Creating blogs can be a time consuming exercise for many businesses, albeit a super important part of your online presence. It’s important to use a content management system with a solid content strategy to help you stay on top of your blogging. If you’re already blogging, but you’re doing it the wrong way, we’re here to help you stop that and start fixing some mistakes! Even if you’re not into blog-writing (yet), reading this post will help prepare for your ultimate success in the future.
Here, we will go over some of the common mistakes people make when they create their blog post strategies. Hopefully, you’ll learn something new and apply it to your own blog. If you’re already a pro at content creation, then you’ll be able to help your colleagues or peers by sharing this post on social media.
1. You Don’t Have an Editorial Calendar
Your editorial calendar is one of the most important planning tools that keep you and your team on top of the blog game. You should have a separate calendar from your company’s other projects or meetings, because blog posts have different deadlines than everything else in your business.
If you don’t have a calendar, then you’ll likely end up writing posts as they pop into your mind. This strategy can work for small companies and solo entrepreneurs who blog on their own, but larger organizations need a more structured system to manage their content effectively. Your editorial calendar will help you and your team:
Learn when the best time to post is (e.g., the most traffic)
Plan your topics in advance (e.g. monthly content themes)
Realize when you need to push a post for additional exposure or press (e.g. marketing campaigns)
Keep track of topics that are opening up too quickly (e.g., new topics and ideas)
Segmenting and targeting your audience to get the most return from each post is key in the content creation process. Your editorial calendar is the way to do that!
2. You’re Too Impatient
It’s hard to hold your own content in your hand (especially when you’re a solo blogger) since it may never become the next episode of “Game of Thrones” or viral sensation. It’s okay to post, but you have to make sure you’re publishing quality blog posts that will continue to attract your readership and keep them coming back.
You might love your content, but sometimes it’s great to let a little time pass before you publish it. There are two main reasons for this:
You have time to gain feedback from others. Sometimes you won’t see things the same way as your readers will when you’re too close to a blog post. It’s important to remember this when you’re in the editing phase and trying to decide if people will like your content. You can also incorporate their feedback into future posts that you write.
Sometimes you won’t see things the same way as your readers will when you’re too close to a blog post. It’s important to remember this when you’re in the editing phase and trying to decide if people will like your content. You can also incorporate their feedback into future posts that you write. You can rewrite your blog post until it’s perfectly written, edited, and placed on your site. Sometimes you may think that your first draft of a blog post was the best. You’ll be surprised at how much a blog post can change as you go through the editing and revision process. A few weeks or months later, you may have a completely different version of it!
Try to follow both of these rules to gain insight on your blogs’ progress and to get the most out of your content.
3. You’ve Mastered the Words, but You Can’t Edit Your Blog
This is a crucial mistake. When you’re a blogger, you’ll be writing on a daily basis. It’s easy to simply throw together a blog post at the last minute, without performing editing or proofreading through your entire article.
Everybody makes mistakes during blog writing, so that shouldn’t stop you from publishing quality content. But it is important to know how to edit your blog post before you publish it. You should have an editor who can catch all of these common mistakes:
Missing words (e.g. they’re, their, there)
Bad grammar (e.g. it’s vs. its, effect vs. affect)
Misspelled words or typos (e.g. knowlege instead of knowledge)
Incorrect sentence structure (e.g., who vs. whom or there vs. their)
If you have a writing background, then you probably do your own editing. But if not, it’s good to know whether your blog posts are ready for the public or need a little extra work. This is especially important when you’re trying to communicate with readers in a clear and concise way. Remember that your readers will forgive certain grammar hiccups as long as they can understand what you’re saying. But you don’t want to lose them because of a simple mistake!
Conclusion
There are many other errors to avoid when blogging, but these are the top three mistakes that I see bloggers make on a regular basis. After you’ve eliminated them through experience or by taking advice from someone else, you’ll be able to blog with more confidence and less stress.
What is your biggest mistake as a blogger? I’d love to learn and find out more about it!
Want to Learn More?
Looking for more information on how to make your blog thrive over time? Download our content strategy guide.
