1. Using an Über-Formal Tone- Your blog should function as a conversation between your company or organization and your readers. It’s disadvantageous to estrange your audience with a superfluous vocabulary and an audacious tone. See how stuffy that sentence sounded? While you certainly shouldn’t be patronizing and talk down to your audience, you should also avoid speaking as though you’re giving a dissertation. Write as you would speak if you were face-to-face with your readers, and let your voice show through your writing.
2. Scraping Content- This is a huge peeve for me. There are so many reasons this is bad. For one, you’re taking credit for something you didn’t write. Starting a dialogue with your readers that’s built on dishonesty defeats the whole purpose of blogging, which is to open up communication with your customers and become more human and transparent. Plus, it’s just wrong. Secondly, duplicate content is bad for SEO (search engine optimization). And lastly, it can get you into big trouble. Plagiarizing copyrighted material is illegal, and can result in thousands of dollars in fines or even prison terms. Trust me, taking the time and effort to write original content is worth it!
3. TL;DR- Internet slang for “too long; didn’t read,” TL;DR posts are common with both new and old bloggers. For people who enjoy writing, like myself, it can be hard to know when to stop. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your readers hang on your every word, because they don’t. Be thorough, but keep things concise and to the point. Otherwise, your readers are likely to get bored. Another way to help with this is to utilize text cuts, like I do. Summarize what you want to say in the first paragraph or so, then add a “Read more…” link to the rest of the post. This way, interested readers can get the full story, and those who wish to skip it can move on to posts that catch their fancy.
4. Posting Uninteresting or Unrelated Content- If you blog is entitled, “Tech News You Can Use,” you’re likely attracting readers who are looking for information on the latest technological advances and gadgets. Odds are, they aren’t going to give a hoot that you had pot roast for dinner or that Little Billy won his soccer game. A personal touch every once in a while is great, because it lets them know that you’re human, but don’t treat your blog like your own personal diary.
5. Pushing Product- Not surprisingly, there’s no television channel that runs commercials 24 hours a day. (Unless, of course, you’re counting the home shopping channels. And really, who actually watches those?) I certainly wouldn’t watch a constant stream of paid advertisements, and I doubt you would, either. People hate ads, and we employ any means available to avoid them: recording our favorite shows so we can fast-forward through commercial breaks, installing ad-blocking software to get rid of pesky popups, and filtering our e-mails to make sure that spam doesn’t reach our inboxes. Likewise, people simply will not read a blog that consists of internal links and self-promotion. Obviously, in order to be effective, your blog must mention or reference your own site or company every now and again, but there’s no reason to ram your message down everyone’s throats.

If all these rules seem daunting, don’t fret. Blogging is actually easier than it may sound, and it will be hugely beneficial in opening up a dialogue with your audience and establishing your presence on the internet. As always, feel free to comment or send me an e-mail if you have questions.