Building Your Blog 104 - Things To Avoid In Blogs

There are thousands of help articles out there telling you what to do when building your blog, but what about the things you should avoid?  You can do everything the net tells you to do and your blog can still fail if you push readers away by doing some less than savory things.  Let's go over some of these things now so you can have a heads up and a head start on what to avoid.

1) Avoid Plagiarism.  

This is the big one.  No one appreciates copied or stolen content.  Aside from chasing your readers away and damaging your online reputation, you run the risk of getting your blog shut down, or getting into legal trouble.  It's best to avoid copying from books, other print items, or anything online.  The rule of thumb is simple: if it's not yours, don't use it.  If you want to quote somebody or someone's work, make sure to give them the credit, and even a link back since it is their work you're quoting on your site.

2) Avoid Grammar and Spelling Mistakes.  

Even the blogger post editor comes with a spell checker built right into it.  Use this to your advantage, because no one will stick around to read your work if it's riddled with mistakes.  Also get a friend to read your work aloud to you, or read it out loud to yourself a couple of times to be sure sentences are structured well and sound correct.  Writers have been using this trick for years, because you can hear mistakes out loud when sometimes your eyes will pass over them while reading to yourself.  Also, don't forget to use correct punctuation, or you risk annoying and thus losing any readers you have.

3) Avoid Massive Changes Too Often.  

In the first couple days of getting your blog up you should have settled on a theme (template) for it.  Once you've chosen, stick with it, and don't change it too often.  I have one blog I've run for six years now, and I've changed the template exactly twice, and that was only because the blog had grown beyond what the template was made for.  Readers will get annoyed to come back and continually find that your blog has changed and things have been moved around.  It's like grocery stores... don't you hate it when you get used to where everything is and then you come in to find out they've moved everything for no reason at all?

4) Avoid Excessive Use Of Unnecessary Widgets.  

This is one lesson we can take away from minimalistic blogs: Sometimes less really is better.  I hate trying to look at blogs that are just an eyesore because their pages are filled with widgets left and right that are totally unnecessary.  Too many things in the sidebars like music players, clocks, visitor maps, and excessive advertising, draw attention away from the posts and other important information.

5) Avoid Asking Visitors To Visit Your Sponsors.

Adsense policy is that you cannot ask visitors to visit your sponsors or click on your ads in any way.  Many other advertising agencies have a similar policy.  Be sure to read all policies when monetizing your ads so that you don't get dinged or get your advertising account deleted.

6) Avoid Having Too Many Topics.

This may sound strange considering that we say to think of every topic in your niche and blog about it, but in this case we're talking about unrelated topics.  If you're blogging about dogs, then don't start adding things to your blog about other pets like cats or hamsters.  Make separate blogs for those things if you need to and stick to your main topic and it's sub topics.

7) Avoid Infrequent Updates.

If you're solely blogging for pleasure, and aren't planning on making much money or getting any visitors, then feel free to put up one post a month, let it sit for months on end, and then post again.  Otherwise, you should really set up a schedule for yourself and plan on making at minimum one post a week.  Many of the big blogs make one post a day, and sometimes make many posts a day.  If you are going on vacation or are planning on being away from the computer for a while, write your posts ahead of time and schedule them to post daily while you're away.  This gives the illusion to your readers that you are indeed still there and writing for them on a daily basis.

It's ok to post once a week, but try to put the posts up on the same day.  This way your readers know when to come back for new material instead of having to check back each day and be disappointed to find nothing new.

8) Avoid Being A Troll.

Nobody really wants to hear you rant and rave, especially without evidence.  It's like losing your temper in a room full of people you don't really know, who may not understand.  You can easily ruin your online reputation by doing this in a post or in a reply to a commenter.  Remember, your commenters are your readers.  Always try to keep your cool, even if you feel like telling them to leap off a bridge.  You will earn the respect of other readers for not losing your temper, and by handling the situation in a cool, collected manner.  Remember, if you're right, then what do you have to worry about someone else being a troll on your blog?

By simply thinking your blog out, and avoiding these key mistakes along the way, you can help to ensure yourself that your readers will be happy, and make them want to come back time and again.  For more things you should avoid while blogging, check out our post HERE about what to avoid while micro-blogging.

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Building Your Blog 201 - Content Is King

Content is king.  I'm sure you've heard this before, and if you haven't, then let me introduce the concept to you: Without content, your blog will die.  It really is that simple.  If you start a blog and have less than let's say: 30 posts, then your blog will sit there and be stagnant.  Yes, you  may get a little traffic here and there, but generally you won't get return visitors.

Readers want new, interesting, concise, and accurate content, and without that there is really no reason for them to come to your blog at all when there is a wealth of information out there on other sites for them to find.

That being said, let's look at some ways for you to get some great content for your site:

Let's say you're making a blog about home decorating.

Now you could go out and rip off everybody else's content (plagiarism) and you'd have a website that is likely to get you into trouble, and is unoriginal and therefor uninteresting.  

OR

1) You could use your own knowledge and experience of home decorating (that is why you started a home decorating blog isn't it?) to make some super awesome and original articles to help people out.

2) Find YouTube videos with clips of home decorating tips from shows like those found on the DIY network and HGTV.  Take note that each post with these types of videos should have at least some of your own original content in them however, and videos should be used to suppliment your content, not replace it.

3) In conjunction with Amazon Affiliates, blog about home decorating books (or books on your blog topic) that you found really useful.  Amazon affiliates will allow you to post links and pictures of these books (or supplies) in your blog, and when people click on the product from your link and buy it, you get a cut of the profit!  Note however that this should not be done too often, or else your blog will just look like one big advertisement.

4) Browse the web to see what other people are talking about with this same topic.  While it's not a great idea to just use their ideas (plagiarism), this should be spawning new ideas for you about new things to write about in your own unique way!

5) Watching YouTube videos or TV shows or movies about the topic I'm writing about often inspire me to write about new and interesting things, and this can be a great inspiration for you as well.  Perhaps you've just seen a great episode of a home decorating show on HGTV and you've decided to tackle the project yourself.  Document it with pictures, and write about what you did, how you did it, why you did it, and where you got the inspiration to do it (give a link to a video or embed one if you can).  In this way, suddenly the content that you saw somewhere else becomes uniquely your own because now it's something you've done and have experience doing as well.

6) Write tutorials to show how to do something you know how to do relating to your topic.  Maybe you've discovered a great way to keep paint off the ceiling when you paint the walls (common knowledge is ok to blog about too), and you want to share it on your home decorating blog.  Use pictures, video, graphs, or even hand drawn diagrams to show how it's done!

7) Blog about which products you prefer in relation to your topic.  If you're blogging about cars, blog about which brands you prefer and why.  Blogs were originally meant to give one's opinion, so this is definitely a great source of content.  For our home decorating example, maybe you've found you like one brand of painters tape over the others.  Tell your readers why and you may just sway them to switch brands too!  Consequently, you may also be able to use Amazon Affiliates here to showcase the brand of tape (or whatever product) as opposed to just using a plain image.

When you're doing this type of posting, you should put a disclaimer at the end of the post that lets readers know you have not been paid to blog in favor of any specific brand, but these are your own opinions formulated by your own experience.  (And if you have been paid to blog in favor of something, let the readers know that in a disclaimer too)!

8) Cover any news in your subject area as often as you can, because this is sure to bring people in from the search engines who want to know about the newest information on this topic.  If you run a car blog and it turns out that one of the brands has had a major recall because of safety issues, then blog about it!  In the case of the home decor website, maybe HGTV is running a new contest for the new dream house or something of that nature, and you can blog about it.  Make sure all your labels (tags) are set correctly so that people can find your post from the search engines. 

9) Link to other valuable websites and resources that you have found helpful.  Not only will you be helping your fellow bloggers or website owners, but your readers will be grateful if you send them to information they can use.  In some cases there is just no way around this as you can't write about something specific because of copyright infringement, but you want them to have the information regardless.

Without content, your blog will die.

10) Ask other bloggers to write guest posts for your blog and tell them the article will link back to their blog or website.  These should be bloggers whose opinion you value and trust, perhaps from your favorite websites or blogs.  Chances are they will jump at the chance because it is traffic they will get back to their site, so in reality you both profit because you get a great guest article and they get traffic.  Odds are they will also link to the guest post they wrote from their website, so you may get some traffic from their site as well.

Don't get discouraged however if they say no.  If your blog is getting less than 1,000 visitors a day and their blog or website is getting huge numbers of visitors, they may say no.  It's ok.  Wait until your site is getting heavier traffic, and ask again later.  Always be polite, and when you do get a guest author, be sure that their article gets some prominence as a guest author on your site for a while.

Also, when having a guest author write articles for your blog, make sure that they are not re-posting these same articles on their own sites, or else you could get dinged because the search engines will believe you have plagiarized.

With these strategies you are sure to be writing on your topic of choice for a long time.  Remember, as a blogger writing in a niche, your goal is to have a blog with comprehensive information on all related topics to your niche, therefor you should have quite a bit to write about.  Searching other sites similar to yours will help you get ideas, but again, be sure you're not plagiarizing or just stealing their content to write in your own way.

Check out our other great tutorials and articles by clicking the category tabs at the top of the page!

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Money From Micro-Blogs 402 - Don'ts

Now that you know what a micro-blog is and how it can be used to make money, perhaps you've decided you'd like to try your hand at it.  Let's go over some things you should avoid while micro-blogging then.  You may notice many of these things also apply to regular blogs... that's because it's good information.

1) Too Little Content

Avoid starting a blog that you don't plan on putting much content on.  Example: don't start a blog about cars and then only upload 10 posts.  This blog will sit stagnant and never make a dime... and if it does make a dime, it probably won't make anything after that.  Starting a blog with only a few posts and never working on it again is just time wasted that you could have spent updating or blogging on a larger blog.

2) Topics You Don't Know About

Why on earth would you start a blog about something you know nothing about?  I don't know, but some people do.  They probably think along the lines of, "Oh... finance is a hot topic right now, so I'll start a blog about it and make some money!"  Wrong.  How can you write any content if you don't know much about it?  You also don't want to give misleading information.  If you're going to blog, you need accurate, trustworthy information so that your guests will come back, or send their friends.

3) Starting Something You Don't Care About

This goes right along with points one and two.  You may know quite a lot about finance, but aren't passionate about it.  Why write about it then?  It's guaranteed that if you don't at least care about the topic a little, then you'll end up abandoning the blog at some point down the road (waste of your time at that point), or your content will turn out flat and uninteresting, which will leave your blog stagnant with no returning visitors (also a waste of your time).  If you're going to take the time to do it in the first place, then write about what you know, and love.

4) Avoid over-Advertising

Have you ever seen a blog or website where there was actually more advertising than there was actual content?  Avoid bombarding your readers with advertising or they won't stay long, and won't come back.  They're there for actual content, not ads.  Ads are meant to be unobtrusive, and are meant to compliment your site, rather than be the entirety of your site.


5) Avoid grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes.

6) Avoid Keyword Overload

I've come across blogs online before that are nothing more than a post or a page full of a bunch of keywords with no actual content.  Not only does this go against Adsense policy, but any visitors you may have will come in, see that there's nothing there for them to read but a list of words that make no sense, and then leave.  They won't click on any of your ads, and they won't send any of their friends.  Odds are you're likely to get reported, and your blogger and adsense accounts suspended.

7) Avoid Plagiarism

This is the big NO-NO in blogging, period.  If you plagiarize you can get hit with lawsuits, as well as get any accounts you may have with blogger or adsense terminated permanently.  Don't do it!  What is plagiarizing?  Plagiarizing is using someone else's  content without their express permission and without giving them credit.  It would be wise to research how to give someone credit online if you plan on using a quote or something from their works at all.

8) Don't Spam

As always, don't spam the web advertising your blog.  This means you don't want to go to forums and just spam your url all over the place.  The same goes for facebook, the e-mail, or any other place you can think of.

9) Don't ask visitors to visit your ads or 'sponsors'.

This is a big no-no and your adsense account will likely be suspended if you do this because this is a violation of policy.  Other affiliate programs may have different policies that allow you to ask them that, but if adsense finds it on your page and have adsense enabled, you risk losing your account.

While there are many more things that you may learn that will hinder your efforts in making money or running micro-blogs, these are some of the bigger ones that I hope you will avoid.

Check out our other tutorials by clicking the category tabs at the top of the page!

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