You know what I mean. There is the reflective part, where we look back at the year behind us and swear we will do things differently next year, which becomes the resolution part. So I thought about the things that I learned this year and have my Top 10 list of the Biggest Mistakes Bloggers Make. To give you time to reflect, I am posting 5 of them now, and will give you the other five later this week. In Times Square Fashion, think of Dick Clark and give yourself the count down.
10. Not having your picture, bio, or contact information
If you are serious about your blog, you want people to find you right? People like to know who the person behind the blog is, and until you are famous and people recognize you where ever you go- put your picture on your blog!
9. Not clearly stating the purpose or the mission of your blog up front
Now this can be tricky since blogs are typically archived with newer posts first, but you can select a single post to be your 'Welcome' post. I suggest doing this, and then tell people how you categorize your information so that they can figure out where they can find what they are looking for. On my blog, I direct first time visitors to a specific category so they can figure out what the blog is about and get some background information.
8. Not reassigning old posts to new categories as the blog grows
This ties in with 9 above, but as your blog grows it will begin to take a life of its own, and as you get to know your readers, you may want to reassign posts to help them find information easily.
7. Failure to use syndication tools and key word tags
This can be a bit confusing, but you want to make sure people can find you via your post, after all, that is a great way for new readers to find out about you. Use tags with all of your posts. If people are looking for information, it will pop up easily for them.
6. Getting bogged down in the whole 'Blog/ Ranking/ Google Hype'
I figure you do a blog so people can get to know you, but here is my pet peeve. People talk about their blog being 'up in the rankings' or 'Hey, when you google me, I have 100,000 listings' , blah, blah, blah. But what does that do for you? I figure if I do a good job, and consistently put out valuable content, people will find out about me eventually. Besides, if they knew enough about me to know my name, Why are they googling me in the first place?
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