5 Ways to Lose Blog Readers

If you write a blog and no one reads it, does it count as a blog? If you’re wondering why your blog readers are suddenly disappearing without a trace, maybe you’re following a few of these five “don’ts” of blogging.

1. Receive but don’t give. You don’t have time to read other people’s blogs, but they should have plenty of time to read yours, right? Sure, you could get more commenters and readers by commenting the blogs of others, but why go to all that trouble?
2. Be an obnoxious commenter. If there’s anything the world loves, it’s someone who spams everyone’s comments by saying absolutely nothing useful and blantantly promoting his own blog. For good measure, slip in a link to your blog at the end to make sure everyone knows you want them to read it.
3. Ignore analytics. Why bother learning from what analytics would tell you? So everyone is leaving after one glance at your home page. That doesn’t mean something needs to be fixed on  your site. Ignorance is bliss, and you plan to stay ignorant as long as possible.
4. Post inconsistent, self-promoting content. Consumers can’t get enough of 30-minute infomercials and sponsored news segments on midday local “news” shows. When they have time to read your blog, they want to see nothing more than a 500-word promotion of your business’s offerings instead of useful information they can apply to their everyday lives. And don’t bother with a regular posting schedules. Visitors love to come to your site several times a day, only to find nothing new has been posted in months.
5. Give up before you get anywhere. Statistics show that getting your first 1,000 readers is the toughest part of blogging, but that doesn’t mean you should keep trying if you’ve been blogging for six months and can’t get past 100.  Those who stick it out are likely to eventually make it, provided their content is good, but if you don’t have overnight success, it’s time to hang it up and find another way to promote your product or service.

Blogs are a great way to engage your customers and interest them in your product or service. However, if you’re breaking some or all of the rules, chances are you’re scaring customers away as quickly as you capture their attention. By following a few common sense rules to successful blogging, you’ll be able to maximize your blog’s success and make some valuable networking connections along the way.