10 Ways to Fail at Blogging
Posted on September 18th, 2007 by Nick Sullivan under BloggingEverybody writes lists on how to succeed at blogging and making money online. So I thought I’d go against the grain and compile a list of how to achieve the opposite.
1. Irregularity - This is probably the biggest killer so I put this one first. Irregular posting is a surefire way to kill off your blog. You need to make sure you post on a regular basis so that you’re readers can establish some sort of timescale as to when you will be posting. If it’s once a week… stick to that, if it’s once a day… stick to that. But don’t try take on something you can’t handle so you end up losing interest or not being able to keep up. Something mental like 20 posts a day… you might end up running out of ideas so quick that you could not post for a week. Keep your posting regular!
2. Writing for search engines - Another deadly killer. In-fact, you can still get traffic to your blog obviously if you just write good organic text, but the main point here is it will only ever be that. It will be hard to establish any sort of word of mouth, blog to blog kudos or social following unless you are strongly opinionated or an exceptional writer or both. Make sure you write for your readers, not Google.
3. Lack of effort - This is obviously… well, obvious. But alot of people do it. Sometimes you can start to build some traffic and you think you can just start riding that traffic and you become sloppy. Or sometimes the opposite, you’ll get no traffic so you’ll become annoyed and just do wild or sloppy posts. Make sure you always keep up your post quality to entice your readers and keep your blog a fresh quality source.
4. Not citing sources - Sometimes you can just do this accidentally, you can forget to credit people. Make sure you always give credit when due to make sure nobody thinks you are a content duplicator. Also, if you are a content duplicator… DON’T BE!. It’s one of the most annoying things ever and in the end, will get you nowhere, remember to cite your sources if you ever happen to ‘borrow’ something.
5. Lack of creativity - Try and be as fresh as you can be. Obviously if you are in a saturated market it can be hard to come out with constant fresh posts, but that’s where personality comes in. Don’t be afraid to be yourself and give your opinions in your posts and be as creative as possible, people get fed up of reading the same stuff. Stand out from the crowd by pushing your creative intelligence to the limit.
6. Bad grammar - Generally this wont kill a blog off but I think it can harm the perspective your readers have on you. Good grammar and spelling will help make your blog and you seem more professional so… just use the spellcheck. Is it really that hard?
7. Swearing - I actually swear alot in real life but this isn’t a good thing for a public blog. I mean… it all depends on who your audience is and if you can get away with it but generally I would avoid swearing alot as you could kill off alot of ‘easily offended’ people. Which like it or not, could be good potential readers.
8. Lack of opinion - This is similar to the creativity point but I think it should be said again. Bloggers with strong opinions succeed, why? because there are alot of people who agree with them! obviously there are also alot of people who don’t agree with them. But what do they usually do? argue! which creates? more comments, which creates? better blog! So let your true opinion come out in your posts and don’t worry about who you’re pleasing, there will be enough people out there who agree with you.
9. No marketing - Try and market your blog as best you can. I mean, even if you are absolutely BROKE, no money to market what so ever. Marketing can still be done. Think about it - social networking, forums, friends, viral marketing. There’s lots of ways to get your blog seriously noticed without money and I think your brain can conjure up a smart enough way to do it. So do it!
10. No branding - Another big killer. Without a brand, or something unique, a logo, tagline or something to identify your blog in a unique way. It’s unlikely that you will stand out in people’s mind. As I instantly think of a branded blog I think of Shoemoney because his blog is branded so well, I immediately think of the big S logo. It’s class. Do something to help readers identify your blog and stand out from the saturated, ad covered blogs they come across every other day.
The End!

(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)




September 18th, 2007 at 1:21 am
Nice post.
I would add:
11. Not having a personality. I feel that branding has a lot to do with having your own voice, that people enjoy hearing.
I swear somewhat frequently on my blog - which is read mostly by successful men, who swear about as much as I do.
So I think that it depends on the markets you’re in as to how much “personality” you want to put out there - in the business strategy market I find that you can get away with a lot, because the guys who do well, are just as obnoxious as I am
September 18th, 2007 at 1:32 am
Yeah… well I sort of covered that with no.8 - Lack of opinion. That’s sort of what I mean, as in not having your own views, your own voice, opinions and morals.
September 18th, 2007 at 1:32 am
I have to agree with several of your points. No. 1 hit me the most, Which is why I use the timestamp feature now to set posts to appear on future dates to minimize me running out of ideas. Content is king and a blog is dull without quality content.
On no.4 err.. plagiarisms in short.
Hmm.. Although I’ll point the other way when in comes to branding. Sometimes just the name will be enough. Ars Tecnica is a good example of a name that sticks with people.
September 18th, 2007 at 1:54 am
Yeah, my point was just that… something needs to be there. Something which will help identify you and you only in your readers mind.
Google, Digg, Yahoo… no more needs to be said.
I just mean… just calling your site something bland and casual and establishing no form of unique brand isn’t good.
September 18th, 2007 at 3:59 am
When I saw your point on branding I realised that is something that I need to do. I just have a stock theme, like 100’s of other blogs.
September 18th, 2007 at 4:01 am
This is a nice article dude .. Thanks for the information as well .
Well one more reason can be use of the themes which do not suite your blog as well..
September 18th, 2007 at 5:03 am
Nice list….thank you very much. I learned a few things here.
September 18th, 2007 at 6:09 am
I can vouch for this list. My blog is a bit, um, what’s the word, general. It wasn’t my intention, I was going to take on the world and have the very best blog on the blogosphere but… points 1, 3, 5 and 10.
September 18th, 2007 at 8:58 am
This article is amazing. Thankyou for such a great post!
I’ve recently started a new blog and really need ot work on branding. I’ve done a little marketing, but I really need to “push” it as soon as I get a brand.
I think marketing my blog will be very difficult. There are free options yes, but everyone uses these which seems to flood the market.
September 18th, 2007 at 10:47 am
[...] The original article is here [...]
September 19th, 2007 at 12:06 am
Another problem I see is that a lot of people blog about topics they know nothing or care little about. Just take a look at all the SEO blogs on the web — 3/4 of them are all rehashes of the few true good SEO blogs.
Moral: Blog about what you care about. Your posts will be easier to write and more enjoyable to read.
September 21st, 2007 at 5:20 pm
yes it can be “Bad grammar”, but shoemoney did it
September 21st, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Yeah I know but that’s because he’s so successful anyway. He was rich and successful before his blog so the bad grammar doesn’t mean shit.
There was one main thing that got the blog up there (cough Adsense check).
September 23rd, 2007 at 5:32 am
Sweet post Nick! I stay away from all those..lol..internet babel quite an interesting name but whatever work for you my man.
September 23rd, 2007 at 6:10 am
Cheers, how did you know my name was Nick by the way?
October 21st, 2007 at 4:03 am
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November 29th, 2007 at 11:19 am
Hi, my name is disman-kl, i like your site and i ll be back
January 7th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
very interesting.
i’m adding in RSS Reader