9 Reasons Why Most Small Business Blogs Fail

Over 90% of all small business blogs fail.

How ‘bout them apples? Not too good, huh?

So the question begs—Why the heck is this happening?

As a small business owner myself and someone that’s passionate about blogging (its ups, its downs, and everything that comes with this great medium) I am writing this post for those guys and gals out there just like me—battling everyday to keep your business successful, profitable, and ahead of the curb.

I’m also writing this article because some of you right now are probably doing things all wrong, and chances are you know it.

With hard work and persistency, you'll inevitably reach and exceed your business' blog goals

You know it because your blog articles aren’t getting read. You know it because the only comments you get on your posts are from that fake Gmail account that no one but you knows about. You know it because you’re frustrated as heck and wondering if ‘this whole blogging thing’ is even worth continuing.

Well let me start by saying that whatever it is you’re feeling right now, chances are that I’ve already felt the same thing, as well as thousands upon thousands of others in the blogosphere. I’m not going to sit here and lie to you and say that it’s easy for a small business to create a wildly successful blog. But I’m also not going to say that it need be incredibly difficult. Truth is, some small business blogs take off like a rocket while others are slower to develop.

Either way, there are clearly reasons why most small business blogs fail. And that’s what this article is all about. It’s about averting failure and finding success, and boy do I wish I had known the following when I began my business’ blogging journey.

1. Business Owner Doesn’t Buy into Blogging: I’ve seen it time and time again and despite this, it still makes me want to vomit every time I see a biz owner squash the marketing hopes and dreams of an employee in their company who is bright enough to want to start a company blog. Such statements as,  “Teenagers only do that crap” or “Nobody reads that mess” or “What a waste of time” are common chants heard from old-school biz owners all over the world. Of course, these are the same people who are crying the blues that old-school marketing methods are no longer bringing in leads….Well DUHHHHH. Frankly, I just don’t have patience with this type of business owner and if any of you readers are stuck with someone who is antiquated and still living in the 80s, just have the guy email me one time marcus1@thesaleslion.com and I’ll sound off in his or her ear for you.

2. Lack of Patience: OK, so let’s assume that you’ve started a blog, you’ve announced it to all your customers and on your company website, but your still getting very little traffic. Guess what? IT HAPPENS. Don’t sweat it. Give it some time. Just concern yourself with following your marketing plan and have faith that results will soon follow. In fact, if you’re going to start a blog I suggest you commit to doing it for at least one year, writing 2 articles a week at least. By doing this, you’ll get past the frustrating initial ‘hump’ that almost all small businesses go through when starting a blog. Such is the mentality that I follow here at The Sales Lion. I’m committed to this blog for at least 1 year no matter what the results are. This commitment helped me deal with the potentially depressing fact that I averaged less than 5 visitors a day during this blog’s first month, despite the fact that I was really pouring my best into every article. Now, with hundreds of visitors a day coming to the site after 4 months of regular blogging, the early days already seem like a distant memory.

3. No plan: Not that I’m the greatest planner in the world, but many businesses and people absolutely need to do this when starting a blog. What I mean by planning is brainstorming relevant article topics for your initial first 90 days of blogging. You should also know exactly what days you plan on posting said articles. By doing this, you’ll be giving yourself goals, deadlines, vision, and consistency with this new medium. Although such behavior may seem odd at first, it will eventually start to become a natural part of your day-to-day business routine.

4. Wrong Platform:I see many, many businesses make this mistake. Essentially, they try and create a ‘blog’ page off of one of their existing website pages. What many business owners don’t understand though is that a blog isn’t just another page of a website. Although it should absolutely be linked to off of your site’s homepage, typically a different platform, such as WordPress, should be used for the blog itself. Programs such as WordPress (what you see here on this blog) are killer content management systems that automatically do many things like: Create a new page with each blog post, enable categories, update the blog’s home page with most recent articles, and constantly alert the search engines of new content. In other words, if you decide you want to have a blog and type up a few articles on word and then have your webmaster slap said articles on a ‘blog’ page of your website, then you’ve essentially accomplished nothing. Check out my business’ home page and blog page, as well as their corresponding URLs to understand what I’m talking about here.

5. Don’t give remarkable content: Here’s the deal. In order for your small business blog to be successful you have got to teach your readers something they didn’t already know. You’ve got to answer their questions. You’ve got to put yourself in their shoes and think like they do. In fact, every small business blog should answer this question before their first article: What are 20 questions my clients ask before they’ve bought my product? Trust me when I say these 20 questions would make 20 excellent blog articles and create quite a solid foundation of valuable resources for your readership.

6. Don’t know their audience: This is an extremely important question to ask yourself. Who is your blog’s audience? A year ago when I started blogging for my small business, I really had no idea what I was doing nor to whom I was directing my articles. Considering my business only works in 2 states, what good did it do me to write articles for the masses? But soon after having such thoughts, I came to realize that the more people I could connect with on my blog, the more the search engines would appreciate my company’s website and therefore the end result would be killer SEO as well as the fact that my business partners and I would be recognized as the ‘Industry Voice and Consumer Advocate’.  Another result would be that our website would become a hub for swimming pool consumers and owners all over the world to learn and discuss our products. And within less than one year, this is exactly what has happened.

7. Don’t use keywords properly: As you become more and more familiar with blogging, you’ll see that blogs are written to please 2 groups: People and Search Engines. Although there are many articles debating the merits of each, I’m a firm believer in balance and attention to both. For me, the blog titles on my company website mainly tailor towards specific keyword phrases I’m trying to get ranked for, which is why they are mainly written for search engines and are full of long-tail keyword phrases. After that, the article bodies are all about the reader, NOT the Search Engines. By writing for both Search Engines and People, you’ll find that your website will start to rank very high on many keywords (therefore driving quite a bit of free traffic to your site) but also you will garner more and more subscribers because of your wonderful content and writing style.

8. Not opinionated:Let me just cut to the chase on this one. Every blogger should be opinionated, plain and simple. If you’re not, then your blog will likely be emotionless and draw little attention. As I’ve stated before in previous posts, blogging has thrust me into a position at 32 years of age as an expert in the fiberglass swimming pool industry. The fact that my readers see me as an expert frankly drives quite a few of my competitors (many of which are 20 years my senior) bonkers. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard someone in the pool industry call me a ‘snot-nosed kid’ I’d be on a beach right now. But it’s these same competitors that don’t know how to turn on their computers and are still using maps in their vehicles to find their way to sales appointments. Simply put, I’m viewed as an expert in the fiberglass pool industry because I have put my thoughts to print more than anyone else has by a mile. Our company has also done more Vlogs (video blogs) than any other swimming pool company in the world, and when I say more I mean way more.  And what’s keeping these guys from moving out of the stone ages? Nothing but pride and an unwillingness to accept that ‘Daddy’s Way’ isn’t always the best way. So again I stress to you to have opinions, write them down, and tell them to the world. In the blogging community, he who produces the most quality content is king.

9. No Inspiration:Many bloggers have a difficult time producing quality content on a consistent basis. I can understand this dilemma but the key here is what I would call a change of paradigm. In other words, bloggers need to see their world and their business with the mindset of, ‘How could I turn this experience into a blog?’ Although such a question may sound cheesy, the truth is that each and every one of us has learning experiences every day. But the most successful bloggers are the ones that recognize the value in each of those moments, makes a mental note, and then transforms what’s in their head to words on a screen. When I talk to others about this subject, I always stress this important point:

If any experience in life has taught you a lesson and impacted you in any way, then it will likely have the same effect on others as you share said experiences with them.

Ok, so I’ve given my top 9 reasons why small business blogs fail, so now it’s your turn. What are some other reasons more small biz blogs don’t have success? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments as both are very much appreciated.

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