Top 10 Reasons Blogs Fail

by Steve Remington

I have been blogging for several years now and to some people blogging is still a new thing. There are many people who love the concept of starting a blog and keeping one up. The creative juices begin to flow magically and you think of how nice it would be to write about my passions in life and actually have an audience. Though it is important to set goals and have visions, we need to also begin a process in reality and truthfulness. And the realities of blogging is that thousands of blogs are started daily all across the web but only a handful become successful. After a month or so blogs tend to fizzle out… and sit there in cyber-space collecting cyber-dust.

So what do I believe are some reasons why blogs fail? I have listed out 10 reasons why I believe blogs don’t ever make it.

1) Lack of Long Term Ambition and Commitment
This has to be the biggest one. Notice I said “long term” ambition. It takes ambition to start one, but it takes a sense of commitment to continue day in and day out. It’s like that diet and exercise program we keep going on. You are ambitious for that first week but then something happens. Next thing you know you are counting the days you haven’t been out walking or eating only low-carb foods. To be committed to something long term you have to make it a high priority in your life or you simply will find more important things to do.

2) Failure to Grasp Realities of Blogging
Most bloggers who start a blog are not prepared to undergo the realities of blogging. After a few weeks reality sets in and blogging becomes more work than play. It wasn’t exactly what we thought blogging was. We thought we could begin writing a few fun things and people would swarm in from all corners of cyberspace and leave comments all day long. The truth of the matter is, you have to promote your blog to get people to come to it and read from it. Now you have to learn how to market your blog and we all know that takes more time and commitment and some hard work.

3) Not Standing Out… Being Part of the Mold
Lots of blogs are started because they might have seen another blogger and envy what they do, and simply wish to begin an adventure much the same. So what do we do? We try to duplicate what they do. Although it is nice to learn from others, most bloggers don’t offer up something different. You need to provide readers with something that is new and refreshing. Most people have trouble with finding creative and innovative ideas to stand out and be different rather than how can I be like all the other bloggers. Trying to be like everyone else will not spring your blog into a successful one. Most successful blogs have something unique and don’t necessarily fit the mold of every day blogging.

4) Unattractive Content
Most bloggers want readers. I know some who don’t care and that’s fine. They tend to blog for their personal benefits and as a creative tool and release. But the majority of bloggers I have met in the past want readership. They want interaction and feedback. If this is the case, then we need to stop looking inward and start looking outward. Like companies selling a product. Companies don’t ask, what is it the CEO wants?? Or what is it the owners of the Company wants? No… you ask what is it the Customer wants??

In the world of blogging you need to ask yourself what your readers want. Shape your content to be more attractive towards your targeted audience. The content on your blog is your product you are trying to sell. If your content is boring or not informative or appealing in any shape or form, you will really have a hard time with finding readership. So providing informative and attractive posts is essential to the success of a blog.

5) No Time
This sort of fits in with lack of commitment, but people today are jam packed with life. Some running to and fro working 2 jobs, school, family events, and there simply isn’t enough time to put into blogging. A lot of people start blogs realizing that there just isn’t enough hours in the day for them to keep up a blog. So they give it up.

6) Lack of Promotional Skills and Outreach
OK this is where I see a lot of people end up. They have the time, the commitment, and even really great content. But they have no idea how to promote their blog. Where do I go from here they ask? How do I get readers? My content is great but nobody is coming to read it. People talk about Search Engine Optimization and Networking. Where do I start. The thought of it begins to get overwhelming and then the blogger becomes frustrated and soon the blog either sits there and rots or the blogger loses excitement and posting becomes less frequent.

Feel free to read through all my blogging tips I have posted in the past. A lot of them touch on promotion and networking.

7) Not Posting Frequently Enough
This is huge on my list. I have noticed, even with this blog here, that when I relax on posting often, then the readership level goes down as well, which makes sense. No new content to talk about so nothing really to do here… When posting increased there is more to read and more to discuss. If you can’t post at least 5 times per week don’t expect a very active blog. You can have a nice blog and nice content but posting frequently will really juice up your blog. Google also loves it when there is new content on your blog. Update it daily and Google will train their “bots” to come crawl your site daily. Having Google come to your site daily is a wonderful thing. So post often as you can with nice good content.

8- Too Broad of a Topic
Pick a topic you can talk about a lot and use that as your blog’s topic. Narrowing down on a topic and hitting it hard is where it’s at. People tend to try to become everything to everybody and that just is not realistic. A blog that is titled Steve’s Hunting Tips will probably be more successful than Steve’s Journal or Steve’s Life. Having content that is similar such as hunting or fishing or outdoorsy stuff will do better in the long run than to have a blog that talks about hunting, politics, religion, yarn, cars, book keeping, science, astronomy, and under water basket weaving. Narrow it right down and hit your niche with a ton of rocks. People will enjoy your blog a lot more.

9) Ugly Template
Now, I know this is a bit vain BUT, I can’t stand going to a blog and reading white text on a black background. I just won’t do it. I can’t. Sorry. If your template is too ugly or hard to read then I just won’t go there anymore. Keep it neutral with white background behind your text area and make it black, if you like black so much, around the edges. The template needs to be easy to navigate from topic to topic.

10) Spamming and Being an Annoying Blogger
We all know you want to promote your blog and we all know thousands of other people are interested in promoting theirs as well. But refrain from spamming other sites with your link. I think it’s fine to post at forums and leave a link in your signature if the Forum Administrators of the site allow that sort of thing. But refrain from going onto a new forum and saying “check out my new blog click here now”.

Annoying!

Feel free to send an email to everyone in your friends list and say, “hey guys.. check out my latest blog.. here is the link and invite you all to come participate”. Great! Don’t start mass emailing people daily with new updates to your blog. Let people know they can subscribe to it and those who choose to get email updates will get them automatically. I have seen many bloggers lose any chance of success because they are trying to force their blog down people’s throats. Over time you will get readers one at a time. How about those people who send Private Messages to all the members at a Message Forum, inviting you to see their blog. Don’t be one of those. In all honestly it will make people furious and less likely to come to your blog. Sometimes less is more.

How Can I Monetize My Blog If I am Going It Alone?

by Steve Remington

One of the key reasons people start blogs is to make some money doing it. If you aren’t joining a blog Network like Skinny Moose Media then you are going to have to learn how to monetize your blog and make the money yourself. This takes a lot of extra effort than simply writing.

But let’s not put the cart before the horse. What a person needs to do first is put content on their blog each day that carries some weight. Good keyword rich text with links to highly resourceful sites will help get your blog off the ground. Now it is time to start making money from it. Usually blogs don’t start making money until 6 months into it at bare minimum. Most take at least a year. And most don’t want to hear that. Read more

Increase Impressions With the Same Amount of Visitors

by Steve Remington

Do you want to increase your page views/visitors ratio? Basically what I am asking is how would you like to increase the amount of impressions based on the same amount of visitors to your blog? So let’s say you had 1,000 visitors to your blog last month and you plan to do that this month to. Without increasing your visitors there are techniques you can do to increase your impressions. All you have to do is keep your visitors at your blog longer and have them click on a few links.

One of the best ways to increase page views on your blog is to link to other articles in your archive. Not only do we want to have people come and read your current blog post but we should be redirecting them to other articles you have written in the past that pertains to the current post you have now. This takes a little more energy and effort. You should have a mental image of what posts you have done in the past. Also browse your older posts often. When I browse my older posts I usually can think of ideas to blog about but it also reminds you what you have saved away. Just because it fell off the home page and gets archived doesn’t mean it is no good. Link to it a few times.

Our goal is to get our readers to click on links that lead to internal blog posts. Make sure your internal links are not set to open in a new browser. This will make it more enjoyable for your readers to click through your site searching for articles they want to read.

How about the Read More –> feature? There are theories out there about using the <–More–> tag in your post. What this allows you to do is create an article and by placing that tag after the first few paragraphs will force the reader to have to click on a link that says “Read More” before taking them to the full article where it is archived away. The theory behind this technique is to force another click from your reader giving you another impression. If the majority of your readers actually clicked one more time to finish reading the article then ultimately it could almost double your impressions? But does it work?

I have actually experimented with this technique a bit and I have to say I did see an increase in overall impressions. It was probably a 20% increase. Am I certain it was due to using the Read More feature? No I am not certain but other areas where I was not using that feature, the page views remained constant. I do think the Read More feature is something you personally should experiment with. It will only bring you short term boosts of impressions. We also have to try and implant long term techniques and the best way is to link all the time to previous posts. Whether it is hyper-linking words from your article or leaving a list of related posts following your article, the key is to entice your readers to continue deeper into your blog.

How about placing your category list located in your sidebar higher up the page? We have learned that people browse the Internet by topic and not by date so placing your category list high up in the sidebar would be a way to help show your readers there are many topics to browse through. Not only should we be emphasizing categories by moving them higher up the page, but you should take time and be creative in creating your category names. Think about your niche and what interests your readers. Then compile a list of categories you think would entice readers to click on. When you create articles in this fashion it will also spark ideas on what kinds of topics to blog about.

What else? How about enticing readers to comment. By enticing readers to leave a comment it forces your readers to click a few more times in order to leave a comment. How can you entice readers to comment? Ask a question. Blog about topics that are interesting or controversial to your readers. Leave a half written list of good ideas but tell your readers to help you finish the list. These are just a few ideas on how to get people to comment on your blog. But if you want to increase your impressions, having readers comment often will help.

In addition to having comments, make sure you have the feature on your blog where commenters can subscribe to that post. This will give the commenter an instant email notification when someone else leaves a comment. This feature will remind people that they had left a comment and to go back to see what others have said. When they go back to read the comment and possibly post again, you will be getting even more impressions provided by the same visitors.

So let’s rehash and bullet things we can do to increase impressions with the same amount of visitors:

• Use the Read More feature
• Link to old topics often and consistently
• Create well thought out categories
• Move your category list near the top of your sidebar
• Entice readers to comment through various techniques
• Implement the “subscribe to post” feature to remind commenters when a new comment has been made

Steve Remington

Four Ways To Improve Google Page Rank

by Steve Remington

One of the great things Skinny Moose Media has achieved over time is a fairly nice Google Rank. We can obviously improve on it but when it comes to our own niche, we have a very nice page ranking. More times than not, when we post about a specific topic, within 24 hours you can Google that topic and Skinny Moose will be somewhere on that first page. This isn’t the case all the time but it is happening more and more lately. So I have compiled a list of 5 things (not 4 as suggested in the title) that we have done as a Network to help better our search engine results. If any blogger can really work hard to accomplish all of these then they are well on their way to a better found blog through searches.

Posting Frequently: Even though some of our blogs don’t get updated for a few days, the Network updates several times per day. This trains the Google robots to come and “crawl” our website a couple times each day to check if there is any new content. Google likes posting frequency. It basically keeps them in business and helps better who they are and what they stand for. For Google to keep up with the demands of the average web browser, they need to place not only relevant content in their search results, but the newest content.

Keyword Rich Titles: This is something we still need to improve on but Titles that are rich in keywords are important. People search the web primarily by topic. In order to help people find your blog, you really need to hone in on those keywords starting right in your title. I have seen many times when people put a title up that is not attractive to the average browser. For instance… “Hey Check This Out, This Is Horrible”. Maybe it is an attempt to lure the reader in via suspense or it is just a lack of understanding how to pull your readers in through facts and not suspense.

Keyword Rich Posts: As most professional bloggers will tell you right now “Content is King” there still needs to be good content. Content definitely is king and in order to really suck your readers in, you have to blog about things that are interesting to the reader in your niche. We all remember the Jim Zumbo fiasco. Make sure your Title and your post is peppered with keywords you think will get used in a Google search. Sometimes thinking about how people will find you will help provide you with great words to use in your posts.

Linking to Relevant Content: Did you know that Google likes it when you link to other sources? And did you know they like it even more when you link to related content? Simply linking out isn’t as important as linking to similar content. Drop the fear of sending readers from your blog to other sources. In fact, it is proven that if you provide resources time and time again, readers will return to your blog as a source of information. In fact, studies show that the top rated and most highly visited blogs link out to related material more than mediocre and low traffic blogs. The reason for that is people view highly resourceful blogs as…. well…. “highly resourceful”. In turn, people will return often to find information. So link out and make sure it is useful links.

Go the Distance: In other words, be in it for the long haul. For those looking to be found over night or even in the next month are setting themselves up for disappointment. You need to blog frequently, post good content rich in keywords, post good titles, and link as often as you can to highly resourceful information, and do this over a long period of time. Google will reward you for your hard work and dedication. Those who have been blogging for just over a year are still spring chickens. If you can maintain a gruesome pace for 2 years or more, you will become known as a leader in your niche. This is highly rewarding. So just like dieting, do it for the long term benefits, and go the distance.

How Blogging and Real Life Can Co-Exist

by Steve Remington

I fellow blogger never fails to tell me often that blogging is like losing weight. It is easy and kind of fun for a while but then it becomes hard work. What I find interesting about losing weight is I know exactly what I have to do to lose 20 pounds in 2 months, but the hardest part is sticking with it the entire 2 month period.

Blogging is similar. We listen to all the success stories that surround dieting, exercise and losing the fat. They all tell you it is a lifestyle change. In other words, it isn’t something you should just go out and do and then you are done. It should be something you do today, tomorrow, and for the rest of your life.

Can you imagine starting a blog today and telling yourself that this is a blog that I want to create and work at for the rest of my life? Sometimes it is the attitude to have whether you seriously believe you will be blogging at 70.

The point is… blogging has to be a priority. But sometimes “real life” gets in the way. Sometimes it is our job that is demanding and we need to step back from blogging. Work becomes a priority over your blogging. Sometimes you get sick and need to rest. Health has to take priority over blogging. Family too. So is blogging just not a priority?

The key to a successful blogger is not necessarily giving up on health, or the job, or the family. It is learning how to manage real life and blogging so that they can co-exist. This takes extreme dedication but the key is to make sure that both the real world and the blogging world overlap a bit and share in some type of harmony. When the blogging clashes with the real world, it is almost certain the real world will win out. I mean let’s face it, blogging is more than just writing. It takes a lot of will and ambition to blog.

The other option is to let blogging enhance, or enrich your life. Maybe it is a release of pent up energy. Maybe you love to write…. In some instances it could further your career. The successful bloggers make blogging a priority and allow real life and their blog to co-exist.

Why do I care so much about blogging?

The next question to ask yourself is why should you care so much about blogging… The fact of the matter is most people don’t. But if you ARE looking to further your career, make a second income, or you are blogging for your job like Kristine over at the Hunt Smart, Think Safety blog. I know most of you out there have thought about what it might be like to quit a full time job working 9-5 and take up writing a blog. Is it possible? Anything is possible, but it takes not only hard work and dedication, it needs to take a priority in your life. Again, that doesn’t mean you have to neglect other important aspects of your life. You simply need to work it in as a priority so that it can enrich your life in some way.

Me at Skinny Moose has made blogging a priority. Though I do other things such as take care of 5 young children, brush and floss my teeth, eat well (to some degree… maybe ‘hearty’ is a better word), etc. But fitting blogging into my busy schedule is by no means easy, but I make it a priority in order to enrich my life through a second income to the family (wife = breadwinner).

So are you making blogging a priority? Do you even take blogging seriously? Have you thought about going full time on writing blogs? I would love to hear from any of you about this.

Do You Have The Guts to Become a Professional Blogger?

by Steve Remington

Do you have the guts to quit your day job and pursue your dream as a professional blogger? Get Rich Slowly writes a nice article which breaks down the process of doing just that…

Quitting the day job scares me. My web income can support my lifestyle, especially if I’m frugal. But I had developed grand plans of accelerated savings, of paying off my mortgage in just a few years, of traveling around the world. When I quit the day job, I’ll be sacrificing:

* The second income.
* An additional retirement plan (about $5,000/year).
* Daily contact with co-workers and colleagues.

I’ll be trading these sure things for an uncertain future. What guarantee do I have that Get Rich Slowly can continue to produce enough income to support me? What guarantee do I have that I’ll still want to do this three years from now? There are no guarantees.

Then comes the plan….

And so I am making a leap of faith. Or, more precisely, several “hops of faith”. In order to provide myself and the business a smooth transition, I’m going to reduce my hours gradually over the coming year.

* Beginning 01 January 2008, my Tuesdays will be spent working on Get Rich Slowly.
* Beginning April 1st, I’ll drop Thursdays at the box factory.
* On July 1st, Mondays will be spent writing.
* Next October, I’ll be down to only Wednesdays at the day job.
* Finally, on 01 January 2009, I will be an official real-life full-time blogger.

I’ve always wanted to be a professional writer. I just thought I’d write science fiction novels. Or the sorts of short stories you find in Harper’s and The New Yorker. I never imagined I would one day make my living by writing about personal finance.

Read the full article >>

(ht – problogger.net)

What Aspect of Blogging is Most Important When Driving Traffic to Your Blog?

by Steve Remington

I think there are several things one can do to drive traffic to their own blog. Sometimes it is the combination of a lot of factors that determine how much traffic you can bring in. I created a poll off to the right in my sidebar of which I thought were some basic ways in which to drive traffic. I believe there are a lot more than 4 ways but I chose those 4 because they were simple and most popular.

There are sub-categories. For instance the SEOing of your blog. There are many things you can do that will help improve SEO. Same with networking with other bloggers. I can list probably 20 ways off the top of my head that could fall under the category of networking. Examples would be emailing other bloggers, commenting on other bloggers, running contests, and so on.

Updating your blog post often is a good one. But what kind of posts? Will all posts be treated the same? Long ones? Short ones? News articles or tips?

So feel free to take a look at the four options and determine if you could only choose one way to begin driving traffic to your blog, which one do you think is the most important? We all know they are ALL important but which one is the most important?

I am interested to see over the next couple weeks what you all choose. The poll is on the right side of the blog in the gray area. Thanks.

How to Write a How-To Post

by Steve Remington

I just recently wrote a list of ideas of what you could possibly write about if you are drying up on ideas. The second option in the list is to write a “How-To” article.

People love to read about how to accomplish something. If you can shed some expertise every once in a while you can gain a lot of credibility over the long run. Not only can people pull information from your post and attempt to use that information, but they can always come back later and search your archive on related material.

If you have written a dozen “how-to” posts and you can’t think of anything else to write about then learn something new and teach others how to do it. Use photos to help demonstrate what you are trying to say.

A prime example of a “how-to” post would be going through a step by step process on how to field dress a deer, how to tie a fly, or how to remove rust from a gun. These types of blog posts will enlighten your readers and provide you with credibility so that in the future, your readers will return. Why not do an entire series with instructions on how to fly fish?

So keep a mental note of the things you are knowledgeable about and create an online tutorial in the form of a blog post!

Are You Drying Up On Ideas?

by Steve Remington

If so… here is a list of ideas for your next blog post…. Just pick one and go with it…

Interviews – Contact someone and ask them a few questions.

How-to – Tell others how to do something.

Tell a personal story – People always love a personal touch. Tell others how that big buck got away.

Report News – Report on some current events happening and provide some commentary.

Cover Pros and Cons of an Issue – Pick a controversial issue and make a list of the pros and cons.

Do a Case Study – Choose an issue and provide all sides. This might be good to do in a series of posts.

Take An Alternative Position – Play devil’s advocate.

Write a Long Follow Up Comment in the form of a new post – Answer a commenter’s question from a previous post by creating a new post. Make sure to link back to it.

Research a topic – Become an expert on a specific topic. Do some research and report your findings.

Create a Top 10 List – Provide a list of the top 10 ways to do something.

Create a List – Create a list… not necessarily 10 of them.

Invite Readers to Guest Post – Declare a week in the near future where you will be posting only guest posts. This will give you some time off from writing but will allow your blog to be updated with new content during that time.

Speedlinking/Roundup – Link to several other blogs in the blogosphere.

Talk about statistics and highlight your visitors – Clue others in on some of your site statistics if you wish to share. Highlight and link to your top referring sites.

Ask a question – Ask your readers what they think.

Solve a problem – Find a problem and provide a solution on how to fix it.

Inspirational post/Uplifting – Talk about an inspirational story. Maybe you took a child hunting for the first time. People like to read about uplifting things.

Poetry – Write a song or poetry.

Create an Image – Play around in photoshop and create images that are unique. Make sure to embed your blog’s link in the bottom corner in case the image goes viral all over the Internet.

Tell a joke – Take time to write out something funny… Feel free to leave off the cutline for 24 hours.

Post a Recipe – People like to cook. Post up a recipe you have tried in the past.

Write a series – Write a series of posts over the next few days. Have at least 3 parts to it.

Update an old post with new news – Find an old post and update it with current news in the form of a new post. Make sure to link from the old to the new and from the new to the old.

Add to a list started by another blogger – Maybe another blogger made a list. Link to it and add 10 new things that could be added to it.

Respond to criticism – Have you been criticized? Respond to it.

Write a FAQ about your niche – Provide your blog with a FAQ page.

Post a picture that speaks a thousand words – Post an image.

Write about a book you are reading – Are you reading a book? Spend time talking about your book.

Run a contest/Offer Award – Run a contest of some sort. Feel free to offer an award.

Highlight your most popular posts – Go back through your old posts and pick out the ones you feel are the most popular ones and create a new post linking back to them.

Run a poll and post the results of that poll – Run a poll.

Write only about a particular theme for a week – Pick a theme and stick to it all week.

Do you have an other ideas?

Back to the Future

by Steve Remington

One of the best things about blogging is taking real life situations and things you do in the real world and then conjure up a post. I try to keep all this to myself as not to scare away friends and family but it’s fun to come up with blog post ideas in the middle of eating dinner or watching a movie.

I have trained myself (maybe by accident) to always make that “real life/blog post” connection. Could it be a sickness? I guess that is debatable.

But here is a bloggy question I would like to ask my audience. Now this is something I decided I wanted to ask people while watching Back to the Future. I assume I don’t have to tell people what that movie is, but my brother in-law got us the trilogy for the family. It is a classic.. or will be a classic, depending on where you are on the space-time continuum. I used to watch those movies back when I was a kid and my kids seem to like it.

So let’s relate time travel to blogging. If you could go into the future 30 years. Now remember that blogging really hasn’t been around for more than a few years. The Internet has only been around for about a decade. So let’s take the year 2007 and go ahead into the future another 30 years to 2037. Now for entertainment purposes what do you see? Let’s assume blogging is still around and you log on to your computer or laptop, or your personal computer device… whatever you use to read the Internet. What do you think blogging will be like in the future?

Now let’s say you were young (a kid) in 2037 and were able to go back in time 30 years to the present year of 2007. What are some of the things that seem normal to us currently that you think may be outdated and would seem as “old fashion” to the time traveler?

Any ideas? Think about how things were 30 years ago and how so much has changed. What was it like in 1977? Internet wasn’t even around then. Cell phones weren’t around. So think about how much has really changed in 30 years to help you think up what it might be like 30 years from now and what types of things today may not be around… Now think in the sense of blogging.

Any ideas?

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