Why do most blogs fail? Here are 7 reasons my first blog tanked
Sometimes it takes a few tries before you get something right.
I’ve had a Squarespace website for quite a few years now.
I initially signed up to Squarespace to have a space where I could advertise my freelance writing services and keep my writer portfolio.
However, the cost of Squarespace is the same whether you have 10 pages or 1000, so I tried to make the most of my domain by starting a small blog.
It didn’t work.
Here are a few things that won’t affect whether or not you are successful:
Consistency of posting. I have read on some other sites that not having a consistent schedule will mean your blog is more likely to fail, as readers like to know you have regular posts coming out. That’s rubbish. Most readers are going to find you via Google search, which means they don’t care about your posting schedule. Google doesn’t care either. I would argue that refreshing your content at least once a year is more important than sticking to a posting schedule.
Why my first Squarespace blog failed
In a nutshell, this is why my blog failed:
I wasn’t consistent enough. I posted around five blog posts and then stopped.
I was targeting a very small set of keywords.
My audience wasn’t in the right place.
Of course, the reasons are a little more complex than that. Like, I didn’t publish a lot because I struggled to find content ideas. And I obviously didn’t enjoy publishing.
Blogs fail when the quality of the content isn’t high enough
Just because you like what you write, doesn’t mean anyone is going to want to read it.
I’m going to be honest, I think most blogs, and travel blogs in particular, look pretty crappy. They are poorly written, have bad photos, weak design and are obviously geared toward sucking as much money out of an audience as they can.
And you’re surprised when that doesn’t work?
If you’re not putting out work that is as high quality as anything you would read on a media website, you’re doing it wrong.
Blogs fail when you don’t have a clear content strategy
It’s not enough to just write for keywords that get high traffic.
For my accessible writing blog, I wrote a post called ‘What is travel writing’ which was about as boring as you would expect it to be, and most of the traffic came from India. I somehow ended up in the top spot in search results, but I don’t think the miserable trickle of traffic it generated ever did anything for me.
Why? Because my ideal reader would never have been searching something as banal as ‘what is travel writing?’ The only people searching that were probably misguided writers like myself, who thought it would be a good idea to write about that and created a self-fulfilling loop of keywords to content.
Blogs fail when you fall out of love with them
Honestly, I think a lot of bloggers get shiny object syndrome. You start publishing, maybe start seeing some results.
Or you just love seeing some of your work online.
It’s easy to go from that to thinking that this is your chosen career path, a world where you get to work remotely from anywhere you want, write whatever you want and actually get paid for it.
The reality is more like writing into a void sometimes, working your ass of and still getting penalised by Google, or following all the advice out there to a T and somehow still ending up with it wrong.
It’s not unusual for bloggers to transition out of blogging, either back to a full time job or into something adjacent. Like, selling courses. And templates. Hi, it’s me.
I am still in a phase of loving blogging (although I do call it independent publishing) but my longer term vision is to have things operate in a slightly more hands off way. As in, sell travel guides or digital products with less input into the actual blog side of things.
This is probably unrealistic, as content needs to be refreshed until the end of time, but when I do fall out of love with it this time, that’s a bridge I will cross then.
Some success that I had with my first Squarespace blog
It wasn’t all bad, though.
In a job interview, my future manager told me she had read the blog posts I had put online and was impressed.
Several clients found me through my website — one an accessibility software tool, the other a local tour company. So, it’s worth remembering that even a small amount of traffic can still matter. A blog can help build your brand.
So, what happened to that blog?
I started publishing more travel posts and I eventually archived all the posts related to accessible content and the work of travel writing. That domain is now my main blog, a successful travel blog.
There are a couple of those legacy posts on this domain, but they aren’t very good ones.
If you’re curious about the world of travel blogging, you might be interested in reading some of my posts on how I publish content on Squarespace:
