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There are tons of articles and videos online that tell you how to start a blog. Many go a step further explaining all the possible perks – an online following, financial freedom, becoming your own boss, etc. It all sounds exciting, and it can be. But what is sometimes not mentioned is the high level of failure within the blogging community.
Blogging is clearly big business. With close to 600 million blogs in existence, and approximately 32 million bloggers in the U.S. alone, starting a blog is one of the most popular content marketing businesses you can indulge in.
The reasons for this include the fact that blogging has a very low barrier to entry. You can literally start a blog for free or with very little startup capital. A writing device such as a computer or tablet, as well as internet connection, are usually all that is needed to begin. You don’t even have to be a writer, there are numerous freelance writers around who can produce the content for your blog.
Notwithstanding, blogging is like any small business, and the failure rate is believed to be just as high. If we are to go by Bloomberg statistics where small business success is concerned, 80% of new blogs are likely to fail within 18 months of launch.
Part of the reason blogs fail is because many bloggers do not understand what is required to grow a blog over the long-term. They tend to not put in the necessary work and research and ignore best practices. Putting yourself in the best position for blogging success, therefore, means getting an in-depth look at the reasons why many blogs fail.
Why Most Blogs Fail
Successful bloggers tend to have a basic formula that revolves around high-quality content, consistent and regular posting, and content promotion. That being said, here are some of the main reasons why so many blogs tend to fail.
Many new bloggers start out with the mindset of doing it as a hobby or pet project. While there is nothing inherently wrong with that, a whimsical approach can be a recipe for disaster if you also have expectations of eventually making money or building an audience with your blog.
As with any other kind of business, making inroads often means being intentional. You have to set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound) targets and then work towards them.
What main problem will your blog address?
Who are the people that will be interested in your content?
How many pieces of content will you deliver each month?
What social platforms will you use to share your content with readers?
What methods of promotion will you use?
How many readers and followers do you want to have by the end of year 1, year 2, etc.?
Another mistake where lack of clear intent is concerned is not focusing on a specific problem. For example, your blog is supposed to be about pet care but it seems every other blog post is on some random topic such as crypto mining or app building. In such a case, people will be confused about what to expect and will avoid your blog. If you have several passions and want to blog about each, it is best to build a separate website for each. Otherwise, you run the risk of alienating your audience and your blog will likely fail.
2. Lack of High Quality Content
When starting a blog, the focus may be on publishing a high volume of content. That is understandable since research has shown that publishing blog posts 10 or more times per month can lead to businesses getting 2-4 times more traffic than others that publish less.
But as a new blogger, your initial focus should be on quality and not necessarily quantity. Posting one or two high-quality blog posts weekly is better than having daily posts that are poorly written.
In fact, successful blogs tend to have one main thing in common – the content is almost always topnotch. It is why more than 70% of B2B content creators have pointed to the creation of engaging content as a top priority, according to this business trend report.
With so many other blogs around, how do you provide high-quality and engaging content that can help you to stand out from the crowd? Zoom in on the elements that make up great content. A high-quality post involves content that provides valuable and useful information, while also striking an emotional connection with the reader. Great content tells a story and helps readers find solutions to problems.
Of course, if you are not a seasoned writer, creating blog posts that contain those qualities might be a challenge. But the thing with writing is that the more you do it, the better you will get at it. Also, you can learn to build value in your blog posts by expanding your understanding of your industry and what your target audience really wants from you.
The more you know about your field, the easier it will be to uncover opportunities to explain difficult topics and offer workable solutions. If you know what people want to learn from your blog, you can package your content accordingly so that readers feel justified about visiting your blog and will be compelled to share your posts. Once you can show readers great value, it is usually enough to keep them coming back, even as you work on improving your craft.
To reap any results from blogging, consistency has to be the name of the game. Too often, bloggers tend to post in an irregular manner, and the articles are far apart.
One could hardly expect the typical reader to keep up with an unpredictable publication pattern, where one blog post is followed by another weeks or months later. Readers like consistency and will look forward to your posts if they know you are publishing content based on a schedule they can follow.
It is like watching a TV series. If you know that a new episode is broadcasted every Friday at 8 pm, you will likely prepare yourself for that time slot each week. The same applies to your readers.
The reasons for inconsistency vary. Bloggers may not take content creation as seriously as they should and end up writing only when they feel like it. For others, it may be a case of underestimating the writing process. A single blog post of 1,500 words can take almost four hours to create, plus up to another two hours to find images, edit, and format the content appropriately.
One way to ensure you are posting consistently is to create a content calendar and stick to it. Determine how many high-quality posts you can deliver per month and pencil them into your schedule. If you work with a team, make sure all content creators have access to the calendar so they are aware of their individual tasks and the deadlines for each piece of content.
4. Thinking It’s All About the Money
Starting a blog as a way to generate income is normal. But if that is your main intent, you may be in for a rude awakening. For starters, blogging is not a get rich quick scheme. Instead, it is an activity that requires enormous investments of time and effort.
Many bloggers fail in this regard, either because they started blogging out of desperation or because they heard someone else was reeling in huge profits and simply thought they could do the same. When the funds don’t start rolling in after a few weeks or months, they simply quit.
If you ask successful bloggers, many of them have been at it for five or more years, and most did not start seeing major financial growth until after a year or two in the game.
Being in it for the money means you don’t invest the time and effort needed to really build your blog into a valuable platform. You will likely not bother getting to know your target audience properly and what their needs are. And since you won’t be in the business to actually help people, it will also be difficult for you to learn the best practices of blogging and applying the necessary steps.
Yes, it is possible to start a free blog or choose the cheapest blogging plan available on WordPress. However, some of the free or cheap options are not always the best solutions if you are trying to grow a successful blog.
To begin with, a free blog does not allow you to have your own unique domain name. On WordPress, for instance, a free domain name is in the format:
www.yourblogname.wordpress.com.
This domain name will be pointing to WordPress and won’t be helpful in showing your content in Google search results.
There is also the issue of your blog being possibly watermarked with the name of the platform you are using for the free blog. In terms of picking the cheapest plan, these tend to be limited in terms of how much storage you have, the speed of your website, design capabilities, and overall security. All these factors can affect your ability to attract readers or provide a good user experience.
Any way you take it, a free or cheaply made blog will significantly limit your ability to grow an audience or gain visibility in your industry. Yes, there have been a handful of bloggers who became successful while using a free option for their blogs, but that is almost impossible to replicate in today’s fiercely competitive content marketing arena.
A free blog domain should only be considered if you want to get a feel of what blogging is like and are not yet ready to launch a serious business. Even so, there are affordable options (starting a Medium blog, for example) that can allow you to explore a blogging career without holding back your brand.
6. Poor or Non-Existent SEO Strategy
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a tricky topic for any newbie blogger. Things like doing keyword research and formatting your posts to make them more search-friendly are not the easiest concepts to grasp or put into practice. Google’s constantly changing search algorithm can also be hard to keep up with.
But not having an SEO strategy can significantly hamper your progression as a blogger. The fact of the matter is people need to find your content online for your blog to gain exposure. If your blog posts are not showing up in search engine results pages, they will not get read or shared.
Search engine results are the main way any content gets found online, so SEO will account for the bulk of website traffic to your blog. Even with a strong social presence or a huge spend on display advertising, your blog will cease to grow if there is no strong focus on SEO. What constitutes a suitable SEO strategy for your blog?
Hiring an SEO expert can be costly and not practical for a blogger with a tight budget. But there are a number of best practices you can follow on your own, including:
Doing targeted research to include the best keywords in your articles
Optimizing titles and headings with appropriate keyword use
Naming images appropriately and using alt text
Creating relevant meta descriptions for each page
Creating a sitemap
Including suitable internal links
Investing in user-friendly and mobile responsive design
Writing content in a natural and engaging way
Optimizing for voice search functionality in your blog posts
Sharing your posts on social media (and encouraging readers to do so)
As mentioned earlier, many successful bloggers waited years before they achieved any notable financial returns or recognition. With that said, one of the reasons some blogs fail is due to impatience on the part of bloggers.
Wanting to see immediate results is just not the way it works in the blogging world, even if you are doing everything right. Remember, you are competing against hundreds or even thousands of other blogs that are posting content on the same subject matter. As a new blogger, people are yet to get used to your brand and will not readily gravitate to your work, unless you already had a sizable online following.
Remaining patient can be hard, but it is possible. Just keep pushing, working hard, ensuring your blog posts add value to the reader’s experience, and following the recommended best practices for blogging. Once you continue on the right path, the success you seek will eventually come.
Conclusion
There are many other things that can contribute to blog failure. However, the seven reasons mentioned above are among the most common. If you manage to avoid these setbacks, you will have a great chance of meeting your long-term blogging goals.
In case you missed them, here are some of my latest blog posts from several of the websites/publications that I write for:
Blogging Guide Blog
Digital Marketing Lab
Digital Marketing Lab Publication
Until next time!
—Casey
