A blog that sucks is a blog that is unsuccessful. If your blog isn’t successful, it might be because it sucks. That can be a hard pill to swallow, but it doesn’t mean that the unsuccessful blog itself is inherently, automatically crappy. It just means that there’s got to be a reason why your blog isn’t successful, and you need to find out what it is. As it turns out, there are several possible reasons for this, as stated below.
1. Your content sucks.
“Content is king” is as cliché as advice get in blogging, but it’s still true. When it comes down to it, people come to your blog and return to it because of your content. Your content needs to be relevant, useful, funny, inspiring, entertaining, valuable, unique, or meaningful in some other way to get people to read it. Don’t just regurgitate what other people are writing. Come up with your own material, or at the very least, put a new spin on existing material.
2. Your writing sucks.
if yoo suk @ riting, no won will reed ur blog lolz. See how painful that was to read? Sucking at writing obviously involves sucking at spelling (as just illustrated), but there’s much more to it than that. You know your writing sucks if
- Your content is inaccurate or nonsensical.
- You take too long to get to your main point.
- Your posts are too long.
- Your posts are too personal. No one wants to here about the troubles you’re having with your spouse.
- You use too many clichés.
- You don’t break up your text enough with paragraphs and headings.
- Your tone is off-putting for one reason or another.
These are just some of the many ways your writing can suck; there are tons more (if you come up with some, let me know in a comment below!). It will definitely help if you get someone else (who isn’t afraid to hurt your feelings) to read your posts and tell you what they honestly think. If you can’t find anyone, ask people in online forums to critique your writing; the Internet creates a blissful wall of anonymity that people are only so happy to hide behind so they can chew you out.
3. Your SEO sucks.
Maybe no one’s reading your blog because they can’t find it. If that’s the case, your blog’s search engine optimization sucks. Use applicable keywords in your post titles and in your content. Make sure your permalinks aren’t set to be just a jumble of numbers like www.yourdomain.com/?=194.
You can read more about blog SEO in these previous Famous Bloggers posts:
- 3 Reasons You Need to Focus on SEO
- 4 Invaluable Blog SEO Tactics You Must Not Ignore
- 5 Out-of-Date SEO Strategies
- 5 Sure-Fire SEO Tips for Bloggers
4. Your design sucks.
Has your blog been horribly burned by acid or is that how it’s supposed to look? Pick a nice, clean theme for your blog. As far as design goes, having too little is just about always better than having too much. Don’t have too many widgets cluttering your sidebars and footer, and for the love of all that is holy, do NOT have too many distracting, flashing ads. In fact, don’t have too many ads of any kind. They can be very off-putting.
Make sure the colors in your blog don’t clash and cause people to dry heave. Don’t have fonts in your header or body text that are hard to read. Ease of navigation also falls under the umbrella of design. If people can’t find what they’re looking for on your blog (through a search bar, nav menu, sitemap, etc.), then your blog design sucks.
Check out these great design articles on Famous Bloggers:
- When Good Web Design Goes Bad
- 7 Basic Tips for Designing Your Blog
- 14 Design Mistakes That Could Cause Your Site to Fail
- Does Your Site Design Turn Off Visitors?
5. Your marketing sucks.
Even if you’ve got great content, design, writing, etc., your blog can still be unsuccessful if no one is reading it. And it sucks when no one reads your blog. And if your blog sucks because no one is reading it, you suck at marketing. Start guest posting like crazy, participating in online forums, commenting on other blogs, and connecting through social media. Click on the Marketing tab right below the FamousBloggers.net header logo to read more about how to successfully market your blog.
6. Your timing sucks.
If you’re just now starting to blog about how great Twitter is, I have bad news for you. Everyone and their grandma has already posted, tweeted, reposted, and retweeted about how bloggers should be using Twitter. If you write about that now, you’re too late. That canoe went downriver long ago, while you were still going to the bathroom in the woods. If your content is great but not timely, I’m sorry to tell you that your blog sucks.
7. Your niche sucks
Maybe your blog sucks because no one gives a crap about what you’re talking about. No matter how passionately you love talking about making scale models of old Russian aristocratic palaces out of toothpicks and multicolored marshmallows, you’re not going to find a whole lot of other people interested in what you’ve got to say. If lots of traffic is your goal and you’re blogging about marshmallow palaces, your niche sucks. Quit now and focus your efforts elsewhere.
I don’t mean to attack anyone here. I’m not saying that you personally suck. Maybe your blog is brand new and that’s why you aren’t enjoying the success you want. But maybe your blog generally does suck. I freely admit that there are reasons my blog sucks. But the good news is that if your blog DOES suck for one of the above reasons, it’s not the end of your career as a blogger. Your blog doesn’t have to suck forever! Fix what needs to be fixed and eventually your blog will be successful and stop sucking! Most blogs out there suck, meaning that a standout blog will eventually get noticed and rise above the rest.
If you’ve got any other reasons why blogs suck, be sure to leave them as comments below!