I read a lot of blog posts on a weekly basis. By the way, if you own a blog and you don’t read other people’s blogs, you need to start now. As a blogger it would only be to your own benefit to learn about what your peers are doing, and you would learn a great deal from them as well.
Among the blog posts that I read many are very good, well written and full of absolutely great advice. On the other hand, however, once in a while I still find some pretty bad quality ones, and the only reason that I’ve landed there and try my best to read the post is that I am trying to do what is required of me from my facebook group, which is read the post and help syndicate it by commenting and sharing.
However, if you have one of such low quality blog, let me tell you that your blog will never be successful. It’s tough enough to find regular followers with a good blog, because people have just so much choice out there, but how in the world are your going to do it with very low quality content? As a matter of fact, if you keep going this way, not even people who belong in your content sharing facebook group will want to share your content, and eventually they’ll stop coming all together.
So, what makes mediocre to down right bad content?
You are Writing for the Sole Purpose of Filling up Space
This is most definitely the worst reason to write. If you are writing for the sole purpose of filling up space, what type of value do you think you are going to bring on the table? Not much, to be sure.
If you have nothing to say to your readers, it’s most probably because blogging and online marketing is not for you. But if you feel that it’s because you just don’t have enough ideas, then you definitely need to read other valuable blog posts to give you inspiration. Reading is the fuel of the writer. If you never read you will dry up like a plant will dry up without water.
Research your niche and get educated on a daily basis, and you will build a knowledge bank that will help you write interesting, and valuable content. Get in the habit of taking notes, even if you feel that they may be irrelevant for the time being. They may turn out to be just what you need later, and be the base for an excellent post. Do not publish a post as long as you don’t have some decent content to deliver, because people will judge you by such content.
You’re Only Thinking about Keywords
If your only concern is your keywords, chances are that it will affect the quality of your article. When I am writing for clients who seem to be a bit too obsessed by keywords, I warn them that if I have to think too much about the percentage of times I have to insert the phrase “great anti-wrinkle cream”, it will affect not only the quality of my writing, but the value of the article as well. So don’t make this mistake. Once you are using your keywords in a reasonable manner, and which makes sense, it will be good enough for Google to find you, and just right for the reader as well. That’s all you need.
When you’re trying to purposely insert keyword phrases in a post it kills the natural flow writing, and to the human eye it can look right up strange and artificial. Don’t’ kill your human touch and use keywords moderately to help your article, not to destroy it.
Your Only Concern is to Sell
If you are writing with the sole intention of selling something, it will affect the quality of your posts. When was the last time you’ve watch a commercial that was really beneficial to you? When was the last time you’ve read an ad that taught you something? Yes, that’s right; probably never.
It’s the same thing for your blog posts. If your posts are too commercialized they are going to sound like some smart commercials, but that’s about as much as you can expect them to be. You are not going to attract a flock of people to your blog wanting to share your posts, because your article will not be of much value at all.
Remember, people like to discover and learn things or at least get informed or entertained, but they do not like to be sold. Nobody likes to read or share a selling post. When was the last time you were motivated to share such post yourself?
Bottom Line
In order to write good content, you need to care for the reader more than keywords and making sales, and most of all your should never, ever write just to fill out space. Who needs this?
The internet is full of blogs with great, interesting and educational content; do you think that anyone in their right mind is going to lose their time to reading your less than mediocre blog? It’s my sincere hope that you don’t think that way, because if you do, you will fell on your face faster than you can imagine.
If you are blogging and serious about your online business, get a grip, and start writing something people would like to read and benefit from. That’s the way to go in order to succeed. That’s the only way!
So, have you analyzed your blog content lately? Please, do tell us… and what did you find?
Well done Sylviane!
It’s funny because I lack that SEO mindset! I like to get an idea and pour it out of my heart. That’s the way I blog. Also, there has been talk that Google bots are starting to catch on to the SEO bloggers and not rating them well.
My goal is not to get on top of Google, but rather have my blog be a reflection of me. All that I learn and all that I share. Sometimes even a goofy blog just for fun. And of course, that 80/20 or 90/10 rule whereby I can offer a product or service.
I do have many readers and I appreciate it. I like to also go to their blogs and build relationships there and on the social platforms. I love going to other blogs to learn and get inspired.
Thanks for writing this as a reminder to folks that are “buy me” bloggers, or those who are just trying to fill space.
Donna
Donna Merrill invites you to read..Google+ Hangout With Patricia Gozlan
Hi Donna,
I’m like you. When it comes to write my own content I have never been keyword and SEO obsessed, and frankly if i have once or twice it never made a bit of difference for me somehow.
Yes, readers do appreciate posts written from the heart that make sense and that talk to them.
Thank you for your input, Donna 🙂
Hey Sylviane,
Great Article. You are correct about the content importance. Whew but when you take rules in account its tough when you have to have traffic to your site. However with that said , Good traffic is better than just trafic, so for sure your advice is wonderful. Thanks again for sharing. Carol Minarcik Online Coach
Hi Carol,
I think that traffic comes with quality content and if you write good stuff than all the rules come into place, don’t they?
Thanks for your feedbacks 🙂 very much appreciated.
Interesting, when I go back and look at my first posts I can see a major difference but does that mean by next year I will see more improvements? Probably so. (I hope) I have been on some blogs where the text is so small I can’t even read it or the background is flashing away that I can’t take it and leave. I always write to help someone, I tend to have someone in mind that I’m trying to help out in each post. I do use Yoast so it makes SEO easier to deal with and I can concentrate on the writing of the post. Great topic Sylviane.
Lisa invites you to read..Is Your Websites Seniority A Major SEO Factor?
Hi Lisa,
Yes, there is a huge improvement between my past and present posts as well.
But that part of human nature, we are never idle… we keep improving and blogs are a great testimony to this.
Yes, you’re right some bloggers make it pretty hard to read their blogs. That’s their loss, I guess!
Thanks for coming, Lisa!
This is a great lesson Sylviane and I’m the perfect example. I wrote for the search engines in the beginning and although I made sales, I didn’t make those connections. When you write for the search engines your content is boring and lacks “you”.
Chose a niche that you can enjoy and know something about because you’ll soon be on the forums saying, I don’t know what to write about. If you run out of things then you’ve chosen the wrong topics.
Share with your readers things that are helpful but put your own experiences in there as well. As soon as I started writing more for me, my blog picked up steam. Write just for SEO and you’ll be sorry. Write for those who want what you have to share and you’ll be happy. Make those connections along the way and you’ll be successful.
Great formula! Thanks for sharing this, love this post.
~Adrienne
Adrienne invites you to read..How To Get Extra Posts In Your Buffer Feed
Hi Adrienne,
Yes, we all have tried to write for SEO, not that I ever liked it, but I did it with article marketing ,especially, not so much with my blogs. But yes, it so boring and even annoying when you are to keep thinking about the percentage of your keywords. I’m so glad I’m beyond this now 🙂 Sometimes even though I was on top of Google search I didn’t necessarily made sales either 🙂
Glad you liked the post, Adrienne
Hi Sylviane
Very good article. I agree with the keyword articles, they are so hard to read without you feeling like you are being sold to. It is also difficult to follow the SEO correct way to do things if you are the author. It just doesn’t sound right.
Besides, I really enjoy reading the “people experience” behind the blog post. You can easily relate to someone that can allow you to enter their private world. It doesn’t have to be extremely personal, but just a day in the life of the author to the post will draw you in. You feel like you know just a little more about them and who they really are.
Mary
Mary Stephenson invites you to read..How Creative Are You?
Hey Sylviane,
Read your article fully again. I think I’m becoming a regular! There are 2 things that stuck out to me and that’s keywords and just filling up space amongst all the other websites out there.
For keywords, I think it’s important to try and tackle these keywords while trying your best to relate to your audience on a personal level. There’s numerous ways of tackling the weird keywords that are often high trafficking and easy to rank in (since they’re weird). You can do this through the keyword flip trick where you rank on Google backwards via your title, you can rank on the beginning part of it instead of the ending, and even target an h2 tag if you think it’ll make it. You should always at least target 1 keyword, unless of course you’re inputting information about the site in general, putting in your privacy policy, or something else of the like.
Of course what you say holds truth in itself. Even though it can be smart to use your head a little and get in that 1 keyword while effectively relating to your audience and still getting the job done… your ultimate goal is to build your site into a thriving online business. With enough work, you can easily be ranking on HIGH COMPETITION KEYWORDS via Google, dominating the social marketing field, displaying awesome and funny videos that people love to see, effectively using PPC marketing, using ads on other sites, and so on.
As for space, I agree. No matter what type of site you build, it needs to be professionally laid out and very user friendly that pertains heavily to the type of audience you’re writing for. I have leery thoughts about competition though because to an experienced online marketer who knows there stuff, they know there’s not many sites out there for many given subjects. For example: if you tried looking up gaming theme songs, I promise you you’ll only find 1 good site out there. The rest are post based or only talk about a specific genre of online gaming theme songs instead of the whole niche in general. People often think they have no chance against the huge amount of websites out there, when in reality it’s easy if they put their mind to it… ofc after they start having a good concept of how the internet really works.
Enjoyed reading your article Sylviane. ttyl.
Hi Seth,
As always, I appreciate your input full of expert insight and knowledge.
I know that you know quite a bit about keywords. Of course, I do use keywords, because when used naturally it leads people to the topic that you are covering, and that there are actually looking for, so the problem doesn’t lie in the keywords themselves, as we know, but in the over use of them and the wrong use of them as well.
Thanks for your regular visit, Seth 🙂
Hi Sylviane,
Bloggers need to be improved. And they are, if they are following correct guidelines that worthwhile to them and their blogs to long last with readers. If bloggers feed everyday by reading, they won’t get lost without havin’ topics to write about.
Keywords reminds me of SEO. But I believe SEO is an optimization technique needs to apply carefully just for search engines to find pages. But we need to write for people and they are the ones who gonna read our content, not search engine bots. Sometimes I have seen that people falls to SEO tools and follow guidelines instead of using creative writing skills and techniques. I bet poets are the ones don’t care keywording at all, else they end up with an essay instead of a poem 😉
Personally when I see an affiliate link in a blog post asking to click on it, I feel that person trying to sell me that instead of suggesting me. I know sometimes they are offering great products or services, but once I see such motive in a post, the interest I had at the beginning will fade away and it feels like a promotion to me. But if he/she honest with reader and tell it’s an affiliate link, then I may tend to support too.
Nice post with useful ideas to think about Sylviane 🙂
Cheers…
Mayura invites you to read..How to Edit Uploaded Videos on YouTube
Hi Mayura,
True SEO is first and foremost for search engines to be able to bring up a content source. The thing is that it always needs to make sense with the human reader, right?
In the past, when I inserted an affiliate link I didn’t mentioned it because beside the fact that it wasn’t required is was a common thing to do. If I do now, of course, mention it.
Thank you for your input, Mayura 🙂
Hi Sylviane
This is great advice. Most of the blogs I visit are good and I love the content. I have been in a few tribes over my time online where I had to share content I felt too embarrassed to share with my friends.
For me too sometimes I am not sure what a blog is about. I was a bit all over the place when I started and for me becoming really clear on my target audience made it much easier to write.
Thanks Sylviane.
Sue
Hi Sue,
I sure know the feeling. There are some not so good blogs out there that you wish you could help, but you feel embarrassed sharing. That’s one of the reasons I wrote this post 🙂
Thanks for your input, Sue 🙂
Hi Sylviane!
i agree with you.most of the blog in which quality content and quality backlinks are good their blog also good.their blog attract to the reader.but in some of blog content are bad.so mainly this type of problem arise in newish blogger but when we get experience about the blog then it is to be improvement in our blog.i like your idea.
thanks for sharing this blog.
anshul invites you to read..Hotel Booking Reservation Software
Hi Anshul,
When newbies make this types of mistakes that’s understandable and OK too, but when it’s someone who should know better that’s when it makes it not acceptable anymore.
Thanks for coming, Anshul 🙂
i agree with you we can’ t be perfect or can’t give 100% in every field.yes one thing that may be happen we can improve to ourself.so i think improvement is very necassary.
anshul invites you to read..Hotel Booking Reservation Software
Thanks for your honestly speaking and also inspired me to look forward. I’m so grateful to you too.
Hi Bernardo,
Thank you for coming and glad you liked the post!
Hi Sylviane,
thanks for sharing your tough insights, but you’re speaking the truth. I’d like to add that even great content is not enough because you have to network with other bloggers which starts, as you note, with reading other people’s posts including those from the so-called competition. Just like Donna says, I want my blog to be a reflection of me. I love to share everything I learn and experience as long as I think it’s of value to others too. Not everybody will like it always…
Best,
Oliver
Hi Oliver,
I agree this should include visiting other blogs, but some people are most definitely not doing this, because either they don’t care at all or they just feel too superior.
I once asked a woman who has a personal development blog like me, to check out my post and give me feedbacks as I was commenting on her blog… and she gave me her feedbacks on her own blog instead of mine 🙂 That, to this day, was the stupidest thing I’ve observed from a co-blogger since I’ve been doing this work 🙂
Thanks for your feedbacks, Oliver!
Good frank advice Sylviane. I for one is not much of an avid reader and content has to be interesting to capture my attention. The focus should always be on gaining and keeping the attention of the reader, and making them want to come back.
I hope that I am not in that category. …smile.
Princess Shimari invites you to read..ABOUT AVOCADOS!!
Hi Yvonne,
Thanks for coming. You’re right even avid readers need to have something interesting to be wanting to read, so as bloggers that’s what we need to think about.
Thank you for your input 🙂
Hi Sylviane and thank you for those great reminders on how to blog and how not to do it. Choosing a niche that you love to blog about is always a good starting point. Otherwise you are likely to run out of good content very quickly. I know I have struggled with this myself from time to time, but I guess we all go through times when the content just flows and others when it becomes something of a chore.
I often use webinars as inspiration for my posts, as well as just sharing things that I am working on. As for keywords, I usually write my post first and then do my keyword research, inserting the keywords where possible. That ensures that my post is written for the reader and not SEO. It does have the disadvantage though, that occasionally it can be difficult to find a suitable keyword.
Thank you again.
Louise
Louise invites you to read..How To Get Traffic To Your Blog With Blog Commenting-Part1
Words of wisdom! I read – or should I say ignore and DON’T read – a whole lot of bad content. And you hit on all the reasons why something is not very good. It’s so obvious when all someone wants to do is sell something. There are good ways to do it and bad ways to do it. First of all you can’t sell all the time. And when you do, you have to provide enough value in the post that your reader wants to buy something based on the trust you’ve built already.
Oh yes, I’ve also read those posts that have keywords everywhere – big, bold, underlined, headings, links, you name it! It’s quite distracting. All I keep hearing in my head is blah blah blah KEYWORD blah blah KEYWORD!!! blah blah blah blah blah
I’ll also add that it doesn’t help to write about something when you don’t know what you’re talking about. I get this from guest posts a lot. Someone sends me a guest post about how to get your site listed in search engines, but really they’re a yoga instructor or something. WHY would you want to do that?? it ends up being vague and useless and sometimes wrong.
I have to say that I don’t share content that I don’t like. Sometimes I will comment, like if it’s part of a Facebook group or Tribe, but if it’s bad content I don’t share it because then it just makes ME look bad that I’m sharing junk.
With that said, you never have to worry about that! You give a lesson by example in every single post you write!
Carol Lynn invites you to read..When Customers Attack: 5 Hair-Pulling Scenarios And How To Deal With Them Gracefully
Hi Carol,
Look how much confidence I have in myself? I couldn’t help but thinking, wow, does she share my content, then? Wow, pretty bad for someone who is trying to build a coaching business, right? 🙂
Well, I truly value your compliments, always, because you certainly are someone who knows what she is talking about and someone who can write it well. That goes without saying 🙂
I’m like you, I’ve shared some content sometimes just to be nice, but I’m slowing that down, because at the end of the day, that’s me looking bad for someone else’s content. You’re so right. Thanks for confirming this 🙂
Sylviane,
You make such valid points. And I still think people just don’t get it!
First they think they can make some money by slapping up a blog and waiting for the money and/or readers to flow in. This doesn’t happen so they read some articles and books on SEO. They then change their articles to appease Google. This doesn’t work so they read more articles, this time on social media. And they try sharing and commenting. They are fake because all they want is money so that doesn’t work either.
They throw in the towel and quit, never realizing all they needed was to be genuine and help people.
I’m gonna link this article in my newsletter tomorrow. Great article!
~Allie
Allie invites you to read..Attracting Visitors to Your Blog Does Not Equal a Thriving Community
Hi Allie,
As a matter of fact, even though I landed on your blog for a totally different reason this morning, I realized that your post was very much in accordance with mine.
What you’re saying here reminded me of a client for which I was writing all his 3 blog’s content, and he wanted to make money within weeks. When it didn’t happened he shut down all his blogs. A complete hysteric 🙂 But he’s not the only one for sure.
Thank you so much to include my post in your newsletter. Really appreciate it 🙂
Why do people think they can build anything and have it succeed in just weeks or months? I don’t understand. And then to get so angry. Gosh, I wonder what happens when someone breaks up with him. Eek!
I thank you for coming by because I was able to link to your post in my newsletter. Our posts compliment each other so well, I couldn’t resist.
Here is a copy:
http://eepurl.com/o3kwD
~Allie
Thanks so much Allie,
I understand what you mean. When the guy told me this I was shocked, but really the more I knew him the more all this went right along his overall personality. So, a lot of this as a lot to do with who your are as a person I guess 🙂
I’ll check that newsletter right now 🙂
Hey Sylviane,
I hope mine isn’t mediocre 😉
Well, I have had those times in which I wasn’t too glad that I wrote the post (and of course, I have also had good feelings about posts I wrote; I have wondered where I got the idea for the post from. Sometimes, those things can help me a lot by acting as motivators).
Anyways, it’s never “great” to publish something for the sake of it.
And of course, the keywords (I never liked keywords anyways, I am more of a believer in human touch and the human aspect of posts).
My purpose is to help people with my blog (I have shut down my current blog, but I do hope to come back to writing with a new blog, maybe by the end of this year :D).
Jeevanjacobjohn invites you to read..The Last Piece You Will Ever Read On This Blog!
Oh, really? You’ve shut down your current blog? So where did I end up last?
I’m glad to hear that you’ve never liked keywords, because I never did either. I still use keywords, sure, some anyway. But frankly, my success has never came from a keyword, but more from the content of my piece.
Thank you for pointing this out 🙂
Hi Sylviane,
I don’t claim to write great educational or even thrilling content but I can claim not to be motivated by money as my blog is a personal blog and is really just about sharing things I find interesting and like.
I don’t have too many followers either but I don’t mind too much; I do like getting comments though otherwise you feel you’re in a vacuum so I do try and make it worthwhile to read my posts even though they’re a million miles away from being of a professional standard.
Hi Roz,
I appreciate you’re visit in this blog as well 🙂 I am following you on Twitter now, and clicked on the link and landed on a website, but didn’t see any post. I love those baths pictures, though. I’ll try to find your blog 🙂
Thanks for coming, Roz
Hi Sylviane, thanks for your reply and wow that’s strange I didn’t get a follow message, let me see what’s up with Twitter!
I don’t always link to my blog, but it’s linked now, as is my personal Twitter account (otherwise you might get bored to smithereens with my sales witterings)!!
Roz Bennetts invites you to read..My 60 Second Interview
Great, I’ll check you out! You seem like someone I’d love to know more. Yes, strange. I usually get tons of email from Twitter everyday 🙂
Always delivering GREAT content, Sylviane. I remember writing those posts like “great anti-wrinkle cream” and OMG it would take me forever to write a mediocre blog post. My lack of passion for that certainly showed in my writing.
You’re absolutely right on multiple points. People want quality articles, not keyword stuffed articles. People want things that can help them, not commercials.
Hi Freddy,
Welcome back 🙂
I know, we’ve all written articles like that, didn’t we? No passion and it really showed, indeed. That’s why it’s important to blog about what you love.
However, when I put my freelance writer’s hat on I can’t show this, but my motivation then becomes delivering a great job.
Thanks for your feedbacks.
I love how straight-to-the-point you are with this post. When I started out I did just that wrote to fill up space with my golf blog and ran out of things to say when I got bored and ran out of things to say.
Some blogs I have ran across have some good content because they have a theme, a niche and readers that want their valuable information. Those are great blogs and they got it. I can say for myself it took me a while to find who I wanted to write content for, but now I love it and sharing information is the best gift of all..
Sonia invites you to read..26 Awesome Women Bloggers Making It Happen
Hi Sonia,
Yes, I think it all took us some time to find out our niche. How many bloggers found their niche the first time around?
When you do, however, as you know, it becomes just great and we never run out of ideas!
Thanks for your input, Sonia 🙂
I write a blog on Indian weddings and am paid to do so. After a point it definitely gets exactly how you have put it:’writing to merely fill up the space’. Thankfully the site also focuses more on images-so we need to constantly contact new photographers and get their pictures on board.
Content exhaustion can lead to slow demise of a blog.
I know it’s not easy to keep writing for a client’s blog which niche is not your “cup of tea” so to speak. I know that has happen to me many times. Sometimes, the best thing to do is ask for a break to the client or just totally move on to the next. The other alternative is going deeper in research and find more innovative ideas.
Hard to find anything to argue with here. I don’t think every post has to hit a home run, but every post should have a purpose, even if all you want to do is show pictures of your puppy (I’d probably check that out). Truthfully, all I look for is some originality; guess I’m easy that way.
Mitch Mitchell invites you to read..One Month Update On The Dream/Goal
Hi Mitch,
Very good point. No, not every post needs to hit a home run. Some are definitely more popular than others, but what really counts is that we do our best with each post.
Thanks for your feedback 🙂
Hi Sylviane-
I came across your blog while doing a comparisons search of squidoo and hubpages. I’ve also seen your comments on another blog I read that has nothing to do with IM. So when I found this I thought, “small world.”
Anyway, I just wanted to come up for air and tell you that each one of your blog posts has been a valuable nugget of gold.
Nice information and perspective here. 🙂
L
Hi Laura,
Sorry for the late reply, but I am still playing catching up with older posts that still get comments, and this on is one of them 🙂
This is one of the best compliment I can ever get. That my posts are helpful and valuable. Thank you so much for this, and I hope you’ll come back. Do you blog? I do not see a blog link on your comment 🙂
Do I blog? Hmm. Lots of starts and stops. Still working on it. 🙂
It is always good to write for the audience than only to write for sales or loads of keywords. A blog is a place where you share your thoughts and experiences freely. But I would say being a content writer, I myself face the problem of writing for the sake of filling spaces. Last month I wrote 35 articles on rings and after a certain point, you run short of things to write about. When I write I try to include points that I myself would like to read as an audience. Thanks for this valuable share, Sylviane.
richa invites you to read..New Years Eve 2011 Sydney Harbour Fireworks Cruise!
Hi Richa,
Yes, I totally get that. I’ve written myself a series of articles about topics that I have no interest in, and after number 15 you just start running out of ideas to write about. In such case, I suggest that you just take a break from it before you write again, and new ideas will pop up easier.
Hi Sylviane,
I could not agree with you more that some of the traditional blogging practices (such as inserting keywords a definite number of times) kill the human touch of our articles and can totally destroy them. It certainly doesn’t mean that we should ignore all recommendations and make it impossible for Google to find our content. Yet, our intuition and feeling of the situation should help us make reasonable choices.
Julia Reed invites you to read..Good News for Students: First Digital Open Source Library
Hi Julia,
Yes, we should use relevant keywords that help Google find us, and we would be stupid if we didn’t. But the counting of keywords in order to make sure we have the right amount like an ingredient of a cake recipe is just ridiculous at this point.