You’re blogging, and blogging, and blogging.
But sometimes you wonder … are your efforts paying off?
You’ve heard the stories of business blogging success—more traffic, more leads, and more business.
But you don’t seem to get the shares, the comments, and the leads, that your efforts deserve.
Should you just be patient and wait for traffic and leads to snowball? Or could it perhaps be that your business blog is on the wrong track? Is your blog not as good as you think?
Let’s look at 16 warning signs that your blog is a bit smelly, sleazy, or drab.
1. You write your headlines in less than 10 seconds
Wonderful blog posts without seductive headlines languish in the dark corners of the web, forgotten and covered in spider webs.
To generate more traffic to your posts, learn how to write delicious headlines that seduce people to click through:
- Include a specific benefit or promise explaining how people will benefit from reading your post.
- Use one or more power words—these are words that attract attention because they’re emotional, unusual, or sensory.
- Start with a number, because digits stand out and stop the wandering eye.
Study the headlines of popular blogs to learn and re-use the templates that work.
Read: How to Write Great Headlines: 21 Creative Headline Examples
2. You love writing about your company
Let’s be straight.
Nobody is interested in your company, your products, and you.
What readers want to know is this: What’s in it for them? How do you take away problems, hassle, and glitches? How do you help them make their life more enjoyable?
Writing a business blog isn’t about direct sales; you’re starting a conversation with potential clients. You’re building a connection, a relationship.
When writing, always think: How will my readers benefit from this?
3. You’re writing your blog purely for SEO
Are you selling your products or services to algorithms and robots?
Go ahead and keep writing for SEO.
Otherwise: reconsider. Humans don’t like to be treated as automatons. Real readers don’t enjoy content sagging under keyword sludge.
To engage and enchant real-life readers, write for humans first, and optimize for robots later.
4. You’re not sure whom you’re writing for
The quickest way to kill your voice is to write for a crowd or a vague target audience.
When you don’t know whom you’re writing for, your blog posts become wishy-washy, generic, and dull. You end up talking to no one at all.
Before you write your next post, think about your ideal reader or buyer persona. Picture her and imagine picking up the phone to have a chat. How can your blog post help her? What advice is she looking for? What questions can you answer?
Writing for one ideal reader makes your content conversational and easy to read. It makes your reader feel you’re writing especially for her—to help her overcome her problems and achieve her dreams.
5. Your blog design turns readers away
Have you noticed how comfortable it is to read blogs like Medium or Forbes?
Their font sizes are big (resp. 22px and 18px) and their line length is comfortable—about 75 characters including spaces.
What about your blog design? Does it promote readability? Or do you make it hard for people to read your text?
6. You indulge in long paragraphs
The white space between paragraphs gives readers breathing space—a chance to rest their eyes.
Readers get the feeling they glide effortlessly through your text.
Like this.
Big blocks of text make reading a chore. Readers feel tired—even before they attempt reading your text. So, mix short with long paragraphs and don’t exceed 7 sentences in one paragraph.
7. You use boring stock photography
Images add pizzazz to your posts. Images can have a strong impact on your readers:
- Images can increase the credibility of your text.
- Images and text combined are five times more memorable than words alone.
- Visualizations make concepts easier to understand and to remember.
What impression do your images make? Do they make your pages more attractive and inviting? Or do they make your blog look drab?
8. You sound like a corporation
You might be writing on behalf of a company, but that doesn’t mean you should sound like one.
Nobody like chatting with a corporation. Nobody gossips with a call center. So why use gobbledygook, jargon, and dull words?
Before publishing your blog post read your text aloud. Does it sound like you?
9. You don’t have an email list
A blog on its own is like a city without transport links. People may drop in by parachute, but you make it difficult to come back.
Email helps you to develop a relationship with your readers. You’re inviting them to come back each time you publish a post. Your subscribers can get to know you, like you, and trust you before you start selling your products and services.
10. You edit your posts in less than 5 minutes
Even pro-writers can’t write in one go. Advertising great David Ogilvy said:
I am a lousy copywriter, but I am a good editor. So I go to work editing my own draft.
Editing is more than just fixing a few typos and grammar mistakes. Review the flow of your article. Cut paragraphs and sentences that don’t add to your story. Slaughter jargon and kill gobbledygook.
Your readers deserve a blog post that’s been carefully polished. Don’t waste your readers’ time with rambling and undulating posts.
11. You’ve never read a book about copywriting
Writing a blog post without studying copywriting is like jumping into a pool and attempting butterfly stroke without ever taking a swimming lesson.
Learn the copywriting techniques and tricks that make your content more readable, more engaging, and more seductive.
12. You don’t know how to tell stories
Facts are cold.
Facts can add credibility to your arguments, but on their own they’re boring. There’s no feeling, no emotion.
Stories, however, are engaging. Our brains are wired to enjoy stories. We can’t picture abstract concepts, but we can experience a story.
Use stories to engage your readers; and provide facts to increase your credibility. Like yin and yang stories and facts interact and strengthen each other.
13. You don’t write for scanners
Your readers face endless online distractions. Emails popping up. Tweets, Facebook updates, new posts on Google Plus, and hundreds of unread blog posts in their RSS feed.
How can you keep them concentrated on reading your blog posts?
Ensure your content is easy to read by using simple words and by mixing long with short sentences. Use subheadings to entice scanners to start reading.
Make your content so fascinating, so spellbinding that your readers want to gobble it up word by word.
14. Your last paragraph consists of a silly summary
Unless you write blog posts of 5 thousand words or more, you don’t need to summarize your key lessons at the end. You’re not writing an academic essay.
Use your closing paragraphs to inspire your readers. What action would you like them to take? How would you like them to change their beliefs?
Serving up an uninspiring conclusion is like presenting the cheapest supermarket ice-cream after a lavish home-cooked meal. It leaves a bad taste in your reader’s mouth.
A quick summary is dull. A quick pep talk inspires.
15. Your blog posts are smelly
Smelly blog posts?
Yep, stale information—blog posts about discontinued products or old promotions; and outdated advice. These make your blog a hoarder’s house full of old newspapers, magazines, and other useless stuff.
If you’ve been writing a blog for 12 months, start an audit to spring-clean your blog.
16. You’re bored with your blog
If you’re bored with blogging, then rest assured, you’re boring the boots off your readers, too.
Reinvigorate your writing by changing or expanding your topic. Take a break or simply reduce your blogging schedule. You don’t have to write each day.
Don’t waste your audience’s time with yet another piece of recycled content dripping with boredom and drivel. Instead, write when you feel enthusiastic because your passion and personality will shine through and inspire your readers.
The harsh truth about your business blog…
I’d love to say winning business with an enchanting business blog is easy.
But the truth is that it’s hard work. Damn hard work.
Writing an engaging and lead-generating blog, starts with getting to know your readers.
Get to know them so well that you can see them shaking their heads when you hit a typo. Hear them laughing at your jokes. Notice them nodding their heads when they agree with you.
Understand how you can fulfill your readers’ desires. Understand which problems you can take away.
Make sure your blog is incredibly useful, and your traffic will skyrocket, your leads will explode, and your business will grow.
Be helpful and inspire your readers.
