Like endless stars in the sky, there are endless blogging websites on the internet? No one can count either of them!
Another irony is we know very few stars, don’t we? Likewise there are very few blogs that go viral or are read frequently by people. Why is this so?
Writing has been a therapy for me and this is the reason I started but I realized blogging is sere passion. One has to be passionate enough about blogging to make it work.
Bloggers are looking for either of the two- spreading information and knowledge or earning money from the monetized website.
Either of the two is not easy as it seems! And I have had fair share of my struggles for making my blog work, however, I eventually failed.
Things didn’t work out my way.
But you know what?
It is okay! If your blog/website fails, there is always a learning lesson with a failure, well the good part about a blog is its endless life. One can always renew their domain and continue trying to make their blog a success!
Even as per a survey about 69% of the bloggers earn zero rupees from their blog. With right mantras and tactics and quality content any blog can make its own fortune.
Eventually, I realized that there were many things I was doing just wrong, having failed I learned many new things about blogging.
Blogging isn’t only about good articles and information, it has more to it. Well, not every blog or even a quality loaded content website does good. There are many factors that contribute to the success of the blog, quality keywords, good SEO, back links etc.
I will be listing those down a few mistakes I have made so that you guys can take precautionary measures and not fall in the same pitfalls.
By taking care of these minute things one can make their blog a success!
Here are the 10 reasons why my blog failed
Highly competitive niche
Now as I said, there are endless websites on the internet and the niche that I choose has an ocean of it. I chose health and fitness, a very competitive niche. Now though there are many keywords and topic to cover in this niche it is not easy to get your website ranked on the Google on the very first page.
Another sad story is people do not go to the 10th search page to get good and accurate information. So even if your content is good and has really valuable information, highly competitive niche is difficult to surpass.
To work in a competitive niche, either your website should give out astounding information or have the best SEO.
Common article topics
Another mistake that I did was choosing the common topics, now we all have grown up with few home remedy hacks. We all know our grandma’s stories. I have a had few too! My mistake was to say the old stories out loud. The topics I choose like “how to cure acne at home”. Now though my article was well written, easy to DIY, there was still very few hits and reads.
Maybe because there is an ocean of information on the similar topics already. Try and keep your blog unique! This is the only way to come out and make the readers stay for long. But if you want to target the common topics make sure your approach is unique, give the data no one has read!
Research and Teach and Preach people!
Poor Team
Managing a blog is a task, writing for me was not always possible, So I finally chose to hire writers. Well it wasn’t a good decision for me and my blog. As the writers I chose weren’t well versed with health niche. Spin content and repeated information screwed my blog’s ranking even more.
Many people try to hire cheaper writers, if capital investment is the issue then do it yourself but do not compromise on the quality of the articles.
It is true! Every hiring of an employee comes with a cost. So choose wisely, it is going to affect the reputation of the blog as well.
Precise and short content
On one hand where every other health bloggers explained even the minute details while writing an article. I choose to write precise and short content of just 500 to 700 words instead of 1500 words article. I wasn’t given multiple options and solutions to the people with my content, it harmed my blog’s reputation.
It also affected the number of keywords I could use to optimize the search engine ranking of my website.
This caused even less organic visitors coming to my website. Something that I have learned from this is picking the right choice of information which is explained in detailed to the readers. Spoon feeding is sometimes good. Readers especially while reading health content wish to know every minute detail, make good use of this!
Promotion is important
For now, though everyone wishes to get a good amount of organic visitors, there is also a weapon called push marketing. Push marketing means effectively promoting your product among the target audience.
Health blogs are more like guides and informative books answering people’s questions. Now with social media marketing this has been cake walk, however I missed it. Make sure you use all the social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and even quora to promote your website.
Share links of your articles with people, rotate it on whatsapp groups. Make a page of Facebook and ask your friends to share. Leave no stone unturned. All these things which I didn’t do led to the failure of my blog. And now I have very well learnt my lesson, my next attempt will have all social media handles constantly promoting my blog.
Didn’t use white hat link building tricks
Many new bloggers do not know what white hat link building tricks are, well I didn’t too! In the SEO terminology, it refers to the optimization techniques that focuses on driving the traffic to a particular website in an organic way. One must understand that building white hat links is not a cake walk, it requires efforts and understanding, as ethical SEO techniques are complex.
But apparently it is one of the most important hacks for SEO. Few of the tricks are guest blogging, affiliation links and visuals to attract large number of audiences. There are many blogging sites that are in constant hunt of the guest bloggers, you can hunt them down and pitch them easily. Networking in the world of blogging is equally important!
Nowadays info graphics are the best way to deliver information in a creative way. Make these visuals relevant, up beat with the current social media and explicit, it attracts chunks of audiences to your website.
Regularity
Running a blog requires a lot of efforts, one has to post articles regularly. Make sure you update the content of your blog as per the current scenario. Lack of regularity in posting new things on my website demotivated my readers to revisit my website.
Infant blogs need to be nurtured.
The most famous blog, the Huffington post about 1 article every minute, which means they post about 2000 articles in a day.
Well, I understand when you are a sole manager posting so many articles in a single day seems next to impossible, however, after my failure, I have learned that at least 2 to 3 articles have to be posted in a single day to attract the target audience.
Filling with advertisements
The most important thing one has to keep in minding while blogging is readers’ experience. If you are lucky enough to get approved by Google AdSense, then please do remember do not fill your content with the advertisements. I filled my content with advertisements which wasn’t quite user friendly.
Pop-ups and advertisements interrupt readers experience, there are chances that they get irritated in between and leave the page. Now this increases the bounce rate of your website. Bounce rate means when readers leave your website midway.
High bounce rate is not good for any blogging website, it should ideally be 20% if you have a bounce of 50% or more it is an alarm for your website.
Language barriers
For now, though the language is not the biggest barrier, as every niche has blogs in multiple languages. English is one of the most common ones, using big and complicated words which were not easy going for my audience led to my failure. The language of the blog has to be user friendly and easy to understand, relatable and funny as well.
Especially when it comes to health and fitness blogs, language has to be kept to basic as people look forward to solving basic day to day problems.
Start from the scratch!
Blogs have to be in a layman’s language and after failing and getting unpleasant reviews I have learned to dial it down.
No established goals
Everything should be planned when it comes to a blog, #happylaterealizationtome.
Blogs have to be planned in such a way that they can be interlinked, there has to be a connectivity and pattern.
When you start a blog, make sure you foresee a journey you are about to start.
I was vague, every day was blank and I didn’t know where I was heading.
Map down your blog and set your goals and targets, if you do not do so there are chances your blog will fail too!
Now I know when I will restart my blog, what are the things that have to be my priority? How should I plan my own website and content?
Failing has somehow answered my few questions automatically and my next attempt I will not only have predetermined goals but will surely establish them as well.
Final words
To all those who have just started blogging, please take care of the things just mentioned.
Trust me they do matter!
I have failed, but now I know the recipe to make my next blog a success! Constant hard work with SEO skills it is!
For people who have already failed like me, but didn’t know about these things, well now you do. Work on them, do not give up on blogging.
It is a fun way to spread out the information and your word to the masses. Blogging isn’t easy but there are posts that have done so well.
Other than this if you believe your information is valuable it is important to tell it out loud.
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”
– Benjamin Franklin
If done right blogging is quite influential and a positive tool for spreading the word out there!
Thank you.
