Sometimes your best piece of content doesn’t rank.
You write content and you know your ideas are good.
But it’s not quite getting the reaction you want.
You’re smart – so you know you can probably improve.
But you just can’t figure it out. You must be missing something.
And chances are, you’re probably making tons of writing mistakes that are hurting your posts – and not even realizing it.
Even experienced bloggers get caught, time, and time again.
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Why Every Blogger Makes Writing Mistakes
The good news is – every blogger makes mistakes.
Blogging is different from other forms of writing. It’s part of education, entertainment, motivation, step-by-step instruction, opinion piece, and personal journal – and that’s just scratching the surface.
If you’re using the wordpress page builder plugin to make your blog posts more attractive but your readers find it difficult to understand your content, there’s is no advantage to it, and you’re making mistakes there.
But it’s okay.
Because mistakes are opportunities to learn and improve.
Here are the seven most common writing mistakes that can hurt your blogging efforts, and how to improve upon each one.
Mistake 1: Being an EgoManiac
When you write, it’s normal to talk about yourself– topics that make you sound good. And in theory, it makes sense; the better you sound, the more authority, influence, and popularity you’ll gain. Right?
Unfortunately, not.
If you’re always the focus, most people won’t be interested, unless your life’s incredible, you’re famous, or you’re a genius.
People are busy. When you don’t hook them from the jump, they’re gone.
It’s tough to make visitors stick around. Higher expectations, shorter attention spans, and increasing competition mean you have to work harder than ever.
If you want to make your posts worth your reader’s time, you must:
- Stop using “I” and start using “you.”
- Make the benefit clear, straight away – use the headline, introduction, and subheadings to set the scene.
- Use empathy. Write for the audience’s wants – not yours.
- Create case studies, and turn your accomplishments into lessons that apply to everyone.
Mistake 2: Failing to Do Your Homework
It’s difficult work creating a quality post – it’s even harder adding real-life examples to back your claims.
Few bloggers put in the effort. But research is often the difference between a good post and an outstanding one.
There is more to writing than being good with words – bloggers are experts in their fields – and experts don’t just rely on opinion alone – they use facts, data, and examples to illustrate their points.
After all, you want people to act on your advice – do you really think a stranger will “take your word for it” and leap into action just because you said so?
If you want to be more persuasive and build a strong case, you must:
- Make research an integral part of your writing process, not an afterthought.
- Find solid examples that back what you say, especially for major claims or recommendations.
- Use facts and emotions to represent your content.
- When presenting information, structure and sort it in a way that is entertaining and educational.
Mistake 3: Making Promises You Can’t Keep
A headline is an eye-catching promise – the bolder and more exciting the promise, the more attention it receives.
Everyone knows it’s crucial to have a winning headline – but few consider how important it is to deliver on it. Nothing disgusts a reader faster than a misleading headline. So make sure your post delivers what your headline promises.
A good writer determines the direction a post will go by using the headline as a guide; this gives you a precise goal to aim for.
For example, compare these two headlines:
- 7 Ways to Improve Your Writing
- 7 Ways to Write Unforgettable Blog Posts.
Same topic – but the ideas would be applied differently.
If you wrote one article, you could not change the headline later without a significant re-write.
If you want your post to live up to a good headline, you must:
- Decide the headline first – then write the post.
- Ensure every paragraph links back to the ideas in the headline.
- Make your introduction and conclusion reinforce the ideas in your headline.
- Never make a promise you can’t deliver.
- Make sure “How to” posts describe How to do something.
- Make sure to include actionable instructions, especially if you’re writing a “Case Study.”
Mistake 4: Being a Bore
Your audience is looking for solutions.
The recycled content that average bloggers write bores them – their eyes glaze over, and they mindlessly click from page-to-page looking for answers.
Your job is to wake them up – hook them and keep them engaged, and then, when they least expect it, teach them something new.
Be creative, be wacky, apply yourself, and go above and beyond other bloggers’ efforts. Inject some life into your work.
If you don’t want your posts to put your audience to sleep, you must:
- Avoid “common sense” advice – it’s’ been done to death; look for unconventional wisdom, and challenge the norm.
- Lighten the mood by using a conversational tone.
- Use humor, emotions, intrigue, or curiosity.
- Turn up your personality – slightly over the top is better than flying under the radar.
- Show new information, or find unique or unexpected ways to apply old methods.
Mistake 5: Trying to Be a Know-it-All
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough” – Albert Einstein
You may have the world’s best advice, but if it’s written in a dry academic style, no one will endure it long enough to find out.
People don’t read blogs for straight dry facts or to expand their vocabulary – they want solutions, entertainment, or inspiration. If you’re using more jargon than you’d hear at a nuclear physicist convention – you’re doing it wrong.
Your topic might be extremely complex – but that’s no excuse.
A real genius looks to make complex issues brutally simple. If you can achieve that, you’ll stand out in your niche.
Even complex topics are engaging and digestible with the right approach – look at how Brian Dean tackles link building. Instead of using jargon or being needlessly complicated, Brian makes it dead simple – and he makes it fun. With over 1000 comments, it’s obvious he nailed it.
If you want to give actionable advice, you must:
- Cut out jargon, acronyms, or complex terminology and replace with easy to follow language.
- Limit your scope – choose one topic and go detailed. Brian Dean calls it going “an inch wide but a mile deep.”
- Understand the topic to write about it.
- Always cover the basics first– often your audience does not know as much as you do.
Mistake 6: Writing Without a Roadmap
Most bloggers can’t see the forest for the trees – they focus on inconsequential details of their posts and lose sight of the big picture.
Know what you want to achieve before you write.
Create a structure to follow for your post. Without it, you’ll lose track of what you’re trying to say, and you’ll get sloppy, disjointed, and off track.
The structure does not kill creativity – it sharpens it. With a solid structure, you have clarity, and clarity is a blogger’s best friend.
Blogging is about sharing your ideas effectively. A clear and focused post benefits your audience more than a tangled mishmash of beautiful prose.
Because you can’t share what you can’t clearly define.
Look at this article on NeilPatel – its scope is huge. It could have easily turned into a giant mess if the author hadn’t focused on structure and clarity.
If you want to write crystal-clear posts, you must:
- Ensure the posts flow from point to point in a logical fashion.
- Divide long list posts into categories, and group similar points together.
- Share only what’s necessary to get your point across.
- Be able to explain the purpose of your post in one sentence. For example: “My post shows seven common writing mistakes and how to fix them.”
- Clearly define the big takeaway you want your readers to get from your post.
Mistake 7: Thinking You’re Done When You Finish Writing
If you don’t edit – your posts will be flabby, messy, and weaker than they should be.
If you want to write well, you must learn to edit – and do it ruthlessly.
The world’s best bloggers edit their work multiple times – it’s integral to their writing routine. As a beginner, it should be the most important aspect of your writing.
Looking critically at your work is tough. Sometimes you must drop whole paragraphs or sacrifice a clever quote or metaphor – but brevity is key.
Your work isn’t done when you’ve said everything you wanted to say – it’s just beginning! Go back and make sure you’ve said it with clarity and simplicity.
You must follow these guidelines –
- Avoid using two words when one will do. If something is really good – it’s great.
- Trim excessive expressions – Every single blogger = every blogger.
- Resist padding your sentences with filler words; There are some bloggers who think editing is not necessary = Some bloggers think editing is unnecessary.
- Write how people speak.
- Stay accountable to your word count – be ruthless.
- Make multiple passes
Updating content is not enough to rank on Google, You have to build some powerful backlinks to outrank your competitors.
Acceptance – the First Step to Greatness
There is no such thing as writing the perfect post.
Like everyone, you’ll make mistakes – but you can choose to learn from them.
You’re smart, motivated, and driven. Success is waiting for you, at the end of a path lined with mistakes.
Embrace them – let them make you a better blogger. Don’t feel overwhelmed – it’s all part of the journey.
Writing is an evolutionary process, and it might not feel comfortable at first.
But if you begin now, you’ll make incremental improvements over time. Even small changes add up to make big differences.
The most popular bloggers in the world have made countless errors.
Instead of quitting – they accepted it and kept pushing forward.
If you can do the same, you’ll make it.
Now is your time.
Are you ready for greatness?
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- Are You Making These 7 Mistakes That Hurt Your Blog? - September 26, 2020
Being an ego-maniac is a real blog killer. Feel free to work personal stories into blog posts but make it about your readers. Connections occur if you listen to reader problems, solve problems with blog content and follow this simple process for a bit. Excellent post.
Great points. Your readers definitely benefit from a little personality mixed into your writing, but when you cross the line into bragging and become an ego-maniac, you’ll lose a lot of their attention. You do a great job of letting your personality shine without crossing that line. That makes it easy for readers to engage with Blogging From Paradise.
Really an Informative article. Keep it up 🙂
Agreed! Shivansh did an excellent job of laying out this topic here. Thanks for reading!
Good advice!
Thanks for stopping by the blog, Francine!