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No one is perfect, but everyone should be able to avoid the mistakes below. These are not accidents, they are willful transgressions that will hurt your bottom line. Clean up these mistakes and you will already be far ahead of the pack.

1. Not proof reading: A simple mistake but it can definitely make you look bad with tons of mistakes. Spell checking is great, but you can’t rely on just that. You have to read your blog post 2 or 3 times to make sure you catch all your grammar mistakes. It might not seem like a big deal but here is one example of a mistake I have made. I wanted to write “now four styles to choose from” and I wrote “no four styles to choose from.” Spell check didn’t catch anything, but that one sentence means a big difference to the reader. If you want to take it to the next level, get someone else to proof read your blog post. They will catch things you miss every time.

2. Plagiarism/Spun Content/PLR: Alright if you have an adsense bait autoblog, ignore this mistake. Put up whatever you want. However, if you care about your personal brand and your blog, then at all costs avoid this type of content. Creating content can be a pain, but stealing someone else’s can hurt you dearly in the end. If you get caught (and you will) you lose all credibility instantly. The same thing goes for PLR content. If you want to use PLR on your personal blog, then makes sure you rewrite them and use only quality content.

3. Not being consistent: This might be the biggest mistake. If you are committing to running a blog, then it is a commitment. Treat it as such. Don’t fire out 5 articles your first week then sit back and relax. You have to constantly create content in order to engage your visitors. Fresh content is also good in the eyes of Google. We don’t want Google unhappy do we?

4. Not marketing: I was guilty of this mistake. When I first started blogging I hid it from people! What’s the point of that? I posted away and hoped people came, but never worked at marketing it. I didn’t start to see success until I sent it out to my Facebook and Twitter lists. I began using Digg and Stumbleupon. I talked about it at social gatherings. I even got some business cards made up that had nothing but the URL of my blog. It began to work and I finally got to see some significant traffic. You can post all you want, but what use is it if no one sees it?

5. Not responding to comments: If you are fortunate enough to get comments on your blog posts, then you should reply. For one, it is the polite thing to do. Secondly, it will engage web visitors and make them more likely to come back. Also, people who haven’t commented will be more likely to comment if they see people getting responses. A blog full of active commenters is the start of a potential money making machine!

Eliminate these five mistakes and you will definitely notice a traffic increase to your blog. You will also notice that you have more interaction with your visitors, and in the long run it will offer you more chances to monetize your site. If you have to only choose a couple from the list above, please post consistently and market yourself. Curing these two mistakes alone, will mean great things for your site.