Before I proceed to list down the 5 items stated in the title above, let me just point out that this is solely based on my opinion. You may not agree with me, and I respect that. You are most welcomed to share your thoughts by leaving a comment =)
Well, blogging is no simple task, and it does take effort. However, I believe that many bloggers which aim high end up demoralized because they unknowingly killed their blogs. They will notice the lack of traffic, and loyal reads, and hence the signal of the end of their blogging career. Here are what I assume to the the top 5 common mistakes which will kill your blog:
#1 Covering too much events
Covering a few events is okay, but making them the focus of your blog rightly kills your blog. I find that events take away the personality of the blog, making an entry extremely boring, stagnant and less appealing. Even comments are hard to create based on an event post. The worst is when you have like a few hundred people posting on the same thing. I know *yawn*. The best is to space events with unique and proper personal post.
#2 Imitating Others
When Kenny Sia was big, everyone wanted to be like him. Famous, rich and gracing events for free was Kenny’s deal and so everyone wanted to imitate his style to be just like him. However, just like that fake Nike shoes you may have bought from Petaling Street, imitations do not last, and are no where near the quality of the original. With that said, you will loose your appeal, and hence your readers if you imitate another’s style. Hey, even Kenny said that you should be yourself in your own blog, right?
#3 Terrible Layout & Load Time
A mistake which many new bloggers make: They ‘bling’ up their blog with so many widgets until it turns into a ‘blong’. A cluttered and less attractive website, coupled with the longest loading ever time will push readers away. Some bloggers on the other hand are so money oriented that they put up adverts in any space they can find hoping that such action would increase traffic and earnings, but such methods actually do otherwise for a blog. The best is to keep adverts nicely tucked in special prominently visible sections. Something like in this blog? =P
#4 Too Much Sadness
No one likes a whiner, and you are one when you complaint way too much on your blog! If you are complaining that you are bored, your boyfriend deserted you, or that you have a foe in someone, than you are a whiner. Blogs which are filled with whining and so much sadness will eventually loose readers due to the readers inability to understand why the blogger is still very depressed on a daily basis. Come one-lah, get the stats back by getting a life!
#5 Your Personality
Although blogs are not really connected too much to real life, but your personality when you’re in the crowd is vital. You can end up having less readers if you are a total pain in the ass person in real life because people basically dislike you. I can’t say much on how to improve your personality, but I bet you could learn a thing or two from some others out there. From my perspective, humble people always comes good in my book, but being too humble (to the extend it annoys me), ain’t good either.
As I said, this is my own opinion, but shall you feel there’s more to the list, or you disagree with me, why not let me know? I’m very open to ideas =) The list refers to READERS and not TRAFFIC to your blog. Blogs can have billions of traffic stats, but have little actual readers. Why? maybe in my next post =)