How to Kill Your Chance at Success
This morning I sent a message out via Ping.fm to Twitter and Plurk.
How do you think a blogger could be detrimental to their own success?
The answers that I received were right on target with my own thoughts so I’d like to talk with you about how we knowingly or unknowingly become detrimental or our own blog’s success.
Become Stale
When you’re writing for a niche blog, focusing on your topic could seem to be the easiest part. Especially when you are an expert in your field of choice or sharing as you’re learning.
But are you over focusing on one single topic of your entire niche or forgetting to change your writing style to create more interest?
Becoming stale is a problem at times, especially when you’re displaying passion for a current topic, or following the latest trend until it’s dead. But remember to mix it up to keep others interest.
If your niche is losing interest in a topic you’re writing about, you’re harming your own success as you begin to lose visitors who are bored with the content.
Lose Sight
On the flip side, if you stop talking about your niche of choice, people may not be able to adapt to the change of topics and will run.
The best way to prevent losing sight is to really research and consider your niche of choice before jumping in. One should never jump into a niche without thought and consideration for blogs already covering the niche.
Procrastinate and Be Lazy
OK, it happens to all of us.
Bloggers looking to make it and reach their own level of success need to stay on top of the game. Being too lazy to make a post or procrastinating responding to comments is a turn off for some visitors.
Our goals, as bloggers, should be to keep them coming back from more and being overly lazy or procrastinating for too long can be harmful to our reputation and cause us to lose visitors.
Don’t Socialize
If you’re only willing to sit in your own box, with your own blog, you’re missing half of what blogging includes.
Networking to promote yourself and others is viral to our own success. This may also fall under procrastinating and being lazy but this alone is important enough to give the topic it’s own heading.
Stay up on the latest networking sites for your niche, get out and talk to other bloggers by leaving comments, and consider new ways to create networking relationships with your readers.
Your Thoughts
Have you thought about this before and are you guilty of hindering the success of your own blog when all you’re attempting to is move forward?
This post was written by I’m Blogging That’s former owner, Katy Castro who can now be found blogging at Unedited Life.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Wonderful post! You call it like it is! I think we all find ourselves committing some of these “sins” every now an again!
July 25th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
I think writer’s block can happen to anyone and perhaps the greatest hurdle can be to think in quality rather than quantity, of posts. I am challenging myself to create new reader relationships. I do admit, social media has made it a lot easier…
July 25th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Ha! I am guilty of all of the above except the socializing. I socialize too much and that distracts from my writing. You have to have a good balance and I am trying to find it!
July 28th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
i agree.. although changing your writing style can be very tricky! once you give your blog a voice/personality.. your audience will get used to it.. people who like it would stick to the blog. if you change it too often, u can get indecisive.. and even confusing.. which isn’t really a smart move!
July 28th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I would have to agree with the not being social one. When I started blogging I didn’t talk to anyone and I had nothing to show for it. I read though forums and saw that I should just keep talking to myself, people would come, but they didn’t and I finally started talking. It’s helped a ton.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
@Leigh: Thank you. And I agree, we all do one of these things from time to time… it’s normal. :D
@Taryn: I don’t think any blogger can say quality over quantity enough times. You hit the nail on the head. And social media, the best thing for bloggers, ever. :D
@Michelle: LOL We all are! So, is your over socializing at least helping with traffic or conversion rates? If it is, what’s the problem, right?
@ChiQ Montes: My reference (and post) to changing up writing styles refers to the types of posts we write and not the voice that we use to write them. If the reference was to changing the voice you use to write, I would agree with you.
@Holly: When I started blogging, I did the same thing. But my blog at the time didn’t have the focus that it does today which the situation a bit different and nearly acceptable to not socialize.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Yeah I’ve definitely seen an increase in traffic after socializing with other local bloggers that cover similar topics.
July 30th, 2008 at 2:48 am
I sin in all areas. Great post Katy - right to the point. =0)
August 1st, 2008 at 5:45 am
Katy..you are very right…i totally agree with you ;)
August 3rd, 2008 at 8:06 am
OMG, you’re talking about ME with the procrastinating and laziness! LOL!
Jay
August 3rd, 2008 at 8:22 am
[...] you ever wondered How to kill your chances at success? Well, Katy tells you! And I swear she was talking about me when she mentioned procrastination and [...]
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Katy, one would think these things would be common knowledge among bloggers but they are not. I think the problem may be, many see ProBlogger or John Chow or (insert successful blogger here) and assume they can do that.
What they soon find out is blogging, I mean, really blogging and creating longevity is hard work. Maybe not difficult work, but hard work. It takes a lot of work to keep providing content to info hungry readers…the minute you start slacking….it could mean failure.
To me, networking is one of the most important parts of blogging, right next to content quality. I absolutely love to network with other bloggers and meeting new people through blogging.
August 3rd, 2008 at 7:36 pm
flip-flopping or showing a lot of inconsistencies is detrimental to blogging success. Timing is also very crucial. So procrastination has no place for a blogger who wants to make it in the big leagues.
August 8th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
I guess this is all true. I think that Socializing in the blogsphere is your biggest chance of success in the early days.
August 10th, 2008 at 4:46 am
Thanks for the great post.
The socializing part is so important. I find the bulk of my traffic comes from Twitter. This is partially from blog announcements but also links from my profile.
I think one of the hardest parts is defining my niche in a way that includes some space to express my personality too.
August 21st, 2008 at 9:44 am
Great Post!
I find that socializing and doing guest post’s and having guest post’s on my blog helps a lot. You have to stay focused and plan you activities in advance to stay ahead.
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:45 am
I guess we all tend to hit a mental block at some point. And then you grow a bit lazy and don’t post just as much as you initially did anymore, and readers lose interest because they hardly find anything new when they check your site for updates, and it’s all down hill from there…
September 13th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
PS How can I get that little cloud before the comment link on the blog?
September 13th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Thanks for the common sense tips. It’s easy to miss the forest because of all the freakin’ trees in the way.
Like so many others, when reality calls, too often I let it go to voicemail…
September 21st, 2008 at 9:29 am
Well your article seems to a food for thought about successful blogging. One thing which i would like to high light is that the way of delivering matters a lot when it comes to attract reader towards your blog . Similarly overloaded and under loaded knowledge create dislike among readers. So, we must pay adequate attention while crafting our message before delivering it into words..
November 21st, 2008 at 1:34 am
You call it like it is! I think we all find ourselves committing some of these sins every now an again!