Why would anyone blog? Well, for starters, it can be a great way to connect with your audience. It’s also an effective way to promote specific products or services.
If you are serious about your blog, though, you need to ask yourself if it’s the right fit for your business.
Before launching into any new ventures, make sure that they are 100% aligned with your goals and objectives.
In this article, we discuss 10 ways blogging can hurt your business and 5 tips on how to start a successful blog without hurting your bottom line.
1). Blogging Can Hurt Your Business By Creating Excessive Competition
Blogging is a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your industry. It can also be a great way to connect with your audience and build trust and relationships.
The problem is that once you start blogging, you immediately become part of the crowd. And the more people who blog about the same thing, the less likely it is that you will get noticed.
2). Blogging Can Hurt Your Business By Attracting Spam Bots
Blogging is an excellent way to promote your products and services. The problem is that it’s also an excellent way to attract spam bots looking for backlinks or any other kind of links.
And if you are not careful, these bots can infect your website and steal customer data.
3). Blogging Can Hurt Your Business By Creating Extra Work
If you are running a small business, you probably don’t have the staff to handle extra work, especially if the blog doesn’t produce results.
When you first start blogging, it can take quite a bit of time and effort before you get some traction. If your blog isn’t producing results, you may end up spending more time on it than necessary and not getting any return on your investment.
4). Blogging Can Hurt Your Business By Creating A Poor Reputation
If your blog is poorly written or contains irrelevant content that doesn’t add value to the reader, then chances are it will hurt your reputation rather than help it. In this competitive world, people will quickly move on if they don’t find value in what you have to offer.
5). Ignoring Analytics and Facts
Blogging is a numbers game. The more you blog, the more chances you have to get noticed. As your blog grows, so should your audience.
The only problem is that not all blogs grow at the same pace. Some blogs seem to skyrocket to the top of Google while others struggle to stay afloat.
Bloggers who are serious about their success should be monitoring their analytics and tracking their progress over time. If you aren’t willing to commit to this kind of planning, then perhaps blogging isn’t for you.
6). Failing To Add Value To Your Readers
Blogging isn’t a popularity contest. It’s about providing value to your readers. If you aren’t adding any value to your readers, then they will quickly get bored and move on to another blog.
Blogging isn’t easy, but it is definitely worth the effort. Take the time to make sure that you are doing everything right and you will reap the benefits of blogging in no time.
7). Relying On a Single Source of Traffic
Some bloggers rely on Google for all of their traffic. This is a huge mistake. Google can change its algorithms at any time and your traffic could be cut in half overnight.
You need to have a variety of sources for your traffic. In addition to Google, you should be getting traffic from social media, email marketing, and organic search.
8). Not Staying Active on Social Media
Social media is one of the best ways to stay connected with your readers. If you aren’t active on social media, then how are your readers going to find you?
Don’t be lazy. Stay active on social media and let your readers know what you are doing.
9). Not Having a Clear Purpose for Your Blog
What is the purpose of your blog? Why did you start blogging in the first place? If you can’t answer these questions, then perhaps it is time to rethink your blogging strategy.
10). Not Having a Plan
Blogging is not something that you should do on a whim. You need to have a plan in place before you start blogging. If you don’t have a plan, then you are likely to make mistakes and not have the blog grow.
5 Ways To Start A Successful Blog Without Hurting Your Bottom Line
a). Decide What You Want Out Of Your Blog Before You Start
If you are blogging to simply promote your business, then you should probably continue blogging as a hobby. If, however, you want to turn your blog into a profitable business, then you need to focus on developing your blog into a brand that people love.
Bloggers are often encouraged to try out new things and experiment with different themes and approaches. But if your blog is going to become profitable for you, it needs to be focused on one niche or topic and deliver the best content possible.
b). Define Your Audience Before You Start
Every blogger is different. You can write about anything you want and it might attract a wide range of readers. But if you want to build a successful blog then you need to identify your target audience and the kind of content they are likely to respond to.
For example, if your audience consists of people who are looking for fashion advice, it is unlikely that they will be interested in reading about your trip to the gym.
A blog that is focused on a single niche will attract a loyal readership and will be more profitable for you.
c). Develop A Content Strategy
Your blog will only be as successful as your content strategy. If you try to build a blog from scratch, without a plan, it will be difficult to attract and keep your audience.
A great way to begin developing a content strategy for your blog is by taking an inventory of your current blog posts. List down the topics that you have written about, how many times they were posted, and the number of comments and views each post has received.
This information can then be used to create a content calendar for your blog which lists out all the posts that you want to write over the course of the next 12 months.
d). Create A Strong Brand
As I mentioned earlier, when you start building a profitable blog, it is important that you focus on creating an audience that will love and support your brand by sharing their experiences with you.
But what is a brand?
Simply put: The personality of your business or product expressed through marketing messages and visuals.
A strong brand can help make it easier for people to remember which products or services they have used in the past or where they might want to use them again in the future.
When your brand is strong, you can then promote it to others in order to build a loyal following.
To develop your brand, you must start by creating an image that people can identify with. If you are a photographer, the image of your brand is likely to be a photograph of you holding your camera.
If you own a bakery, then your brand could be represented by images of your products on display in the window.
Once you have found an image that represents your brand, it’s important that you show it off to others and encourage them to share it with their friends.
You can also create eye-catching graphics for social media posts that represent the essence of what you do (or are trying to achieve) and provide a little more information about yourself or your business as well.
e). Build A List
The best way to promote yourself and make money blogging is by building an email list.
An email list will allow people who are interested in what you have to offer to sign up for free and then receive regular emails from you over the course of time which they can use as marketing messages or as reminders about new content that they would like to read on your blog.
To build an email list, all it takes is some time and effort on your part (and sometimes money if there are certain features that people need in order to access their lists).
It doesn’t take a lot of time nor does it cost much money, but it is effective and it will allow you to build a list of people that you can then use to market your blog.
f). The Power Of Social Media
Social media has changed the way we communicate with each other, the way businesses reach out to their customers, and the way we promote ourselves.
There are many different social media sites that have been created over the years such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram but I will mainly focus on Facebook because it is one of the most popular social media platforms that you can use for blogging purposes.
Final Thoughts
Blogging is not easy. It takes time, effort, and a lot of energy. If you are serious about your blog then make sure that you are doing everything right before you start blogging and it will reap the benefits of blogging in no time.
The best way to start writing for your blog is by asking yourself what kind of content you want to write about and developing a content strategy for your blog from there.