It was not long ago that Blogging was a small community on the web. Today Blogs are popping up everywhere. More often than not these Blogs pop out as fast as they came in. You have taken the time to set up your Blog and contribute quality content; you should also take the steps to prevent you Blog from fading away. Let's take a look at the top five mistakes to avoid keeping your Blogs longevity.



Blog Mistake #1- No Blog Plan

Some Bloggers are so excited about setting up their new Blog accounts and customizing the Blog templates they loose focus. Just like a website or a business your Blog needs to have a main idea, main focus. Are you jumping all around from topic to topic, things that are not related to each other? Have you found your niche? Are you only writing about what you are an expert in? (Remember, Blog readers do not want to be fooled in to reading good content. Many are experts themselves and you will not be able to trick them.) Be sure to take the time to explore the world of Blogging and determine what works for high quality, high traffic Blogs. Do these Blogs have a bunch of advertising? Are their posts long or short? Formal or casual? Take the time to do your research and due diligence on your Blog. This should include the installation of some sort of statistics counter. If you are using a Blog hosting service, they may provide one for you. Use the statistics counter to track your visitors. Determine which topics are receiving the most visitors. Keep an eye on where most of your visitors are coming from.

Blog Mistake #2- Loosing Touch with Your Readers

Generally speaking, most Bloggers enjoy receiving comments. Not to mention this is a great way to show the popularity of your Blog. People leave comments on Blogs for the same reason they themselves Blog, to exchange ideas and express their points of view. If you do not respond to your reader's comments then they will probably stop leaving them and perhaps stop visiting. You can respond by simply thanking them for reading your Blog, if you do not have anything else to say.

Blog Mistake #3- Not Participating in a Blog Network

It is not necessary that you become pen pals with every reader that leaves a comment. It is necessary that you market it your Blog. The Blogging community has many networks to do this in. As readers make comments on your Blog you can visit their Blogs as well. Chances are this reader might be someone who receives ten times more visitors than you do. By leaving comments on their Blog, you are also leaving a link back to your Blog. This is also how a network of friends or a Blog Roll is started and your Blog will start to be added to other Blogs as a link.

Blog Mistake #4- Plagiarizing!

DON'T just copy and paste someone's words in your blog without giving them credit. If you write it, write it in your own words, change it and write it better, adding your own thoughts and ideas. Even if you have changed the words you should still be gracious and give mention to where you got the idea, then give a link to that Blog or site.

Blog Mistake #5 Unrealistic Expectations-

There are tens of thousands of Blogs online, and if you did you research, avoiding mistake #1 you would learn that your ideas are probably not too unique. It takes time to establish a readership and even longer a strong readership. This has much to do with your quality content and marketing. Even the search engines need time to update your pages whey after their spiders crawl your Blog. It is a snowball that will get bigger, but slowly. Walking away and abandoning your Blog is a mistake. Frequently I will come upon a Blog that has obviously been optimized for the search engines well, but there has been no new content in months; it has been abandoned. Little does that Blogger know they are still receiving hits without any content.

It is fast and easy to become a Blogger, but patience and consistency are important in being a successful Blogger. Avoid these top five mistakes and you will keep your Blogs longevity and increase your visitors.