Common Blogging Traps and How to Avoid Them

As you may know, blogging is an excellent way to market yourself, promote your business and your product or service. It's also a perfect tool for helping you establish yourself as an expert in your field. What you may not know is that if not done right, blogging can end up being a disaster for you as well as your business.

Here are some common blogging traps you should avoid at all cost.

1. Writing irrelevant copy. This is one of the blogging traps that most bloggers make. Instead centering their writing around the main blogging "theme," they wander off into other areas that should be reserved for another blog post or another blog platform. To remedy this you should keep your writing focused on the topics your readers came to read about, If your blog is about article marketing, they probably wouldn't be interested in learning how to repair motorcycles. In other words, stay on target when posting to your blog.

2. Feigning an expert. Be honest with people. Don't pretend to be an expert in a particular field or topic if you're not. People will respect you when you're up front with them. Now that doesn't mean you have to be an expert in order to write about a topic. Nor does it mean that you can't become an expert on that particular topic, because you can. Just do your due diligence. The internet is packed with information. Study and learn all you can about everything that relates to your blog theme.

3. Not categorizing your blog. Not putting your blog posts in categories can leave confusing questions in the minds of your readers. What is the topic? What is his main message? What's the focus of this blog? What's it all about? Categorizing your blog helps readers stay focused on your theme and what it is you're trying to say.

4. Irregular posting. One of the mortal sins of blogging is neglect. Readers don't like reading old material. And even though much of your material might not be of a timely nature, readers still notice the date of your posts. And they can tell when a blog has been neglected or abandoned. If you don't care enough about visiting your own blog on a regular basis, why should they? And if you're not going to post on a regular schedule (at least three times a week) then why have a blog in the first place?

5. Too much commercialism. This is another common blogging trap. Readers visit your blog for the same reason they surf the internet: to find relevant information. They don't visit you in order to read an ad or listen to a commercial. They get enough of that on TV. Spare them the sales pitch and write about topics related to their interests. Call it selfishness, or whatever, but when people visit your blog they are not interested in what you have to sell.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to blogging mistakes. As you know, there are hundreds more blunders that you can make when setting up and operating your blog. But the main thing to remember is that blogging takes a big chunk out of your daily schedule, and avoiding the above blogging blunders will save you precious time and resources -- and will lead to a more profitable blog.
To Your Success,
Mike Griffith

For more information on how to drive tons of super-targeted traffic to your blog, read my blog article, "10 Strategies For Attracting Loyal Readers to Your Blog." Meanwhile, have a great day!

Mike Griffith
mikegriffith2001@yahoo.com

http://leadgenerationheadquarters.typepad.com/leads/2009/06/10-stategies-for-attracting-loyal-readers-to-your-blog.html