Jun 22

Written by:
2010/06/22 09:14 AM 

Traffic is the life blood of any blog and/or website. Readers coming to your site, reading what you have to say is the whole purpose of any internet website, be that a blog or company web page, or personal family page. 

No readers, means no traffic, means dead blog and dead website. 

So much has been written on how to drive traffic to your blog. But have you ever thought about the things that you are doing could actual kill your blog traffic. 

1. Write poor quality content 

Content is King. Have I said that enough on this blog? Bad content is the poison of any blog. People are not going to read rubbish. Neither are they going to recommend rubbish to others. A sure fire way to kill you blog traffic is to write meaningless dribble that wastes peoples time and effort. Writing great content boosts traffic.

2. Copy someone else's content 

Oh dear, how often does this happen. Not only is it illegal and immoral, but also also plain stupid. You might get away with if for a few weeks or months, but eventually it will catch up with you. The internet is not as big as you might hope it to be.

Notice I did not say that you cannot use someone else’s content. With the write credit given, and the blessing of the author, it is quite acceptable to use someone else’s content. But the key here is to do this sparingly. Whose blog is it anyway?

Want to kill your blog traffic, copy someone else’s work.

3. Never keep your content fresh.

How do you feel going into a classy restaurant ordering a nice piece of cake, only to find that it is about three months old. You feel cheated, robbed, let down. You feel angry.

Now imagine how a reader feels coming to your blog only to find that the last time you updated was three months ago. Keep you blog fresh. Be consistent in posting new articles.

Posting frequency is a hotly debated topic. But whatever people think, they all agree on one thing. Have fresh content. Whether you post every day, three times a day, once a week, or whenever. Be consistent and keep that content coming.

Your blog traffic will become stale, stagnant and die just like your stale content. Stale content kills blog traffic.

4. Write about topics you know nothing about

No one likes a know-it-all. Don't feel pressured that you need to write about every topic under the sun. Don't be tempted to write on a subject you know nothing or very little about. You will soon be seen as a fraud and a liar.

Stick to what you know, you cannot go wrong. Don't be tempted to write about it because another blogger has done so and got huge traffic, or because it's in the news, or it's popular.

You are the guru of your own subject matter. Use your knowledge wisely.

5. Write ambiguous titles

Titles are what readers see first. It describes the subject matter, sets the tone of the post. It attracts or dispels people’s attention. Learn to write titles that are attractive and entice readers’ curiosity.

Writing titles that are plain and ambiguous will certainly kill your blog traffic. Why? Because no one will want to read your posts by reading your titles.

6. Never ever respond to comments

This is a biggie, especially if your blog is reasonably small in terms of readership. Responding to comments conveys such a good message to your readers and those who take the time to comment. What does it say if you can't spend the time and effort to respond to comments, when your readers have taken time and effort to comment?

Remember this, the way you respond to comments determines the community you build.

Want to drive people away, want to drive traffic away? Not responding to comments will kill your blog traffic.

7. Litter your blog with ads and sales gimmicks

If all you want your blog to do is sell ads and hock some product, you are surely going to drive people away. There are so many got-to-buy blogs out there that it is almost an epidemic. So many people are more concerned on how they can rip people off, sell them stuff they do not need, than actually worrying about quality content.

Too many ads, and too much sales kills blog traffic like slow poison. There is alway the big question that you need to answer, how many ads should you have on your blog?

Build up traffic first then your ads and sales will take care of themselves. If you want to monetise your blog, build up your traffic and community first

8. Never Network

Networking is so important for so many reasons. It promotes you and your blog. Helps establish a brand. Gets you noticed. Builds up your credibility.

Want to kill your blog traffic? Stop networking. Stop engaging with other bloggers, stop commenting on other blogs. Stop using Social Sites.

Be active on other blogs, help as many bloggers as you can. Be active on the Social Networks, not only promoting yourself, but helping and promoting others. A lack of a social presence is a sure way to kill your blog traffic.

Learn how to promote your blog by networking.

9. Never worry about spelling, typos and grammatical errors.

To err is human, but keep making the same mistakes without rectifying them will kill your blog traffic before you can spell s-p-e-l-l.

I'm dyslexic, so English, grammar, and spelling is especially difficult for me. But I employ the help of others. Make sure you proof your post before posting. You will not find every error, others will. But fix them when you do.

We all make mistakes, including me, especially me. But keep on making the same errors on a blog means incompetence and mediocrity.

10. Worry too much about traffic

Sounds kind of contradictory to the post doesn’t it. Worrying about traffic more than you should, will surely shift your focus. You will be too engrossed in trying to build traffic that you forget to build your blog. Build your community first. Concentrate on quality content. Traffic will come. Sometimes slow, but it will come.

Concentrating too much on building traffic is in fact counterproductive, it will actually have the opposite effect, and it will kill your blog traffic.

Remember, traffic comes and goes, but quality content lasts.

Conclusion

Traffic is important to a blog. Perhaps you have identified some other important points that I missed. Please share them with us in the comments below. You will surely be helping so many more people by sharing you knowledge.

Related Reading:

10 Great Tips on How to Write Killer Content.

30 Ways to kill your blog

Generating Traffic For Your Blog and Website

If you want more traffic for your blog, you have to give more traffic.

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