Guest Post – Written by a Contributor
Blogging is many things to many people. It can be a quick, easy and fun way to reflect on the events of each day and record your musings for posterity. It can be a great way to give friends and family living far away or an insight into what’s going on with you. Or, if writing is the craft from which you earn a crust, it can be a fun “warm-up” activity; a means for you to get your creative juices flowing without needing to worry about the technical aspects of the craft.
But for many, a blog is a passport to financial freedom, a lucrative revenue stream that starts of as a side hustle and in some cases even becomes their full time living. However, if you have been blogging for some time but have still yet to gain any traction, this can lead to frustration and even make the prospect of quitting more appealing with each day. But before you throw in the towel, take a moment to consider any mistakes you could be making which could impede your reach. However, you choose to monetize your blog, whether through advertising revenue or a crowdfunding platform like Patreon, it’s vital that your blog gains a steady stream of traffic to become profitable.
Here are some reasons why your blog may not be drawing the traffic that it deserves.
Your domain name doesn’t inspire intrigue
It’s estimated that there are 152 million blogs out there on the internet and while many probably haven’t been active in some time, that’s still an incredibly competitive environment in which you’re trying to gain a market share. As such, your domain name needs to instantly grab people’s attention and inspire their curiosity… And that’s hard to do when you have .wordpress.com on the end of your domain name. Take a look through this list of the best domain registrars as well as this advice on choosing a domain name. It may not seem like a big deal, but the name of your blog could mean the difference between someone clicking or passing you by.
Your SEO is all over the place
No matter how good your blog is, nobody is going to read it if they have to scroll through page after page of search engine results to get to it. Taking steps to improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can make a huge difference to your reach. Sometimes, even a few simple changes to your text layout, better grammar and judicious use of keywords can send your blog skyrocketing through the search engine rankings. Download a plugin like Yoast which will give you easy to follow pointers on improving your SEO.
You’re trying to be all things to all people
In blogging, as in most things, it’s important to find a niche. Not only will this help you find the kind of people who are interested in the subjects you blog about, it will also make you easier to find on search engines. If, for example, you run a parenting blog, your content is of tremendous value to a huge range of people. But with so many parenting blogs out there, it can be hard to find an audience if you don’t specialize in a niche within the parenting genre. Focus your content on discipline or nutrition and people will be more likely to find you.
You’re not engaged in the community
The blogging community is friendly, diverse, welcoming and enormous. Whatever niche in the blogging world you choose to occupy, you will find a host of supportive and passionate people who can help to promote your blog and take it to the next level by nominating you for awards or offering you opportunities to write guest posts for them. But these people can’t help you if they don’t know who you are. Reach out to them on social media platforms. Bloggers don’t bite!
You’re not updating regularly
Unless you’re posting every day (or at the very least 3-4 times a week) you’ll always struggle to gain traction. If you don’t have the time or energy to post new and engaging content every day it’s worth considering outsourcing to freelance writers or SEO companies.
You’re outsourcing to the wrong people
If you have outsourced some posts to external contributors, it’s important not to choose them on the basis of cost. While there are many writers out there who will churn out content for incredibly cheap rates, the content may be of poor quality; lacking in factual density or just plain badly written. Use a company that uses a small but select pool of talented writers and the reputation of your blog won’t be tarnished by poor content.
Have a good long look at your blog and think about how you could use the above to improve it. It could just be the best thing that ever happened to your blog!
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