Michael Hyatt has written more than 1,000 blog posts, received more than 60,000 comments, and is the Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Amazing, I know.
Apparently he knows a thing or two about writing and stuff.
I recently read a great post of his, titled: Do You Make These 10 Mistakes When You Blog?
Here’s the list:
- You don’t post enough.
- You post too much.
- Your post is too long.
- You don’t invite engagement.
- You don’t participate in the conversation.
- You don’t make your content accessible.
- You don’t create catchy headlines.
- Your first paragraph is weak.
- Your post is off-brand.
- Your post is about YOU.
Michael Hyatt writes about each of these points in detail, and I highly recommend anyone interested in becoming a better blogger to give it a read.
A number of these I struggle with, and after reading about it, I have more vigor to do better, along with some direction by one of the web’s best. Sometimes you already know you’re not doing it right, and it just takes a little nudge (or push) to point you in the right direction.
In fact, this post inspired me to add a list of suggested reading for ChurchMag authors (Want to write for ChurchMag?).
So, do yourself a favor, and read Michael Hyatt’s 10 blogging mistakes.
Have you heard any great blog post writing tips lately?
John Lane says
How often should I post? Right now I’m posting once a day but my blog traffic seems to be a bit stagnent. Should I post more often or less often? I’d love to get some constructive criticism about it.
Eric Dye says
Honestly, I would go read up what John has written. He is covering everything from start to finish: http://tentblogger.com
More specific to your question, try these two posts on for size:
http://tentblogger.com/starter-kit/
http://tentblogger.com/marathon/
This is one of the webs most valuable resources for blogging. Every time I read it, it almost feels like I’m stealing – LOL!
Eric Peters says
Michael Hyatt has a lot of good points, I’ll have to add him to my RSS feed reader. I am sure I can become a better blogger by reading his stuff. I’m also going to slowly make my way through the http://tentblogger.com/starter-kit/ . Thanks for all the good links.
Eric Dye says
You’re very welcome!
I love your URL, very cool.
Calvin Koepke says
Your title of this post is a tricky one 😉
Eric Dye says
Yes it is. 😉
Michael Hyatt says
Love the title. Very clever. 😉
Eric Dye says
That’s great to hear! 🙂
(I’m working on rule #7.)
Graham says
I was thinking the same thing. haha
Rick Smith says
No need to go to his site to read the list…you just copied it directly! #fail
Eric Dye says
So then:
What should your posts be about?
Do you post enough, or too much?
What does it mean to make your content “accessible”? And how?
What is a good word range for posts?
How many read the headline compared to how many read the post? How can you make a better headline?
What is a good tool to gauge post engagement? How do you encourage it?
Oh, wait, to find Michael’s answers, you would have to read his post.
#readingFAIL
🙂