Creating a stable blog for your website can bring higher traffic, which is the first step towards money in your pocket. This is true whether you run a blog for business, or whether the blog itself is your source of revenue.
According to a survey by TechClient, small businesses with blogs generate 126% more leads. Even if you run a blog as a hobby, the revenue earned by bloggers around the world is absolutely incredible, bringing in hundreds and thousands of dollars mo
nthly through things such as affiliate marketing.
So, knowing all of this information, you’ve decided to start a blog. However, you may be starting to realize that your blog is not delivering in the way that you had expected. You have no new subscribers, hardly any views, and no one seems to be paying attention.
So, what are you doing wrong? It’s time to decipher the mystery of the empty blog and find solutions to the problems that are leaving your website so lonely.
1. Lacking (Or Tacky) Design
The Problem: Although we know that the main interest in your blog is the content, there are very important reasons to pay attention to the design. If your website is not visually appealing, readers will not pay attention to what you’ve written, and will likely leave your site quickly.
The Solution: Spend some time with your blog’s design features. If you’re using WordPress, explore the different themes and find one that stands out visually. The best design includes an element of simplicity. This allows people to focus on the content instead of the website itself.
Don’t underestimate the power of good photographs. If you’re not a photographer, don’t worry: websites like Pexels.com offer free stock photography that is very well done and will add value to your blog.
Also, pay attention to the way your writing appears visually on the page. Long paragraphs are like walls of text that are not appealing to the eye. To keep readers interested, break up text by including relevant headings throughout your posts, and make sure your paragraphs only have up to a few sentences. Try adding bold lettering or italics to make certain phrases stand out.
These steps will lead to better readability, and thus more readers!
2. Inconsistency
The Problem: You have many different interests, or you do different things professionally. Thus, your blog is a melting pot of different subjects. Each new post jumps to a different industry or topic without ever landing in one place.
Readers look for consistency, and come back to blogs that post topics of interest to them. If you jump topics, you will lose returning readers. For example, someone might find a great photography post on your website, but then realize that the rest of your blog is about training dogs or making crafts. Likely, they’ll leave your blog disappointed, without plans to return.
The Solution: It’s time to pick a niche. Focusing on one subject allows you to promote yourself consistently, and readers who find you will be more likely to return.
This may be a difficult task, but it will be worth it in the end. When you consistently post content in the same subject, it gives you the chance to write more in-depth articles that are actually useful to people. When you do this, readers will view you as an authority, and will be more likely to come to you when searching for information in that topic or industry.
3. A Lost Audience
The Problem: Now that you’ve picked your niche, what if you’re still not getting many (or any) views? It’s possible that, even while directing your posts to one particular niche, you’re not gearing your posts towards the correct audience.
The Solution: Don’t let your audience stay lost forever. Go out and find them! Who does your niche topic appeal to? Who are the people that are searching for information in this topic or industry? And then the big question: what exactly are they searching for?
If you don’t know your audience, it becomes nearly impossible to provide information for them that is valuable. So get to know them! Get on industry forums, and see who is there. Find out what discussions are popular in your niche topic, what questions people are asking, and what information they’re looking for.
Another great way to find your audience is by finding the audience of influencers in your niche. This means searching out people who write about your niche topic, and watching who follows them. View other niche influencers as friends or colleagues, and their followers as a pre-made community consisting of people who are interested in your niche topic.
4. Generic Content
The Problem: Your content, although now focused on your niche and your tribe, is not actually helpful to people. If your content doesn’t provide some sort of practical help to your readers, they will quickly lose interest.
The Solution: Let’s put that knowledge you gained above to good use. Now that you’ve gotten more familiar with your audience, you want to find out what makes them tick.
Remember those questions you saw people asking in forums? Use your blog to provide answers to those questions.
You’re writing about one specific topic, so let’s narrow your blog posts down to a very specific question within that topic. For example, instead of writing ‘How to Buy the Best Camera’, write about ‘The Best Cameras for Outdoor Photography’, ‘How to Choose a Camera for Wedding Photography’, ‘Which Cameras Give You Better Long-Exposure Shots’, etc.
Also, to make your content useful, it has to be something different. Copying and pasting is obviously frowned upon, but even rewriting another person’s article in different words doesn’t automatically mean you have good content.
With so much new information constantly posted on the web, it’s essential to make sure that what you’re posting is somehow different to what is currently available on that subject.
So get creative! If you really know this topic well (and you should), then you are fully capable of writing detailed articles about specific subjects within your niche. Take an old subject and put a new spin on it. Add statistics and facts from other sites. Use information you find online from different websites and compile ‘The Ultimate Guide to [insert topic here]’.
Your goal is to be useful in an innovative way.
5. Too Much of You
The Problem: Especially if your blog is part of a business website, this can be an easy trap to fall into. If you only publish posts that talk about your achievements as a company, your new products or services, or company news, your blog will not be of interest to anyone outside your company.
The Solution: Since the goal of a business blog is to bring in more leads, your topics need to be based on the interests of your potential clients. So, don’t talk so much about yourself!
Instead, use all of the tips we’ve mentioned above to create content that is actually useful to your intended audience (i.e. potential customers). This builds an image of authority for your company, allowing you to gain your audience’s trust and respect.
However, this doesn’t mean that all self-promotion on your blog is bad. It just means that you have to be subtle.
For example, you’ve written a post that provides practical help to a common problem within your industry. Your company also sells a product or service that solves that problem. You can casually mention how your product can help readers, and link to a relevant sales page.
Done right, this allows your blog to draw in a readership that consists of potential customers. More than that, it shows them, not only what your products are, but the value of purchasing them!
6. Lack of Promotion
The Problem: Even after all this work, nobody has heard of your blog. It seems like the only place you exist is your website, and no one has the opportunity to bump into you on some other corner of the internet.
The Solution: Don’t wait for people to happen upon your blog: show them to it by promoting it on social media!
It’s time to create accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Obviously, your most effective social media platform will depend on the type of blog that you run. For example, if your topic is more visually based, like crafts, food, travel, etc., you could try focusing on visual platforms like Instagram or Pinterest.
If you followed the above advice when searching for your audience, you’ve probably already found and connected with people that are interested in your niche through social media.
Now it’s time to interact with them.
Social media is like a community, and the more you talk, the more you will be heard. Start by sharing content from your blog and linking people back to it for more information. Also, share content from other related blogs or websites that people will find interesting or useful.
Above all, remember that you are creating a network of real people. So if you want them to see you, you have to say something! Liking and commenting on posts, mentioning influencers or related companies in your comments, and sending private messages to say hello are all great ways to interact with your new tribe! In that way, you (and ultimately your blog!) will get seen by more eyes.
Remember those influencers we followed above? Keep in mind that they’re your friends. So interact with them as well, commenting to them and starting conversations. You’ll probably gain valuable experience from them, as well as a bit of exposure to their followers!
7. Unimaginative Headlines
The Problem: Your blog post titles aren’t drawing people in. If you don’t capture the attention within the first few words, it is unlikely that people will even click on your blog post.
The Solution: It’s time to get creative. The company Conductor did some research into the headline preferences of online readers, and they found that headlines that start with a number are the most likely to appeal to readers. (After that came headlines that address the reader directly.)
Interestingly, though, odd numbers were found to attract more readers. So instead of listing 10 ways to do something, try 9, or 11.
To get the perfect headline, come up with multiple possibilities and choose the best out of what you’ve created. Spending a few extra minutes thinking about your post title can make the difference in getting people to read your content.
8. Difficult to Share
The Problem: With great content and fantastic headlines, your readers are in love with your posts and want to share them with others. However, if sharing buttons are not easily found within the page, readers may give up the idea of sharing your post. This means that you’re losing exposure!
The Solution: Make sure that those sharing buttons are very easy to find. Some programs actually allow you to place a banner on the side of your website that follows the reader as he scrolls through your post. That way, no matter where the reader is, he or she can instantly share your post to their social media network.
The easier it is to share, the more shares you will get!
9. Mobile Unfriendliness
The Problem: Google has said that 61% of its users won’t go back to a mobile site that they had trouble accessing, and 40% will go to a competing site instead. So if your website isn’t optimized for mobile viewers (anyone coming from a smartphone or tablet), then you are losing a serious amount of readership.
The Solution: When you’re designing your site, double check how everything looks on a mobile device as opposed to a desktop. Keep in mind especially the results for smartphone display, as more people use their smartphones to go online than their tablets.
10.Making Search Engines Unhappy
The Problem: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) seems a bit daunting, so you haven’t undertaken it. However, if your site doesn’t rank well in search engines, your site will be harder to find.
Basically, when people search for keywords in your topic, hundreds of other blogs may appear in the results before yours. This means that, unless the searcher clicks through tens of pages of search results, they will never find you.
The Solution: Get SEO savvy. Implementing the basics of SEO on your website is actually not all that difficult. With a bit of patience, you can learn your way through the SEO basics and get your site higher in search engine results.
Keywords are an important part of SEO. Since you’ve found your niche up above, this gives you the chance to search keywords in that field, and include them within your posts. Don’t stuff the keywords in unnaturally, but include well-placed words that mirror what people will search for in Google.
Those keywords are also useful with your pictures. When uploading media into your posts, include some of those keywords in the alt tag, letting the Google bots read what your pictures are about.
Additionally, longer posts rank better in search engines because they give the impression of authority. If you’ve written 1,500 or 2,000 words on a subject, it’s implied that you know it well! Search engines take this into account when trying to present the most useful information for their searchers.
Time doesn’t allow me to expound on more SEO secrets, but rest assured these three points will at least get you started.
11.No Regularity
The Problem: You have a busy schedule, so you don’t post regularly. This means that when people like a post they read on your blog, they are disappointed to find that you haven’t provided more of the same. Bored, those readers will leave to find other information sources.
The Solution: Posting more and posting regularly is proven to get more traffic to your blog site. In fact, research from HubSpot shows that companies who publish 15 or more blog posts per month get 5 times the amount of traffic compared to companies that don’t post at all. Additionally, companies who went from 3 posts per month to 6 posts per month almost doubled their leads.
For you, this means it’s time to make a schedule. Figure out when you have time every week to post, and set aside that time for your blog. Especially in the beginning, it is essential to post as much as possible.
Keep in mind the stats above when planning your posting schedule, but be careful not to over-post. Find a balance that works for your schedule and your audience, and stick to it!
12.Too Many Ads
The Problem: Having ads on your blog site generates money, but there is a danger in having too many ads. When your site is filled with popups and advertisements, they start to drown out your content and frustrate your visitors.
The Solution: Find the balance between no ads and ad-spamming. Find a place that’s somewhere in the middle, making sure to have enough ads to bring you revenue, but not so many that your readers become overwhelmed.
Also, when placing ads on your site, make sure that they are relevant to the topic that you’re covering in your blog, and that your readers will find them useful.
13.Eternal Loading
The Problem: Your site takes far too long to load, and your readers are turning away before they even look at your pages.
The Solution: Optimize your site for fast loading! There are several ways to do this, but in the end it’s up to you to find the root of the problem. Sometimes it has to do with your host, in which case it may be time to switch to a better host.
Another thing that could be slowing down your blog site is images. If you’re downloading stock images, or if use high-quality photography equipment, this could be bogging down your loading time. To fix this, you will need to reduce the size of the images before putting them into your blog. That way, you can still keep your lovely photographs without making your site slower than it needs to be.
Also, make sure to limit the amount of posts that are shown on your home page. For example, if your blog’s homepage is set up to load 20 of your latest posts, it will take ages for that page to load! Instead, try to set it to less than 8.
14.Difficulty Navigating
The Problem: People come to your website looking for specific information in your niche. However, they find it impossible to find what they’re looking for. If you don’t make it easy for them to find, they may turn away frustrated, leaving the article that answered all of their questions untouched.
The Solution: Ensure easy navigation through your website, letting people find the articles that they’re looking for.
This is where categories and tags come in handy. Every time you post a new article, make sure it’s set under a category. That way, people can browse relevant categories for the information they need.
For example, if your blog is in regards to travel, have different categories set up for different destinations. If you’re writing about painting, set up categories for watercolors, acrylics, etc. Such categories can then be added as a menu to your page, allowing people to find exactly what they want.
Also, an important feature for your site is a search bar. That way, if they are looking for something specific, they can find exactly what they need in no time!
15.Still Too New
The Problem: If you’ve followed all of the above steps and you’re still not getting much traffic, it’s possible that your blog site is just too new. If you’re still in your first few months of blogging, it’s very likely that you won’t be seeing huge increases in traffic.
The Solution: Have patience, and keep working! Just because your fledgling site hasn’t quite gotten off the ground, doesn’t mean it’s a lost cause! Your blog is just spreading its wings, and will take time for people to find and follow you.
However, this still requires work on your part. To get new traffic, you need to follow the above advice consistently for a period of time. That means generating new content, tweaking your designs, and getting involved on social media for more than just a couple of months.
If you really want your blog to go somewhere, it will require effort and patience. However, in a few months’ time, you could have a successful and well-read blog that people really enjoy!
Conclusion
Building and maintaining a blog is not easy work. However, as time passes, you will see all of your efforts pay off! A successful blog can mean money in your pocket, and putting in the work to grow your following now can result in a stable cash flow in the future.
So if nobody’s reading your blog now, don’t get discouraged. Keep working at the above steps and watch as your traffic steadily increases month by month. The more your blog is seen, the more it will be shared, and the growth of your readership will skyrocket.
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