If you’re an aspiring blogger/influencer on the rise or simply have a penchant for blogging, chances are you’ve come across a multitude of challenges in the world of blogging. ÄŸŸ˜Ÿ Worry not though because most problems have a solution, and finding it depends on your attitude, skills, and of course, awareness. When you face problems while blogging – you need to first accept the problem, understand it, have patience, make efforts, and seek help from other bloggers. ÄŸŸ ¤-
The first step to action would be to share your blogging problems with other bloggers. As simple as it sounds, it really is effective; the reason being that sharing your issues would have a multi-purpose end-result:
- You may get to know that you’re not alone and others too face the same problem. This will give you hope that your problem will get resolved. ÄŸŸ™‚ and others who have faced similar blogging problems will tell you what they did to resolve them. Probably doing the same, you too can solve the problems you face.
- You might as well create an awareness that such problems can occur in the micro niche blogging community whereby others too can be on guard and adopt preventive measures. This way you’ll be helping other bloggers too. ÄŸŸ˜ƒ
- It may so happen that what you considered a problem was a mistake on your part – other bloggers might point that out to you, and you can bring happiness back to your blogging.
Firstly, if you want to BECOME a blogger, click here.
Given below are 9 blogging problems and my take on how you could resolve them:
1. Conceptual Blogging Problems
When starting out your blog, the very first problem you face is deciding the blog niche. Who exactly are you targeting, what is the demographic, or should you keep it multi-niche? ÄŸŸ ¤” And sometimes the trouble isn’t only about deciding the niche of your blog because many also struggle with post ideas. Don’t you? In a situation where you can’t decide what to write next and end up writing about anything, your content quality takes a huge hit. ÄŸŸ˜•
What can be done?
A blog plan helps resolve this issue. Planning is crucial for your blog’s success, and if you don’t do that, then your blog could be in a pool of problems. ÄŸŸ ¤• Brainstorm and pen down your post ideas (yes, you need to actually see/visualize it to believe in it), create a detailed plan for what to post and schedule them in advance. This method helps to provide direction, guidance, and ensures that you never miss a blog post day! ÄŸŸ‘
2. Design Blogging Problems
Even if your content is brilliant, you need to retain your reader’s attention by having an attractive blog. Although many do not consider an unattractive blog as a blogging problem per se, it does affect your blog in many ways. ÄŸŸ ¤ · A blog that is user-friendly in terms of layout, colors, navigation, images, and fonts would go a long way! A poor blog design can affect your search rankings, duration of the visitor’s stay on the blog, and even conversion rate. ÄŸŸ˜ ° At the end of the day, when someone opens your blog, they “see” it first.
What can be done?
You need to ensure your content isn’t too congested and emits that ‘feel-good’ factor so that its easy on the eyes of your readers. ÄŸŸ˜ Below are a few pointers to help provide your readers with a better experience on your blog:
- Don’t confuse the reader with a flood of categories! Keep em minimal
- Keep Ads at a minimum, especially in the above the fold area. Google might penalize you, as it recently rolled a specific update just for that. ÄŸŸ˜ ¯
- Don’t have fonts that are too small or too large – keep them the usual ones you read online. Serif fonts are usually the best and fonts with sharp edges, such as Times New Roman, isn’t aesthetically appealing (you could use them for the headings though)
3. Ethical Blogging Problems
What is right and what is wrong? A question that bloggers should ask themselves. ÄŸŸ ¤” You create an image for yourself by the things you do, and that image you create among the blogging community is something you need to care about. Bloggers should be aware of and avoid unethical methods such as copying content or plagiarism, adding the affiliate/third party links where they are not supposed to, writing biased sponsored posts or reviews, spamming the post or comments with irrelevant links, and so much more! ÄŸŸ˜ ¯
What can be done?
Remember that you can’t fool people all the time. ÄŸŸ ¤ · Especially when it comes to Google – if you wish to rise in ranks and revenue, just be original. Always play by the rules. And when faced with a dilemma ask yourself — whether what you want to do is ethical or not? ÄŸŸ ¤ ¥ The 2 most common things bloggers do that may compromise their ethics are using comments pods or bots for extra engagement too. When it’s done in moderation, it’s not a big deal.
Click here to know how to spot a fake influencer – you don’t want to fall under this category too.
4. Financial Blogging Problems
If you feel the finances are low but you want to start a blog or you already have a blog, that’s a major problem. I’m sure most of you can relate to that. ÄŸŸ ¤ ¦”â™€ï ¸ But hey! If you can’t raise funds, you can choose cheaper or free ways to blog until you make some money. If you really want to have a good blog for your readers, then it does cost money. However, if you do choose to go the frugal and minimalist way, read on. â ¬‡
What can be done?
Firstly, you need to adjust and make do with what you have and your present financial resources and conditions. Similarly, as mentioned earlier, don’t try to fill your blog with Ads just because you think you’ll make a lot of money this way. Such a plan may backfire. ÄŸŸ˜ ¬ Even the experts say that having fewer Ads will get you more clicks, and it’s not more the merrier. Websites like WordPress, Tumblr, wiz, enable you to create free websites as well. The downside? Their domain will be attached to your website. So my website would be www.naomidsouza.wordpress.com
5. Legal Blogging Problems
Blogging is fun provided you’re careful and well-informed of the legal aspects of blogging. If not, illegal practices can and will land you in BIG trouble (especially in Dubai) ÄŸŸ˜ ± Try to practice the right techniques rather than resorting to implementing unlawful ways to manipulate search engines. Do credit images that you use in your blog and do not go to the extent of using entire posts from other blogs. In such cases, you have the right to complain to Google or other search engines and the copycats will be penalized by Google for this. Similarly, companies can sue you for illegally using their products or property. ÄŸŸ™”
What can be done?
Besides giving credit and having a copyright policy advertised on your blog, you should also have the following:
- Have a disclaimer on your blog when you give any advice or have guest posts. ÄŸŸ- £
- Some countries require you to let visitors know if you use cookies and other tracking systems. You should have a privacy policy as well on your blog.
- Be very careful of the legal aspects and implications of whatever you do on your blog. Failure to comply with legal conditions will turn your blogging pleasure into blogging problems. ☠¹
6. Marketing Blogging Problems
Marketing your blog almost seems like an impossible task these days considering that the possibilities are endless and so diverse now. ÄŸŸ™” You have to decide which social media platform works best for you when promoting your blog, among other things. Not only this, every year, the number of social media platforms increase but the number of hours in a day certainly don’t! What all can you possibly do in the little time you have in a day? ⌚
What can be done?
Everyone prefer one platform over the other. You must assess which of your many social media profiles has the highest engagement. Once you figure that out, share the link to your article, there. ÄŸŸ ¤ ·
7. Search Engine Optimization for your Blog (SEO)
After creating a blog AND marketing it, you MUST work on its SEO. What’s the point of all that hard work if Google doesn’t recognize your article or has penalized it for a reason you’re not even aware of?
What can be done?
You can do 1 of the 2 – read about SEO, enough to train you on how to better your website or, hire a natural SEO company to do it for you. Beware: SEVERAL SEO “specialists” are just cons, they think they know how it works as it can be quite basic, but it’s more complex than you/they think. Additionally, if your content is not good but SEO is 100/100, SEO won’t work for you. It’s like a prayer before an exam… you’ll only pass with flying colors if you’ve studied well prior to the exam. So before you hire an SEO firm, you need to do enough background research on them and also be prepared with the content you want to post. You could also read the iTonic Blog, for additional information.
8. Technical Blogging Problems
Technical problems that a blogger faces are wide and galore. ÄŸŸ˜ ¢ You can have problems with plugins, codes, CSS or HTML… but most importantly, web hosting. Sometimes the technical blogging problems are grave and beyond your control. When your web hosts start giving you problems, you got nowhere to run. ÄŸŸ™”
Though my hosting is good for me, I did have my share of problems – my site would randomly stop working sometimes, the content would disappear, the SITE would disappear and so much more.
You might even make silly typing mistakes while writing or copying PHP, HTML, or CSS codes and find that your blog now only shows a line of code error and nothing else! One of my biggest blogging problems is how to reduce the load times of my blog. As Google considers this as one of the ranking aspects, every blogger needs to worry about the speed factor. ÄŸŸ˜ ¯
What can be done?
- The first thing you should do is research which hosting is good for you. If you just type best servers on Google, several links will appear. Based on your research, the content you post, the reach you have, page views you get, types of images you upload, and so much more, the server you need may alter (based on preference basically). ÄŸŸ ¤”
- Keep a close eye on your Google Analytics. You will have to upgrade your server if you’re suddenly getting a lot of traffic! Your server will definitely need an upgrade if there’s a lot traffic + a lot of images, won’t be able to handle all that y’all! ÄŸŸ™”
9. Influencer License
In the U.A.E, social media influencers who make money from promoting brands and businesses need to secure a media license under new regulations. ÄŸŸ” ° The National Media Council intends to professionalize and regulate the industry- the fact that influencers are convincing the consumer to buy a product, the business activity is rendered an advertisement, and must comply with the relevant advertising standards and consumer protection legislation. The license would be similar to those that magazines and newspapers acquire from the authorities. ÄŸŸ-
On February 28, the NMC launched a new electronic media regulation system. Anyone involved in electronic media commercial activities will need to register and have a license before the end of June. Failure to do so includes penalties and fines up to Dh5,000, verbal or official warning, and/or closure of the website or account. ÄŸŸ˜ ³
The license is not intended to constrain creativity but to ensure earnings are above board and standards are high, according to the council. ÄŸŸ™… Social media influencing has become big business for personalities, with a large number of followings commanding fees of tens or hundreds of thousands of dirhams for promotional posts.
Sources
Written and Researched by Angela D’Costa and Naomi D’Souza
