What “Not To Do” while you grow your blogging empire

By Rajesh Setty on Mon 29 Sep 2008, 10:46 AM – 7 Comments

There are so many things “to do” to grow your blogging empire. Search the internet and you will find a ton of advice. I have got here nine things that you should “not do” on your journey to blogging success.

So, here they are:

1. Mediocre participation:

It is important not just to blog but to participate on other blogs. But let that participation be of high-quality. It has to lift the level of the conversation, one notch higher.

Mediocre participation can be in the form of



1.1 Useless comments: Write something irrelevant just so that you get a link back to your blog.



1.2 Irrelevant pingbacks: Write something irrelevant on your blog and link to a good blog post so that you get traffic via ping backs.

People can see through this very easily. You may be able to get some spurt in the traffic but you rarely can maintain the momentum.

There is really no point in “tricking” people to come and visit your site. It just won’t work!

2. Demonstrating Fake loyalty

You can read a blog for a long time and reach out to a blogger OR you can read a blog post and reach out to a blogger and say that you have been reading the blog for a LONG time. The second one is fake loyalty. You can use that and only thing that can be guaranteed is that you will get “caught” sooner than later.

That is not the identity that you want to build in the marketplace.

3. Making Costly Requests

There is only a small percentage of people who are blogging full-time. Most people have other jobs and blogging is an “extra” activity for them.

Making costly requests will drain their energy.

A few examples of costly requests:

3.1 Reciprocal links: Posting a link to their blog and asking them to link back because you linked to them.



3.2 Demanding Attention: Asking them to take actions (as simple as reading a book) that may not be relevant to them.

3.3 Free Consulting: Requesting assistance to a specific problem knowing that – that takes up a lot of their time.

The ultimate scarcity in people’s lives is probably TIME and if you don’t respect that, it’s hard to build a long-term relationship.

4. Engaging in Armchair Analysis:

Analyzing someone’s blog with limited information. Being unfairly critical based on what you read in a single blog post.

5. Fake Identity:

This can be as simple as posting anonymous comments. I have seen that time and again people post negative comments anonymously. They want to make a point but don’t have the backbone to stand behind it. Don’t say something that you can’t actually say in front of someone.

6. Showing Authority without Credibility:

Pretending to be an expert when you are not. Trying to pontificate on a topic where you have no significant accomplishments won’t help.

7. Attempted Takeover:

Trying to voice ONLY your opinions by taking over someone’s blog or craving for attention beyond what is reasonable.

8. Endless Argument:

Endlessly arguing about a point on someone’s blog when you can make an alternate point on your own platform (your own website or your blog)

9. Copying content without Attribution:

This is also called as “stealing”. It takes time and energy to create original content and copying it without permission or not following rules set out in licensing policy is bad.

All the best and have a great week ahead!

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