Producing blog content on a regular basis takes time and dedication. Most bloggers fail due to an incorrect assessment of the time investment required. Given enough time and the right strategy, blogging has the potential to grow an audience and a profitable business. However, if your dream blog isn’t growing as quickly as you’d like, you may be understandably frustrated.
You might be taxing your mind, wondering why you aren’t growing your audience, making money, or getting rave reviews from blog visitors. Nobody is reading your content, your Google Analytics is constantly flashing the number 0 active visitors in your face, and you begin to feel discouraged. I understand.
Running an online blogging business can be difficult at times, and it is not for those looking to take shortcuts or make quick money online. Most bloggers spend an average of 2.5 hours per blog post, but some spend as much as 6 hours per post. That is a significant amount of time that many businesses cannot afford to invest.
Outsourcing is an option, but it does not absolve you of the responsibility of developing a strategy, reviewing posts, and promoting them. This post will go over 12 reasons why your blog posts are failing and how to fix them.
1. You lack self-confidence.
I cannot emphasise how important a mindset is when it comes to blogging or starting any type of business. It will be difficult to succeed without proper mindset work.
You must believe that you have a chance of success and that you can make this blogging thing work for you.
You must also believe that your success is unavoidable.
I’ve written a book about the importance of mindset and how to control your mind. “How to master your Mind”. You can read it on Kindle and learn how to improve your mindset.
You will not be able to have a successful blog if you do not believe in yourself and your efforts.
How can you expect anyone else to be fully committed to the topic of your blog if you aren’t?
Even if you’ve only switched from your preferred topic to one that’s related but more popular, readers will notice a lack of passion (or interest).
The Solution
Ultimately, having the right mindset is what makes blog content work. Keeping this in mind, here’s what you can do to resolve the problem: Choose a topic that you are passionate about.
To be sure, what you prefer to post about might not be THE most popular topic in your industry or niche. However, if readers can tell you’re personally invested in and interested in what you’re blogging about, you’ll see some steady growth.
2. You are not maintaining consistency in your Content.
Consistently producing high-quality content is essential for any blogger seeking to expand their audience.
Even the best bloggers have times when they are pressed for time and are tempted to write a dull post or nothing more than a re-do of a previous post.
Unfortunately, even if you have a valid reason for doing so, rushing through a 200-300 word post and calling it a day isn’t enough.
Even the best bloggers have times when they are pressed for time and are tempted to write a dull post or nothing more than a re-do of a previous post. Unfortunately, even if you have a valid reason for doing so, rushing through a 200-300 word post and calling it a day isn’t enough.
In a related vein, HubSpot data shows that the optimal content length for blog posts in 2021 is between 2,100 and 2,400 words. Even so, the total length of your posts isn’t as important as the quality.
Shorter posts can still be effective when you’re short on time, as long as the quality is maintained. Furthermore, there’s no point in turning a great 500-word post into a mediocre 1000-word one just to increase your word count.
You can’t expect your traffic or audience to grow if you’re inconsistent about when and how often you publish a new blog post. Bloggers who publish new content on a regular basis are favoured by search engines such as Google and Pinterest.
The Solution
Reduce the risk of disappointing your readers with a lack of sufficient quality by asking yourself the following questions before you post something new:
Is this post on par with the others in terms of writing and presentation?
Have I kept the implied promise implied by the purpose or premise of my blog?
If I came across this post, would I find it interesting and engaging?
3. Not able to build traffic and diversify it.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is without a doubt one of the most effective methods for achieving consistent, long-term results. You will be able to generate passive organic traffic to your site as long as you rank highly in Google.
Diversification of traffic sources matters a lot. Assume you have 100K monthly visitors to your blog from Pinterest, and then Pinterest changes its algorithm and boom! Suddenly, your traffic begins to decline.
You’re in a panic because you have no idea what to do! Your ad revenue and affiliate sales are in free fall. But none of this has to happen. How so?
You must diversify your traffic sources, which means you should never rely on a single source of traffic. Once you’ve mastered one source and are getting consistent traffic from it, move on to another source or platform.
To be honest, it doesn’t matter as much as the quality of your content, but it will have an impact on the overall experience your reader has while on your site.
This works well because blog visitors have a natural tendency to stick with what they are familiar with. If your blog lacks a distinct style or identity, readers may be hesitant to commit or return. You will also be establishing trust by presenting your blog in a way that is easy to identify and clearly linked to your brand’s core values.
The Solution
To accomplish this, you must write about topics that people are interested in. In other words, topics with a high potential for search traffic.
I advocate you to do the following;
- Find high-volume, low-competition keywords
- Use the Content Explorer ‘hack’
Your goal should always be to generate relevant and targeted traffic, which is exactly what all of the tactics and strategies included in this guide will assist you with.
A big part of this is knowing what you want people to do once they arrive on your blog; it’s one thing to want more traffic, but there has to be a reason for it.
Once you know exactly what you want people to do on your blog, you can optimise it to increase the likelihood that it will happen – small changes can make a big difference with conversions.
The Fix Traffic generation does not begin after you have published a blog post; it begins during the planning stage.
There are two factors to consider here:
A. Topic selection
The important thing here is to make sure that the topics you choose, align with your content strategy and are focused on assisting your target audience.
Matching your audience with the right topic is a critical first step in winning the battle for attention online.
B. Select a content type with proper headings.
Certain types of content may receive more attention than others.
The key is to identify the element that distinguishes your content from the crowd.
Your headline is a promise, and you should always keep that promise.
Whatever you write in your headline, it should leave an unanswered question.
4. Not making use of e-mail.
Make the utmost effort to build an email list from the start. Assume you have thousands of visitors per month for the entire year. However, your traffic suddenly begins to decline.
Assume you’ve amassed a sizable following on a social media platform, only to have it banned or your account suspended. What will you do in these situations?
If you start building your email list from the beginning, you’re not only building a list of loyal fans, but you’re also building an asset that you completely own. You can use this list to generate consistent revenue for your business even in the worst-case scenario.
If you do not yet have an email list, you may be experiencing insufficient blog growth. Blogging will only be effective if you actively cultivate relationships with your readers. One of the most effective ways to achieve this goal is through an email list.
So, if one source fails, the other remains to keep things running until everything returns to normal. When there is a clear identity behind the blog, it is often more effective. In other words, visitors to your blog should be able to tell right away that they’ve found your content.
This works well because blog visitors have a natural tendency to stick with what they are familiar with. If your blog lacks a distinct style or identity, readers may be hesitant to commit or return. You will also be establishing trust by presenting your blog in a way that is easy to identify and clearly linked to your brand’s core values.
The Solution
Asking blog readers to subscribe is a simple way to get started with an email list. These subscriptions will provide you with the necessary information to begin an email list.
Subscribers will be notified when you make a new post. You can also segment your list based on which posts subscribers are commenting on and sharing in order to better target individual interests and encourage blog engagement.
5. Not able to project a distinct brand.
The benefits of brand blogging for small and medium-sized business owners are self-evident:
- Establish a personal connection with your customer base
- Enhance the credibility of your business
- Boost your search engine rankings to increase your online visibility
- Regular readership, which equates to returning website visitors
- Additional customer acquisition portal
- Bridging the divide between your business and its intended audience
- Develop trust and a reputation as a subject-matter expert
- Create a distinct identity to help you stand out in a crowd
- Sponsors and advertisers should be attracted.
- Convert website visitors into leads
- Consumers should be able to communicate with you via comments and feedback.
Brand blogging is one of the simplest (and most enjoyable) methods of developing and showcasing your brand, and thus one of the most effective brand development strategies. Brand development is entirely focused on enhancing your business’s reputation.
Regular blogging represents an enormous opportunity for growth, allowing you to establish a more powerful and far-reaching online presence. There is no easier or more effective way to add unique, relevant, and engaging content to your website.
Additionally, it is one of the most effective methods for continuously increasing and maintaining search engine rankings. A blog shared on a social media page, along with news and special offers, interesting social posts and memes applicable to your business, provides additional reasons for your followers to click through to your business website, and click-throughs frequently translate into successful sales – isn’t that what business is all about?
The importance of how you package your words cannot be overstated. So, if you are a writer who despises thinking about these things, don’t want to learn to code, and don’t want to pay someone…you must consider the cost.
You don’t need to have the most beautiful blog, but you DO need a blog that doesn’t detract from your content.
The Solution
if you don’t have a lot of money to spend on design, you can use a simple free wordpress.org theme and keep it simple. Simple is far more professional than busy. Consider Squarespace, which costs around $7-10 per month and is drag-and-drop.
There are numerous approaches to defining your blog’s identity and style for your target audience. Establish guidelines for anyone posting or guest posting on your blog. This ensures that the tone and overall appearance of your blog and its content remain consistent.
Define your brand’s style and identity with the appearance of your blog by:
- Using three to four go-to colours
- Keeping fonts and font sizes consistent by limiting fonts and font sizes
- Creating a logo or a stylized title to help your blog stand out
6. Not having a distinctive writing style.
This is where things can become perplexing at times. Because I told you in my earlier post that great writings are always isn’t all about you, and now I’m telling you that it must be unique to you. What’s going on?
Your blog should be about other people in order to draw them in. However, your distinct storey, voice, and point of view will keep them reading. If you don’t have something unique to offer, your blog will be just like the other million blogs out there. Why should they bother reading or returning to yours?
This can be extremely difficult and requires a lot of practice. It will also change over time and according to the content. However, learning to find your unique voice and how to weave your storey and perspective throughout your posts will help you stand out. And, despite the fact that you are being uniquely YOU, it will draw in and keep the readers.
What exactly is your storey? what is the nature of your writing voice?
You should think about these questions in order to help your blog grow. It is not enough to simply write helpful hints for others. Your helpful hints must have YOUR unique spin. Otherwise, they’ll get lost in a sea of other useful advice.
The Solution
Examine and revise your work. Proofreading your first draught should be your first step in the editing process before entrusting your work to a professional editor. To improve your style, tighten your writing, double-check your word choice and sentence structure, and hone your voice.
Succinct sentences are more effective than lengthy ones. A storey loses steam as it becomes more verbose. Readers appreciate concise sentences because they are easier to comprehend. Avoid cramming too much information into a single line. Each sentence should express a single thought or concept.
Utilise the active voice at all times and adhere to the subject-verb-object structure of sentences. It is the simplest way to convey your message. The active voice involves the subject doing something, which is more exciting than the passive voice, which involves the subject being subjected to something. While the passive voice is grammatically correct, it results in lengthy, complex sentences and is a less effective method of conveying information.
7. Not understanding who your audience is?
The importance of how you package your words cannot be overstated. So, if you are a writer who despises thinking about these things, don’t want to learn to code, and don’t want to pay someone…you must consider the cost.
If you don’t know who your audience is, you won’t know what type of content your audience wants, and probably what they are looking for. If you don’t know what kind of content they want, you’ll make anything and everything, which will be mostly useless.
Now, why would your audience visit your blog in the first place if you don’t create content that they want?
That is why you should create a buyer persona for your target audience and get to know them as well as possible.
- What is the demographic of your intended audience?
- Do they have any particular aches and pains?
- What do they enjoy?
- Which kinds of solutions are they seeking?
- What kinds of products do they buy?
- How do they interact on the internet?
The more you know, the better content you’ll be able to create for them, and the greater the growth of your blog.
If you’re not seeing the desired or expected results with your topics, be willing to take an honest look at your blog content. Even if you are confident that you are creating excellent content, there may be some issues that you are not aware of.
The Solution
If there is a disconnect with your target audience, fine-tune your blog content so that it is more tailored to your audience. A/B testing your posts is one method. A/B testing involves comparing two similar posts and determining which one yields the best results.
Another possible solution is to modify your blog so that it targets an audience that is more likely to appreciate your approach to the topic. Yes, this will almost certainly necessitate redefining your demographics and other audience data points, but it may be that this is what is required to provide you with the growth you desire.
One possibility is that your content does not meet the expectations of your intended audience due to factors such as:
- The title of your blog.
- The nature of the material.
- The manner in which your blog’s topic is addressed.
Hence you have to work upon the above mentioned three vital points.
8. Unable to generate audience interest in your post.
Variety is not only the spice of life; it is also what makes a blog appealing to visitors. If you use the same style for all of your posts, it’s possible that your blog’s growth has been stifled.
Sometimes a single piece of content hits the right topic at the right time and goes viral. We always wish we could extend the value of viral posts because they are high in volume but short in duration. The truth is that you can. You simply need to repurpose the best-performing content you’ve created.
Here are some suggestions:
- Convert a blog post into an ebook by doubling or tripling the length of the content, then sell it.
- Create a Slideshare presentation from a blog post.
- Convert a blog post into a YouTube video with animated graphics, or simply an audio podcast that people can listen to from anywhere.
- Do convert informational content into instructional content in the form of a webinar, DIY course, or paid group consulting session.
- Convert a longer overview post into a table of contents for individual drill-down posts on each individual sub-topic of the main post.
One single piece of content doesn’t have to remain one single piece of content. It can be repurposed, divided, or embellished to provide more value to more people while also attracting a larger audience. Furthermore, expanding on an existing piece of content is a lot less work than creating an entirely new one.
The Solution
There are numerous ways in which blog content can be presented. Change things up with your blog’s style by considering any of the following options for blog-related content:
- Tutorials and how-are to be listed.
- Checklists are resource or link list posts based on curated content.
- Personal anecdotes or in-depth articles
- Evaluations
- Interrogations
Mix up text with relevant images and, when appropriate, a complimentary video to give your blog posts even more variety in a way that encourages growth. Infographics can also spice up your blog posts by presenting your main points in a visually appealing and easily digestible format.
9. Not being passionate about your niche.
This is one of the most massive and important points. Many people start blogging in popular niches because they want to make money quickly and have no passion for the subject.
This is a surefire recipe for blog failure. Unless you have a genuine passion for your niche, you will become bored and eventually give up.
But that isn’t the most serious issue. The main issue is that it will show up in your blog posts and the way you write. Your audience will sense that you have no passion for the topic you’re writing about, or you’ll publish outdated content, and your audience will eventually stop visiting your blog.
Do not start a blog in a niche in which you have no interest. Perhaps you’re not committed because you believe you don’t have enough knowledge or experience.
Maybe you’re afraid of all the big names in the same industry as you. If that’s the case, I’d like to assure you that the pie is large enough to accommodate all of us.
It’s painful, but without commitment, you can’t grow. Having said that…don’t dive into your niche blindly! Make sure your niche hits that sweet spot where all of these aspects are met.
- The pain points of your target audience
- Your skills and interests
Both of these must be in sync. But you are already aware of this!
The Solution
- Determine your area of expertise.
- Figure out what you’re passionate about.
- Identify market opportunities or gaps.
- Determine where these areas intersect.
- What comes next?
You may read my blog on how to choose a profitable niche.
10. Unable to promote marketing.
Promotion is essential for blogs. The better and more comprehensive promotion, the faster you will grow. However, because promotion can take many forms, I created a checklist of what you should be doing.
As an incentive for users to join the list, send a weekly digest of new content to your mailing list, including at least one piece of content that has not yet been published publicly.
Share your post on social media, ideally several times over the course of a few days or a week, with different snippets. Any influencer you mention or link to in your post should be tagged, mentioned, or emailed.
Share with any specific communities, groups, or forums that discuss the topic in-depth that you covered. You can also run paid ads for your best content, though many businesses prefer to reserve their ads for high-converting landing pages rather than blog posts, which is fine. It is entirely up to you.
You should also think about syndicating some of your content, though this is a complicated issue. For syndication to have a net positive effect on your site rather than someone else’s, it must be done correctly and in moderation.
If this describes your situation, the issue could be a failure to market your blog. After all, there are an estimated 600 million blogs in the world today. Not surprisingly, if you’re not making an effort to reach out to your target audience, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of blog content.
The Solution
If you expect your fantastic content to be discovered, your blog will not grow. The solution is to create a marketing plan for your blog and its content.
The benefit of marketing a blog is the variety of options available. Starting with your social media pages and any existing email lists is a great place to start.
Blog marketing efforts may also include:
- Including visuals in each post
- Making your blog searchable by utilising on-page and off-page SEO strategies
- Creating intriguing, succinct, and descriptive titles for your posts
- Repurposing blog-based content on your website and social media pages to direct visitors back to your more in-depth blog content.
- Making an effort to encourage quality and relevant links back to your blog from reputable sources
- Making a UTM link in order to attract marketing campaigns
- Answering Quora questions
- Making use of heat maps
Reaching out to online influencers in your niche can also help you market your blog. Additionally, becoming a guest blogger on popular blogs related to your niche can be beneficial.
Another option for blog-related marketing is to embed your blog on your website or make it accessible from your website. People prefer convenience, so if your blog is easy to find and access, you may be rewarded with consistent growth.
12. Not being able to establish authority, credibility and set goals.
Yes, even if you’re new, you should consider this factor. Can you be a guest on podcasts and write guest posts?
Can you coach or assist people in exchange for a recommendation? How can you improve the visibility of authority markers such as “as seen in” logos?
When I first started out, I did a lot of free site reviews and email sequence reviews for my readers. Many of my early site testimonials came from my very first subscribers and readers. I also did guest posting so that I could display “as seen in” logos on my site, which helped me build credibility and authority.
These also serve as promotional efforts. There are several approaches you can take to increase your authority. In my book But I’m Not an Expert!, I go into greater detail about this.
For the time being, consider a couple of things you can do to establish authority and credibility.
The answers to these questions may change as your business grows, but choose one when you first start out so you don’t spread yourself too thin.
Everything about your blog, from how you interact with visitors and readers to how much time and effort you put into it, is determined by your blogging goals. A blog that is just a side hobby, for example, will be very different from one that you intend to use as your primary source of income – or as an extension of your business.
The Solution
First and foremost, remember why you started your blog in the first place. If your blog veers off course or appears to lack a clear rhyme or reason, you will not inspire reader engagement or loyalty.
Next, make it easier to set reasonable goals for your blog by doing the following:
- Defining your blog’s overall goal.
- Setting short-term goals that you are reasonably confident you will be able to achieve.
- Having long-term goals that will serve as a guide for where your blog’s content will eventually go.
Final Thoughts.
The success of your blog is dependent on a variety of factors, the most important of which is taking action.
It is completely normal to grow in one aspect of blogging while remaining completely stagnant in another.
You simply need to start focusing on the right part at the right time and taking action rather than just stressing.
You were led to believe that all you needed to do to run a successful blog was to master Pinterest or SEO. Some people can get away with it because they are creating one-time blogs.
Approach everything with the intention of creating businesses and empires that will last forever.
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