Website blogs are very important for your business.
They not only help you talk about topics that are related to your niche, but they also help build credibility for your brand.
Of course, website blogs are not that easy to make, no matter how they might appear at first.
Often, we hear business owners who claim, “Even a monkey could do that!”, only to struggle later on finishing even one or two paragraphs of their blog.
It’s not uncommon for this to happen if you’re a beginner in blogging, though. When business owners start to create website blogs for their business, they have a ton of ideas to write but don’t really know where to start.
This, and other mistakes that prevent them from producing read-worthy blogs for their website.
Here are 5 mistakes that first-time blog writers (and even experienced bloggers) sometimes make, and how you can avoid them.
Mistake: Blogging on topics that only interest you or your team.
Remedy: Blog about topics that interest your readers, not just you.
“Your blog is a honeypot, not a megaphone.” This statement made by Amanda Sellers of HubSpot resonates very clearly because it points out one of the major problems that website blogs have today – they tend to focus more on telling its audience what the writer wants to say rather than what the reader wants to know.
Because business owners want to make every cent out of every marketing tool they have (and website blogs ARE a marketing tool), they often overstuff the blogs with sales talk, using the topic as simply clickbait.
Worse, business owners blog about topics that they think are relevant to the reader in order to get more business, only to find out later on that nobody even opened their blog because nobody was interested in reading it.
You are marketing to your readers. Therefore, the primary focus of building your topic list is what would interest them; making money comes automatically once you have your readers hooked to your content.
Start by researching the top trending topics in your niche or field of work. Look at which blogs have the highest open rate and among those top-rated blogs, use the ones that you are most comfortable writing about.
Mistake: Writing your own way, but often it comes out more like a term paper than a blog.
Remedy: Write in a style that engages your reader.
Most beginners in writing website blogs find it difficult to write in an engaging manner because they are used to writing more formal papers. Writing like you’re talking isn’t easy to do at first either – we need to find the balance between being casual and being professional.
One of the best ways to write in a more engaging manner is to become more conversational in the blog. Think of talking to a class of students or doing a pep-talk with your fellow workers before you start the day.
The important thing to note is that as you keep on practicing, you will strike the balance between sounding too friendly and sounding monotone.
Mistake: Focusing more on writing about experiences than teaching.
Remedy: Show, don’t tell.
Okay so this one sounds a little confusing but hear us out – newcomers to writing website blogs make the mistake of thinking that their readers are more interested in immediately hearing about their products and services – but that’s not what readers are actually interested in.
You haven’t established yourself that well for people to start looking for things to buy from you.
Instead, focus your writing on educating your readers about what they need, while throwing in hints that you have what they are looking for.
Don’t be too on-the-nose when showcasing your products or services. Be subtle.
When people learn a lot from your website blogs, it will eventually cause them to make you the go-to for their needs.
Mistake: Your topics are random.
Remedy: Plan out your blogging schedule.
This one is really important – first-time blog writers often throw out random topics every time they post blogs, especially if they post on a weekly basis.
Always remember – your blog is a long-term marketing tool. You’re not supposed to sell your product or service at your first post (even though there are times that this happens and when it does, good for you); instead, you are supposed to establish yourself as the go-to expert in your field.
This is where having an editorial calendar is important. With an editorial calendar, you can plan out the topics that you will be writing on for the next one, two or even three months.
There are times that you will have to create a series on a certain topic, which will eventually lead to the final blog in that series talking about how your business is the solution to the problem and hard-selling them on your services.
Another advantage of having your topics planned out in advance is that you have more time to research them and write about them. Most blog writers fail to write engaging articles because they only have a week to write about the topic, and they end up producing something out of urgency.
Mistake: Not providing concrete data to make arguments more valid.
Remedy: Use data and facts as evidence to support your arguments.
Take a look at these two statements:
- “It looks like more people are using Instagram nowadays.”
- “Instagram’s user base is growing far faster than social network usage is in general. In the U.S, Instagram will grow 15.1% this year, compared to just 3.1% growth for the social network sector as a whole.”
Reading the statements, which one of them would you tend to believe more, and which one would actually make you use Instagram more?
If you answered the second one, you are correct. You become more convincing when you back your arguments up with data and research.
In addition to this, when people see data-driven statements, it sparks a need inside of them to take action, especially if they find the information relevant to their situation.
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Website blogs are more than just words on your readers’ screens – they provide a means for you to communicate your thoughts and establish yourself as an expert in your field.
We hope that by providing the above information, you can improve on writing your website blogs and engage your readers much better.
HoopJumper always makes every effort to help our clients improve their business’s marketing efforts.
If you have any questions or comments or want to learn more about any upcoming services, feel free to contact us today and we will be more than glad to accommodate you.