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You’ve been blogging for some time now, but it hasn’t grown. What’s going on? Here’s why you’re struggling with blogging right now.

You created your blog, and you’ve posted content. You’re promoting it on social media, and now you’re just waiting for the views. The problem is there are crickets everywhere. Nothing is working. Your audience isn’t growing, and the blog isn’t making the money people said it would.

Don’t just quit. Struggling with blogging is normal. Do you really think every successful blogger out there did it on the first try? We go through hurdles all the time. It’s all about commitment when it comes to success.

Well, commitment and reassessing things. You need to look at what you are doing and assess whether they’re the right things to do. The definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So, here’s what you need to look at when you’re struggling with blogging to see how you can change things.

Your blog doesn’t have a purpose

What type of content are you posting? Who’s your audience? What’s your niche?

If you can’t answer any of those questions, your blog doesn’t have a purpose. That’s really not helping you. Gone are the days when your blog can be about anything and everything. Those that are still like that have been around for a while.

You need a tight niche and focus for your blog. Look at this one, it’s aimed at writing: helping those who want to be a writer. I have separate blogs for my weight loss, for students, and much more. All are on separate domains and focus on their own areas.

All the content I write is aimed at one particular audience per blog. This post is aimed at writers and businesses creating their own blogs. I’ve written in the past about searching for clients and how writing will help a business. They answered the niche of the blog and had a direct purpose for the reader.

You’ve not done any keyword research

Your blog isn’t going to get you anywhere if you can’t be found. Some of that comes through search engines, which means the keywords need to be there for people to come across you.

But should you really focus on your keyword research?

I tend to look at the words, see the competition, and then determine whether I can create blog posts on those specific keywords. The content needs to be relevant to the keywords and something that people would search for.

For example, I found out that the keyword phrase “gothic wedding dresses” was a good option, so I found ways of incorporating that for the type of people who would type that keyword into a Google search. The post was about the different gothic wedding dresses available, what they looked like and where they could be bought. If I couldn’t create something that would appeal to the market, what’s the point?

MORE: Not got a niche blog yet? Why you need one now!

Struggling with blogging for your target audience

Who are you writing for? This needs to be in your mind from the minute you open your post.

What’s the point in having a post aimed at a particular market if it doesn’t cover something they’re going to need? If you have someone else write posts for you, you need to make sure the writer knows everything about the target market.

Writing something off-topic is going to make people click away. They’re not interested in you; they’re interested in learning something or finding out more about a product.

You’re not promoting your content effectively

You spend day after day creating content* but it’s not being read. Why? You’re not promoting it!

You need to get onto social media and you need to use your connections. If you don’t promote, people won’t know you’re there. You just can’t expect Google to do all the hard work for you anymore.

I follow a newsletter from a social media expert and he insists that 80% of your time should be spent promoting and only 20% writing. I don’t quite follow that yet, but I’m going to think about how to do that this year.

You can’t just post a link and run. You need to be engaging, and it’s important to grow each of your social channels separately. Yes, it is more work, but it’s worth it when you see your blog grow.

The posts just aren’t interesting

You can’t just keep putting up posts. They need to be interesting, relevant, and stay on topic.

One of my writer friends has a saying “write often, write well” and it really is something you should follow. If you can’t write an interesting, relevant, and high-quality blog post, you shouldn’t bother writing it at all.

Take the time to promote old content instead. Or you can rework old content if it isn’t performing well.

If people click on a post and then go to the back button, your bounce rate increases. You want them to stay on your page and check more of your posts.

You don’t give them somewhere to go

I know this is a big problem on this blog for a long time. While I had the archives, I didn’t actually give people a “read more” at the end of posts. It was something that I needed to change.

You need to give people somewhere to go once they’ve finished a blog post. It could be to another blog post on the site that is relevant, or you may know of further reading on a different site (maybe another one that you own).

Don’t leave them wondering “now what?” They’ll hit the back button and you’ll never hear from them again.

You can also create an email list. In fact, you should create an email list. Use that as a place for people to go so they remember you. They’re more likely to revisit and then start spending money on the products you offer.

MORE: Why you won’t succeed at your blogging challenge?

Are you struggling with blogging? What problems do you face each day? Let me know in the comments below.