Have you ever killed your blog?
Did you know that a blog can be killed other than by just deleting it?
While not all of the items on the following list will kill your blog instantly, some are what some call slow burners, where the killing of your blog will take much longer.
Are you responsible for doing any of these to your blog?
- Don’t have an ‘about me’ page on your blog.
- The ‘about me’ page takes visitors more than a minute to find.
- The ‘about me’ page starts with these words – ‘this is an example of an about me page…’
- The number of followers is more important to you than what you write and publish.
- Publishing too many poor-quality posts due to rushing them.
- Believe you have to publish content several times daily; otherwise, nobody will visit your blog.
- Have links on your blog that you have no idea are broken or can not be bothered to fix.
- You do not respond to comments.
- You do not respond to questions or queries.
- Don’t allow anyone to leave comments on your blog.
- Ignore your readers.
- Do not treat visitors to your blog as guests.
- Don’t give yourself a name by which you can be addressed in the comments section.
- Do not read other blogs.
- Do not leave comments on other blogs.
- Believe that blogging is going to make you rich.
- Believe your blog will make money within the first year.
- Leave links with no relevance (usually to your own posts) on the posts of other bloggers when not invited to do so.
- Don’t believe you need to promote your blog.
- Refuse to use social media to boost your blog posts.
- Refuse to keep up to date with blogging technology and changes.
- Think readers will find you rather than you find your readers.
- Do not use enough ‘white space’ between the paragraphs in your blog posts.
- The paragraphs on your posts are too long and blocky (more than 5 sentences long).
- Have no way readers can contact you on your blog other than by leaving a comment. (No ‘contact me’ page).
- Do not thank people for sharing your posts on their blogs.
- Do not use images and/or photos in any posts.
- Use images, photos and words (including lyrics) on your blog which are copyrighted and not free to use.
- Do not ask permission to use photos and/or images owned by other bloggers before using them.
- Ignore all copyright advice.
- Respond to constructive, negative comments in an unprofessional and unfriendly manner.
- Allow other bloggers to spam your blog with links that have nothing to do with the post’s content.
- Keep begging other bloggers to reblog your posts, visit, or follow your blog.
- Leave worthless comments on other blogs.
- Leave worthless comments on other blogs which clearly show you’ve not read the post.
- Do not take time to edit posts before publishing them.
- Do not preview your posts before publishing them.
- Inundate followers with too many posts in a short space of time instead of scheduling them out.
- Respond to comments left by trolls in the comments section of your blog, where all can read them.
- Allow trolls to leave comments on your blog.
- Allow trolls to attack other bloggers who have left comments.
- Personally attack other bloggers in the comments section on your own or different blogs.
- Steal the ideas of other bloggers and publish them on your blog as if the content is original and has been written by you.
- Fail to maintain and house-keep your blog regularly.
- Keep reblogging or rescheduling your own posts which are less than a few months old.
- Do not have a ‘landing’ page that will keep visitors returning.
- Ignore advice and feedback from other bloggers.
- Believe that blogging will only take up a few minutes of your time every week.
- Wake up and dread opening up your blog because of all the comments you will need to reply to.
- Keep telling your readers that you are giving blogging up, and keep coming back.
- Allow blogging to stress you out.
- Allow blogging to make you feel guilty.
- Your blog and/or blog posts are poorly laid out.
- Choose a font and background combination that makes it hard for visitors to read your posts.
- Fail to categorise all your blog posts (including reblogs).
- Fail to add ‘tags’ to your blog posts.
- Don’t understand ‘pingbacks’ and how to use them.
- Have no ‘search’ bar on your blog.
- Have a menu that is too top-heavy, making it overwhelming to readers.
- Fail to add your blog details to your gravatar.
- Fail to connect your social media accounts to your blog.
- Have pop-up boxes on your blog that can not be removed unless somebody subscribes to your mailing list.
- Have pop-up boxes on your blog which keeps popping up every time someone visits or until they have subscribed to your mailing list.
- Keep suffering from blog envy when you read a post you’d wish you’d written.
- Regularly publish posts that tell your readers to buy your book(s) or other products and services you offer rather than allow them to decide if they want to buy them.
- You believe that blogging is all about the number of blog posts you can publish daily rather than what you are writing about.
- You think you have the power to read and comment on every new blog post on all the blogs you follow.
- Fail to update your readers that you are about to take a blogging break and how long it will last.
- Lose motivation and a desire to continue blogging when your blog stats take a nosedive.
- Believe that everyone will enjoy reading every post you write and publish.
- Believe that all your followers will read and comment on all your posts.
- Get upset when your blog loses followers.
- Argue with bloggers and readers for failing to read and comment on all your blog posts.
- Follow other blogs in the hope that they will follow back before unfollowing them again.
- Believe all your readers will agree with everything you say in your blog posts.
- Think nobody will dare to disagree with what you have to say by leaving a constructive comment telling you why they disagree.
- Criticise other bloggers behind their backs (in the comments section of your own blog or on other blogs) for wanting to help other bloggers.
- Maintain too many blogs, thus spreading yourself too thinly.
- Fail to take some time away from blogging (knowing that you need to) because you believe the blogging world can not survive without you.
What about you? What would you add to the list? How would you kill your blog other than by deleting it?
This is an updated version of a post I wrote and published in 2017.
You can find the answers to solving many of the above issues by clicking on ‘blogging tips’ in the menu at the top of my blog, but feel free to leave any questions in the comments section. I’m always happy to help.
Whatever you do, keep blogging fun!
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