Hind sight is 20/20 right?
There are soo many things I wish I knew when I started my 1st blog and soo many blogging mistakes I could have avoided. That blog is still very much alive and thriving but it took me wayy more time to get there than it has with this blog.
Don’t get me wrong, blogging mistakes can be good, but only if you actually learn from them.
The nice thing is that you can also learn from the mistakes of other… Like me! I’ve put together a nice little list here of the top blogging mistakes to avoid, most of which I have made myself and probably on more than occasion.
Repeat offender over here. Soo save yourself some time and don’t make the mistakes I made below.
BLOGGING MISTAKE #1:
USING A FREE BLOGGING PLATFORM
When I was starting out, the was whole heartedly the number one piece of advice I read from established bloggers, and I did a lot of reading!
I knew I needed to run my blog off of the WordPress.org platform and to do that I needed a reliable and cost effecting Web Hosting service.
I’m soo glad I believed in myself enough to spend the $100 to cover my web hosting with Siteground. I knew I wanted to monetize my blog from day 1 and I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish as much as I have with a free blogging platform. Soo glad I didn’t make this number 1 blogging mistake, don’t worry, I made plenty of others!
If you have decided you want to be serious about your blog, even on a part-time basis, then believe in yourself enough to invest in the right web hosting platform.
BLOGGING MISTAKE #2:
CHEAPING OUT ON A FREE THEME
Let’s be honest, great content is and will always be the number one driving force of your website/blog. But… if it doesn’t look good, you will be very hard pressed to have anyone want to stay on your site long enough for anyone to actually read that great content.
You need to create an experience and a brand and the best way for you to do that is with a premium WordPress Theme.
Oh… and did I mention it will probably make your life a hell of a lot easier, especially if you choose a theme from a great provider.
In comes Bluchic, you will hear me talk about them alot. I have used their themes for both of my sites and I’m forever grateful I stumbled upon them. In case you are wondering I am using the Bluchic Maggie Theme for this sweet site!
Why Bluchic? Well a part from the fact that they have stunning, fully editable themes, they have amazing step by step Theme Documentation with video tutorials. If you plan to be in it for the long haul with your blog, $79 is a really small price to pay.
Plus, if you are creating a great site and user experience, you should be able to make that back with affiliate marketing or eProducts in no time!
I also have a really great post on what to look out for when choosing a theme, check it out here.
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BLOGGING MISTAKE #3:
SPENDING TOO MUCH UP FRONT
I definitely made this blogging mistake and have been doing my best to scale back ever since!
Try and really keep in mind what you actually need to spend money on, trust me at the beginning you don’t need much.
Once you have paid for your web hosting and your WordPress Theme, most of the other apps you need to run a successful blog have free versions that will get you pretty far before you need to pay for the premium versions.
The one thing I will suggest you do consider spending some money on is courses. Don’t go crazy but learning from others can get you a lot further a lot quicker.
Here are some great apps you will need that have free version to get you started!
- Mailerlite (To build your email list)
- Elementor (Amazing Front End WordPress Editor)
- Hootsuite (to auto-schedule your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts)
- Tailwind (they offer a limited Free Trial to schedule your Pinterest Pins)
- Paypal (most affiliate programs will pay out your comissions via pay pal)
- Canva (online software to help you create amazing graphics)
These free tools should really help you get started and help to keep costs down.
BLOGGING MISTAKE #4:
BLOGGING JUST FOR THE MONEY
I’ve mentioned this before but if you intend or earning any sort of a living from blogging, you need to have a following that knows and trusts you.
This will be incredibly difficult for you to achieve if your main focus is all about the benjamins. You need to pick a topic/niche that inspires you, as that is the only way you will be able to inspire others.
I didn’t set out to make a site about helping other moms learn how to make money from home online. I realized over time that I had a serious passion for it. It drives me. I think we should all have the opportunity to be there for our family and feel good about contributing financially.
So please choose something that is going to drive you!
BLOGGING MISTAKE #5:
NOT TRACKING YOUR EXPENSES
The good thing that is that almost everything you are going to buy will be online and you should always be receiving an e-receipt via email.
Do yourself a favor an create a folder in your inbox labelled receipts to make it nice and easy to drag and drop emails there as soon as you receive them.
I would then make sure to add them up on a monthly basis to see where you are at. Hopefully if you followed my suggestions above about looking for free app versions, you won’t be getting too many receipts to keep track of!
BLOGGING MISTAKE #6:
NOT CONNECTING WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
Once you have started on your blogging journey, set aside 30 minutes – 1 hour every day to connect with your audience on Social Media, answer any emails, reply to any comments on your blog etc…
As I said above, your audience and followers are what are going to make or break your blog, treat them good and make sure you give them the attention they are due!
BLOGGING MISTAKE #7:
NOT TRACKING YOUR EXPENSES
Make sure you appreciate how important Social Media will be to your blog traffic, especially at the beginning when no one knows you exist yet.
Take special care to optimize all your Social platforms for SEO so potential followers can easily find you.
Also take care to make yourself visible on Social Media platforms enough to keep engagement up. A quick Pinterest search will help you out big time to know how many times a day/week to post and at what times for the different platforms.
Lastly, make sure you pay attention to the correct sizes for cover images, profile images and news feed images. You want your images/blog posts to be attractive on Social Media so you can continue to bring traffic to your blog.
BLOGGING MISTAKE #8:
NOT LEARNING FROM OTHERS
Right from the get go, it’s a great idea to identify the stars of your niche and follow them on all Social Media Platforms and make sure to subscribe to their blogS. Clearly, they know what they are doing so why not learn from them, study their formula.
You should also learn from others by taking online courses and reading eBooks. You can usually find a ton of free courses for any niche and that is what I recommend starting out with. It will give you a good opportunity to get to know the style of different courses offerers and then you can decide which ones you think are worth paying for the premium versions.
BLOGGING MISTAKE #9:
NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO SEO
Look, we all know that SEO can be pretty boring. If you find it invigorating, then please, we need to be friends…
Regardless of whether you find it fun or not, you can’t discount how important it is. I’ve got the five most important letters you will read regarding SEO an they are:
Y.O.A.S.T.
and guess what, they have a free plug in!
Not only can you go through their configuration to enhance your site right off the bat, the plug in gives you instantaneous feedback on your pages and blog posts as you are creating them.
It really doesn’t get anymore simple than that. They also offer a whole bunch of courses if you do decide you want to enhance your SEO knowledge. I’m currently taking their certification on Yoast SEO for WordPress.
In case you are wondering, it’s not because I think SEO is riveting….
BLOGGING MISTAKE #10:
NOT GIVING YOURSELF A BREAK
Now I’m going to be a little contradictory here because I’m literally still in front of my computer at 9:25pm after working a full day in front of my computer. My point is, don’t spend every waking moment working on your blog.
You just have to be reasonable.
At the beginning, chances are you will be soo hungry for more information, you will just naturally spend a lot of time on your computer. Try to spend SOME time away.
Otherwise, you will burn out. I totally did.
I’m pretty sure I don’t remember the first 4 four months that I started my Virtual Assistant business and blog. It’s a complete blur and I started lacking focus and creativity because I would never give myself a break.
Try and find ways of shutting down the computer and getting out to do things.
Also keep in mind to still try and be active, I was seriously sitting in my computer chair about 14 hours a day when I was much more active before.
It can also take a toll on your pant size, don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Say no to blogging mistakes!
I hope you found the blog mistakes motivating in that you won’t be tempted to make them yourself.
Here’s the thing… chances are, even after reading this, you are still going to make some of them, just make sure you learn from them.
And on the flip side, if you do make some of them, you will already have a great blog post to write about….
Happy blogging!
