Do you feel like no matter how hard you try, you’re just spinning your wheels?
You’re laboring away, cracking out content like nobodys business, and … crickets. Or maybe you’re getting some traffic but you know you’re nowhere close to where you should be.
Man, that’s a tough feeling to shake.
I think all bloggers have gone through this at some point. It’s really disheartening to work so hard, to put your heart and soul into something, and still not see the results you expected.
If you feel like you’ve done everything to grow your blog, but you’re not moving forward, chances are the problem lies within you’re strategy.
The good news is that with a few simple changes, you can get your blog off the ground running in no time! Here’s some of the reasons why you’re blog isn’t growing and how you can fix it with a few simple tweaks.
1 – You aren’t consistent
Have you ever heard the phrase – content is king? Yeah, well so is consistency. They go together like bread and butter.
When you’re consistent, your audience knows exactly when you’re showing up and that builds trust over time. Once you build trust, then you can start marketing products to them that they’ll love. But that is only AFTER you’ve established that trust.
Now, I know that life gets in the way sometimes – you get busy, things pop up, emergencies happen. This is exactly why it’s important to create a schedule and plan ahead of time, so if something does get in the way, you are more prepared to handle it.
I batch create and schedule 3 months worth of content ahead of time, so if anything were to happen, I’d still be pumping out content on autopilot.
Related post: How To Use Task Batching For Maximum Productivity
2 – Your brand isn’t clear
Your brand is the glue of your business – it holds everything together. A clear brand makes your blog memorable and stand out in peoples mind.
When people hear your blogs name, they should be able to picture a part of your brand in their mind, whether it’s your logo, your color scheme or your face.
If people can’t make that connection, then your blog will fly right over their heads. It won’t stick in their mind and they’ll forget about it.
A few staples to a clear, consistent brand are:
- Have 5 to 6 colors picked out for your brands color palette and use them throughout your website and social media graphics.
- Make sure you have a clear mission statement and that people know what your main topics are. If you blog about multiple topics, make sure they aren’t too unrelated because that only confuses people.
- Set yourself apart from the crowd. You have something that makes you uniquely YOU. You have your own story, your own values and your own reasoning behind what you’re doing. These qualities should be visible in your branding.
Discovering your brand identity might not come instantly. Like with anything else, it takes time. So, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t have it all figured out yet.
3 – You’re not promoting your content enough
Did you know that only 6% of social media posts are ever seen by your audience? 6 percent!!!
That means that in order to get more eyeballs on your content, you need to be promoting it multiple times a day.
People get really shocked when I tell them that I post pins to Pinterest 70-100 times a day. Yes, you read that right. The question that generally follows is, “don’t people get tired of it?” And the answer is “no” because usually people don’t even see it the first time.
I also post multiple times on my Facebook page and Facebook group, on Instagram stories, in my email newsletter and other places as well.
Now you don’t need to always promote the same post, you can throw some old blog posts into the mix and you can re-purpose old content – the point is that you should be promoting multiple pieces of your content daily.
4 – You’re not organized
This is a BIG one and something I’ll admit that I struggled with so much for the first 6 months of my own blog (so don’t feel bad if you haven’t gotten the hang of it yet!)
I’ve talked about this before, but my favorite method for staying organized and productive is task batching.
Batch working is a highly focused, topic-specific form of working. What do I mean by this? It’s dividing your workflow into different days/hours to work on ONE topic instead of bouncing from task to task.
By working this way I can get months worth of content pumped out in one weekend instead of scrambling to pull everything together the last minute. This preserves my energy so I can focus on the biggest needle-movers in my business.
If you’d like to learn more about task batching and how it works, read How To Use Taskbatching For Maximum Productivity.
Another way to stay organized is by setting up systems and routines that’ll streamline your workflow. Smart systems take the issues you deal with and removes the time and effort of having to maintain or fix them.
Use an automation tool for scheduling and planning social media content. Create templates for recurring emails you get (like frequently asked questions) or for designing graphics (Canva is my fave.)
Basically all of those things you don’t have time to deal with, you can probably create a system around it. So identify those issues you deal with regularly (invoicing, social media, etc.) and create a process around them.
Related post: 21 Ways To Simplify Your Life
5 – You lost sight of your why
Finding fulfillment in your life and business starts with understanding WHY you do what you do. You’re “why” is your purpose, your anchor to keep you grounded and moving forward, even when life gets tough.
So when you feel like giving up on your business, recall your “why” in your mind, picture in your head where you want to take your blog and your visions for the future so that you can conjure up that energy and motivation to keep pushing forward.
I know life is hard, and running an online business isn’t easy. But there was a reason you started, and why you held out for so long, right? So try to tap into that child-like mindset you had in the beginning where you dreamed of a bright future and you were excited just to start, and use it to inspire you.
Sadly, most people give up after a few months of starting a blog. Don’t be one of those people! I truly believe that with enough commitment, determination and hard work, you will eventually get the results you want. But there’s no chance at all if you give up, so have faith and stick with it.
6 – You don’t know your audience
This is another huge one. Imagine creating a course and NO ONE joins. Yep, that’s happened to me before.
That’s when I surveyed my audience and quickly realized that my problem wasn’t that I didn’t have good content, it’s that I didn’t really know what my audience was interested in.
Once I finally discovered what my audience was looking for, it was much easier to connect with them and serve them.
Don’t make my mistake! Survey your audience. Look at which blog posts of yours get the most shares. Take into account the questions that people ask. These elements will help you come up with content that your audience will love.
7 – You’re content is just okay
I want you to look at your content and ask yourself these questions – How does it serve my audience? What message am I trying to convey? Is there any actionable items people can immediately take away from this? Does this peak people’s interest or does it fall flat after the first paragraph?
If your answer is “no” to any one of these then it’s time to evaluate your content and see what you can do to make it better.
Think about all of the blogs that are out there. Chances are what you’re talking about has already been covered before, so try to approach your content from new angles. Maybe there’s an aspect of it that’s never been covered before or maybe you can offer a unique perspective.
The point is – if you don’t want your blog posts to get lost in a sea of articles then you have to stand out from the crowd. Part of how you do that is through your branding, through your writing and through sharing your own unique story.
Everyone has a story to tell, and each story is different so sharing that authentic, raw version of yourself can help others who may be going through the same situations and it diversifies you from the crowd, because I’m willing to bet that no one has the exact same story as you.
So embrace what makes you, uniquely you!
Final Thoughts
Imagine running a blog that changes peoples lives, brings fulfillment in your life and makes a huge profit.
That could be you!
This may look like nothing but a pipe dream right now, but I’m sure other successful bloggers felt the same way before making it big.
So, keep moving forward and implement some of these simple changes so you, too, can achieve big results. It may not be as out of reach as you might think. I’m rooting for you!
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