2) Lack of Patience. Building a successful following is rarely an overnight journey. Some blogs take years to find their footing, and years more to find their audiences.
I would add one more point: most people don't fundamentally have a writer's disposition. Writing is hard (if it weren't, we wouldn't have so many professional writers, books on writing, and classes on writing). Having something to say and the means to say it is hard. Having something to say, the means to say it, and the desire to write it is even harder. And so on.
I appear to have that disposition, to the point where I wrote about it some here: http://jseliger.com/2011/02/26/on-blogging-altruistically-or... and wrote about why most people probably drift to Twitter and Facebook: they're easier. If you're not fundamentally blogging for yourself, and because you want to write regularly, you're probably not going to "make" it, for whatever value of "make" you might use.
It is much easier to say something on here, facebook or Twitter because it can just purely be the thought you are having.
Once you want to translate that into a blog you really have to flesh it out and ideally read other sources and reference them. We you don't have to but I feel less comfortable just putting something down as opposed to really getting into the idea. Unfortunately all this takes time making me less likely to start it in the first place.
edw519 has mentioned this a bit, very prolific poster that is very well regarded on HN and has a lot to say but struggled to really do it in the blogging medium.
I would add one more point: most people don't fundamentally have a writer's disposition. Writing is hard (if it weren't, we wouldn't have so many professional writers, books on writing, and classes on writing). Having something to say and the means to say it is hard. Having something to say, the means to say it, and the desire to write it is even harder. And so on.
I appear to have that disposition, to the point where I wrote about it some here: http://jseliger.com/2011/02/26/on-blogging-altruistically-or... and wrote about why most people probably drift to Twitter and Facebook: they're easier. If you're not fundamentally blogging for yourself, and because you want to write regularly, you're probably not going to "make" it, for whatever value of "make" you might use.