Blogging is one of my most favorite online marketing activities, and has had a tremendous impact on my online success. It a great way for me to share the vast information I've learned about online marketing, costing me thousands and thousands of dollars.

Blogging is one of my most favorite online marketing activities, and has had a tremendous impact on my online success. It a great way for me to share the vast information I've learned about online marketing, costing me thousands and thousands of dollars.

Blogging is not difficult, but it is easy to make some basic mistakes that will impact your results.

At a minimum, you should try to avoid these 7 common blogging mistakes:

Mistake #1: Your blog is not visually appealing. If your blog is hard to read, your visitors won't stay. You don't need fancy graphics but make sure you have a nice structure to your layout, and use colors and fonts that are easy to read.

Mistake #2: Writing complex, paragraph-long sentences, especially if there is a hidden underlying meaning. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short, and use language that is easy for your target market to understand.

Your paragraphs should be 2-3 sentences long at most. Even if you end up with a paragraph break at a non-standard place, your blog will be easier on the eye and easier for your readers to read online. Long chunks of text are very difficult to read online.

Mistake #3: Writing in a boring, non-conversational style. The best approach is to pretend you are writing to a single person. That person should be your ideal prospect. Pretend you are having a conversation with them, one-on-one. And give your text personality by expressing your opinions.

Mistake #4: Misspelled words in your article. Use a spell checker before publishing. If your articles have careless misspellings, you will not come across as an expert.

Mistake #5: Only writing for search engines, not for your human visitors. If you use search engine optimization to get natural traffic from the search engines, make sure your article still reads well for your ultimate customer, your human visitors. It's your human visitors that will buy from you, not the search engines! Only use keywords if they are appropriate and don't negatively impact the readability of your article.

Mistake #6: Writing about a topic just to make money, not because you have an interest in the topic. The best approach is to write about topics you are genuinely passionate about. Your passion will definately come across in your writing and your readers will pick up on it.

Mistake #7: One-way dialogs. Try to engage your readers in discussion. Ask them to leave comments. Ask them what they think. Get them to think and share their thoughts.

If you want your blog to rock, avoid these 7 common mistakes!