When you started blogging, you were eyeing for success. You always wanted to make your blog big and to have many audiences. You even feel glad when somebody leaves a comment in your blog. You are also happy when someone visits your site. You will surely be happier if your website will become successful by having millions of visitors and so many comments per article. Well, that is certainly a good thing. But are you careful that your blog won’t just disappear?
For sure, you don’t want to waste your time working hard on your blog just to see it going down. Hence, you need to be aware of the things that will kill your design blog. What are these things that could possibly cause blog death? You need to know these 12 important things so that you can do away with it and you can create an effective graphic design blog. Here they are:
1. Posting once a month.
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When you stop following your regular posting schedule, you are about to kill your blog. If you were posting twice a week, you might be posting once in two weeks now or you might be posting once a month only. If you do this, your readers will think that you are no longer active because when they reached your site, it showed them nothing new. They will not know your posting schedule anymore and would wonder why you do not have new posts anymore. They will no longer be interested in your blog.
2. Copying other’s posts.
You better get away with this. Make sure that your posts are original. Avoid copying discreetly from other designer’s blog. Being original is very important in order to succeed. So, when you copy, you are like killing your own blog. It is okay to get inspiration from other blogs but do not copy them. Remember, there is a big difference between copying and being inspired by what you see.
3. Having many errors.
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Well, it is natural to commit mistakes because we are not perfect but when it comes to your posts, you have to make sure that you do away with simple mistakes. This includes typo errors, spelling, grammar, wrong links and others. These things are just simple, so you have to make sure that you get it right.
4. Have uninteresting and boring posts.
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Do not choose a topic that will not be of interest to the readers. Also, make your post lively and let it seem to direct to the readers so that it won’t sound boring. There should be a good approach in writing it. Integrate call to action, humor, views and others. This way, you won’t lullaby your readers to sleep.
5. Having very long posts.
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It is okay to have long posts when it is not composed of merely words. There should be valuable images in it and there are breaks, too. Divide it into sections. Do not just post a block of words. You will not get anyone to read it. You will look boring that way. So, make sure that your posts are not too long so that your readers will still have the time to read it.
6. Having maze-like navigation.
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It is important that your navigation is good for this is your reader’s guide in reading the posts in your blog and in getting into pages that they want. If you do not have a good navigation and your readers will just get lost in the site, you will only frustrate them and lost them.
7. Using wrong titles.
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It would really be inapt to do this. You might have posted some articles wherein the titles do not really tell what is written in the contents of the post. That would confuse the readers. They will not be happy that after reading it, they did not get what they wanted from the article that they have read. There is a great possibility that they won’t come back anymore.
8. Disappointing repeated topics.
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Avoid doing repeating topics that had been published before. Well, it is okay to have the same topic but the contents are different. If you do so, you will lose the interest of the readers because they always want to have something that is fresh. So, when you repeat topics, make sure that it contains something new.
9. Silence readers.
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If you fail to have a comment section, you seem like saying “shut up” to your readers. People always want to speak their minds. Without a comment section, you will lose that drive for your readers to stay in your site because they cannot interact with you and with other readers.
10. Limit sharing options.
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Instead of having many options for sharing, you may have only two. You can only place Facebook and Twitter but it would be better if you have more. Doing that might depress your reader that they cannot share it in Stumble Upon or in their Google + accounts.
11. Being mean to readers.
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If you keep on interacting to the readers in a mean manner, you will surely shoo them away. No one would like to be treated that way. Hence, you make sure that you will treat your readers well. Respect them by being professional yet friendly. You have to make them feel that they are welcome to your site.
12. Having distracting ads.
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No one would be happy to see so many advertisements for it will only distract their reading. Also, websites having so many ads seems to look cheap. It you want to place ads, make sure that the placement is right. Do not let it distract the readers for they will no longer be interested to visit your blog.
It’s Your Turn Now
No one wants to kill their own blog for you have surely invested a lot for it. So, to make sure that all your efforts won’t be wasted, you can take note of the things written above. If you think that the list is lacking, do not hesitate to add some into it. Feel free to express yourself in the comment section below.
Always a pleasure to read your articles, Kareen! Thank you for this great one! The sad fact is that even large and old blogs do some of these mistakes too.
Kareen Liez nice article buhh i don’t think having less sharing options is a good point.I get traffic from all of the social medias.
Thanks!
I’m still working on my site, finding my niche, and article was definitely helpful!
i like your post.