Although there may be any number of reasons why a blog is unable to build readership, gain advertisers, and ultimately become a success, you will have to evaluate your own site in order to determine the particular problems besetting you.

And, there are a few common themes that could be to blame for your inability to move forward with your online endeavor. Some of them are within your power to fix, and others may require outside help.

But, if you’re stuck scratching your head over how to get your blog on track, here are…

5 Main Reasons Success May Have Thus Far Eluded You

1. Broad Topics

Although you may be keen to cover a fairly wide subject matter, and you certainly don’t want to get so specific that you can’t hope to generate enough content to keep your blog interesting and informative, the truth is that you need to have a niche in order to set yourself apart from competitors.

If you do a search for “style blogs” on Google, there are over a billion results. A search for “German style blogs” produces less than half that number, but 400 million is still quite a bit to compete with. “German lederhosen style blogs” brings the count to under a million, a far more manageable number, but you’ll have to blog about lederhosen. You get the idea? Sometimes it’s as simple as putting a fresh twist on an overdone topic, but you need to find a way to set yourself apart from the white noise of similar blogs.

2. Unreliable Web Hosting

You can have the best blog in the world, but if no one can reach it because it is always out of service or pages time out when loading, you’re sunk. The internet crowd is neither patient nor particularly tolerant when it comes to such snafus. And, if they receive a loading error once, they’re not likely to return for a second test. By the way, this type of service can also be detrimental to your standing with search engines if web crawlers can’t access your site.

3. Boring Content

Short-attention-span-theater is the name of the game here, so if you can’t grab a visitor’s attention within a few seconds, they’re likely on to the next thing. Killer content is a must, as is rapid turnover of topics to keep readers coming back for more. A heavy dose of personality is also advisable as a way to engage readers on an intimate and emotional level.

4. Lack of Knowledge

The only thing worse than boring your audience is lying to them, and if you fail to check facts before you write your blog entries, a savvy audience will figure it out eventually. So, if you write about subjects you know nothing about, or worse, spin articles taken from other sites (a thinly veiled form of plagiarism), you don’t deserve even the hapless readers that stumble across your site.

5. No Exposure

With all the competition you’re facing, you really have no choice when it comes to self-promotion. It’s only a question of degree. If you’re not at least joining ad shares and listing yourself on directories you might as well be invisible. But on top of that, you should comment on other blogs, consider finding a guest posting service (which works both ways), join forums, and begin engaging in SEO as a way to make sure that you’re constantly increasing your web presence and gaining exposure. The more people finding your blog, the more opportunity you have to succeed.

Evan Fischer is a freelance writer and part-time student at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.

There are many things to consider when creating a home office. You want to feel comfortable and relaxed, but yet not so much that you find it hard to be productive.

This infographic details everything you should consider when designing a home office. Remember, function is just as important (if not more important) as the look and feel of the room.

P.S. Click on the image to view the original size for an easier read.

Creating the Ultimate Home office

If this is your first time here on my blog, first of all, welcome. Every month I do a detailed income report, showing you exactly where my income comes from. This gives you an idea of the various income streams that are available, as I strongly believe you shouldn’t place all of your eggs in one basket.

This is also a way for me to measure my success (or failure) from month-to-month. Each month will vary in income, and that’s all part of working from home as an affiliate and internet marketer. This acts as a motivator for me to keep pushing forward to reach my goals.

I hope you find these income reports helpful and give you encouragement that it is possible to make money on the internet.

Let’s see how I did last month…

Income from ReplaceYourSalary.com

• PayDotCom – $225.36
• Clickbank – $23.98
• Responsive Data – $54
• Google Adsense: $153.37
• Project Payday: $60 (commissions earned from promoting the program, not actually using it)
• AdFish – $156.20
• Advertising Sold – $255
• E-Junkie – $14.80
• Paul’s Backlink Service Affiliate Program – $52

Total = $994.71

Income from Proofreading/Editing Services

It’s an honor for me to be able to provide a high quality and much needed service, and it’s been an honor serving my clients. You can learn more by visiting the link below.

• Professional Proofreading Services

Total = $192

Income from My Micro Niche Adsense Site

Google Adsense earnings for this month from the site totaled $6.13. This amount is included in my total Adsense income as reported above.

Total Online Income

Total online income IS…

$1,186.71

How Well Did You Do Last Month?

If you feel comfortable, I would love to hear how well you made out with your online endeavors last month as well. Feel free to share with us by leaving a comment below…

There are plenty of websites out there that will help promote your business. You got Facebook and Twitter at your disposal, and boy, it will work wonders for your business. It takes advantage of this giant network including everything from your peers, to family members, colleagues and coworkers, to total strangers, and literally puts them at the palm of your hand. There, promotion and advertisement is something you can do effectively.

The best thing of it all is that the right people are there. Those are your targets. They’re your future clients. Twitter and Facebook are a good example of social networks that are easily and effectively harnessed as tools to promote your business.

However, there are others that are quite the opposite. In this article, I’ll specifically talk to you about Pinterest. It’s also a social network like Facebook and Twitter. It’s new out there, and right off the bat, a lot of business enthusiasts claim that Pinterest can help boost your business like the way Facebook and Twitter does it.

However, Pinterest doesn’t really work the same way. There are some trends in it that have just really started the way it did that don’t seem to be changing anytime soon. Well, it’s a good way to express one’s artistic side on this website, but not your business.

If any of these three statements are true, then Pinterest is not for you.

3 Simple Reasons Pinterest is Bad for Your Business

1. Your Business has Nothing To Do with the Arts

Like what I’ve said, Pinterest is mostly for arts-y people and art enthusiasts. The problem is, your business has no connection with the people in Pinterest whatsoever. There is no line between what you want from them and what they want from anyone who’ll give what they want. For example, your auto mechanic business has nothing to do with painters, sculptors, and photographers. Sure, maybe most of them drive a car, but take into consideration that Pinterest is not the first place they’ll look. If there is any relation between the automobile industry and Pinterest, it will first start with car designs and similar things of the sort. That’s more relevant to users.

2. Your Business Doesn’t Largely Cater to the Younger Demographic

Pinterest is made for and is currently populated by mostly the younger generation, with some middle-aged demographics. Another example – if you’re trying to sell life insurance, Pinterest is simply the wrong place. So many youths just don’t care… anywhere, much more in a website where art is their life. They’re too carefree, and they really won’t stop and consider what your business has to offer them. However, it’s all about the people. It’s the market – the potential buyers. That’s why if your business is about shoes, jewelery, make up, etc., Pinterest is the right part of the sea to go fishing in.

3. Your Business’ Primary Customers are Males

They say 60% of Pinterest users are of the female gender. If, for example, you have a guns and ammo business, this place is definitely not the right patch of grass to go catching what you’re looking for. Pinterest is for the finesse, the sensitive, the kindred-spirited, and the ones who have the time to look back at the beauties of life and the diligence to highlight them and magnify them for the whole world to see and enjoy.

Pinterest is really a good site, I’m telling you. But, there are really some businesses (which, most likely, could be yours) that don’t fit into this. It’s not for everyone. It’s for a certain select few. That’s why you have to be careful not to go fishing in the wrong spot, not to go digging in the wrong mine, and… you get the picture. It won’t work for everybody’s businesses, but the disadvantage for some is an advantage for others. So, if your business is spot on for the people you’ll find at Pinterest, go for it!

About the Author:

Jessica Francisco is a cheerful 25-year-old with an odd sense of fun. The least of her broad range of hobbies include swimming, hiking and listening to the music of Michael Jackson. Jessica is also one of the editors for Luke Roxas, a renowned Business Tycoon from the Philippines. Luke Roxas on Google +.

Every month I do a roundup of the previous month’s posts, in case you may have missed any. I encourage you to check out and comment on any you may have skipped over or didn’t get a chance to read yet.

As always, I appreciate the continued support from all of you.

Okay, let’s get to last month’s blog posts…

February 2012 Blog Posts on ReplaceYourSalary.com

3 Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Traffic

Finding Business Resources in Places You Never Thought to Look

What Exactly is A/B (Split) Testing?

7 Strategies to Leverage Your Blog and Make Money with It

How to Create Your Social Media Marketing Plan

Blog Posts Around the Web

I encourage you to take some time to read these as well.

I decided to pick posts that deal with SEO, mainly for the fact that search engine optimization is changing, again. Or should I say… it has already changed, and it’s important to keep up with the current changes, or you could find your site/s being de-indexed or dropped really low in the rankings.

As always, I encourage you to take some time to read these as well, as they’ll help in making sure your websites are up to par.

The first post comes from Pat Flynn, who talks about ethical link building. With the new SEO changes, link building has taken a pretty big hit. There are link building strategies that used to work, that you now want to avoid like the plague. Follow Pat’s advice closely. You’ll be glad you did.

JR discusses over-SEOd websites and how Google will now penalize sites that focus too much on optimization. It’s important, and always has been, to do things naturally when it comes to SEO. Don’t keyword stuff the title, headings, tags and content of your site. Keep it natural. That’s what Google likes.

Daniel Scocco posted a video from Google providing 6 SEO tips to follow along with some mistakes to avoid. Who better to get SEO advice from than Google? Yeah, I couldn’t think of any, either.

JR has another post talking about website blocks and how they’re used by search engines to improve their search results. If you’ve never heard of a website block before (I hadn’t), then be sure to read this.

Last but not least, Alex discusses 10 ways you can benefit from your 404 error pages. How many people show up to your website but never actually land on a page? Instead, they receive a 404 error page. You can improve your site’s SEO and retain more site visitors by taking advantage of custom 404 error pages.

That’s all for now. Be sure to show some fellow bloggers some love by leaving a comment on their posts if you see fit. I know they would appreciate it just as much as I would.