When you have been blogging for almost seven years like I have, it’s easy to identify the mistakes you have made over the years. Sometimes I go back to an old post and I cringe within. Did I do that ? I ask myself with a mental pinch. There’s that slight temptation to hit the delete button and rewrite that cringe-worthy post. But I leave it as a reminder that one’s beginnings are always lessons to be learnt from, to improve and be better.

If you are a newbie blogger with a just-published blog then read more to learn from my mistakes over the years. If you have been blogging for some time, you will still need to read this because the learning cycle keeps spinning everyday and there’s always something new to attract more readers for your blog.

Blogging Mistakes You Are Probably Making

1. You Are Not Keeping a Blog Schedule

Are you randomly deciding to write as and when you get inspiration? Today is the day you shut the door on that and get working on creating a blog schedule. Do you ever run out of ideas on what to write about? It used to happen to me until I decided to create a content schedule. Keeping a blog schedule helps you plan ahead on what to write. You never run out of ideas and your readers know they can always expect something awesome to read from you. You ever had a great blog post idea which you forget about two days later? Happens to the best of us. Keeping a blog schedule is also a fantastic disciplinary tool. You become more disciplined on your posting times.

What To Do:

Keep a little black book of blog ideas. Use it to jog 🖊down any ideas which pops into your mind whilst you are standing in line at the waakye joint (that happens to me alot). Keep that book with you everywhere. Transfer those ideas to the blog schedule below 👇🏾

Create a table in either Excel or Numbers depending on whether you are a Windows or Mac user. Name the tabs : BlogPost Title, Publish Date, Publishing Channels (Facebook, Twitter, etc) Status, Post Reach. It's not going to be easy at first but you will get used to it. Commitment comes slowly at a time.

Create a task on a task management app like Any.Do to remind you about upcoming blog posts. Scratch off completed tasks and reward yourself with a slice of red velvet cake. It’s every superheroes app.

2. There Are No BackLinks On Your Blog Posts

How is it that there are no backlinks on your blog posts? Not adding links can seriously reduce traffic on your blog and increase the bounce rate as well. Why do I say so? Any reader who visits your blog will want to know what you know. They are interested in knowing if you know your stuff. Have you researched enough on the topic? Is there anywhere else they can go for more info? For example, you are a food blogger writing about about 'the art of bread baking in Ghana’ but you want show there’s more information on breads in Ghana so you run a Wikipedia search result on breads in Ghana; then you create a link to the Wikipedia page using the hyperlink feature. Your reader nods their head and get to learn more. They will come back to your post so don’t worry about they not back tracking to your blog post. Your blog is awesome so they will.

What to do

Link to older blog posts you have written to give more insight on what it is you are currently working on. Readers get to stay longer on your blog.

Visit other similar blogs and comment on their posts i.e. something relevant and not just adding your blog link. Add your voice to a particular post and mention how you wrote something similar, inviting that blog’s audience to your digital estate.

3 . Zero Engagement With Your Readers

Reading reader comments is always a joy and I simply cannot let a day go by without responsing to a question from readers or simply leaving a thank you on an encouraging comment. If you aren’t responding to readers, today is a fantastic day to repent and become more engaged with your readers. Engaging with your readers shows you are a listening blogger, interested in reader’s opinions.

What to do

Easy. If your blog offers a Comments page in your settings, go back there and respond to old comments even if it’s just a ‘thank you’. Readers who have agreed (via clicking the checkbox) to be notified on any future responses on their comments will get an email on your response. Imagine how sunny you just made their day.

If your blog has been integrated with Facebook’s Instant Article, it’s even easier to respond to readers in the comment section. They also get a notification on your reply.

4. Not Taking Your Headlines Seriously

Headlines should grab attention but not be click-baits to poor content. Taking time to create an attention-grabbing headline should be one of your objectives for growing your blog traffic. Your headline should tell a reader instantly what to expect from your post. This also increases the SEO for your blog as internet crawlers and bots are looking for keywords in headlines and posts. Google ranks blog posts with keyword headlines. You want your blog to be found and highly ranked as well.

What to do

This article shares more technicalities on the importance of headlines for building high traffic.

5. You Are Staying Indoors

Just staying indoors as a blogger? How will you get great content? The best of content comes from discovering the outdoors and what’s happening in the city. It’s great to crawl the net looking for content but it’s not enough. It’s not even healthy ( think of your poor back).

What to do

Pack up your little black book from ☝🏽, your camera or phone and head out to a place you haven’t visited. You will be amazed about the amount of content you will get getting lost in your own city.

Call up a blog pal to join you and the two of you get to share an incredible adventure together. There's so much power in two's. All that golden content! Priceless!

There are many other things to work on as a blogger to build traffic and grow your blog audience but these are my top 5. Got any tips as well? I would love to read them in the comments section 😘.