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Successful blogging – a subject I have been discussing quite a lot on this blog. As a matter of fact it is actually one of the main topics being covered here. And no wonder! The niche is so comprehensive that there is always something to write about.

Enough with the fluff, let’s get straight to the point now! A few months back I’ve written a post named “Blogging Success – Six Ways to Get a Step Closer”. As the name goes, the article gave an overview on various tips and tricks, one should utilize to make his blogging undertaking more successful. You can consider the following article an extension to that previous post. This time I’ll go through the things that hold us back, making our lives as bloggers harder.

Read them, avoid them and your blogging experience will be at least a little more enjoyable:

You Believe Failure Is the End

Many people want to blog but never even start, thinking they are going to fail big time. This sometimes proves truth – they do fail, but is that really something out of the ordinary? Have you succeeded in everything right from the first try? I don’t think so.

Failure is a strong word. As I see it there are rather ups and downs when it comes to blogging. You might “fail” once or even twice; however what really matters is learning from the mistakes you’ve made and not repeating them again. As Henry Ford said “failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently”. Think about this next time you think about quitting.

You are Letting Fear Take Control

Blogging is not like going on war or something. There isn’t (should not be) something to fear that much about. The only thing I can think of is negative feedback. Still not justifiable, since critics are everywhere nowadays. You just have to start dealing with criticism and negative opinions, by either ignoring them or taking them into consideration if appropriate. Fear has no place in that equation.

Another thing is that no one actually knows what for a person you are in the “real” world. Even if you do something wrong, this won’t really have an impact on your life. So why care that much?

You are Not Working Efficiently

Putting efforts is a good thing. That is as long as you are reaping the fruits of your labor though. Many bloggers spend hours doing things in a totally inefficient way. What is bad is that they are doing it day in and day out, without even thinking about finding a better and a more efficient strategy.

Don’t be one of those folks! Take some time to rethink on your tasks and search for ways to optimize them. It might take you hours or even days to discover that perfect approach, but once you do, getting work done will become infinitely easier.

Further reading: 7 Reasons Why Working Less Might Improve Your Marketing Results

You are Going Too Far with Monetization

Monetization is without a doubt one of the trending topics in the blogging world. Although many people say they are blogging just for the fun of it, I bet that everyone has thought about slapping some ads here and there. There is nothing bad in doing this, however you need to know when to draw the line.

Adding one unit in your sidebar, another one within the articles and a third someplace else is just overkill. Put yourself in the perspective of a random visitor, when trying different combinations. Think about blogs you are visiting that have done things right as far as monetization is concerned. Draw some inspiration and test on your blog!

You Never Seek Help

Once you start blogging, you will see for yourself that working on dozens of different tasks is essential if you want to lift your blog off the ground. Being good at everything is easier said than done. On the other hand you simply don’t always have the time to do all these tedious yet important things.

That is where outsourcing comes into play. There are hundreds and hundreds of freelancers waiting to give you a helping hand on some of the harder blogging tasks. At just 5 bucks per project, Fiverr is a great place to seek help. Elance is another top-notch freelancing service and one that has received tons of positive feedback.

You Never Reveal Your Face

Something many people neglect is adding a REAL photo of themselves. There is nothing bad in having a logo of some sort to solidify your brand. However this has nothing to do with revealing your face to your audience.

Building a brand on a logo is not the right move. It is simply impersonal and the one thing that makes the difference between a blog and let’s say a Wikipedia article is that the former shows a personality. So open your about page, hit the edit button and add that photo. It won’t take more than three minutes. A lot of blog authors are even including a photo in the sidebar. Something you might want to consider as well.

More on about pages: Your “About” Page will Seal the Deal or the Importance of a Well Crafted Bio

You Are Going Too Personal

Spicing the boring topic you are covering up a bit with stuff about you is a clever strategy. Following Mythbusters’ (Discovery Channel anyone?) saying “if its worth doing its worth over doing” would be a downfall in that case though. Visitors are coming on your blog because they want specific information. The color of your underwear doesn’t necessarily fall in that category.

That was it for today. Hope you found space for improvement after reading. Everyone is more than welcome to share his two cents in the comments section. Feel free to supplement the list as well!