By Jonathan Howe
For more than a decade, I’ve subscribed to, built, read, marketed, launched, and authored blogs. If there were a sixth love language, for me it would be social media and blogs. I’ve seen what works for bloggers…and what doesn’t.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been encouraging you to start blogging in 2017. If you’re considering starting or restarting your blog in 2017 or even continuing your current blog, here are seven mistakes you need to avoid.
- Lack of consistency. This is by far the biggest mistake bloggers make—they don’t stick with a plan. Like anything else in life, strategy pays off. If you have a plan and stick with it, good results usually follow. There are certainly times when adjustments can and should be made with your blog schedule. Ultimately, however, a structured blog regimen will be good for both the writer and the reader.
- Poor writing. This can be misspellings, poor grammar, poor subject-verb agreement, or even confusing thought flow. Readers will not tolerate writing that confuses them or is obviously bad. However, there’s another end to the poor writing spectrum—overly theological or academic writing. If you’re writing above the heads of your intended audience, it will turn readers away. And pastors are notorious for this. They sometimes use blogs to show off their theological education. Unfortunately for many readers, it comes across like you’re beating them over the head with a dictionary. While pastors should challenge readers theologically, there’s a difference in challenging them and using your education as a weapon.
- Not engaging the audience. If you simply write a post and never visit your site or respond to comments, your readers will simply stop engaging. Blogs should be used for dialogue. Offer open-ended questions at the end of posts to engage comments. Not every online comment section has to turn into a dumpster fire. In fact, many times blog comment sections can be where people learn the most.
- Not promoting the blog. For many pastors and church leaders, the idea of promoting their blog can be uncomfortable. It doesn’t have to be this way, however. Simply let people know what you’re writing about and where to find it. Social media followers understand it’s part of being a blogger. Don’t overdo your blog promotion, but don’t apologize for it either.
- Overthinking and overworking every post. Analysis paralysis is often the downfall of too many bloggers. They edit and edit and edit a post to death trying to find every last pithy statement or specific detail to include. They spend so much work on editing that their writing suffers. Sometimes you just have to hit publish. This is also why shorter posts are often better for blogging. Focus on one specific part of a topic in each post instead of trying to cover more ground. By doing this, you always have another post to write.
- Poor web design. If you’re going to put the effort into writing and blogging, then put the effort into having somewhere attractive to publish your thoughts. Again, Mere Agency is one of the best web design companies for Christian bloggers (and churches). If you can’t afford a professional designer, at least spend the money to have a self-hosted blog instead of using Xanga or something like that.
- Photos are low quality or not used legally. Finally, photo quality and legality are always an issue with bloggers. Don’t just grab any image off the Internet for your site. Chances are, it’s copyrighted or not eligible for use without royalties. Consider sites like pexels.com or unsplash.com. There are more than a few free photo sites for bloggers. Use them.
What would you add to this list? Have you seen any other major mistakes that bloggers make?
Jonathan Howe serves as Director of Strategic Initiatives at LifeWay Christian Resources, the host and producer of Rainer on Leadership and SBC This Week. Jonathan writes weekly at ThomRainer.com on topics ranging from social media to websites and church communications. Connect with Jonathan on Twitter at @Jonathan_Howe.
hi johnathan
all points well taken. i’ve suffered all areas you’ve mentioned. i need help. my “blog” is located here: http://www.ibautistas.org
would love your honest feedback. it’s ok as soft or bruttal i am open and won’t hurt my feelings. thank you for your time. i aporeciate your thoughts.
best regards
pastor galvez
ps: i’ve read some of the dr’s books.
You can start with your spelling. “Brutal” as written here is spelled with only one “t.”
ps. sorry. from my phone on the fly
I would also recommend starting a fan page on facebook for your blog. And another resource for pictures is stocksnap
That’s a good point. Use a Facebook PAGE instead of your personal PROFILE.
Who do you recommend for hosting a blog?
Ashton
There are several good options out there. If you use a group like Mere Agency (mentioned in the post), they handle that for you. Otherwise, it really depends on traffic and what you’re willing to spend.
Thanks, Jonathan
I am a servant of God, RHOBINSON.We are a church,need to be your church.we present to be your ministry is in africa specially TANZANIA.Fom JCBCA. RHOBINSON S BAIYE
Great advice, Jonathan.
From time to time I struggle with the consistency issue as I encounter the occasional “writer’s block.” For 2017 I am looking to set aside an intentional block of time each week and write in batches. I imagine there will be weeks I crank out 3 or four posts during my writing time and I can schedule them to post at future days. Other weeks I may only begin a post, refine a post, or even complete maybe only one post. But the intentional, scheduled time will provide me structural discipline.
Then, finally, last year, I converted my free WordPress blog to BlueHost. BH uses WordPress framework, but I have much more control with the self-hosting option and the blog looks much better.
Throughout this past year I have learned much on the blogging from you, Dr. Rainer, and others like Michael Hyatt and Carey Nieuwhof.
One question: how much social media promotion do you think is appropriate and at what point do we cross the line and over-sell?
Sorry -but I disagree. This post completely fails with three basic rule of giving advice and therefore fails as a blog post itself. Always ask the question what are you trying to achieve. What is your measure of fruitfulness. For example, the blog we use isn’t going to get a million hits but it isn’t intended for that. It is intentionally there to enable people to push a bit further beyond what we can cover in a 30 man sermon. Secondly I learnt over time that comments are a complete waste of space. Unless ..and I suspect even then often you are in the big league then even if there are a 100 comments on an article, it’s usually the same 3 people not listening to each other or engaging properly with the original post.
hmm also avoid using touch screen keypads if you’ve got big fingers. Bad day for typos
Hello, Jonathan!
I am always the victim of not using some good looking images for my blog posts and mostly end up using the very basic images.
I sure know that this is not really working well for me.
So, the advice about the image I will surely follow. 🙂
As for the rest of the bits of advice, they too are the most common ones that we hit especially the non-promoting part and poor writing.
I will overcome my mistakes! 🙂
Thanks for the great content! I am happy to share it on my social life! 🙂
~ Adeel
i think i suffered all the stuff you mentioned here, lack of consistency is really killing my blogging career. my blog is located here : http://www.dailygospelvibe.com.ng/2016/12/2017-motivational-quotes-by-pastor.html.
There is always room for improvement.