6 SEO Sins That’ll Put You on Google’s Naughty List
Did you know Google can make your blog disappear from its search results?
One day, you’re getting a nice little trickle of traffic to a few of your posts. No, it’s nothing major, but it grows with every new post you publish, and you can see Google becoming a major source of traffic for you in the future.
But then it stops.
Poof, every single post and page of your blog disappears from Google. No warning, no alarm bells, nothing. You’re just gone, like you never even existed.
And the worst part?
You don’t even know why. It just feels like the biggest, baddest bully on the Internet decided to knock the crap out of you, leaving you whimpering and bleeding, wondering what on earth you did wrong.
It happens all the time. I know, because it happened to me.
read more5 Silly Ways You’re Sabotaging Your Blog without Even Realizing It
Now, now, now. Don’t even try to pretend it isn’t true.
Let me guess…
You spend hours on Twitter and Facebook “working,” only to wonder later if you really accomplished anything.
You comment on the blogs of bigwig bloggers, telling yourself you’re “networking,” nevermind that none of those comments actually lead to anything.
You have a growing collection of books and courses promising to teach you all the secrets in the universe, but they sit in that “to be read” folder collecting dust.
In the back of your mind, you know you can do better. Technically, you even know what to do.
But something inside you refuses to let you, and every day you struggle with whether or not you should just give up or find some other shortcut.
You know how I know this?
Because I’m you.
read moreSuicide, Shame, and the Painful Truth about Accomplishing Your Goals
I was in agony.
Waves of pain unimaginable shot down my spine, causing every muscle in my body to contract as if I’d been shocked with 20,000 volts of electricity. My back arched up at an unnatural angle. My arms and legs began to shake.
One moment, I was on a webinar talking to a few hundred people about traffic, walking them through exactly how to build a popular blog. The next, everything went dark. I was still conscious, but just barely.
Underneath the layers of pain, I remember thinking, “You can’t pass out. You have to finish talking about how to build an email list.” Of course, the pain was so bad I’d forgotten how to freaking see, much less pontificate on the intricacies of opt in pages.
So, I stopped. I waited a few seconds. My vision slowly returned, and I was able to wiggle the mouse up to the “Mute” button again.
For the next several minutes, I just sat there, quivering and trying to catch my breath as waves of pain continued up and down my spine. Eventually, the pain receded somewhat, and I wiggled the mouse back up to the “Mute” button again.
“Sorry folks,” I said. “Looks like GoToWebinar is having some technical difficulties. Can everyone hear me now?”
They said they could. We finished the webinar. Immediately afterward, I went to bed and stayed there for the next 16 hours.
And the worst part?
It was a normal day. I’d nearly collapsed on several webinars, not just that one. You might’ve even been on one of them.
Part of me worried if I was about to die. Another part hoped I would, just to be free of the pain.
I was at the end of my rope. One way or another, things were about to change.
Hold on, though. Let’s back up a bit.
read more12 Blogging Mistakes That Make You Look like a World-Class Idiot
It can happen, you know.
One day, you’re enthralled with a new idea for a post, so you whip it up and publish it to your blog, sure it’s going to get people buzzing all around the blogosphere.
But that’s not what happens. Instead, your world explodes in an inferno of criticism.
Angry comments. Hate email. Losing hundreds of friends on Facebook or Twitter.
Or even worse?
People just write you off. They see your post and think, “This person is an idiot,” and they resolve to ignore anything you say until the day you die.
Of course, that’ll never happen to you, right?
read moreThe Sin of Originality (and the Truth about Building a Popular Blog)
Note from Jon: This is one of the most shocking lessons you can learn as a blogger. We’re all trained to believe originality is essential for standing out, but the fact is, it can be dangerous, even deadly. In this guest post by Henneke Duistermaat from Enchanting Marketing, she shows you when originality is good and when it’s bad, and she also gives you a strategy for exactly how to do it right. Enjoy. 
Okay, show of hands.
Who else is still searching for that perfect, original angle that’ll make you stand out?
Yeah, most of us are. The fact is, the blogosphere is a crowded place, and if you want to stand out, you need to be original.
Right?
Well, yes and no.
As it turns out, sometimes originality isn’t quite as important as we all think it is. Sometimes, it can actually hurt you.
Let me explain.
read more21 Warning Signs You Chose the Wrong Topic for Your Blog
You’ve wondered, right?
Back when you started, you were just stoked to have a blog. You picked a topic that seemed interesting, fired up WordPress, and proceeded to write your heart out, certain you would eventually gather a following, and it would all prove worthwhile.
But now you’re getting a little worried.
You’re not getting much traffic. You’re not getting many comments. You’re not making any money.
Not that you haven’t tried, of course. You’ve done all the things popular bloggers say to do, like publishing great content and commenting on other popular blogs and getting accounts on Twitter and Facebook, but no matter how hard you work, no matter how many different techniques you try, none of it is working.
So you wonder…
Could you have screwed yourself in the beginning?
Could you have chosen a topic for your blog that never has a chance of becoming popular?
Could you in fact be wasting your time trying to keep your blog alive, when really the only sensible thing to do is junk it and start over?
Well… let’s find out.
read more
