3 Big Blog Bloopers: Which of These Errors Do You Make?

Over the weekend, my eye caught the attention of an email with the words "brain," "memory," and "Valentine's gift." I slapped my forehead, what was I thinking? I forgot to buy something for "Attila the Hunney,"(my favorite husband), so I quickly read the email through.

It turned out to be a plug for someone's blog and ebook, but I checked out the blog anyway. Here's what I found, and I hope you're not making these common errors too.

Once I arrived on the blog, I was disappointed to find it was all about the author and her stuff. I really thought she was going to offer me some memory tips, but instead she asked me to buy her book. Not one tip, not even a tiny one to entice me… to make me want to buy her book.

Here are three common errors people make all the time on their blogs and what you can do about them.

"What's Here for Me?" If you don't make your blog directed towards your readers, they will quickly go away. You may be fantastic, your book may be wonderful, but unless I already know you, I don't care. Make me care by speaking to me and addressing my problems. Give me tips, not a pitch to buy your book.
"Link Profusely." Don't make me go hunt for stuff. Link everytime you mention a book, an author, a research statistic, whatever. Don't tell me to go find it by doing a Google search. That's lazy. Give me the link, don't make me work. Even when you're self-promoting, you should at least link to your own stuff!
"Too Much Self Promotion." Lord knows I'm a big fan of calls to action and making it easy to buy stuff off your blog. But when the blog posts contain too much self-promotion, it's a turn-off.

The solutions to making a blog more interesting and more effective lie in focusing on the reader and the reader's needs. Entice me with tantalizing headlines, then give me at least something I can be happy with. If it's good stuff, then I'll want more and want your book.

These are 3 mistakes that anybody can make from time-to-time. It's easy to do when you're all excited about your new product or service and want to make a sale. But not everybody's in the mood or needing what you've got right then and there.

Don't waste people's time, be kind. Here's what else you can do to learn smart blogging. Go over your last blog posts and see if you're committing these 3 big blog bloopers.

If you are, then consider learning about 20 Mistakes Smart Professionals Make on their Blogs. It's part of the handout PDFs included in the Smart Blogging-in-a-Box tutorial.

If you need help or information on how to get more results from your blogging efforts, consider investing in this program, Time-Saving Tips for Smart Blogging, a blogging-in-a box tutorial consisting of an MP3 audio recording with Joan Stewart, the Publicity Hound, and get the transcripts and complete handouts.