Editor’s Note: Here at Dispatches, we are always looking for ways to help our readers do things. For some of our readers, that means helping navigate the working world, for others, it means assisting in the ever challenging question, “what’s for dinner?” For still others, it means figuring out how to balance family life with everything else. In an effort to aid in all of these endeavors, we have collaborated on this article written specifically for our readers.
Creating and maintaining a blog are two very different things. It’s easy to create a blog and add the first few entries, share it with friends and family and add the posts to your social channels. Over time, the novelty and your enthusiasm wear off and you might find it takes more effort to maintain. There are few common problems that most bloggers encounter.
Not Enough Traffic
Starting out in the blogging world can be very frustrating when you see only a handful of readers every day. Directing traffic to your site is something that takes time, often a year or more. You can help speed things along by sharing new posts on your social channels, use relevant hashtags and focus on your website’s SEO so that people find you through Google searches.
You Have A High Bounce Rate
If your bounce rate is high, it means that people aren’t sticking around for long enough. Likely it means the reader is coming to your site and reading just one post rather than clicking around. A high bounce rate impacts your site’s SEO. One way to combat this is to use royalty free images to improve the overall user experience. You should also make sure your blog is mobile responsive. That means that it can be viewed on smartphone and tablet devices. Sites that aren’t mobile responsive can appear distorted on smaller screens, which prompts readers to leave.
No One Comments On Your Blog
Some people want lots of comments on their posts, others don’t because monitoring for spam and abusive content can be time-consuming. If you do want more comments, you can try asking for them. Ideally, you should leave a call to action at the end of your blog posts. These will prompt people to leave you comments. For instance, end a post with something like “do you have any more great ideas? Leave a comment below to let me know!” Another tactic is to leave comments on other blogs, which may entice that blogger to visit your site and leave a comment as well.
No Time To Write Regular Posts
Feeling pushed for time? There is one solution – just ask people to submit guest posts. You can invite your readers to send in posts of their own, or you might want to ask fellow bloggers to write something for your site. Either way, this seriously cuts down on the time you need to spend writing and thinking of new posts!