Yesterday, I post “Are you a desperate blogger? What’s wrong with you?” I have received some great response. I felt a little bit desperate when I re-start my blog. Today, I just read a good post about mistakes a new blogger often made at very beginning of their blog life. I have made some mistakes that I should have done, which really hurt my blog for years.
Did you ever make mistakes?
First of all, why do I like what David Airey said about those mistakes? David Airey is one of the very talent graphic designers I found on the Internet, I read his blog everyday. The mistakes he list are a little different than many other bloggers list. It’s based on his personal experience. Many bloggers just copy and copy what other people said. So its worth to bring David’s 7 mistakes attentioin to my viewers. You can read more details about those mistakes at Top 7 blog mistakes to avoid. For your quick reference, here are the 7 mistakes David list with my 2 cents
- Not using a self-hosted blog – I think this is one of the very critical things for a blogger. I have post my thoughts about this at Why You Should Move Your Free Blog to It’s Own Domain. Simply. Would you trust free services that will not last forever?
- Expecting people to visit – I was told by some friends that people will find you if you have good quality content. Would you believe that?
- Not writing as if I’m talking – This is very interesting thoughts. I was told by my English teacher that I am a good talker, but not a good writer.
- Changing the location of my blog – This was one of my biggest mistakes I made. I switch my blog from subfolder into the root of my web 2 years later. Suddenly my pages are all missing from the Google Search Engine. It kills my page ranking from PR5 down to PR1. I am down to the Google Hell! Now I have to start over again.
- Neglecting my article headlines – Headline is one of first think people reads. Put yourself in your viewer’s shoes. Would you spend more than 5 seconds on a post you are not interested? An eye catching Headline will steal 10 minutes from your viewer. Not just 5 seconds.
- Not linking to others as I’d like them to link to me – You have to be kind to give before asking for given.
- Underestimating the time commitment – Oh.. Now I know how much time I have to spend on writing blog.
In addition to David’s list. I have also made the following mistakes, which kills my blog and drove my viewers away few years ago. I hope no one make the same mistake.
- Too much ads on my blog – This is definitely annoying to your viewers. Use your ad wisely and people will click on it. Over use it will cost you more!
- Blog for search engine not for your viewers - Manipulate your blog with two different versions could give your blog a death penalty. It will not destroy your reputation; it will kill your blog forever.
- Ignore your viewers - Your viewer’s opinions counts. If you ignore their thought, you have just missed the chance to grow. You need to digest what your viewer said. You have to listen just like you want your viewers listen to you.
- Never admit the mistakes you made - No one is perfect. Without admit the mistakes you made, you will never grow.
Did you make mistakes? Please share that with me and my viewers.
Good points. And, on your own #2, you’re absolutely right. Whether you’re doing a blog or a regular website, you should write with your readers in mind, not the search engines.
SEO people say that the search engines want this and that, and that we should cater to them. Forget that! I mean, don’t do things that are going to get you banned from the search engines, but don’t worry too much about them either.
Worry about your reader first. Write great content. If you have great content, and the search engines won’t list it because you didn’t do something according to their wants, they’re the losers. If people can’t find great content in the search engines, they will go elsewhere to find it.
The search engines need to adapt to the people writing great content, not the other way around! If they don’t adapt, it will be the end of them.
We have Digg. We have Stumbleupon. We have other bloggers. We have a growing number of resources for finding great content. If the search engines want to continue playing games and dictating how webmasters should create and format and present their content, the search engines are going to become irrelevant.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@dcr:
Great comment! I believe Google search engine is basically a huge marketing tools. They have created many terms that drag people with it. People are after those terms, because they think they can make money off it. SEO, Page Ranking and NOFOLLOW are all Google’s marketing products. They made people think they are the $ sign.
You are correct. Search Engine is no longer the source of finding good quality content. People will find good content in many other ways.
Thanks! I thought about it some more, and thought the topic deserved a full post of its own, which I just finished posting.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@dcr:
Will check out your new post. It seems to be a long reading. Will get my midnight coffee ready.
I hope it was worth the cup of coffee!
Thanks for reading it!
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@dcr:
Oh yeah! It worth a read and a stumble.
Thanks for another stumble! The stumble you did on my last post brought me some decent traffic. I will let you know how this one does.
I will have to join stumble and return the favor on some of your excellent posts.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@dcr:
You can check out the post I have about how to become a good stumbler and stumble related post. It will create you some short term traffic.
StumbleUpOn – How to make yourself a good stumbler
Thanks for the link.
You want to know about traffic? It’s only been about a half-hour or so since you stumbled my post, and it already has 1/3 of the traffic your last stumble brought me ALL DAY Monday!
It’s been 20 minutes now with no change, so it appears to have leveled off for now. But, I’ll report back with the results at the end of the day tomorrow.
I accept all the points ..a bit confused with your point number 2. “Blog for search engine not for your viewers” – and you wrote about having two versions of blogs. Well !! normally the people visiting you over google and other search engines are mostly good for adsense earning !! So having two versions of blog is not a bad idea, where you can display more adds when people visit through search engine and having a totally clean site for your readers who either visit directly or through feed reader.
The people visiting through search engines are looking for information and related adds can provide more information. Also 90% of people visiting through search engine are non returning users, who visit for a while, check whether the information is valid or not ,and doesn’t even bother to look at your blog url. What do you think ??
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@kanak:
Great thoughts. I have seen people having two different versions of content. One is optimized for search engine and one for viewer. Some of the sites will create content just straight for search engine. The content look so wrong and have much worst English writing than mine. The content is full of keywords and hidden text. If you read the content, you thought you were reading a dictionary.
I think Google specific said in their webmaster guide line that webmaster should have the content for their viewer not for search engine.
I have some viewers subscribe to my RSS feed, whom were from search engine. In contrast, most of my stumbleUpOn viewers won’t stay on my site for too long. Whenever I got stumbleUpOn traffic boost to the sky, my average visit length on my blog just drop dramatically. Those users are looking for some topic which my site don’t have. So they walk away.
If you have two versions of content like you described for advertisement. You will be banned by Google FOREVER.
Don’t even think about it. To be honest! I have done that few years ago. That’s why you will never see AdSense on my site. 
Hi Terence,
Thanks very much for the mention, and I’m glad you enjoyed reading my article.
That’s some hit you took with the Page Rank! I only lost 1 point, but to lose 4! Oh well, with all your content still intact you have a great base from which to re-grow.
Too much advertising does hurt a site. Absolutely. You list a few great additions to my original thoughts.
Very interesting info…This article is great.
@terence , with two versions i actually meant .. like for example , if you directly visit my page , you can c only one google add unit place , but at the same time when you visit through google search engine .. you will see 3 add adsense unit … similarly you will have other add network also switched on. thats what i meant … ( i havnt implemented it .. but have seen on some blogs that number of adds increase exponentially once you come to their blog through google. )
I wonder google can ban someone for displaying less or more…
Sad to hear about your relation cut with google. I am sure there might be some other reason than having two version of website.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@David Airey:
I am your loyal reader. I really like your design, which is very unique. I am glad that you stop by! Keep up the good articles. I am watching you!
@Aword:
Thank you! I am glad that you enjoy!
@kanak:
Hmmm… You bring up a good point. If you are NOT manipulating your content and NOT trying to get people click on you the ads. I don’t think Google can argue with that.
Well. I have tried almost everything that Google said “Not to do.” Here I come again. Now I am sure I will do it right this time.
Great advice. I would never have thought about the impact of moving the location of my domain’s folder on the server. Thanks for saving me a potentially damaging misstep down the road.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@AV Enthusiast:
Thank you for stopping by. I am glad that it helps you.
number 7 is a good one. I did underestimate the time it takes to blog well. Last post took about 3 hours to put together, just the writing, proofreading, correcting and editing in a readible way plus add another hour or so to do a little research and finding a picture that would go well with the theme. But then, it is problably the longest post I ever made!
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@Mirjam:
That sounds very familiar here. I tried to cut down the time spend on those things. It’s a good learning though.