I posted this a few weeks ago over at Venus Trapped in Mars, but I definitely wanted to share it here with my readers as well. There’s a lot of good information I compiled here that could be very useful!
Mistake Number One: Not Listing Your Email
Mistake Number 2: Not Responding to Comments
Mistake Number 3: Ignoring Social Media
Yes, your blog is your brand-and any good brand this day needs at least a Facebook page and a Twitter profile. Other than those two I would highly recommend you also have an Instagram account and a Pinterest profile-but why stop there? There are so many places you can leave your mark, Google+, Tumblr, Stumbleupon, Bloglovin, etc. Those are just my main recommendations. The more places you’re connecting with people and sharing your content, the more views you’re going to get and the bigger/faster you’ll grow.
Want to learn more about Social Media? Check out this post: New Blogger Series: Social Media
Mistake Number 4: Not Making it Easy to Share Your Posts
Mistake Number 5: Being Inconsistent with Your Branding/Design
Mistake Number 6: Making Posts Difficult to Read
Make sure the words pop out from the page. Light/white writing on dark/black backgrounds, or dark/black writing on light/white backgrounds. Boom. Easy to read. Honestly? Don’t ever use Highlighter Yellow for your basic text… It’s awful. I guess any bright neon color should be avoided for main text-use these colors to accentuate certain things if you must, but keep your basic text color simple and easy to read.
Use a simple font. Yes, there are so many cutesy curly curvy fonts available to post in-but don’t. Use those for adding to your graphics or possibly your post titles, but keep your main text a good clean simple font. Reading long blog posts in those fancy fonts can hurt one’s head.
Make your text a decent size. Don’t post everything in super-tiny or super-large fonts. Stay between size 10 and 14 for your main post, and make your title/header larger so it stands out.
Always use proper formatting and paragraphs. Don’t write one massive block of text-in my experience people tend to just skip most of it or give up half way through. Formatting is your friend.
Add an image. Again, people are typically very visually inclined. A great image not only allows someone to pin the post, but it provides something visually appealing to look at-try and make all of your images the same width in your posts, and big and well-fit is best! For more information on sizing/positioning photos check out THIS POST from my new blogger series.
Mistake Number 7: Violating Copyright/Using Other’s Photos without Permission
Mistake Number 8: Using Pop Ups that Make Your Blog More Trouble Than It’s Worth
Mistake Number 9: Putting Too Much Stuff in Your Sidebar
Mistake Number 10: Not Knowing Your Own Value
That being said, just because a company offers you compensation to write about them, does not mean you have to accept. If it’s not something in line with your beliefs or something that fits with your blog, turn it down. You don’t want to feel like a sell-out, and you don’t want to flood your readers with products you don’t actually support. So know your worth, both in terms of deserving compensation, and in not having to accept something just because it’s a paying gig. You deserve it!