There are plenty of people who, at one stage or another, have decided to enter the world of blogging. Yet, while they go into the venture full of enthusiasm and optimism, the truth is that the odds are against them. The vast majority of blogs fail, and we don’t mean eventually fail, but fail quickly. Many fail within the first ninety days. And if that’s the case, why do most blogs fail? Here’s my take from personal experience and watching others.

Impulse Decision

We’re all prone to making impulse decisions from time to time. Sometimes, these turn out to be good decisions. At other times, less so — and that’s because the desire that drove the decision is only fleeting. In the case of starting a blog, that initial enthusiasm is not enough to sustain a person through the hard work that’s needed to make the blog successful. There have been many blog ideas that were hatched as a result of one promising conversation, but once the buzz of that conversation has worn off, the blog usually fades away.

Before starting a blog, let it sit in your mind for a few weeks. A blog that was thought up, planned, and created all within the space of a couple of hours often will not last. Give it some mental and physical space to make sure you still like the idea and feel excited about it weeks later.

Cutting Corners

You can’t rush greatness. You can’t even rush good. Sometimes, people’s enthusiasm for the project makes them move too quickly. They want to get the blog up, running, and viewed as soon as possible. In the rush, they lose sight of what’s important: producing quality content. If you’re settling for a “that will do” attitude when it comes to any aspect of your blog, it’s time to take a step back and slow down. It’ll be much better in the long run if you’re taking the time to make sure everything is watertight.

I always recommend that people pull together several weeks worth of posts before hitting that publish button for the first time. That way you have a collection of things to post and time to keep working on future posts, honing and learning your craft.

No Guidance

It’s hard to do anything correctly if you’ve received no training whatsoever. One of the biggest misconceptions about blogging is that you can just dive in and figure things out as you go along. You can, but it can be a difficult uphill battle! If you’re serious about making your blog successful — and especially if you want to make money from it — then you’ll need to make the most of the resources available online. There’s a wealth of essential information out there. For example, take a read of the ultimate guide: 10 steps to start a blog. It’ll give you some invaluable advice that might just be the difference between blogging success and failure

What’s the Blog For?

Everything’s much easier when you have a direction. Without it, you’ll end up going this way and that. You may eventually get to wherever you want to go, but you’ll need a large slice of luck for that to happen. As such, it’s best to have a plan, or at least a solid foundation. Before diving too deep into the small details of your blog, ask yourself the following question: “what is this blog for?”

Let’s remember that a blog’s success is determined by the number of visitors the site receives. If you’re providing something that people want and need, then you could be on to something good. If the site is just a rambling stream of this thought and that, then you’ll find it much harder to build up an audience. Find your focus or your niche. It could be talking about one aspect of travel, or how to budget, or music — it doesn’t matter. So long as it serves a purpose and you stick to it.

Target Audience

Who is it you’re talking to? You’ll find it difficult to speak to all people at all times. In fact, it’s not even worth trying to do so, because you’ll just end up pleasing nobody. Once you know your target audience, you’ll find it easier to establish your voice. For example, if you’re targeting professionals, then you should adopt a professional voice. If you’re presenting yourself as a person with the finger on the pulse of all that’s current and hot, then you’ll need to write in the voice of that generation. There are billions of internet users. You’re trying to grab a small slice of them, and it’s much easier to do that if you’re writing, in effect, directly to them.

Consider writing up a description of your target reader. For me, I consider my target reader a millennial woman who has an interested in fashion, beauty, fitness and food. She has a little expendable income but isn’t able to drop a ton of money on ‘extras.’ She strives to live her best life and looking for encouragement and motivation to be the best she can be. What’s your target audience?

An Eye on SEO

They say that making a great movie is half the battle on the road to the success. The other half lies in the promotion. The same, more or less, can be said of operating a blog. You can write fifty pieces of great content, but if you’re not spending time to promote it, then you’re not going to see the levels of success that you’d like. Any website that wants even a small slice of success needs to have one eye on SEO — it’s the stuff that tells Google and other search engines that your site is worth indexing. Since Google is how most people find websites, it’s not something that you can afford to ignore. Even a basic understanding of how to give your website an SEO boost will help.

Irregular Updates

It takes time and effort to build up a following, and to get to the point where you can say “this website is successful.” And it’s not easy getting return visitors, which is the benchmark of success. For that to happen, there needs to be an incentive for them to come back. If you’re only updating your website with new posts every now and again, then there’s not much incentive. If you’re going to have a blog, then try to commit to a post at least every two weeks. There’s nothing sadder than seeing a blog that was last updated a couple of years ago: that’s a failed blog.

Consider what you can manage. Maybe it’s only one post a week for awhile, and that’s fine. Plan to post at the same time and day each week. If you can post more, go for it, but keep it consistent. Lately, since I have a little more time to dedicate to the blog, I’ve been trying to publish every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. That way my readers know to expect something on those days.

Annoying Aspects

It’s not always about making your website visitors happy. It’s about not making them angry. Amazingly, a lot of websites do this! They fill their website with annoying aspects that turns the visitor off. Pop up ads, autoplay videos, dark patterns, and invasive banners all leave the user feeling cheated and frustrated. If you have something on your site that’d annoy you if you saw it, leave it off.

Chasing the Money

There will be plenty of opportunities to make money from your blog, but that’s not the only thing you can be focused on. It’s pretty obvious when a website is only in it for the money. You might be able to make a quick buck using these methods, but a stable income? You can forget it. The focus should be on delivering excellent content and engaging with your visitors. If you do those things, then the money will eventually come your way.

As a blogger and freelance writer, one of my biggest pet peeves is people who undervalue their work. They agree to low-paying gigs because they are excited at the concept of money, or fear turning anything down. Value your time, your talent, and your audience enough to take on opportunities and collaborations that also value that.

Ignoring the Money

On the other hand, some blogs fail to see the financial potential of their website, which is just as bad. It costs money to host websites, not to mention improve your offerings, and if there’s no money coming in, then you’ll be less inclined to make these improvements. Make sure you’re spending time figuring out how to monetize your site in a sensible way. This means figuring out the things that do and don’t work for you, your site, your readers, and your time. For instance, I get asked daily to be part of commission-based programs but I tend to turn these down, because of the amount of time it takes to turn these small opportunities into any money.

No Eye on Design

People like things that look good, and that’s as true for websites as it is anything else. While you don’t need to reinvent the design wheel (it’s better if you don’t try, in fact), you should have at least one eye on the design of your website. It should make sense when it comes to navigation. If there’s too much going on and difficult to get around, then people won’t have a chance to see all the excellent content you’ve got buried in there. If this isn’t your specialty there are plenty of designs you can buy, and plenty of free ones you can try out to see what works for you.

No Improvement

It’s unlikely that you’re going to have a perfect blog from the first moment you publish your first post. It takes time to find your rhythm, get into the groove, and so on. Many blogs fail because they’re not willing to learn and improve. You’ll have plenty of feedback about what works and what doesn’t (in the form of comments and website data); it’s what you do with that information that’ll help you move forward. You’re going to have competitors who are always trying to improve their sites. If you’re just standing still then you can’t be surprised if you fall behind.

Ignoring the Readers

Finally, remember that the blog might be your baby, but it’s not really for you. There’d be no need to post the blogs online if they were just for you. You’re putting it out there for your readers. So make sure you’re writing your blog posts with them in mind. If you aren’t sure what they like, ask them. Or use the posts that get the most traction - likes, shares, comments, Pinterest pins, etc… - to determine the type of content you should keep creating and the type your should set aside, at least for awhile.