should inform the readers, the reason on our absent. Like, when my computer break down or I have to sit for my high school examination, it certainly helps to tell my readers, I have to be away for some time. If not, they will thought that I am no longer interested in continuing that blog. By leaving a ‘message’, they will know when to catch up with me.
Thanks,
Arrica Lee.
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#3-Writing about infrequent posting is a pet peeve of mine. If I don’t have time to write I’m not going waste time by bringing your attention to it when I could have wrote something. Duh.
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Just posted a quote on my blog bleinagel.org. Besides I like the concept of ‘writetodone’. Thanks you
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I totally agree with you Leo. The best mistake I think is the pop-up thing. It is on john chow and shoemoney and it is annoying as hell.
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@arrica – I don’t think he’s talking about announcing a leave of absence ahead of time. It’s when someone hasn’t posted for ages and then posts to say “sorry I haven’t been posting” and that’s all. It’s doubly annoying.
I agree with these and hate coming to a blog to read total pimping of the blog. If a blog has great content that interests me, it won’t need pimping!
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Great tips. I’ve been thinking about my own blog and how the sidebars are organized. I realize that they could be laid out more effectively and will be looking into changing theings up in the near future.
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Excellent info. I’m new to blogging and appreciate any help I can get.
Thom
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Thanks for the really good advice, feel free to critique my site. I am still learning these things for myself.
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I was writing a post and decided to break from it by reading this post. All I can say if perfect timing! I just had to share it with my readers. I couldn’t agree more brother. I’m so sick of these product launches! Anyhow, a worthwhile post! An example of USEFULNESS! Thanks! :)
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What a great post. Thanks. Many of us are guilty of some of these all the time and all of these some of the time. :-)
Imran
http://neternity.org
http://www.flickr.com/photos/imrananwar/sets/
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Thanks Leo! Your advice is very helpful for a newbie like me :)
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HI Leo, wonderful post but there is something I disagree with. NUMBER 8. I think that pop up subscription boxes are useful and benefit the reader and doesn’t come of as a gimmick. Sometimes a visitor, even when they already are regulars, could use a friendly nudge to subscribe in order to benefit from additional information that applies to your particular blog. Two weeks ago, I decided to use a pop up box with Aweber. Although I have been receiving subscribers at a growing rate to my blog site, once I installed the pop up subscription box, I have increased my subscribers SUBSTANTIALLY. Within two week I have gained over 300 subscribers and growing. There has not been one complaint and I feel that my community is building in a positive manner. If you approach the pop up subscription technique in a “classy” way, without constantly throwing it down your readers throats but rather handle the technique with respect…the visitor will not mind. =)
Just my thoughts Leo, based on my own experience.
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Leo, I loved number 3… I can’t stand it when people fill space with air! Unless your blog is about blogging or writing in general, don’t write about not-writing.
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These rules should be incorporated in blogging engines :) at least as plugins.
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Thanks for the tips, as a fairly new blogger, they are much appreciated!
-Hippie
Peaceloveandfitness.info
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@Monologue Blogger: Well, it’s a matter of opinion, I guess. As I said, pop-up subscription boxes might increase subscription numbers. But they might also chase new readers away (like me) and that’s a bad idea. Seriously, I find the pop-up boxes really, really annoying, pushy and tacky. You might have great content but I’ll never see it if you put up the pop-up box, because I’ll leave out of annoyance.
@Arrica Lee: While I understand the blogger’s interest in keeping readers updated, I’m telling you that from a reader’s perspective, it makes the blog look bad. I’m not alone on this — a number of other people here in the comments have agreed with me. I agree that we should keep our readers updated, but if the only post you do in a month is one that says, “Sorry I haven’t been posting” I will probably unsubscribe. Instead, take the time to write a short but useful post, rather than a short post saying why you haven’t been around. A short but useful post can be done in 10 minutes — just a quick tip for your readers.
@Chris Cairns: Does the Pareto principle apply for blog posts regarding driving traffic? I think it really depends. With Zen Habits, I try to work on putting out a lot of great posts on a regular basis, so my traffic is split up pretty evenly among at least 50% of my posts (if not more). Sure, some posts stand out but they don’t have a huge percentage of traffic. On the other hand, other blogs that post less frequently might have 5-10 really standout posts that get most of their traffic. So you could apply the Pareto principle but I don’t. I’m not sure which would be better.
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My dearest Leo,
you are a successful and an interesting man, I always enjoy your posts and hope to learn from them. Some of this though, I have to agree with others. My website has information about sleep (I’m a sleep tech)but I also have sleep related products. If I write a post about dvd’s that help you sleep, it would irritate me as a reader, not to know where to find them! Also, the google ads are usually right on target about the posts, so again, they seem to ADD to what I am writing , not distract.
Sweet Dreams, Jane
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These tips are great! Both very useful and concisely put.
On a usability note, I also find some blogs can be too internally focused which makes it difficult to reach new users. Yes, it is definitely important to focus content in order to focus readers, but blogging, as a part of a connected network (the blogosphere), also functions as a positive feedback loop; taking advantage of hypertext links which act as subject markers in blogs, for example. We should always think of fresh ways to stay connected.
P.
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Great post, as usual!
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I agree with 9 of the 10 mistakes you pointed out. The only one I don’t agree with is number 8. Using pop-ups is a tactic, and tactics need to tested out. Obviously it has worked out for big bloggers. It may work for you too, or it may not, but you never really know unless you test!
You’re letting your assumption – that all of your readers feels the same way you do about pop-ups – judge what you do to your business (or blog).
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THANK ALOT FOR YOUR GOOD ARTICLE.and for any one that want to be succesful in life but online and offline business kindly go to http://www.moneyisgoodo.blogspot.com
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Hi Leo, I just found this blog and I think it’s a great resource. I am mostly enjoying it/
One thing that does really annoy me when I read your articles though, is that you assume that all readership is male.
“If a reader hates your blog at first site, you’ve lost him. If a reader can’t find anything good on your blog within a few minutes — actually, instantly for many readers — you’ve lost him. If you annoy a reader, you’ve probably lost him.”
Male is not the default. I’m just pointing it out because it annoys me and detracts from what is otherwise an excellent blog.
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Great post and much needed! I just launched my first blog http://www.barefootrunner.com and will have to make this list a ‘must-have’ to develop good “bloghabits”… thanks Leo!
(p.s. I welcome feedback from the crowd re my blog)
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Thanks a lot .I know what are the mistakes made in blogging from your helpful article.
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I think every blogger should write at least one post per day ,it is the minimum to keep readers in touch site the site.
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I think- All these suggestions are for a startup blogger instead of advanced blogger.
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Thanks for the great post Leo. I would hate to kill my blog before anyone even looked at it!
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Awesome tips and trciks and so helpful for bloggers.
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Like that post – really good advices.
I quoted it on my site, unfortunately, the trackback seems not to be working.
Love the WTD advices so that I started an own series on my page. Hope you will welcome me bringing your ideas to the german community.
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really good to read your article – and I’m learning as I go, thanks, lj
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Very informative, I wish there were more articles like this one. Very to the point. Will make sure to come back to these tips when I need to. Thanks.
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Great advice for a newcomer on the blog scene. I noted nr. 4 in particular, but I still only have about 10 posts total
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excellent tips leo. and…look. you’ve taken your own advice.
i’m going to that old blogger dashboard right now!
t.
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Great tips, I enjoy reading it.Thanks a lot
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Thanks for the advice. Love your blog.
Dana
http://passionateforlife.com/magazine
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Thanks for sharing your ideas. The issues you addressed are indeed what keeps a blog from being as successful as it could actually be. :)
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thanks alot both for new and old people.
check some blogs for good informationhttp://www.paypal-millions.blogspot.com, http://www.blogging-easy.blogspot.com
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This post will no help me reorganise my blog, thank you.
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Really a good read Leo. After Reading your advice I have done some modifications. Even i wont stay on a blog without any cool content. If I am looking for information I should get that information.
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