Blogging is a complicated and never-ending job. You need to write, edit, test your design, try to build authority and traffic. You also need to constantly promote your blog. If you are a freelance writer who is also writing for other websites and clients, taking your blog to where you want can even last longer.

Below is an essential check-list on the blogging-related tasks bloggers need to deal with frequently. And even though I have reached over 1,000-1,500 daily unique visitors on my blog and have secured a rank in Technorati’s top 100 film blogs, I still have a long way to go. And to be honest, this list also contains my sins.

The Potential Sins:

1. Not promoting your blog enough.

Promotion never ends. While some new techniques and social media sties come and go, some are here to stay. You can never ignore Facebook or Twitter. You can’t neglect talking about your blog offline either.

2. Not using the free, Wordpress All in One Seo plugin.

If you are blogging on Wordpress, this plug-in is a must. It makes your blog more search-engine friendly, and this really reflects on your traffic stats.

3. Not using keywords in your titles

Selecting the perfect title can sometimes be as hard as writing the work itself. SEO principles and internet-writing common sense require us to include our main topic in the title. This sometimes kills our creativity, but there is no point in writing if no one is going to read it. It is hard balance to find between seo-friendliness, creativity and being attention-grabbing.

4. Caring too much about seo and not focusing on what you are passionate about.

Then there are writers who focus on SEO so much that they forget what it is all about. You can usually tell from a piece whether the writer loves his subject or not. It is much more enjoyable for the reader if the writer can infect the readers with his enthusiasm. Try to combine your passion and SEO.

5. Too much reading and not enough action.

As writers, we are often advised to read as much as we can, whether it is fiction or non-fiction. However while reading helps inspire and inform us, we can’t neglect our own writing. Reading is also beneficial for research purposes but we need to put that time spent for research into good use.

6. Too much careless action and not enough research

While too much research can be distracting and time-consuming, diving into topics and projects without enough study can also mean trouble in the long run.

7. Not guest-blogging

This is a sin I am still committing. I have to admit I haven’t guest-blogged yet. When I publish my first guest post (article on another person’s blog), I’ll update this part of the article.

Almost all popular bloggers recommend guest blogging. It is a big part of their authority and community-building strategy. Between all the projects, it might be hard to create time to slave for a great guest post that will get accepted. However, it is a strategy worth trying.

8. Not podcasting or video blogging

This is another sin I am also committing. I am much more comfortable reading and writing, so I neglect recording, even though for testing purposes. Many established bloggers admit that they first started out their video and audio posts with cheap/free software and equipments. If you see that these bring you traffic and increase in revenues, you might later upgrade your tools. But your computer’s webcam is more than enough for starting. You should test our audience’s reactions to see whether they respond better to this kind of blogging.

9. Not tagging your pictures

I was looking for a picture for an article. My own image file wasn’t with me. When I searched for a specific movie poster, my own blog came in the first page of the image results. All my pictures are properly tagged and captioned. Pictures help search engines and people find you. And ranking high in image results is easier than ranking high in a competitive topic.

10. Not split testing the place of your ads and promotional buttons.

We place social media buttons and widgets and they help generate more traffic. But we can’t know if they are bringing in the best results they can until we test them separately. The same goes for our promotion widgets we use for the companies we are affiliates of.

11. Not commenting on other blogs

When I check my website stats, I pay attention to my referrers. Even a comment left months ago on a popular blog can keep bringing traffic. You just need to leave a quality comment.

12. Not participating in relevant discussion forums

If your audience is hanging out in the forums, you need to do it too. You should engage in conversations and make friends. While there is hardly ever enough time to do this, it is an essential strategy that might earn us great traffic.

13. Not exploring niche-relevant social networking and bookmarking sites.

Where do your readers hang out the most? Digg? Delicious? Fark? Twitter? You need to find it out, and spend some time creating a good profile for yourself there.

14. Not updating your old posts.

You need to update your old posts, the ones that weren’t SEO friendly, the ones that you wrote when you didn’t know what you know now. Take advantage of your already written and published posts by polishing them a little.