Starting and maintaining your blog takes a great deal of self-discipline, honesty and perseverance. Why? Because developing strong content and earning a dedicated readership can be a long and turbulent process. At Apollo Media we recognize the common frustrations and difficulties involved in keeping focused and getting the most out of your blogging time.

The following is a short list of missteps and false starts that frequently occur in the blogosphere. Learning from these mistakes can help you keep your composure online and refine your writing, editing and designing techniques. Here are some common pitfalls bloggers often find themselves in:

1. Inconsistent post frequency and lack of updates

One of the most common blogging mistakes, inconsistent post frequency leaves wide gaps between your content and will cause your readership’s interest to steadily wane off. While bloggers often start off with great enthusiasm, posting on a daily basis, they soon learn that life happens and they can’t sit down and write everyday. One day is missed, then two and so on, slowing down their momentum and discouraging them from developing new content.

Solution : Create a regular posting schedule and plan posts in advance. Set up a day or series of days where you can focus on developing enough content to last you for several days. If you can’t finish a week’s worth of content in one burst, then leave yourself some outlines or point form notes to launch from when you come back to your blog, this way you don’t always have to start from scratch. Look to our post on Better Time Management for Bloggers for more tips.

2. Unfocused content that goes off topic and outside your niche

There is always so much to talk about online that it’s easy to be distracted and veer off from your blog’s course. Unfocused content will reveal a general lack of vision in your blog and will fail to gain traction within your blogging niche.

Solution : Know what your passion is. Set goals for yourself and outline what you want your blog to be used for before you post. Connect with other blogs within your niche and make note of their consistency. Sticking to one topic is hard work but if you are truly passionate about your subject matter, you’ll be driven to follow changes and developments related to it with increasing ease. For more, look to our post on Blogging within your Niche .

3. Inappropriate or ineffective post titles

Your content’s headlines will be the first, and often the last, thing your visitors will read. Having titles that are flat, non descriptive or unrelated to the content will make a poor first impression and lose the interest of your readers.

Solution: Spend some time crafting viral titles. Be descriptive, catchy, concise and sensational but be sure to capture the tone and scope of your article. Look to our article on 7 Ways to Craft a Viral Title for more.

4. Content is hard on the eyes and difficult to scan through

Often bloggers write strong and meaningful content but they fail to organize it for the web. Tiny fonts, cramped structuring and long lines of text make your content difficult to read and will deter new visitors from exploring your blog.

Solution: Think visually and write with scrolling in mind. Internet users, for the most part, have very short attention spans and don’t have the time to sift through lengthy passages of text unless they absolutely need to. Break your content down into clearly organized paragraphs and use sub headings, bullets and numbers to highlight specific points.

Clear headers and sub-headers are also a must as they will lay out your post’s main points for your reader to consider as they scan. Adding a ‘read more’ link after a brief introduction or summary of your post will also save your readers from scrolling through incredibly long posts on your blog’s main page. The inclusion of images in your posts is also recommended so readers can quickly assess the tone, scope and subject matter of your posts before reading a single line. It’s all about grabbing and keeping their attention. For more on this, check out our post 5 Ways to Create a Popular Blog .

5. Not Optimized for Social Media

This is a rather broad mistake but a common one that can cripple any new blog. Underestimating the power of social media tools, like bookmarking sites (Digg, Reddit, Stumble Upon) and RSS feeds is sure to kill your blog’s accessibility. People want to be able to bookmark and share blog content as quickly and as simply as possible. By not offering these options for your readers, you’re not only missing out on the powerful effects of social media, but you might also inadvertently discourage other reader participation…like reading and commenting on your blog!

Solution : Make it easy for readers to subscribe to your blog and clearly display a wide variety of bookmarking options. Have a large RSS button to draw in subscribers. Optimize your content and titles so that avid bookmarkers will be encouraged to share your posts with more casual browsers within their personal networks. Look to our posts on Optimizing your Blog for Stumble Upon , 6 Ways to Get People to Bookmark Your Posts and Why Bother with an RSS feed for more.

These mistakes are easy to make and just as easy to solve. All it takes is some healthy self-criticism and some careful prioritizing for your blog to become a more accessible and user-friendly place. If you have the ideas and motivation, then tweaking your efforts with some winning strategies can get you over the hump and get you hooked on blogging .

Now that you have Apollo on your side, why not implement some of our tips on your blog? What works for you and what doesn’t? What are some of the mistakes you’ve made and what corrective measures did you take to fix them?