11 Reasons Why Most Bloggers Fail |

Ryan Biddulph January 10, 2024 blogging tips 🕑 7 minutes read

Koh Samui, Thailand

Attempting to figure out why most bloggers fail seems confusing at first.

But feeling frustrated with your results can point you in the right direction.

For me, I finally figured out that there had to be a better way to blog than the failing strategy I worked 16 years ago as a new blogger.

Slowly but surely seeing that my thoughts, feelings and actions created the failure motivated me to look to successful bloggers for their advice.

They obviously knew how to succeed and up to that point….I did not.

Don’t beat yourself up too much over failing. Almost every blogger struggles temporarily.

Look to pro bloggers for guidance. Follow their corrections.

Remember; you’re blogging to have fun, to love helping people and to be free. You cannot do any of those things or feel those emotions when you struggle and fail. You can and will do those things and feel those emotions by following successful, full-time blogger guidance.

Go through this list of why most bloggers fail to own any failures and move in a successful direction.

1: Not Following Guidance from Successful Bloggers

Bloggers typically fail because few follow guidance only from successful bloggers.

Most wing it.

Experimenting makes no sense if pros can guide you to begin thinking, feeling and acting like a pro right now.

Stop winging it. Follow guidance from full time bloggers. Do what they guide you to do to form a solid foundation for your blogging strategy.

Read their blog posts. Put their advice into action. Invest in their online courses and eBooks. Follow the course. Read the eBook. Put their advice into action.

Do as pros do to begin succeeding.

2: Following Advice from Struggling Bloggers

Beginner bloggers – and struggling veterans – often seek advice from fellow struggling bloggers because failing advice feels:

familiar
comfortable
safe

For example, failing bloggers may rely on blog post commenting and sharing threads for blog traffic, failing to see that these manipulative, untargeted schemes draw little to no quality blog traffic.

Put blogging failure behind you. Migrate from struggling blogging circles. Leave these tired collectives behind for good.

3: Harboring Tremendous Resistance to Following Successful Advice

Bloggers usually carry deep, unconscious resistance to successful blogging advice.

Pros may advise you to:

publish 1200-1500 word posts
target everything for your perfect reader through blogging and social media
engage in genuine blogger outreach

But you may say:

“Screw that. I’ll keep copying and pasting business pitches 50-100 times daily to grow my business.”

Pay close attention to this textbook example of self-sabotage, courtesy of fears lodged deep in your unconscious mind.

Pushing fear out of awareness influences you to resist success, ignore success and do what leads to failure.

Own your failure as a mental process beginning in your unconscious mind. Patiently and gently observe how your fears dictate your failing blogging strategy. Reduce resistance to success by first facing, feeling and forgiving fears in your mind attracted to failure, self-sabotage and self-punishment.

4: Looking for Shortcuts

Failing bloggers tend to look for shortcuts because each fears running out of time, money or potential popularity.

Vicious cycles unfold, behaving identical to a robot trusting failing programming, yielding failing results.

Professional bloggers patiently:

learn how to blog successfully
study how to blog successfully
practice how to blog successfully
create targeted, long form content
engage in genuine blogger outreach
help targeted readers offsite
monetize through multiple income channels

No shortcuts exist in this process.

As you may imagine, it takes peace of mind, a calm sense of confidence and plenty of time to mindfully work each step from the bullet point list.

5: Blogging Mainly for Money

Blogging mainly for money leads to failure typically because you quit when you lose your motivator.

Re-read the bullet point list above. Money flows to you through blogging if you patiently follow these steps.

As you calmly follow these steps you better believe the money will be zero for quite a long time. This is why many bloggers quit; they cannot handle seeing the “0’s” because they’re blogging mainly to see big bucks numbers.

Blog mainly to have fun helping people from a single niche. Frame money and a pro blogging career as a bonus for patiently helping a targeted reader for a long time.

Choose invisible, intangible motivators originating in your mind to be patient, persistent, calm and eventually successful.

In truth, the only things that make you an impatient blogger are literally the things you chase in the world.

6: Publishing Thin Content

Thin content breeds failure.

Most readers do not solve their problems with blog posts spanning 400-600 words. Who can sum up a detailed problem in 600 words?

Blogging failure follows most short form bloggers because each tries to get something for nothing.

Google and genuine readers don’t want nothing. Both desire detailed, targeted, in-depth content long form in nature as a sort of general agreement. 1200-1500 word posts – or perhaps a bit longer – tend to please both the Google algorithm and authentic readers who organically find your blog posts through any channel.

Publish long form blog posts dripping with practical details to drive quality blog traffic.

People want meat. Dogs get the bone.

7: Blogging About Multiple Niches

Multiple niche bloggers usually fail because no one visits the hardware store for a plate of lasagna. If you crave lasagna you visit the Italian restaurant specializing in preparing delicious Italian food.

The world trusts specialists not generalists. The moment you cover two niches you lose specialization to begin generalization. Being a jack of all trades guarantees that you master none.

A while back, one of my readers tagged me and quoted me on Twitter. He tweeted one of the top internet marketers in the world and quoted my blogging tips advice.

This reader did not perceive me as being special, brilliant of some blogging savant. He simply perceived me as doing only one thing on Blogging From Paradise – offer blogging tips – for a very long time in a world of bloggers who largely do 2, 5 or 10 things on their blogs.

Do 1 thing. Do it damn well. Cover it inside-out. Gain trust. Thrive.

Where your attention and energy goes, grows.

8: Trying to Sell too Many Things

I failed horribly in this regard for many years.

I tried to sell too many things and watered down my sales because none received the attention, love and exposure it deserved.

I eventually decided to sell 2 blogging courses and 9 blogging eBooks. I gave each greater attention, love and exposure to gradually increase sales.

Bloggers who attempt to promote a ton of stuff almost always fail because no one has the time, energy, expertise and ability to sell a high volume of different products and services.

Open multiple income streams to blog abundantly but add income channels slowly, steadily and patiently to effectively promote each offering.

As a general rule of thumb, consider adding an income channel every 3-6 months.

9: Trying to Sell too Often

Some bloggers appear to be used car salesmen masquerading as bloggers.

When you try to sell too often by:

plastering ads all over your blog
using social media only to sell your products and services
pitch strangers your business via spam comments and messages

people sense your fear, feel your desperation and look past you, your message and your offerings.

Publish detailed, targeted blog posts and social media updates to earn the trust which inspires people to buy your stuff and hire you.

In-depth, pinpointed content does your selling for you, largely.

Self-promoting actually plays a small role in being a successful blogger.

Creating thorough content which inspires people to buy your stuff or hire you, in and of itself, plays a very prominent role in being a successful blogger.

10: Having No Offsite Strategy

Failing bloggers rarely work a sound offsite strategy.

Most just publish content to their blog.

This is like building a store in the middle of the desert.

No one knows about it.

Comment genuinely on blogs within your niche. Guest post on blogs from your niche. Publish detailed updates to social media groups aligned with your niche.

Engage your ideal reader on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Find them through their comments via groups and in response to your updates.

Offsite blogging work is as important as onsite blogging work.

Cross the bridge from onsite to offsite to put your “blogging cyber diary” days behind you.

11: Chasing Trends Versus Following the Fundamentals

Hyped Up, internet marketing schemes.

Guest blogging for links.

A plethora of social media sites “guaranteed” to supplant Facebook.

I have seen each come and go over my 16 year blogging career because fads are dinosaurs and fundamentals are forever.

Blogging using only AI to create posts with recycled words is the current day dinosaur doomed to extinction. Chasing this trend is like trying to use a Triceratops for transportation; it’s already dead, but people don’t realize it.

Follow the fundamentals of creating detailed content for a targeted reader, engaging in genuine blogger outreach and monetizing through multiple income streams.

Honor the timeless fundamentals to stop failing for good.