While there are many terrific blogs around, there are also common but easily fixable, mistakes that bloggers tend to make.

1. Not linking to other blogs. Blogging in a vacuum! Always have a blogroll. If someone were interested in reading your blog, they would likely be interested in reading the other blogs you like to read. Blogging is all about community. Linking to other blogs also sends a positive message to customers because it shows that you are involved in  sharing. It's not just all about YOU!  - LINK-LINK-LINK! It's all about sharing! I don't care if you link to a Wikipedia definition, just link!
2. Not having an email link or contact page. How is someone supposed to reach you?!  Sometimes readers might want to contact you, but not leave a comment on your blog. If you are worried about getting your email address spammed, a simple contact page can prevent that. Otherwise, you can write your email address in this form: name at domain dot com. This will prevent spam bots from finding your email address.
3. While most bloggers give an easy and accessible way to either contact them via email or leave a comment, I noticed that some blogs do not allow the readers to leave comments! Hello? This is about sharing. And community. If you want a static website - build a static website. Turning off the "comments" function sends a bad message to customers, because it seems like the company does not want to hear from their customers/readers. More than anything else, blogs are communication tools. If a blog is used only to share information but does not allow communication between the company and its customers, its success and popularity will suffer. Many blogs without a comment feature have low page rankings and likely have less returning visitors.
4. Not having an RSS feed button. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it is a way for people to read a blog without always actually visiting the blog. They can view the entries through websites such as bloglines.com and feedster.com. RSS feeds are extremely important, because most people will read your blog via RSS feeds. You are more likely to pick up regular readers if you have an RSS feed. - Savvy readers use RSS! Make it available to them! Let them subscribe via e-mail also. FEEDBURNER  allows you to set up both RSS and e-mail subscriptions all in one place, so they are easy to manage. PLUS, Feedburner now has a PING SHOT feature you should be using as well. To automatically ping sites for you, every time they scan their site!
5. Not updating often enough. The more often you update, the more popular your blog will be. Many blog readers like to read their favorite blogs on a daily basis. If you do not blog regularly, you run the risk of losing readers. - Plus, as a bonus, think of it this way; every time you update is another chance for the search engines to find your blog. The more times you enter, the greater your chances of winning in the search game!

         Derrick Sorles and Michael Snell - We Help "Pull"  New Business To You!
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