If you’ve been reading my blog for more than a minute, you know that I’m new in the blogosphere. I just launched this blog a few weeks ago, and I spent a lot of time learning what I shouldn’t be doing while I was starting it. Here are five reasons no one is reading your blog. And as a bonus, I include some tools and tips to help you fix these mistakes.
5 Reasons No One is Reading Your Blog
Branding
What is your branding? Do you use consistent colors and fonts?
Your blog and your overall brand should use consistent fonts and colors. You’ll notice that all of my images use the same two fonts. My color palette includes five colors that I consistently use across my blog and all of my social media. My logo is on every blog image.
Tips and Tools
My number one tip is to brand yourself. Either work with a designer or do it yourself but you want to come up with a consistent brand that will help your readers recognize you. My designer helped me immensely by developing all of my branded materials. If you look at any of my marketing materials, you’ll notice they all have the same colors and fonts.
If you’re not prepared to pay a designer, that’s ok too. PicMonkey has an excellent branding template that you can use to fill in your colors. I love the website – https://coolors.co/ – it’s a fun (and addictive) way to help narrow down your brand colors.
Too Many Ads
Everyone wants to make money from their blog. I mean, seriously, that’s ok. You can do it, but there are a right way and a wrong way that you can do it.
There are tons of affiliate programs out there that will pay you a commission when you someone buys one of their products through your link. But your affiliate strategy should be about bringing value to your community. If your blog is all about selling someone else’s product, your readers are going to get turned off pretty quickly.
Tips and Tools
If you want to monetize your blog, I’d suggest starting small. Amazon has a great affiliate program that’s easy for beginning bloggers to get approved. I also really love the Ultimate Bundles affiliate program. They have fantastic product bundles that save customers thousands of dollars.
Blogging Platform
Big words right – this means the platform where your website is built. Are you using Blogger or Wix or WordPress? Many newbie bloggers want to use Blogger or Wix because they are free to get started. But you are limited in what you can do on those platforms, and be sure and read the terms because you may not be able to monetize your blog on those platforms.
Tips and Tools
Just do it – build your new blog as a self-hosted WordPress blog. If you need some help getting started, check out our post on how to start a blog. You can have a new blog started in minutes, and I promise it’s easier than you think. The world of blogging is continually changing, and a self-hosted blog gives you the freedom to change with it.
Content Strategy
What are you writing about? Let’s be real for a second – tough love here. Your blog is not about you. And you shouldn’t be writing what you want to write. Instead, you should be writing what your community wants to read.
I know this is hard. We all want to sit down and write out a quick 500 words about our kid or our dog or our brand. But if no one is searching for that topic, then no one is going to be reading your blog.
Tips and Tools
Do you know how to figure out what your audience wants to read? If you answered no, then you need to learn it. Check out our post on why you need Sassy Suite’s Blogging Boot Camp.
They Don’t Know It Exists
This is probably the number one biggest problem that new blogs face. How are you promoting your blog? Just hoping that people will find it through some Google search is not enough.
Tips and Tools
If you don’t have an active social marketing strategy for your blog then it’s time for you to jump in. Check out our post, five courses to grow your direct sales business. I know, you saw direct sales and you rolled your eyes. But these courses are about more than direct sales, they teach you attraction marketing, Pinterest, Instagram and more.
Do you have another mistake you see people making? Drop me a message or head over to our group and discuss there.
