Top 3 Business Blogging Mistakes That Can Cost You Your Business!

Are you an #entrepreneur blogger (i.e. you run a #business blog that is geared towards driving traffic to your small business) or do you regard yourself as a blogger who makes money #blogging?

Whatever the terms by which you want to be known, a blog is one marketing tool that you don’t want to ignore as an online marketer. Since the advent of blogs they have become very useful both as #online business models or traffic-generation tools for small businesses.

Here are some business blogging stats that will interest you:

• B2B entrepreneur blogger drive 67% more leads than those that do not.
• Businesses that blog are 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI.
• Companies who blog receive 97% more links to their business websites.
• Blogs are rated 5th most trusted source for accurate online information.

Now, despite these stats, a blog could become a problem to your business if not used well!

After 7+ years as a blogger I can rightly say, blogging is like a two-edged sword – handle it rightly and you will enjoy the benefits; misuse it and you’re sure to get hurt!

The unfortunate thing is, many small business owners and #bloggers approach blogging with a mindset that is tantamount to sabotage!

In this post, I want to highlight the top 3 business blogging mistakes you must avoid if you desire to get the best from your business blog.

Ready for this? Then let’s get started:

1. Not Aligning Your Blog with Your Business Objective

This is indeed a sin of the highest order!

One thing I have discovered about blogging in the past few years is the EASE with which you can be thrown off your chosen path. I have seen very many passionate bloggers who started their blogs which the mind of promoting their home based business.  They were fired up having heard of the wonderful things a blog can do for your small business website.

Unfortunately, in a bid to increase blog comments on their blogs and because of the influence of other blogs which they were frequenting in order to drive traffic through comments, these entrepreneurs who started well were soon distracted by what they read on the blogs they frequented. Most times these blogging entrepreneurs, forgetting their business purpose and #target audience, suddenly start writing about blogging tips and other make money blogging content because, to them, these topics are more popular amongst bloggers.

If you have fallen into this error, you are committing a heinous SIN against your business! You must understand that RELEVANCE is the key word when it comes to building your business through blogging. When a visitor comes to your business blog your content must be able to give him/her a sense of what you are offering. Don’t write about the latest #SEO updates when your business is, selling men's wear!

Know your target audience and focus your content at that one persona!

2. Not Generating Leads with Your Blog

As mentioned above, one of the benefits of blogging is growing a list of potential customers. Your blog should therefore have a system for capturing these leads in the first place and then nurturing them into paying customers. If you are not doing this right now with your business blog then you're sinning against your business!

Of course, many bloggers have the wrong notion that adding an RSS feed subscription is enough for your blog. But the truth is RSS feeds have limitations as they are not designed for selling – something you will want to do as a business.

To build a responsive list that will help you build your business you need a reputable lead management system. There are many good lead management system providers out there that you can choose from. In choosing it is important that you choose those that offer autoresponder services which will allow you to automate most of the lead management process.

One autoresponder that you can depend on any day any time is GetResponds.com. This is one email list management system that is very popular with successful online business owners. One good thing is that you can test run the system for free for a whole month before opting to pay for it. Another thing I found really useful about the system is that you have the opportunity to get a free 30 email list building training during that 30 days of testing the system! Frankly, I must say this alone is GOLD as the training you get will help you greatly in your business.

Click here to get your free 30 days trial.

If you want to get more results with any autoresponder services, it’s advisable to also use a lead capture program like the “Easy Optin Builder” or …. These programs are great for creating popup optins or lead capture pages that will help you capture email addresses on your blog.

For details about the Easy Optin Builder,  Click here!

3. Creating Content That Stinks

There’s no doubt about it, your blog exist to help you create content that will engage, excite and entice your target audience to take the action you desire. So content is actually the driver of a blog's success.

Now, it is true that you don't need some professorial qualification to create your blog's content, but the fact is, if your blog content is below par you will have more people clicking away from your site than you will have them clicking to visit!

Many people will judge your expertise and how qualified you are in your niche by the content you post on your blog. This being so, it is important that you run away from posting content that is filled with misspellings and that is badly written on your business blog. Too many grammatical errors and misspellings will only help in driving away potential customers.

SUGGESTION: If you have challenges creating high #quality content, either get other people (freelancers) to create content for you or better still, get a voice to text converter.

With a voice to text converter you will find it much easier to produce content for your blog as all you need is to “talk” your articles while the software types it out for you. This way you don’t need to fear misspellings and grammatical errors. Besides, you will have a more “conversational” sounding article which will be more engaging!

One voice to text converter that I will readily recommend is the Dragon Naturally Speaking software. Dragon is presently the world’s bestselling speech recognition software. It will not only turn your talk into text but can also help in making other computer tasks easier and faster.

For example, the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 13.0 speech recognition software is three times faster than typing – with up to 99% accuracy. You simply say the words and they will appear on your computer screen. You can also dictate or modify documents, spreadsheets and presentations, manage email, search the Web, post to Facebook and Twitter, and more.

For more details about the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 13.0 speech recognition software, please click here!

Conclusion:

A blog is a MUST for your online business but you must guide against committing the above blogging mistakes. Ignoring this advice could result in devastating outcomes. As the competition is getting stiffer by the day you must also rise up to the challenge.