I’ve been surfing through the blogosphere and found out that there are some common blogging mistakes many bloggers make, especially beginners. I would like to point them out in this post so that they can avoid these mistakes, and become a better blogger.
1. Writing in large blocks of text
Which do you prefer to read? A large block of text or text with occasional spacing like how I am writing now? Most people would prefer spacing, instead of a large block of text. When I read large blocks of text, I find myself reading the same line over and over again. I also strain my eye. When I read text with spacing, I find it easier, comfortable, and more relaxing to read.
2. Not offering your readers email subscription
More than half of my subscribers subscribe to my blog via email. If you want more subscribers, set up an email subscription service so that your readers can subscribe via email. Most people do not use readers, or they simply prefer email. To set up an email subscription service, use Feedburner. To get started with Feedburner, read a tutorial on how to burn your RSS feed with Feeburner.
3. Having a complicated blog design
Having a complicated blog design makes readers look at them and distracts them from reading your content. It also slows down loading and will drive impatient visitors away. Your readers don’t really care much about your design. All they really care about is your content.
A complicated blog design has too many pictures, loads very slowly, and takes up a lot of memory. You can use a beautiful and simple design, but not a complicated one.
4. Not creating an archives page
An archives page a page where you can view every post in the blog. This isn’t exactly a mistake, but you should create an archives page so that your readers can find something to read, easily.
To solve this, get a archives plugin. For people who want fun and unique archives, you should use Snazzy Archives. Here is an example of Snazzy Archives in action.
For those who want clean archives and whose blog updates frequently, use SPR Clean Archives (It is the archives plugin I am using for my blog).
5. Sticking with number (post ID) permalinks
A permalink is the link that links to a post. The permalink of this post is http://www.thoushallblog.com/5-most-common-mistakes-by-bloggers
But for some blogs, their permalink is – http://www.(blog).com/p?123
It is highly recommended that you change it to the blog’s title or ‘slug’ because it will help in your blog’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and therefore, will bring more visitors to your blog.
And also, if you look at the permalink, you will know what the post is about.
To change the structure of the permalinks in your blog (if you use wordpress), go to this URL and replace ‘[yourblog]’ with the domain name of your blog.
http://www.[yourblog].com/wp-admin/options-permalink.php
In the ‘Custom’ text box, type only /%postname%/.
Your permalink would be changed to:
http://www.[yourblog].com/[the-permalink]/
Don’t worry. The links to your posts won’t be disturbed. That’s because amazing wordpress would recognize the number (post ID) and will redirect your readers to the post to which you mean to link.
For example, before you changed the structure of your permalinks, your post permalink is
http://www.[yourblog].com/p?123
After you change it, it becomes
http://www.[yourblog].com/the-blog-post/
Anyone who visits http://www.[yourblog].com/p?123
will be redirected to http://www.[yourblog].com/the-blog-post/
To have a better blog, you should avoid all these 5 mistakes. It’s for you and your readers’ benefits.
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