3 Blog Writing Mistakes and How to Fix Them

We all make mistakes—it’s part of life. But a few blog writing mistakes can turn off readers and send them to your competitors.

Fortunately, they’re easy to fix. Also—they’re not cut-and-dry, unbreakable rules.

Using passive or active voice too much

Passive voice is generally weaker and sometimes makes people think you’re not confident. However, sometimes you need it. Passive voice can soften a strongly worded piece or place the focus on the object or person being acted upon.

Passive: The toy is being made by a team of elves at the North Pole.

Active: An elf team at the North Pole is making the toy.

For many blogs (business or otherwise), active voice is more engaging. It shows action and keeps things moving forward. Passive voice slows down the action because the sentence’s focus is on the object or person rather than the action. But sometimes you need to slow things down. It’s all in the pacing.

Yoast recommends passive voice at less than 10 percent of a given blog, but use your judgement. Write with intention, in a way that suits your brand, and the rest will sort itself out.

Talking to the masses

The power of talking to one person in your company blog can’t be overstated. When you decide to blog about time management widgets, and write something like this:

The Fancy Widget tracks your company’s projects and helps you save money on overtime. It’s the best thing since sliced bread. Every company needs this widget.

Sure, it’s how you feel about the product. But it doesn’t answer the most important question your reader asks: What’s in it for me?

It doesn’t show me why I must have your widget. What’s wrong with XYZ company from down the road? They cost the same, but talk to me like they care. I can read their blog and feel like they’re talking directly to me—with XYZ company, I know what’s in it for me. Try this instead:

It’s easy to track projects with the Fancy Widget (even when you should be taking a day off). Our Fancy Widget App puts all that project info at your finger tips.

When your company uses the Fancy Widget, employees enter updates and see milestone achievements without miles of paper. Plus, you can set up alerts for everything or nothing—you’ll know exactly what’s going on. Even at 2 a.m. on Sunday when you can’t sleep.

So stop bothering your employees on their weekend. Let the Fancy Widget track projects and save that overtime money for when you really need it.

Sure, it’s longer. As copywriters, we’re always trying to make our writing as clear and concise as possible, but that doesn’t always mean we write fewer words. Sometimes the art of persuasion needs a little more oomph to move yoru prospect forward.

Yet regardless whether it’s a blog or marketing collateral, speaking to one person in your business writing is powerful. Treat your company blogs like a conversation between you and the person reading. A professional one, but a conversation nonetheless.

Getting too stuffy, flat, or formal for your brand

People say that attention spans are shorter than ever, so our copy should also be shorter. But if that’s true, why are movies longer than ever?

I don’t think the your copy length is the problem…could it be boring?

Each sentence should naturally lead to reading the next. From a strictly functional perspective, that’s its job. If you don’t want to read the next sentence, the current one failed.

Many people worry about sounding stupid in their blog. So, they fall back on a more academic writing style, which can sound stuffy, formal, and boring.

If your ideal customer is highly educated and prefers more formal language, that’s how you write. Conversely, if they’re less formal and don’t want to read lots of big words and formal language, respect that desire.

In general, relax, enjoy the process, and tell the story. Use a little slang if it suits your brand.

And finally: write first, edit last. Never, ever, ever edit while you write unless it’s a clear typo, like you forgot a space. Even then, you can go back and fix it later.

Does your blog need help?

Don’t feel bad. Writing your company blogs and articles without a dedicated writer’s help is daunting. It can turn into a chore because you’re never happy with it.

Or you get nervous lose your personality…or any other legit reason you worry about hitting the publish button.

I feel your pain! Writing my blog is one of the hardest things I do, and I’m a writer. The reason so many writers neglect their blogs is we also struggle—we get nervous, worry, and dial back our enthusiasm because criticism sometimes scares us too.

Plus, we’re often too busy taking care of our clients to take care of ourselves. It’s easier (and more satisfying) to help someone else.

Struggling with the writing? I want to help you succeed.

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