Blogging isn’t rocket science, but it can certainly start to feel like it, as you struggle to find the magic formula that takes you from a handful of subscribers to hundreds of thousands. The truth is: there is no magic formula. Building a blog takes a lot of time, effort, creativity, and even capital investment. It doesn’t just become a success overnight.
Even so, there are some awful mistakes many new bloggers make that can turn attracting and keeping followers into an ordeal. If you’re not guilty of these, then you’re likely already on the right track. If not, it might just be time for a change.
Disrespecting Readers
There will always be a handful of readers – or more – who disagree with the opinions you put forward on your blog. There will also be trolls who come along looking for anything to disagree with, just for the hell of it.
While it’s fine to debate with followers, and to handle trolls as effectively as possible, being disrespectful to readers looking to connect is a no-no. Learn to agree to disagree and move forward.
Otherwise, not only are you likely to lose that follower, but other followers who come by and notice the squabbling will either unfollow, or keep their comments to themselves.
You want to ensure that no matter what opinion people may have about your blog and social media posts, the comments are a safe haven to air those opinions.
No one is too high and mighty for criticism, and objective feedback can do wonders to help you improve, grow, and produce better content for your readers. Comments also help to boost SEO ranking.
No Paragraphs
Paragraphs were invented for the same reason the Lord of the Rings movies came in three parts, and not one. No matter how great your content is, it’s difficult to consume the whole thing in one breath. It’s also difficult to find your place again, when you look away for a moment to check a message or help someone nearby.
In essence, paragraphs help to break the text up into bite-sized pieces people can more easily digest and follow. As a rule, your paragraphs should also be as short as possible – with five lines being the maximum.
Keep in mind that many people read on smaller screens, like tablets and smartphones, and even three lines on a PC can translate into six on a smaller screen.
No Subheadings
Subheadings serve almost exactly the same purpose as paragraphs. Perhaps for this reason, many people use one without the other – as I did. This can seem especially tempting if you’re not writing an informative post. Maybe you’re just discussing your stance on a controversial topic, or telling the tale of your most recent travel adventure. So, why bother?
But subheadings are like little chapters in a book. They act as checkpoints for readers, while also conveying what specific information the reader can expect to see in that spot. This helps readers to skim through posts, and skip over parts they don’t need to read.
For instance, in this post, maybe you’ve never disrespected readers and you always edit your work. Since I’ve organised the text into sub-headings, you can easily skip over those and move on to what’s important to you. No offence taken!
No Editing
I mentioned this before in 10 Tips for New Bloggers, but this is such a common problem that it’s worth bringing up again. Blogging is fun and editing is often not, but to make the experience fun for readers, it’s important to clean up the formatting and text, and get rid of the typos.
Editing should also involve cleaning up the colloquial and ‘shorthand’ way we sometimes express ourselves in text messages, tweets, and journal entries. It’s understandable that people often type up blog posts on their phone, but that’s no excuse not to edit. In fact, all my final edits are done on my smartphone.
While editing, bloggers should also try to ensure they haven’t rambled on too much in the beginning and wasted words. I’ve seen many “10 ways to do this” and “5 ways to improve that” articles, only to have the actual list start 500 words in. By then, I have no desire to continue.
Ideally an introduction should be about 100 words – maybe 300 tops, depending on the topic and your writing style.
Crazy Text Colours
One suggestion I frequently make to new bloggers is to stick to regular text colours. It might seem creative to feature a black background with red and yellow text, but this is a bad idea for a number of reasons.
Firstly, neon-coloured fonts strain our eyes over time, and may cause pain and discomfort after prolonged reading. Thus, you may lose a lot of readers who would rather not strain their eyes to make out your words.
Secondly, WordPress reader and the mobile app shows all backgrounds as white. So if you got creative with white text on a black background, all we see is a blank page. What about yellow or baby blue font? All we see is a reason to squint and scroll quickly so we can get relief.
There’s a reason big websites like CNN, Facebook, and even Instagram use white backgrounds and dark-coloured fonts. Simply put, it works.
Blogging gives writers a direct line to readers, and as such, every action can either make or break that readership base. What’s important is identifying the errors of our ways, recovering quickly, and moving forward.
Oh the editing!! I try to read mine over at least 4x. And I ALWAYS catch mistakes on the 3rd even! You edit on your smartphone? Wow! I can’t even read stuff on there, hardly!
I didn’t realize the Reader made all backgrounds white! Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
Thank you for the follow.
I’m glad you learned so much from this post! And yes, editing is a pain.
As for editing from my smartphone, I realise that sometimes reading on a different screen makes a difference. I have a Note 4 so it’s big enough. I read in preview mode and then edit and update again via the WordPress app. I also usually do another reading right after a post is published as well, just in case!
Yes, thank you for the article.
Just in case is right!!
Thank you so much for all the wonderful advice!
You’re welcome. Do drop by for more! 🙂
Reblogged this on Titi Odeyinka and commented:
This really helped
Thanks for sharing. Remember to send your query. 🙂
Thank you for this. Great tips! <3
You’re welcome. I hope you find them useful!
Reblogged this on Connecting Threads and commented:
Good thoughts here. I for one am one of those rare birds who actually DO enjoy the process of editing. However, I cannot disagree with anything in her list!
Thanks so much for sharing!
Hi Alexis, this is my first visit to your blog (I came via the blog of Stevie Turner) and I really enjoyed reading this post. I always remember finding the very first blogging tips post on WordPress and how It felt like finding a piece of gold, when I first started to blog.
Great tips. I never respond to any Trolls. I ignore them and their comments and I find they soon get fed up and move away. As I choose to moderate all comments on my blog before they appear, I can mark any nasty comments as spam.
Block paragraphs and formatting are a big grip for me. Sometimes it’s just a learning curve for new bloggers. I always recommend bloggers use some free images or their own photos in their posts if the post is a long one. It helps break the post up and makes it easier to read.
One last thing recommendation from me. I learned that to get people to come and visit, read and comment on my blog, I had to visit, read and comment on other blogs. Two of the most popular questions I get asked are “How do I get people to leave me comments on my blog?” and “How do I get more traffic and followers?” When I ask if they visit, read and comment on other blogs, most say they don’t have the time to do that. There lays the problem.
Best wishes,
Hugh
Hello Hugh. These are great tips I use as well, and have covered in other articles I wrote on blogging.
I do believe there is a learning curve to some extent. However, I’ve seen a lot of people still making the mistakes above 3 to 5 years into blogging. Maybe some people have a longer learning curve than others, or simply don’t care.
As you’ve likely noticed, my readers are pretty engaged with my posts (comments, likes, shares, and reblogs) and I do respond to all comments. Like you, I make time to interact with them on my blog and their own. Karma is real in the blogging world.
I totally agree with you, Alexis. I respond to and/or acknowledge all comments as well. It’s very important to never ignore those who take the time to read and comment on our blog posts. We have to be seen as being friendly, otherwise, people won’t come back. I’ve unfollowed a number of blogs where the author never responds to or acknowledges my or others comments. A big part of blogging is building a blogging community, being part of other blogging communities, and to interact within those communities.
I can’t say I’ve unfollowed for that reason before. I read and comment on so many blogs that I doubt I’ll notice if one or two do not respond. Most people do.
Point taken, though.
🙂 It’s important to be in touch with your readers:)
Yes, it is. I try to take every opportunity to read their posts as well.
Great tips, thanks for sharing your wisdom
You’re welcome. Thanks for dropping by. 🙂
Thank you for the post! I find I am still struggling to really get my blog off the ground…but finding the right stuff to write about has proved to make or break how it goes! I may try to use more subheadings in the future…hadn’t thought too much about those 🙂
You’re welcome. Thanks for checking it out and commenting.
My break came when WordPress made one of my articles an editors’ pick. It was all uphill from there.
The more followers I get, the better the engagement from everyone involved. It’s been an amazing blogging adventure, and there’s definitely more pressure to produce the best quality content I can.