This week at the Daily Fix, we're getting ready for Halloween. With spooky posts about blog-sucking monsters, scariest traits a marketer can possess, tricks and tweets, and Frankenstein Friday, the Daily Fix will give you generous heaps of treats to keep you reading.

Scarier than any made-up monster, the following creatures often take hold of blogs and drive away interest (and business). To make sure that your blog hasn't fallen under their wicked spells, we offer a quick field guide to identifying the creatures and how you can beat them.

1.  The Vampire: This monster sucks the life out of your blog and leaves you with dry copy---and a shell of an idea. The signs that this monster is gnawing on your blog are: pale, lackluster writing and a lack of reflection.

Avoid becoming one: Keep your blog posts fresh. Write lively copy. Use active words and crisp descriptions!

2. The Zombie: This blog staggers around like the dead. It has no life within it but wants to feast solely on the work of others. Signs that the zombie is gnawing on your blog are: an enormous amount of links and, oh, so very little content.

Avoid becoming one: Choose your links carefully. Create fresh content in various formats when possible, such as videos, infographics, podcasts, etc.

3. The Werewolf: This monster howls at the latest and greatest trends then chases them down without purpose. It never takes the time to develop an understanding of any trend in depth, but just goes scurrying from fad to fad. Signs that the werewolf is on the loose on your blog are: lack of focus or purpose on your blog, lack of discerning what is valuable to your readers (and what's a waste of time) and rambling prose that goes nowhere.

Avoid becoming one: Blog with a purpose. Know what you want the blog to be about. Playing around with different ideas is fine, but you don't want your blog to run wild in a pointless path.

4. The Mummy: The wrappings look intriguing enough, but there's no life there. Signs that your blog has become a mummy: a lovely design but no new content; widgets like counters that never get used; comboxes that never get comments; and lots of silence in social media, too.

Avoid becoming one: Keep your blog active by posting regularly. Create an editorial calendar to help you keep track of ideas. Share your content by tweeting about it, linking to your post through other social media channels, etc. Recruit a guest blogger now and then to keep things interesting.

5. The Ghost: This blog bears some resemblance to the mummy, however it's far worse. It's the blog that someone set up and even made look nice. But you never did anything else with it. Ghostly and pale, this blog has links that go nowhere, instructions from the template still on it, fake text, etc. Signs that your blog is a ghost: You completely forgot about that blog until you read this description ... and now you're thinking, "Whatever happened to that blog I started?"

Avoid becoming one: Make a commitment to your blogging efforts. Set a time table for it. And then stick to it. Just make sure you have enough time to nurture readers and develop it.

Do these monsters have hold of your blog? Want to learn ways to fight their influence? Sign up for our Content Marketing Crash Course at MarketingProfs University, where you can learn about how to create engaging, lively content.