5 Mistakes Costing You Readers and How to Avoid Them

Do you ever feel like your blog audience is growing at a snail’s pace? While the phrase “Slow and steady wins the race” might be accurate in most cases, it can be extremely frustrating when it applies to your blog. Let’s talk about 5 Mistakes Costing You Readers and How to Avoid Them

I hear you. You’ve settled on your dream niche, you have all these awesome ideas and know-how you want to share them with your audience.  You’ve optimized your images and diligently shared your fabulous posts like a Social Media Boss, yet you can still count the number of readers on the fingers of one hand. So what gives? Why aren’t readers flocking to your blog?

The truth of the matter is, you’re probably making one, if not more, major mistakes that are costing you readers and you might not even be aware of it.

If you feel like you’re fighting a losing battle to grow your audience, I’ve got some good news for you: I’m here to show you the 5 mistakes costing you readers.

5 Mistakes Costing You Readers

1. You’re talking to everyone

Maybe you identify with the food bloggers niche. Or perhaps lifestyle bloggers. Or fashion bloggers. Whatever it may be, I know you are an expert at it. I know you know your stuff and I know you can’t wait to share it with the world. Don’t get me wrong, knowing your niche is great but it’s only one side of the coin.

You need to know your audience. And by your audience I mean, you need to get super specific on who your IDEAL reader is. It’s not enough to say women ages 25-40 who want to learn xyz.

You need to get inside their head and pinpoint their biggest struggle. Then you need to solve that struggle.

Take 10 minutes of your time, grab a piece of paper and really drill down on your ONE ideal reader. Who are they? Where do they live? What does their day to day life look like? What is their biggest problem? Most importantly – give them  a name.

Got your one person? Good! Now step into their shoes and take a look at your blog. What could you change to make them fall in love with you? Take a look at your blog design, your content, your images… evaluate everything from their perspective. Write down everything you could change to make your blog more appealing to your ONE person and work down that list. I promise you it will be worth it.

2. No clear call to action

Just because you have social media sharing buttons, a comment form, or even a subscribe form on your site that doesn’t mean your audience knows what to do. If you want them to share your post, then invite them to share it at the end of your post, if you want them to comment, encourage the comments by closing the article with a question. If you want them to subscribe then give them an incentive to do so and ask them to subscribe.

Don’t be afraid to encourage interactions on your posts. Today, when most of us suffer from short attention span and blindness to common elements, it’s too easy to overlook your sharing buttons or comment form if there is nothing to remind us to actually take action.

3. I’m reading this awesome post…

Some might disagree with me on this, some may even call me crazy but I’m saying it anyway: your social media icons might be your worst enemy. Sure, we all want more followers, and fans but if your sidebar is cluttered with Facebook like boxes, Twitter Timelines or even worse Pinterest profile boards you risk losing your readers to the Social Media Neverland.

Remember what I said about short attention span a few paragraphs above? It’s all too easy to glance over to the sidebar, see a great image on your Pinterest board and….your reader is gone.

So do yourself a favor. If you can’t bring yourself to ditch your social media profiles completely from your blog, then use unobtrusive icons for them and place them as the very last widget in your sidebar or in the footer. Focus on getting email subscribers to your blog and then you can always invite them to follow you on social media in your email newsletter.

4. Not asking for feedback

Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback from your readers. Do your posts really help them solve their problems? Do they teach them something new? Do they inspire them? Are you making  a difference?  It might sting at first, especially if you hear something negative but it will pay off in the long run because you will be giving your audience what THEY want instead of what YOU think they want.

5. Not giving anything in return

Every relationship is based on a give and take principle. In order to get something, you gotta give something too. So when we apply this to blogging  – if you want people to trust you with their email address and/or share your content across their social media you have to give them something in return. And no, just your blog posts aren’t enough. Create one insanely useful, brilliant piece of content that will completely knock them off their feet. And then give it away when they sign up for your email list or when they follow you on Twitter or like your content anywhere else. Reward them for participating and for being a loyal part of your tribe.

[bctt tweet=”Create one insanely useful, brilliant piece of content that will knock them off their feet”]

So there you have it. If you caught yourself making any of these 5 Mistakes Costing You Readers, stop blogging right now and work on getting at least 3 of them fixed. By doing that, you will be on your way to successfully growing your audience the next time someone comes across your blog.

Do me a favor, will you? Share in the comments, what’s your biggest mistake and how are you going to fix it? Then share this article with your tribe.

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