Looking to drive more traffic to your blog? Don’t sacrifice quality content for traffic-generating “tricks” that make your blog look like it exists only to serve up Google Adwords. Here are a few of them that make me crazy:
Linking a business concept with a ridiculously unrelated pop culture reference. Really, does anything scream “I want clicks” more than a post entitled “14 Ways B2B Marketing Strategy is Like a Lady Gaga Concert”?
Numbers. I’m as much of a fan of writing (and reading) the “5 Things That…” and “17 Great Ways To…” list-style posts as the next blogger. This blog has its fair share. But when 90% of your post titles start with a number, you’re trying too hard.
Excessively long list posts. If you have 182 things to say on any topic, you should consider writing a book, not a blog. I just make sure my CSS layout is okay so that the design comes across as professional, but that’s about it. Not length matters, layout and content matter most!
Pop-ups. It’s so annoying when I’m midway through reading a blog post and suddenly the screen goes dim and I’m invited to SIGN UP for a FREE WHITE PAPER. It’s akin to being interrupted in the library by someone shoving a flyer in your face. Go away. Better check out our post about SEO techniques for Affiliate Marketers.
Keyword overload. To me, keywords are like black pepper. A sprinkle is enough. If I see it all over my food, I’m sending my plate back.
Falling Off the Blogging Wagon
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I’ve been busy. For a while, I was trying to blog here a few times per month. Now it’s every few months.
Because here’s the truth: It’s difficult to blog about doing community management and social media when you spend most of your waking hours doing community management and social media for someone else.
In other words, I’m too busy working to write about working. Of course, I know there are so many benefits to being active in Social Media, but when you’re as busy as I am, time is not always on your side.
There’s been a lot of talk about personal branding in the past few years and I know very few folks in social media who don’t have their own blog or some sort of personal web presence.
I’m not going to deny that some degree of personal branding isn’t important (that would be rather hypocritical, given the fact that you’re reading my blog). But if you’re representing a brand, you should probably be focusing more on their brand than yours.
(Unless your brand is your business or overlaps with your company’s brand, in which case it might make sense.)
Now, how did I get off on this tangent?
Oh, that’s right. I’m not blogging very much. But the brand I work for is kicking some serious social media butt. They also work a lot with affiliates and to be honest, that’s another great option.
Now that’s great and if you grow and grow, sooner or later you’ll need more capital to finance your growth ideas.