Gaining visitors is great- but the most important thing is keeping them! These loyal followers will help your social following grow and make your blog sustainable. However there are various things which will put readers, both old and new, off reading your posts. Here are a quick few pointers on what might be putting people off coming back to your blog for more:
- No Variation
Its fine to have a style and to stick to a theme, but having absolutely no variation is going to get repetitive for any reader! Reviews for example are great- they’re informative, popular and helpful. However doing a review in 9 out of 10 posts is too much. If you find yourself writing endless posts on a similar tangent- time for a content revamp! Put aside a day to see what your fellow bloggers are doing, you’ll be bound to get some new ideas. You could even tweet out to your following to see if they have any ideas!
- The Photo/ Writing Balance
A hard one to judge depending on your genre, but as simple as it sounds some imagery can go a long way. However there are those who push the balance too far- make sure your post is left with at least some substance! Photos should generally be used to help illustrate your writing, be it a hotel review or just a personal post!
- Sponsored Post Overload!
There is absolutely nothing wrong with accepting a product on occasion, or creating a sponsored post. However a few sites appear to use their blogs solely as a depository for sponsored posts! As long as you’re still writing your own great content, this shouldn’t be an issue. Just make sure the balance is right, and that your readers won’t be disappointed with any sponsored content you decide to place on your blog.
- Over-posting on Social Sites
Posting too much on twitter or facebook can in fact have a negative effect on your following- and subsequently on your readership. If you have something to tweet about this doesn’t mean you should hold back, just don’t tweet for the sake of it. If you don’t have anything to say- say nothing! You’ll soon have something interesting to give your followers, so be patient and wait for that rather than inundating your feed with filler tweets.
- Bad Photography
If you’re thinking of using grainy under-par quality pictures, please don’t! They really can put people off, even if your writing and other content are great. If you can’t plash out on a new camera, there are plenty of places that you can get images for free. However if you really need to take your own photos, as we know many of you do, it really is worth doing a little bit of research and getting the best camera you can for your money. It doesn’t have to be incredible; it just needs to take a good photo! Your skills can do the rest!
Take a look here for Photography Tips for Fashion Bloggers.
Great post – I completely agree about the sponsored thing. It’s all well and good to take the money and run but by spending every post plugging things you’re in danger of losing the reason people came to read your blog in the first place – good, honest writing.
Exactly! It’s great for bloggers to make a living, and there is nothing wrong with collaborating with brands to do that- as long as you’re always mindful of your readership.
It’s important not to over do it!
Rebecca
I read the article. Its nice but may be some more collection of data would have made the post to the next level somewhere.
But otherwise it’s awesome. !!! Cheers..
Hey,
You’re right, it would be really interesting to build some research on this!