Blogging is simple but it ain’t always easy. While we hope to get it right the first time, the reality is much different. We are going to make a lot of blogging mistakes. I’ve been blogging for 8 years and I still make mistakes, sometimes I even repeat a few, especially when life gets in the way.
So, I rounded up some awesome bloggers to share with you a few of the blogging mistakes they’ve made and included some of my own.
Learning from others mistakes will save you time and money. We all want more of both, don’t we?
Check out these common blogging mistakes and how you can fix them.
1 – Not getting advice on the technical side of things.
HTML. CSS Codes. SEO. What the? I’m still not comfortable with these terms but I’m learning. Unfortunately, it took me a while to realise that although this is a one-woman show, I can’t succeed without the assistance of others. It’s my business but a business requires support staff or people who know more than I do, especially when it comes to the technical side of things.
How to fix it?
Hire a VA. Get someone to look over your website. Make sure theirs looks great first and they have some experience. Hiring a VA was the best thing I’ve done for my writing business. I am only one person and I cannot do everything myself, at least not long term.
“A blogging mistake I made in the beginning was probably having no clear focus or plan for my blog. I started my blog entirely as a hobby, so I didn’t really do much research on blogging, instead I just went with the flow and winged everything. If I could go back, I would have taken it a little more seriously in the beginning. My blog posts from the beginning are scary to read, haha!”
“Another blogging mistake I made was that I spread myself too thin. I thought that the way to be a successful blogger would be to start several blogs. This made me tired and I didn’t have much love for my other blogs that I created. Instead, I knew that Making Sense of Cents was my one true love, so I sold the rest and focused again on my main website. It was a great decision!”
“With all of the above being said, I don’t believe in regret, haha. I think that everything I did made me and my blog into who I am today, and I am very happy with how everything turned out. Everyone has to learn somehow!”
Michelle from Making Sense of Cents
2 – Forgetting the value of plugins (not knowing what they are and what they do).
Ok, there are so many plugins available for your WordPress site that It’s not always easy to figure out what you need. Not all plugins are created equal and before you go installing them all you need to figure which ones you need to get the most out of your website.
How to fix it?
Look at some of your favourite blogs. How do they look? What functions do they seem to have that yours doesn’t? You can always email the owner of the blog and ask them or search for plugins using keywords. Google is also great. Type in ‘must have plugins for bloggers’ and see what pops up.
Plugins will provide you with a lot more functionalities than just the bare bones of WordPress. You need them to run a successful blog.
3 – Ignoring relationship building (you can’t be a successful blogger with online relationships!)
As in real life, it’s more with who you know than what you know. I’m an introvert and like to do things myself. It’s not easy for me to connect with others and that’s a skill I need to work on. Relationships are imperative to your success as a blogger. Take your time to get to know people and make sure to be kind to everyone that you cross paths with.
How to fix it?
Reach out to your fellow bloggers. Find someone who’s awesome and send them an email. Ask if they offer guests posts (free or paid), write epic stuff for them if they do, have a chat, remember the holidays, promote them on social media. Be supportive of their work. It’s the little things that can make a huge difference down the line.
“My biggest blogging mistake was blogging in the dark. I was pumping out 7 posts a week and waiting for the world to read them. After six months, I finally started networking with other bloggers and being active on social media and it boosted my reach, even though I was only posting three times a week or less.”
“My second biggest mistake was writing whatever came out of my mind, without worrying about optimization. A long title that has nothing to do with what is in the post won’t incite readers to click. Adding a few keywords and a better headline can go a long way.”
Pauline from Reach Financial Independence
4 – Not doing any promotion of my blog posts.
How do I expect to get readers without marketing and promotions? Ten or fifteen years ago it may have been easier to get discovered by readers organically. With today’s competition (hundreds of thousands of new blogs each year), it’s easy to get lost amongst the flock. I wrote and expected readers to find me. I laugh at this now but there was a moment in time where I thought I would give up because I didn’t realise what I was doing wrong.
How to fix it?
You don’t know what works and what doesn’t so just do as much as you can and that includes using all the social media like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Linkedin, Google+. Share it on your business sites and personal ones too. Join blog networks. Engage readers and get them to share your content too.
“Not engaging with other bloggers in the same niche enough. I initially thought that I would write and people would just visit my site organically, like they somehow would just happen across my website – naïve, I know.”
“The other big mistake is that I tried to push out too many articles to make my site look “lived in”. I thought quantity was more important and quality, and it just isn’t.”
“Stop spending so much time thinking about Google and other search engines. All that leads to is incessantly looking at stats and trying to improve rankings, not improve content and user experience on the website.”
Glen from Monster Piggy Bank
5 – Should have spent more time commenting on other blogs in and around my niche.
Commenting on your peers blogs is one way to build relationships, get your name out there and become part of a community. It’s also easier to then make direct contact with the blogger(should you require advice or an interview or just to offer them praise. Bloggers love getting comments, especially if they create a conversation.
How to fix it?
Find ten blogs in your niche and start commenting on them after each blog post. Just makes sure it’s more than ‘Great post’. Comment with value, engage in conversation. Sooner or later readers are going to flock to your blog too and start commenting. After you’re comfortable with the ten, find another ten, and so forth. Obviously you want to spend more time writing and promoting than commenting on other blogs but at the beginning it can make a difference. Once you have more people coming to you you can limit your comments to once a week on the blogs you love the most.
6 – Proofreading and formatting – yes it matters.
I get excited and I rush things. Delayed gratification, what’s that? End result is an article or book or post with errors that could have easily been avoided had I spent an extra ten minutes going through my work. Duh!
How to fix it?
Use the spell checker and then print off the page, let it rest an hour, then read it slowly as a reader. Circle any spelling or grammatical issues, words missing, words repeated. Fix them up. Edit the writing, rewrite what’s necessary. Give it to someone else to read through. You want to be as close to error-free as you can get. I can’t proofread on screen I’ve done it and made mistakes, ones that made me cringe and want to give up on blogging but instead I turned it around to a lesson learned.
7 – Not starting with WordPress.
WordPress rocks. When I first entered the blogging arena I went straight to Blogger. Big mistake. WordPress is just so much easier to use and has so many better functions and is more visually appealing.
How to fix it?
If you’re new to blogging check out all the different platforms available. I wish I started with WordPress from the onset. It’s just so much easier to use and has more functionalities. Do you want to start a blog? Check out this post on starting an author blog.
“Choosing a unique niche – Many bloggers start out with too wide of a net. To be a travel, food, or fitness blog is not enough. There are thousands and thousands of general topic blogs in each of those spaces. You have to stand out. I started out as a food, travel beer, and wine blog. Being a little bit of everything brought me zero followers. Nobody knew what my brand was. You have to niche down. One way to do this is to do something epic – make a pledge to visit every winery in California or spend 100 days eating real food.”
“Seriously think about your blog name – You will be stuck with it forever as re-branding is very difficult. Don’t choose it on a whim. Test it. Research others in your space with similar words. Check for social media handles. Ask your friends what they think. I came up with mine – The Wandering Gourmand – after polishing off a bottle of wine. Six years later and I hate it. Nobody can spell or pronounce gourmand and half the travel blogs out there use the word Wandering.”
Bryan from The Wandering Gourmand
8 – Trying to do the same thing and expecting a different result.
Aren’t we all a little bit guilty of this one? I know I am. But slowly that’s changing. If something isn’t working there’s no point in trying to bang down a door that standing against a brick wall.
How to fix it?
You need to be more aware of what you are doing. Analyse everything. What results are you seeing from your writing and your marketing? Are some topics more popular than others? Are you getting more traffic from one source than another? These are important pieces of information. Note them down. If something isn’t working figure out why and change it.
9 – Not focusing on the audience enough.
It’s my blog but I’m writing for you, my audience. I think for a moment I forgot what the real intention of this place was.
How to fix it?
What makes other blogs successful? They offer useful and engaging content for their readers. You need to do the same. Emulate them. What’s your blog’s focus? How do you want to help your readers?
One mistake I made when I first started is not updating my blog enough times during the week and on a consistent basis. When I first started, I decided I’d publish a post every Wednesday. I managed to do this most of the time, but there were definitely some weeks where I didn’t write at all. I’d get busy and put my blog on hold. I soon realized this was not a good strategy. It’s important to update your blog frequently and consistently — that’s key to building a strong brand.
A second mistake I made is not promoting my own content. When I first started, I would publish blog posts but for some reason, I never found the courage to share the blog posts I wrote. I’ve learned that you have to dig deep and find the confidence to share your work with the world. After all, if you don’t believe in yourself, who else will?
10 – Not taking chances.
You need to take chances to get anywhere in life. That’s one thing I forgot to do.
How to fix it?
Do things that scare you. Take chances with writing, marketing and reaching out to people. Say ‘yes’ more often. Embrace change.
Want a challenge?
Open up your blog and start going through it. Look at your home page, blog page, your about page, etc. Make notes on what you like and don’t like about them. What are some things that can improve them. Write it down.
Each day/week tweak your blog, no matter how small or big, to make it better.
By the end of the year you’ll have changed the trajectory of your blogging business and hopefully improved it in more ways than one.
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