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.

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Filed under: Blogging • Entrepreneurship

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