Most popular blogs have gained a steady and loyal following for doing certain things right while avoiding obvious errors as well. When creating a blog to either make money or for personal reasons your site is a 'dead stick' unless people come to visit and view your postings. It is important to remember that if what they see is not appealing, they will simply leave and likely never return. Now if you are business blogging this will directly impact your income, therefore focus must be placed on reader satisfaction. When you consider the heart and soul of your platform will be your blog posting this is a good area to concentrate on if a steady and loyal readership is your goal.

Here are 7 things NOT to do concerning your blog posting habits in order to build and maintain a loyal following.

Blogging for the Wrong Intentions

There is nothing wrong with blogging for money, however you must remember readers come first. Whether you are business blogging or not you need to be mindful people visit for the content so do not slack off in this area! Give them something worth visiting your site and they will return!

Sporadic Posting

It is VERY important to let people know what to expect in terms of your blog posting schedule and this is especially true if they enjoy your content. People in general are busy and if you maintain a consistent posting schedule this allows folks to know when to expect your next entry so they can plan accordingly. If you leave it as a guessing game for them in most cases they will not even bother to return.

Failure to Edit

Failing to check your work before publishing it is being just lazy and can make even a brilliant post look dumb! Check your spelling (that is why every document composer has spell check) and proof read your composition to make sure the words you used make sense!

Ignoring or Disallowing Comments

Sometime not being able to get to all your comments is understandable if you are fortunate enough to get that many but by all means allow for people to leave them. Remember when creating a blog you are creating a social site as well and not allowing visitors to leave comments makes little sense. If you do not want comments use a website!

Plagiarizing

If you can not produce original content hire somebody who can or forget about trying to win reader loyalty, plain and simple! Copying the work of others and taking credit for it will quickly earn you a reputation you do not want to have!

Lacking Passion

Having passion for what you write about will show up in the quality and consistency of your posting efforts. In order to attract a steady following you will need both and passion will also make your efforts a lot easier as well! Lacking passion will only result in lackluster blog posting and you quickly 'burning out' and walking away!

Focusing Too Much on SEO

Free search engine traffic is cool however you want the traffic to get people to your site to read your content. What good is it if you optimize your posts till the 'cows come home' when people can not understand what you are saying?

Many of the most popular blogs got that way by simply avoiding some common mistakes that many still make today! In light of the growing popularity of business blogging many tend to lose focus on the reader and forget they are people and not a source of income. Big mistake since the loyalty of your site visitors will make or break the success you enjoy with your platform. When creating a blog, whether for income or personal reasons, attention must be paid to your blog posting and how it appeals to the people who visit your site. By making a conscious effort to avoid making any of the 7 common mistakes discussed here today you will go a long way towards gaining a large and loyal following. Of course everything will be dependent upon the quality of the information you post.