When you first start to blog, you may be excited or yet thrilled to start a new journey into the online world of blogging. A great place to be as you may be whatever your heart desires. Your blog could be about your business, what you cook for dinner, what you wear, what’s on your mind, or where is the next place you may travel to.
With so much excitement, as every blogger goes through, you may run into some blogging mistakes that every beginner blogger goes through. Here are 17 mistakes every beginner blogger makes.
Beginner Bloggers Think Blogging Is Easy:
The very first mistake beginner bloggers make is telling themselves that it’s easy. If you’re going into blogging thinking it’s easy and it won’t take much of your time, then you may be in over your head. Why? Because sure, it looks easy but take into the fact of writing the blog post, editing the blog, finding pictures, then researching what you are talking about.
Spending Money on Themes:
When everyone starts off blogging, they are so excited to start as they start to decorate their website to make it look presentable. Yes, this is very important as the more appealing to the human, the better people will come and visit. Your website does need to look it’s best since you may end up on google.
But that doesn’t mean you should spend a lot of money on themes or on web hosting at first. Start with a free theme to get your feet wet, then once you have a schedule and are established. You may then go ahead and purchase a theme that better suits your blog.
Setting a schedule and sticking to it:
A big mistake, I see most beginner bloggers make is that they don’t have a set schedule, or if they do, they don’t stick to it. I know it’s hard to stick with a schedule. But the key to building an audience, is sticking with a schedule to blog consistently.
Burning Out, Too Fast, Too Soon:
A big mistake bloggers do, is doing everything at once. Meaning in the first month, or two since blogging, they push out tons of content. Which is amazing, but by month three, their website has gone completely dark.
They were so excited to begin blogging that they burned all their energy within the first two months. Then somehow, the schedule they were on was too much, too soon, and they stop posting. That is why setting a schedule from the get go, can help you manage your time, and blog schedule.
Not interacting with your readers :
Readers are people that are either going to help you push your blog forward or backward. If you don’t comment, or say thank you in little milestones. Your readers may be thrown off thinking that you don’t care for them. Always remember that even if you have one follower/reader is the same as a million readers.
Don’t wait to get to a big milestone to finally start reaching out and talking to them. Start by thanking them now. Say thank you and respond to their comments. It makes the readers feel as if your more than just words on a screen, and an actual person they can be friends with.
Advertising in the beginning:
Building your audience before selling to them a toothbrush or any other marketing affiliate link is definitely not a great way in building trust with your audience. For the reason that your readers, need to trust in order to click a random link as they may be skeptical. The other important fact is, you truly don’t know your audience a few month’s into blogging.
Your Blogs Aren’t Personable:
The very true fact is that people love authors or bloggers to being personable. Someone who they can relate to and has real life problems or issues. If a blog sounds monotone, meaning speaking in the same tone of voice as if your phone was talking. Like a robot, your readers cannot relate to you as much and may not even read the whole blog because of it. Just be you and you, remember everything great in life takes time.
Get rich quick scheme:
If you’re looking for a get rich quick scheme, then you may be blogging for the wrong reasons. Yes, I know not every blogger is like this, but if you’re looking for some quick million’s dollars, then is definitely not the avenue you need to be in. Yes, you can make money from blogging and many other ways onlinebut it takes a lot of time, effort, and it may take up to months or even a year or two without even seeing a paycheck.
It all depends on your niche and how popular it is at the moment. But that doesn’t mean to find a niche you’re not passionate about, just to earn money. The algorithms change constantly, so keep in mind that your favorite hobby or nice could become popular next.
Setting up For Failure:
A lot of new bloggers tend to focus on one thing, and one thing only, the numbers. Rather than originality, they are looking for financial support in which numbers turns into money. Don’t set yourself up for failure as you should be focusing on the originality and the passion you have to blog about the things you love to do, and maybe in the future you may be able to turn it into a career.
Consistency is key:
Have you ever heard the phrase “consistency is key”? Well if you have then you already know how important that phrase is in all aspects of life. Put in the time, and you will see results. Meaning staying on your schedule and constantly keeping your readers up to date with new blogs, social media, and posting weekly.
Not Taking Blogging Seriously:
The fact in the matter is that blogging is not going anywhere anytime soon, and if you are not willing to take it seriously at first, then how are you going to take it seriously when you have hundreds or thousands of readers coming to your blog to read what you have wrote. Coming up with a plan and sticking to it, can bring your blog to being successful, and for top brands to sponsor you one day.
Not Structuring your blog:
If you are writing a novel for each blog post, then maybe it’s time to head on back to the editing station. Humans are short attention spanned beings. We are on the go, and don’t have time to skim through a ten-minute blog. Structuring your blogs with bullet points, numbers, headings, can make your readers life easier.
You don’t put pictures:
What readers love more than a structured blog is a blog with pictures. Yes, lots of them but relevant pictures that actually put words to picture. Readers also love high quality pictures. Not pictures that a blurry when expanded. The great thing about this day and age is that there are a lot of free sites to get pictures from such as:
There are a ton more that are totally free to use without paying money. Just search on google.
Quality vs. Quantity:
Everything from picking your domain to the work you are putting on your website. Yes, it’s great to put out tons of content, but in moderation. Think of it as if you are putting out blogs that are great enough quality to be featured on the first page of google.
The longer the blog, the better:
Although there are some readers, that love small reads, algorithms don’t. Algorithms tend to love blogs that are longer than a thousand words. So, if you are putting out blogs that are too short, you may be losing out on tons of potential reads on search engines.
What You Put Online, Stays Online Forever:
Keeping your personal and business separate could be beneficial when one day you may want to build a brand out of your name. Keeping your blogs professional but still personable and relatable is an equation for success.
Bloggers Forget to Have Fun:
It’s true, we forget why we started this whole blog in the first place. Most of us start off a blog as a hobby, an online diary, and a way to get thoughts out of our mind. Don’t lose sight of where you come from to lose track of where you’re going. Just have fun!
No matter how prepared you are, you are still bound to make mistakes. Not only the bloggers, but also the website owners make mistakes and it is normal.
It’s a learning process and blogging takes time, determination, and hard work. But don’t get discouraged as many people have turned blogging into a full-time career.
Finding the right niche can set you up for success from the start. Blogging is a learning curve that you will soon get the hang of. Just keep writing!
