Top 10 Ways to Drive Your Blog Readers Away
By Rodney Ashline
Blogging is a wonderful way to market your business, your brand and yourself online. Everyone is blogging and all bloggers have something to say. One reason you have your blog is to share information with readers and to build a relationship with them.
With that said, way too many people are not paying attention to what they are doing and they are actually driving readers away.
Here are top 10 ways to drive your blog readers away...
- Advertisements: We all want to monetize our blogs and make a little money. However, by adding way too much advertising, pop-up ads, slider ads and advertisement widgets to your blog is actually spamming your readers. Definitely don’t do pop-ups, sliders or widget ads. If you are going to include advertisements they should be minimal and non-obtrusive to your readers.
- Vulgar and Offensive Language: You think that in this day & age that people would be more courteous online…but they aren’t. Just a few days ago I stumbled onto a foodie blog where the author used the f-bomb and the a-hole word in one single blog post. I was totally disgusted and I won’t be visiting again.
- Bashing the Competition: While we all get irritated with our competition, especially if they play dirty it is NOT professional to bash your competition on your blog. If you have something to say to them, it is better handled in private. Don’t get me wrong, there might come a time where you need to say something “publicly” about them but those times should be few & far between.
- Self-Promoting Spam: When I visit a blog, no matter what kind of blog it is…I don’t want to read a gazillion posts where you are self-promoting yourself and your products. Try mixing up your posts with some other type of information and you will find that readers will enjoy it and will engage with you!
- Images: You need to find the perfect balance on the size of the images you include in your posts. If they are too large, they will take too long to load and crash older computer users & mobile users. If they are too small, they won’t convey the message you are trying to send. In the same token, don’t load up 20 images in one post!
- Adult Content: If you are publishing content that is meant for “adult eyes only” you need to have a disclaimer front & center when someone clicks onto your site. Many parents browse the web with children sitting on their laps or nearby. No one wants to stumble onto “adult content” without some kind of warning first. By not disclosing that information up front, you will lose readers who stumble on in.
- Posting Frequency: Many bloggers don’t give this a second thought but it is something you need to think about. If you publish 20 posts a day…your readership definitely can’t keep up with the information you are presenting to them. If you publish a post twice a month, well…you are not giving readers enough information frequently enough to keep them interested. You want to aim for something more reasonable.
- Site Design: If your site has loud colors, dark backgrounds and is a mess…that will drive people away! You want your site to be well-organized, easy-to-navigate and have colors & graphics that are easy-on-the eyes. No one wants a migraine while visiting. In addition, readers should be able to easily navigate through your information and categories with ease.
- Pop-Up Boxes: These days I really despise sites that use “pop-up boxes” as soon as you land on their page. What do I mean? Boxes that pop-up to sign up for their e-newsletter, ones to grab their free report and all kinds of other nonsense. People use computer software to block pop-up advertisements so why would they want any other type of pop-up on their screen? Think about it!!!
- Your Niche: Sometimes I get really irritated when I am visiting a site to read about food and recipes and I am clicking through their site I find posts on baby diapering, potty training and how to change the oil in my car. Really people? It is best to try to stay within your blog’s niche and don’t waste your visitor’s time.
About the Author: Rodney Ashline is a writer and editor over 5 years and now he writes for custom coursework service. He also writes for many other publications and has experience in many topics. If you have a written project that needs support, he can help!