Blogging Myths You Need To Do Away With In 2015

This is a guest post compiled by Adegboye Adeniyi  for OgbongeBlog

If you grew as an African child, you would have heard your own part of some of the myths we were told as children and which some of us believed in.

One of such myth was the fact that if you hit your left leg against a stone as you were going out, you either won’t meet the person at home or you won’t get a positive result in case you were going to ask for a favour.

Either way, it was considered a bad sign to hit your left leg against a stone when on an outing.

It was only as we grew up that we got to know better.

Whether you are a die-hard blogger or just beginning your career as a blogger, there are lots of myths that you need to do away with to succeed in 2015.

5 Blogging Myths to Avoid in 2015

Myth #1: Build it, traffic will come:

On the average over 2.9million post are published every second. This means for every niche you can think of, there are already blog competiting for the same space as yours. This means it is not just okay to have a blog. You need to do the extra work to promote your blog and drive traffic to it.

Heard of the 20-80% principle? The success of a blog is 20% content creation (writing posts) and 80% content promotion (marketing, building relationships with others in the niche and building links etc). This means you need to let your target audience know that your blog exist.

If you do not tell them you exist, they won’t know how to find you. When they can’t find your website, they will settle for the available website they see.

There are numerous channels you can use to show the pathway to your blog. Channels like social media, email marketing and even paid advertisement are worth exploring.



Myth #2: You need to publish more content:

Another blogging myth that you need to throw away is the fact that you have to write more content and publish often. Experience bloggers have already learnt these the hard way but for newbie, it can be tempting to think that the more you write, the higher your traffic or ranking.

Publishing as often as you can might help you but if you are in an industry where things and news do not change that often, then publishing when you don’t have something interesting to tell your audience might not be a bonus.

Depending on your niche, you might have to take a step backward and consider some of the following factors to help you determine how often you should publish.

·         How often can you write?

·         What other component do you need eg graphics, etc?

·         How often do things change in your niche?

·         Who are your audience and what do they want?

 

Myth #3:  There is a particular type of content that does so well:

Do you think a particular type of content will do so well than others? Do you know that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world and all you can publish there are videos.

There is no right or wrong content to publish. It is all about understanding your audience, knowing your style and finding a meeting point.

If you find out that videos does well among your audience, put more time into producing more of it. If images does well and receives a lot of sharing, likes and re-tweet then put more effort into it.

Find the sweet spot and exploit it to your advantage.



Myth #4: You do not need SEO

Search Engine Optimization is a method of making web content discoverable by search engines. Search engine optimization involves much more than keyword research and link building. With search engines getting more intelligent, it has become a whole new way of promoting a website online. From audience persona, keyword research, copywriting and link building, a whole new method of promoting a blog was opened. But ignore the search engines and you lose out on a chance to sometimes increase your website traffic by as much as 75%.



Myth #5: Blogging can make you a millionaire over night:

Want to earn a passive income, you need a blog. Right?

Wrong. Actually being a blogger might not make you rich overnight. This is because blogging is such a hard job that most people will give up on it even before they see the reward of their effort. And depending on your niche, the competitions can become so crazy you feel like quitting blogging altogether.

While blogging may not make you an instant millionaire, it holds such a great potential for anyone ready to put in the work required.

Conclusion:

As bloggers, we live in a time where trends changes so fast and technology has come to stay. Go with the trends or be swallowed up by it. Blogging myths will continue to exist but what you can do is to learn from others you have succeeded as a blogger.

Have your own myth? Share with us.

This post was written by Adegboye Adeniyi. He is the Head of Search at VTNS Solutions, a Search Engine Marketing Firm dedicated to helping businesses build a better online presence. You can follow him on twitter @legendcrest