First let me begin by saying that if you don’t know what RSS is then you can check out My Definition of RSS where I breifly explain the concept.  Building a strong foundation of readers is essential to any successful blog;  this should go without saying.  Despite how trival this point might seem, it’s amazing how many sites don’t actually ask for readers to join their RSS.  One of the best pieces of advice you can live by is, “You don’t get anything without asking.”  It’s mind boggling how many times you actually get what you want when you simply ask for it.  However many times you not only have to ask, but ask in the proper manner.  Enter the RSS join button and What Would Seth Godin Do plugin.

If you’ve ever gone to a site and had to search for the RSS button, then you can relate to this mistake.  I believe it’s very important to have you’re RSS join button prominently display on your site so potential subscribers can’t miss it.  Furthermore make it easy for them to subscribe and offer email sign up.  Another easy tip is to integrate the What Would Seth Godin Do plugin into your blog.  This plugin allows you to post a custom message at the beginning or end of your blog posts.  You can use it to promote anything, including signing up for your RSS feed!  What a great way to “ask” for a signup.

These are just a couple of tools that I use on my blogs to help drive RSS subscriptions.  If you have any other tips or techniques please share with others below in the comments section.  We’d love to hear them! I’d be pretty hypocritical if I didn’t ask you to join the AverageGal RSS Feed before finishing this post.  Have a great week.

Over the past couple of months I’ve experienced some tremendous growth throughout the blogosphere.  My new readership has grown very rapidly and there’s been a great group of people leaving insightful comments on the sites.  I don’t say this to “brag” or sound boastful, but more so to solidify a point.  The point being,  successful blogging takes consistent commitment and dedication to your site.  I’m living proof that doing that and neglecting a site, even for only a couple of days can slow your sites buzz down very quickly.

I’ve missed a couple of days worth of posts on a few of my blogs, including this one, and the comments and traffic fell quickly.  While I don’t think that missing a couple of days is going to dramaticly impact my blogs over the long haul, it’s still a point worth noting.  Neglecting a blog is like neglecting a plant, if you go long enough without “feeding it” with fresh content it will eventually wilt and shrivle up!

I’m curious, have you ever neglected your blog to the point of wilting?

Almost everyday I come up with 5 new market niches I’d like to start blogging about.  I’m not purposely brainstorming for new sites to launch, however I can’t help but apply my blog business model to everyday life. As an example,  I’ll be taking the kids to school and I’ll notice something that would make for a great blog topic; be it a funny license plate or a random person wearing a ridiculous outfit.  I’ll think to myself, hey that would make for a fun topic to write about.  The next thing you know, I’ve got a list 100 ideas long and all of them are screaming “Launch Me”!  Despite all of my enthusiasm, I resist and put them on hold.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make when starting a new blog venture or any start-up business is spreading yourself to thin.  It’s extremely important to give your blog 100% of your time especially in the early years.  Pick a topic you enjoy and run with it.  Don’t try to juggle 10 new sites at once, especially if you’re the only person running the blog business.  Right now I run and manage 3 blogs and it’s a handful.  Between marketing, posting, and updating I’m running pretty hard.  It’s a good thing I love it!

For now I’m going to have to let the list of potential new blogs sit ideal.  I’m more then certain that if I try and juggle more then 3 blogs, my content quality will suffer and as a result all the blogs will fall short of my expectations for success.
Do you juggle more then 1 blog right now?  If so how many and what’s your opinion of focusing your time?
FYI: If you have a guest post you’d like to share about a blog mistake, please email me: rachel @ averagegal dot com.

So I guess that you could say that there’s a bonus lesson in this weeks’ edition of Blog Mistake Mondays: When you start a series, stick to it.  Even though Monday has come and gone, I’m not forgetting about my commitment to this series.  So let’s pretend for a couple moments that it’s still Monday… and enjoy this weeks edition

This week, David of The Three Dog Blog has graciously offered to share with us a mistake that he has made in the past.  I hope that you enjoy and learn from his experiences on choosing a theme for his blogs.

Being fairly new to the world of blogging I couldn’t wait to get going.

I had ideas written down all over the place and I was so keen to get my Blog off to a good start. I had the hosting, I installed wordpress and all the plugins I thought I needed at the time and then…….. BAM.

What theme?

This is where I made my first of many mistakes. I got completely bogged down with trying to pick from the thousands and and thousands of different themes available.

I just could not make up my mind.

I downloaded, uploaded, unzipped and tried out way too many different themes, all the while this was eating in to my time and stopping me from doing what I should have been doing, blogging.

So many looked good, but was there a better one?

In the end I just said to myself, pick one, stick with it for a while and maybe change it later if you really don’t like it.

So, my advice to others is, pick a theme that looks good but DO NOT waste too much time over it. In the early days concentrate on your content. Don’t waste countless hours looking for that ever elusive perfect theme.

Create content that will keep bringing back the readers and worry about that “perfect” Theme at some later date.

- – - – The Three Dog Blogger

Thanks you David, for sharing your words of wisdom!  I think that many of us bloggers are able to relate to just how much time that we can invest in something that isn’t as important as the bigger picture.

How have you developed your blog’s theme over time?  Did you start out in the same boat as David?  What would you have done differently as it relates to your theme from the beginning?

For writing a post about the new column on his Power Maxx Blog ,  Taris Janitens, won a cool new Jump Drive and a free review of his blog here on AverageGal.  Entering the contest was pretty simple, all you had to do was write a new post on your blog detailing the Blog Mistake Monday feature column, then leave a comment with a link to the article.

Congrats to Taris and thanks for entering the contest!  I’m still accepting guest posts for upcoming Monday’s Mistake articles.  If you have a mistake you’d like to share, please email me a copy to rachel @ averagegal dot com.

When I first began to journey down the path of blogging I thought it would be quick and easy to build a high quality, high traffic site.  Creating a blog is suppose to be easy right?  All you have to do is sit down, write a quick 10 minute article and the rest is history.  There was little doubt in my mind that I could build a highly successful blog by simply writing a quick post a day as long as it was consistent and focused.  This model seemed so easy I didn’t think it would be any problem to manage 10 blogs at once!  Needless to say I quickly came back to reality.

Blogging takes time and dedication.  Building a successful site and brand is not easy.  As I mentioned above, I thought it would be very quick and easy to build a high traffic site; 10 mins and you’re on your way.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that blogging is hard.  In fact one of my most popular posts here on AverageGal is “Why I don’t Sleep: Blogging For Money Isn’t Rocket Science!”.  Becoming a successful blogger and creating a fun popular site does take time; much more then a 10 minutes.  I quickly realized from reading others success stories and through my own trial and error that you get back what you put into your site.  If you only put 10 mins into your blog you’re probably only going to get 10 mins back.

Without going into all of the specifics of what it takes to really make a blog take off with traffic, comments, and excitement, I would simply begin with learning from one of my early mistakes. Don’t short change your blog.  Give it lots of TLC, spend more then 10 mins daily developing and marketing, and network with your readers and others.

I hope that you found this first edition of “Blog Mistake Monday’s” beneficial and perhaps you can relate.  Don’t forget that I’m running a contest about this new blog series from now until the 25th of December and giving away some cool prizes.  Also If you want to be spotlighted with a guest post and share one of your blogging mistakes please send me an email with your article: rachel @ averagegal dot com.  I’d love to share it next Monday.

Did you underestimate the time dedication of blogging?

I can say with 100% conviction that I’ve learned much more from my mistakes than from my successes in life.  Starting the path down full-time blogging is no exception to this rule.  All too often we read and hear about how to be a successful blogger;  I think it’s time we share how to be unsuccessful bloggers.  With your help, let’s share some of the blunders we’ve experienced creating our blogs.  Big or small, we can all learn from each others blogging errors and hopefully gain some valuable insight.

With your help we can learn, laugh, and have some fun with this.  I’ll be accepting guest posts highlighting your blog mistakes at my email: rachel@averagegal.com.  Each Monday I’ll highlight one or more of the mistakes shared as well as give a short review of your blog.  This is a great way to not only share your experience but spotlight your blog!

To get this jump started I’m going to give away 3 free blog reviews with 3 free Jump Drives from Buy, to 3 lucky winners.  To enter, simply write a blog post about the new “Blog Mistake Monday’s” feature here at AverageGal between now and Dec. 25, 2008.  Place a comment with the link back to the post in the comments section below and your name will be entered.  I’ll draw 3 names/winners on the 26th and announce the winners.  Good Luck and I look forward to hearing from you!