Why Do Most Bloggers Fail? (9 Reasons & Solutions)

Last Updated on June 10, 2023 by Jordan Alexo

Did you know about 95% of blogs fail within the first year?

Also, around 60% of bloggers quit within the first six months of starting their blog.

So, why do most bloggers fail? The stats may sound scary, but you don’t need to be one of them.

In this guide, you’ll discover the nine biggest reasons most bloggers crash and burn. This includes not focusing on a specific niche, poor quality content, targeting highly competitive search terms, and more.

But even better, I’ll explain how you can avoid and overcome these obstacles so you may inevitably build a successful money-making blog. Let’s roll!

Key Takeaways

1. Choose a niche for your blog and focus on becoming an authority in that area. Also, avoid publishing unrelated content on your blog. This may negatively impact your rankings on Google and other search engines.
2. Have a good balance between informational and transactional content. You should aim for an 80/20 or 70/30 ratio, where most posts provide valuable information, and a smaller portion promotes relevant products or services.
3. Target long-tail keywords instead of overly competitive ones. These keywords are more specific and less competitive. You can rank for these keywords more easily and get visitors to your blog.
4. Treat your blog as a business if you want to generate serious income. You must dedicate time to consistently create content, optimize SEO, and learn monetization strategies.
5. Implement proper internal linking strategies to improve the navigability of your website and help search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of your content.

Reason #1 – Not Focusing On One Niche

What’s your niche? 

That must be your first focal point to build a successful blog.

I started seriously blogging about a year ago after I decided to leave my self-publishing business. Although I sporadically blogged here and there. However, I didn’t do it as my main source of income.

One of my biggest mistakes was not having a clear niche. For instance, one day, I was blogging about “best credit repair software” and the next about “how to buy land in the Metaverse.”

As you can imagine, one topic has nothing to do with the other.

The problem is that Google doesn’t rank websites with scattered or unrelated content well. So, my blog struggled to gain traction.

I recently started focusing on the “how to use AI to help you blog” niche. I’ve noticed a drastic improvement in my overall rankings; Because Google ranks better websites that go deep into one specific niche.

A website doesn’t become an “authority” in the eyes of Google if it doesn’t have a specific area of focus or expertise.

Solution 1 – Choose One Niche

Pick one niche and stick with it to build topical authority. So, you want to write as much content as possible about a topic.

You want to get to the point that whenever someone searches for something related, they will find your blog.

I suggest building a topical map. You can use Google Autosuggest, Answer the Public, and Google Trends to explore various topics within your niche.

You should create a list with over ten or more relevant keywords.

Also, you may build this keyword list and use Keyword Cupid to create a topical map for your blog automatically. 

If you don’t know what niche to choose, read this post, “Best Low Competition Blogging Niches.”

Reason #2 – Being Too Salesy

Google has been hitting hard blogs that are overly promotional or transactional. You don’t want to build a blog where most of your content is trying to sell something or promote a product.

If you do this, you may find yourself in Google’s bad books, as it will negatively impact your blog’s search engine ranking.

This is why you need to have a good informational-to-transactional ratio. To give readers enough informational value before promoting a product or service.

But don’t get me wrong! You can and should promote relevant products to your audience. However, you should prioritize providing valuable content that informs people about a specific topic rather than just pushing sales.

Solution #2 – What’s A Good Ration?

The ratio you should use depends on your niche. However, a 70/30 or 80/20 informational-to-transactional ratio is a good rule of thumb.

For instance, if you run a blog about fitness, for every ten posts you publish, eight should be informational relevant articles.

And the other two can be transactional posts that promote fitness courses, health supplements, or gym equipment.

However, these two posts should help readers decide if they need the product; Rather than just pushing them to buy it without providing any informational value.

Reason #3 – Going After Overly Competitive Keywords

No matter how often people told me not to write content with overly competitive keywords, I still did it. And the result was predictable – low search engine ranking and fewer visitors.

See, it doesn’t matter how great your content is if you go after overly competitive search terms. If your blog is new or doesn’t have much authority, it will be extremely challenging to rank for keywords dominated by established blogs.

Google simply doesn’t trust your blog enough to place it on search engine results pages for such competitive keywords. Besides, your blog may never rank for these keywords, no matter how much effort you put into SEO.

It’s more easily said than done. Most new bloggers fall into this trap without realizing it.

Solution #3 – Target Long-Tail Keywords

Instead, you want to focus on targeting long-tail keywords, which are often less competitive and more specific to a particular topic. Probably, you’re wondering what long-tail keywords are and how to find them.

Well, long tail phrases are keyword phrases that are more specific and narrow than broader, highly competitive keywords.

Often the more words a phrase has, the less competition it has for that exact search term.

I recommend you read this post, “How to find low hanging keywords,” to learn more about finding long-tail, less competitive keywords to target on your blog.

Also, you should apply the “Avalanche SEO strategy.” This consists of first building content for less competitive, long-tail keywords and then gradually targeting more competitive ones as your blog gains authority.

Using this strategy, you can more quickly start getting traffic to your blog by ranking for less competitive keywords. As a blogger, targeting the right keywords is crucial to your success.

Reason #4 – Not Looking At Your Blog As A Business

You either go all in or go home when it comes to blogging.

While you can treat blogging as a hobby, if you want to make serious money, you must start treating your blog like a business.

Often people see other bloggers making a lot of money online and assume it’s easy to do. Perhaps, they assume this because many influencers only show the highlights of their success.

The fact is influencers only show you the good part because, commonly, they want to sell you an online course.

But that’s not the reality behind the screen.

To build a successful blog, you must put in hours upon hours of work. Usually, you’ll spend most of your days writing content, learning new strategies, optimizing SEO, outreaching out to other bloggers, building your email list, and creating and promoting products.

So need to keep this in mind and approach your blog as a business.

This changes your mindset from “Oh… I’m going to publish a post whenever I feel like it” to “I need to write content consistently, improve my strategy and find ways to monetize my blog.”

Solution #4 – Make a Commitment

The difference between someone who becomes successful and another who doesn’t is often a matter of commitment.

When you’re committed, it means:

• You’ll have the discipline to do whatever it takes to grow your blog. Whether it’s raining cats and dogs or you don’t feel like writing, you will keep working towards your goals.

That’s the commitment you need to build a successful online business.

So, write it down on paper or a document, “I am committed to developing my blog into a successful online business.”

Also, give your blog at least a year to generate a profit. Now, this doesn’t mean you won’t need to adapt and make changes throughout your journey, but it means you’re in it for the long haul.

Reason #5 – Poor Internalink Hierarchy

One thing that affects your website’s SEO is not having a proper internal link hierarchy.

Often this aspect is underlooked by bloggers. And it can impact your content rankings on search engine results pages significantly.

See, you want a website that is easy to navigate for your readers and search engines like Google.

Whenever someone lands on your website, they should be able to find other relevant content easily. Also, you want to make it easy for Google (and other search engines) to crawl your site and understand the structure of your content.

Their robots should quickly and easily identify the main topics you cover and how they relate to each other. And this can only be achieved through proper internal linking.

Solution #5 – Improve Internal Linking Hierarchy

You can implement several internal linking strategies to improve your internal linking hierarchy.

One is the “Silo Structure” approach, which involves categorizing your content into different silos based on the primary topics you cover. Each acts as a hub of interrelated content. This makes it easier for readers to navigate your blog. Also, it helps search engines understand your site’s niche and find your newly published content.

A way to use this strategy is to have five relevant informational blog posts, all linking to each other. At the same time, they all link to a transactional blog post.

The idea is to have most of your info posts pointing links to your transactional posts. These last posts are your money-makers, and doing this helps them rank better on search engines.

Lastly, remember to use anchor text that includes relevant keywords. This helps search engines more easily understand your content.

Reason #6 – Don’t Have Enough Content

Ranking high on Google is all about building trust.

And one effective way to build trust and make them see you as an authority in your niche is to have a lot of high-quality content on your blog.

But often, most bloggers fail to produce enough content. Instead, they publish ten or twenty articles, don’t see results, and give up.

When you look at big websites like Men’s Health or Forbes, they have thousands of articles available.

Would you consider these websites an authority if they only had a few articles published? Neither do you nor does Google.

So, you want to publish a good quantity of relevant posts. Usually, the more content, the better!

Additionally, publishing consistency is another crucial factor.

It’s more important to publish three quality posts every week; Than to publish one-hundred posts once and forget your site ever existed for months.

Solution #6 – Consistent Publishing Schedule

You want to build a consistent publishing schedule that works for you. Not everyone has the same availability. You may have commitments like a 5 to 9 job, school work, or family responsibilities.

For this reason, it’s essential to be realistic about your publishing schedule.

• I suggest organizing all your content ideas in advance and creating a content calendar so that you can publish consistently on your blog.
• You can easily do this with Google Sheets or any other scheduling tool you prefer.
• If you’re a new blogger, post fewer times each week and gradually increase your publishing frequency as you gain more experience and become more comfortable managing your workload.

However, stick to your publishing schedule. If you publish three posts a week, then consistently publish three posts every week. Of course, some weeks, it may not be possible.

But the key is to make it a habit and stick to it as much as possible.

Reason #7 – Poor Quality Content

You don’t want to publish content for the sake of it simply. Your content needs to provide value and be of high quality.

But what is high-quality content?

• Answers Search Query: It should answer users’ search queries as best as possible. In a way, it ends their need to find answers elsewhere.
• Easily skimmable: Many people scan through articles, so it’s essential to break up your content with headings, bullet points, and images that make the information easy to digest.
• Easily Readable: Most readers have a 7th to 8th-grade reading level, so make sure your writing uses clear and concise language.
• Unique and Original: It should provide new insights or be more informative than your competitors’ content.
• Write Content For People: Your content should be written for people, not just for search engines.

Saying this, it has nothing to do with writing perfectly. But rather creating content that gives fast, accurate information that your readers will find valuable.

Solution # 7 – Constantly Improve Your Content Quality

You want to keep improving your content creation skills. Here are a few ways you can do that:

• Read Content From Successful Bloggers: See how they structure their articles, what kind of information they provide, and how they engage with their audience.
• Take Courses or Attend Workshops: Many online resources can help you improve your writing skills and learn how to create high-quality content.
• YouTube Tutorials: You can find a lot of free tutorials on writing and content creation on YouTube.
• Make Your Content Better: Always try to make your content more insightful and informative than your competitors.

Also, a great blog post usually starts with a great outline. You should research your competitors’ content to see what they wrote and how you can provide something better.

Reason #8 – Not Monetizing Your Website Efficiently

So some bloggers over-monetize their sites while others are afraid to monetize.

You want to find a balance between both. Also, some ways to monetize your blog depend on your niche and your site’s traffic.

When monetizing your website, it’s important to consider what methods will work best for your niche and audience.

Some common monetization methods include affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, display advertising, and selling digital or physical products.

Also, you should start your blog knowing how you will monetize it in the future. Whether through advertising or selling products, etc.

Solution #8 – Monetize Your Site Properly

To see what way you should monetize your site, you should ask yourself a few key questions:

1 – Is your niche profitable?

Not every niche is equally profitable, so it’s important to do some research and see if there are products or services that your readers are willing to pay for.

I mean, if you fail right here, then it’s not worth asking the next questions.

2 – What is your niche?

Different niches have different monetization methods that work best. For instance, the entertainment industry may succeed more with display advertising.

On the other hand, the business niche may have more success with affiliate marketing and selling digital products like courses or ebooks.

3 – How much traffic does your site get?

If you have a new site, nobody will immediately buy your online course. You’re better off promoting affiliate products until you have enough traffic to sell your products.

Also, the same thing goes with Google Ads. You need decent traffic to make significant revenue from display advertising.

And if that’s the only way you see your blog monetized, you need to wait until you have enough traffic to make it worthwhile.

However, don’t wait too long to start monetizing your site. You can monetize your blog from day 1. Just read this blog post, “How To Monetize Your Blog From Day One.”

Reason #9 – Neglecting Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

You don’t need to overdo it in terms of SEO, where you stuff every sentence with keywords. But neglecting SEO altogether can be a huge mistake.

I know a few bloggers; it’s like they write a blog post about whatever comes to mind without considering what people are actually searching for on Google or other search engines.

Also, they care even less about how to optimize their content for those search engines.

Then they wonder, “why the heck nobody is finding my blog?”

See search engines send robots to understand the content on your blog. For this reason, they analyze your web posts for specific keywords and links.

And based on that, they determine what your site is about and how relevant it is to someone’s search query.

So, you need to make sure that your blog posts are properly optimized for search engines. Besides, you don’t need to get all nerdy about it. Some basic SEO can go a long way.

Solution #9 – Implement SEO Techniques Appropriately

Just do the following simple things to optimize your blog posts for search engines properly:

• Place your most important keywords in your post titles, first paragraph, and meta descriptions.
• Include other relevant keywords throughout your subheadings and content in a natural manner.
• Your URL should also include your main keyword or phrase.
• Include two or three internal links to other relevant pages on your blog in each of your posts.
• Make sure to write high-quality, informative content for your readers that is easy to read and understand

If you do that, you do much of the work required for effective SEO.

In case you want to go deeper, you can use tools like Surfer SEO or Neuronwriter to assist with optimizing your blog for search engines.

These AI SEO tools can help you understand which keywords to use and how to structure your blog post for maximum SEO benefits.

Last Thoughts

The journey to building a successful blog comes with challenges. But now, you understand the most common reasons and to solve them. This greatly increases your chances of success.

So, you must choose a specific niche and write relevant, high-quality content. Also, Google will only start trusting your site after you consistently publish content for a couple of months.

A good ratio is 80/20 or 70/30 informational to transactional posts. This percentage allows you to promote products without looking too pushy. Furthermore, you should have a business-oriented mindset.

In other words, you must be committed to keep writing, learning, and growing your blog no matter what. I suggest giving your blog a year or more to gain traction and generate decent traffic and income.

Most bloggers fail because they don’t give enough time and effort to their blogs. However, now you’re better equipped than 95% of bloggers out there with the knowledge to overcome common challenges and make your blog successful.

If you have any questions, leave them below, Jordan Alexo will reply as soon as possible.

In case you’d like to learn how to rank for a competitive niche, read here.

FAQ

1- What Percentage of Blogs Succeed?

The percentage of blogs that succeed is a tricky number to pin down because success can be defined in many ways.

Some might consider a blog successful if it gains a substantial following, while others might equate success with monetary gain.

If we consider success as the ability to generate a full-time income, a commonly quoted statistic is that around 5% to 10% of bloggers achieve this level of success.

However, the majority of bloggers might not earn significant income but could still consider their blogs successful based on community engagement, personal satisfaction, or the achievement of other personal goals.

2 – Can I Become Millionaire By Blogging?

Becoming a millionaire by blogging isn’t impossible. But it’s not common and requires a considerable amount of effort, skill, and a little bit of luck.

Some bloggers have managed to generate significant income by diversifying their revenue streams – this can include advertising, sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, selling products or services, and more.

However, it’s important to remember that for every successful blogger, there are many more who earn little to no income from their blogs.

Starting a blog with the sole aim of becoming a millionaire might lead to disappointment. It’s often better to start a blog about something you’re passionate about, focusing on providing valuable content to your audience, and then look for ways to monetize your efforts.