I have read tons of articles that give us reasons and statistics why bloggers fail. Most of these articles focus on bloggers who are on the scene already and try to bring out some factors surrounding their blogging activities that can bring about failure.
Some say the content isn't good enough, others say it's lack of promotion or a solid monetization strategy. Not posting consistently or not having enough time are the other reasons I see being mentioned most often! As a matter of fact, they are all correct. But I have not read where anyone mentioned any of these fundamental factors I'm going to list here in this post.
Why Fundamental?
These are fundamental because they are at the beginning of their blogging activities and they form the foundation on which other factors are built. I think at this level, if any mistake is not identified and dealt with, chances of succeeding and growing a thriving blogging business are slim. By discussing these foundational factors, I hope to help some who are about to start or who are at the verge of collapsing to take shape and possibly start off on a better foundation.
4 Fundamental Reasons Bloggers Fail!
1 – Choosing an unreliable web host
This is one of the bad reasons some people have left business today. Sadly, little or no one is talking about this particular factor. I think the reason is that there are so many great web hosting companies today so much that no one things this can ever be an issue.
But I'll shock you…
People have made wrong choices of where to host their sites. As soon as their businesses start picking up, the next thing is their website is unavailable. That's a big punch on your business;
- It kills trust
- It sends away prospective customers
- It sends out bad signals to partners
- It kills your SEO
- Etc
[tweet_box design=”box_03″]Make sure you choose a reliable web host for your blog so you don't fail! [/tweet_box]
Some weeks back, a friend contacted me from Nigeria to recommend a reliable web host. The reason was that his local (Nigerian) web hosting company had become so unreliable.
His business website and blog were online today and tomorrow offline. That almost crumbled his online business until he took a different move.
I sent him a list of web hosting companies I think are reliable but asked him to take time and investigate them. After scouting the net for information to help his decision, he wrote to me about Temok Hosting, which was his final choice:
If your web hosting company is making your business difficult, change it. A reliable web hosting company has the obligation to host your files and data and make them available each time requested by you or your readers.
A minimum guarantee must be 99.9% uptime, live customer support, enough disk space and bandwidth to carter for your traffic, tools and resources to allow you create and manage your databases, email accounts, upload files, etc.
If your cousin is running a web hosting company, that's no reason to buy hosting from him. Affinity should never be a business factor.
2 – Blogging in the wrong niche
Most of the other factors that cause people to drop from blogging are supported by the fact that they made some very wrong decisions from the start. As a matter of fact, people blog in different niches for different reasons. Some, to make money, some do it just to express themselves on certain topics, some do it for business, some do it because others are doing it, etc; If you don't have a solid reason why you want to blog, you may end up choosing the wrong niche.
Note that the wrong niche for you may be the most perfect one for some other people. The reason for this is that people are different! We can't all follow the same path, and if we tried, we would all turn into clones or even worse – robots!
When you choose the wrong topic, you may end up getting really bored, loosing interest and motivation, lacking creativity for picking blog topics, etc.
Now, if someone drops out here as a result of lack of motivation, everyone else will take that (lack of motivation) as a factor behind your abandonment. But we know from this post that the real reason is a wrong choice of topic that was made at the start. It's the foundation that's bad.
NB: If you want to be able to choose the write topic to blog about, check out this guide I wrote on my blog.
3 – Blogging in seasonal topics
After the bloggers forum we had here in Douala last year, one of the participants came to me and after about 5 minutes of discussion, she told me she'd like to blog about Christmas.
I told her it's a great topic but what will you be doing during Easter? She smiled!
You know, it's a good thing to create event-based blogs but these blogs become so dormant in dead seasons. Before you start a blog in any topic, be sure that topic is evergreen.
4 – Choosing the wrong coach
The best way to start a business and minimize cost is to be guided by a mentor or a coach. But if you choose the wrong guide or coach in the beginning, your success is already compromised.
I had a very active guy on my blog. At one moment, he became so silent and his blog went dormant. I shot him a mail, trying to know why he's been this absent. But he sent me a shocking reply:
“… I have tried everything my coach taught me but not even one is working…”
So sad!
You see that the role model you are following could be the reason you are not making it.
How did you get to know him? Did you do enough investigations? Does he have a track record as a coach?
How can you allow someone without a success story teach you how to succeed?
Recommended:
Born to Blog: Building Your Blog for Personal and Business Success One Post at a Time
Conclusion!
You see that all these 4 reasons have to do with the foundation. Once the foundation is broken, there is no way you can hope for a long lasting structure.
The solution is to go back to that bad foundation and do the corrections. Change your host, get a new coach, chose the right evergreen topic and you'll definitely success in blogging.
Drop a comment and let me know what you think. Don't fail to check out my blog here for more engagement